Functional aspects of the use of plants and animals in local medical systems and their implications for resilience.

Nascimento, André L B; Lozano, Alejandro; Melo, Joabe G; Alves, Rômulo R N; Albuquerque, Ulysses Paulino

Nascimento, André L B; Lozano, Alejandro; Melo, Joabe G; Alves, Rômulo R N; Albuquerque, Ulysses Paulino.

Afiliação

Nascimento AL; Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Social-Ecological Systems (LEA), Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros s/n, Dois Irmãos, 52171-900 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
Lozano A; Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Social-Ecological Systems (LEA), Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros s/n, Dois Irmãos, 52171-900 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
Melo JG; Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Alagoas, Campus Maragogi, AL, Brazil.
Alves RR; Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Av. das Baraúnas, 351, Bodocongó, 58109-753, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil.
Albuquerque UP; Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Social-Ecological Systems (LEA), Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros s/n, Dois Irmãos, 52171-900 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.

J Ethnopharmacol ; 194: 348-357, 2016 Dec 24.

Article em En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27538794

RESUMO

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: This study sought to understand the role of plants and animals in traditional medical systems and evaluate the capacity of these systems to absorb impacts and maintain their identity by determining the existence of functional substitutes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Ethnobiological data were collected through semi-structured interviews and free lists at a rural community in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil. The data were subjected to the utilitarian redundancy model and analyzed by tests of proportion and variance. RESULTS: We found that most of the therapeutic targets treated with animal-based remedies were also treatable by plant-based remedies; these targets were perceived as very usual, although they were not considered dangerous. Furthermore, people considered the plants and animals to be equally effective at curing overlapping therapeutic targets, but the plant remedies were used more frequently. The findings show that local knowledge about medicinal plants and animals follows similar patterns regarding the utilitarian redundancy, with high functional overlap among these features. However, the ease of access to the medicinal resource influences the choice of treatment, leading to an increased preference for plants over animals. In addition, we suggest that during the cultural evolution process, people concentrated their efforts on experimenting with different resources for the treatment of diseases that were very frequent locally, even if not very severe, which contributed to the resilience of the local medical system. CONCLUSION: Furthermore, we infer that plants may effectively perform the function of healing, whereas animals act as reserves of resilience for the system, maintaining system function in the face of disturbances that may affect the availability of plant species.

Assuntos

Medicina Tradicional; Plantas Medicinais; Animais; Brasil; Humanos

Palavras-chave

Cultural evolution; Ethnobotany; Ethnozoology; Human adaptive strategies; Resilience; Traditional medical systems

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Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Assunto principal: Plantas Medicinais / Medicina Tradicional Tipo de estudo: Prognostic_studies / Qualitative_research Limite: Animals / Humans País/Região como assunto: America do sul / Brasil Idioma: En Revista: J Ethnopharmacol Ano de publicação: 2016 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: Brasil País de publicação: Irlanda

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