Quilombola ethnomedicine: The role of age, gender, and culture change

Abstract

Non-indigenous communities are particularly insightful in terms of understanding the process of healing plant acquisition and loss. This study explores the traditional medicinal plant knowledge and use of a long-isolated, African-descended community in the Atlantic rainforests of northeastern Brazil. We investigated the primary plant species used and their therapeutic applications. We hypothesized that women and the oldest members of the community would be the most knowledgeable about medicinal plants. We carried out semi-structured interviews and walk-in-the-woods plant collecting techniques with 74 informants. We identified 133 ethnospecies of plants used to treat a wide variety of illnesses. The most commonly used plant parts were leaves; the most common form of preparation was as infusion. As anticipated, medicinal plant knowledge generally increased with age. However, there was no significant gender difference in plant knowledge. We attribute this to the increasingly similar livelihood roles and geographical spaces occupied by men and women in the community. There was, however, a trend for women to be more knowledgeable about the healing properties of herbaceous and cultivated plants. Increasing contact with the outside world has resulted in a confluence of traditional, often African-derived healing therapies, with the novel healing plant knowledge and allopathic medicine of outsiders.