Ethnotaxonomy of food plants in Gayo People: A case study in the Jabodetabek community

Abstract

Traditional knowledge (TK) of indigenous people is of utmost importance for the conservation of many plant species at the grassroots level, in particular food plants, as the main resource for human survival. For the past two decades, a novel path of research has emerged justifying the focus of linguistic ethnobiology on ethnotaxonomy, used by the local communities to symbolize biodiversity. The co-occurrence of linguistic, cultural, and biological diversities at a global level, are recognizable as evidence for a mutually dependent relationship known as biocultural diversity. Traditional knowledge and language come together to provide an ethnotaxonomical system of biodiversity. This study focuses on the ethnotaxonomy of food plants to document the TK of the Gayo ethnic group residing in Jabodetabek. Using Focus Group Discussion and in-depth interviews, this study found 218 species of food plants encoding TK related to morphology (80), ecology (35), utility (11), and quality (9) of the taxa. Our study indicated that ethnotaxonomy showed a remarkable ability to encode TK of multiple taxa. However, 83 documented taxa were unanalysable, suggesting the possibility of TK erosion within the community. Anyone wanting to conserve biocultural diversity should take into account the potentials of folk names as condensed biocultural knowledge.