Hodges and Bennett researched the medicinal and ritual uses of Pluchea carolinensis among Latino and Haitian herbalists that had immigrated to the metropolitan setting of Miami-Dade County, Florida. This plant, commonly referred to as salvia, is utilized extensively throughout the Americas and in this case study, 81% of the specialists at the 27 botánicas (herbal medicine shops) surveyed, recognized it. Emphasizing the importance of proper plant identification to phytochemical and pharmacological research, the authors discuss the historically confusing taxonomy of P. carolinensis. Among the plant’s many medicinal uses that informants mentioned, treatments for sore throats and catarrh were the most prevalent. Various ritual cleansing uses of the plant as part of the immigrants’ syncretic Afro-Carribean religions, Santería and Voodoun, were also mentioned. Drawing from a literature review, the authors provide descriptions of other uses of the plant as practiced in different cultural and geographical contexts.

In contrast to many past failed botánica investigations in the area, the authors consider the fact that their research focused solely on one species to have been an enabling factor for obtaining good data from their informants. They reflect on the methodological importance of using specialists as informants in urban ethnobotanical research. In rural or remote study sites, the general population typically possesses substantial plant knowledge; however, the distribution of knowledge becomes more restricted in urban environments. The global trend of converging ethnic pharmacopoeias in urban areas is thought to lead to less variation and experimentation in plant use, in large part owing to a growing reliance on written information. Nonetheless, the use of plant-based remedies thrives around the globe and the authors see their study site as a virtually untapped reservoir of knowledge on traditional healing.

Prepared by Megan Glore

Bebbington draws attention to a trend in the agendas of NGOs, churches, the state and Indian federations that challenges conventional views on alternative versus orthodox agricultural development strategies for rural indigenous people. Focusing on the Chimborazo province in the central Andes of Ecuador, the author argues that the 'alternative' option of promoting traditional agroecological practices is not necessarily an effective route towards successful rural development, and that other expressions of culture are more important for indigenous groups that seek to improve their livelihoods while protecting their indigenous identity.

In modern times, the region has seen traditional agricultural practices become obsolete due to land reform's effect on the environment. This failure of a formerly viable system has led to increased emigration, a phenomenon that indigenous people themselves see as more threatening to their cultural survival than the adoption of Green Revolution-style agricultural technology. The various institutional agents of development in the study site have chosen differing agricultural strategies as appropriate technologies, and the article describes that promoted by each group.

Examples are provided showing that current agricultural strategies favored by locals involve a mixture of indigenous and imported elements. When driven by local decision making, incorporation of some Green Revolution agricultural practices and training in administrative, financial and marketing skills provide opportunities for locals to increase their incomes while still retaining important aspects of their culture. Indigenous technical knowledge alone cannot adequately confront the wider social, economic and political contexts in which indigenous actors are situated.

In this way, Bebbington shows how culture is not static but adaptable and that “modernization, far from being a cause of cultural erosion, is explicitly seen as a means of cultural survival” (p. 287). He explains the rationale of progressive development strategies that do not resist modernization, but seek to control it and take advantage of it through selective grassroots processes as facilitated by institutions. While it is thought that such hybridized development constitutes a fresh and sound theoretical approach, it remains to be seen whether it will yield true economic advancement and stem the cultural fragmentation resulting from emigration. It is proposed that economic mechanisms must be created that facilitate diversified rural livelihoods to produce surpluses, thereby giving rise to a new economic tier that would alleviate poverty through regional commerce in locally produced non-agrarian products.

Prepared by Megan Glore

With an annual value of US$35 million, northern Bolivia’s non-timber forest product (NTFP) industry revolves chiefly around the extraction, processing and trade of Brazil nuts and palm hearts. Whereas most NTFP research focuses on rural populations and forests where the products grow, Stoain’s work in the Bolivian Amazon examines the urban dimension of the NTFP economy, which includes extraction, transport, processing and sale.

The study took place on the peripheries of the region’s economic center, Riberalta, and analyzed the role of NTFPs in the livelihood strategies of three different social groups of origin: long-established Riberalto dwellers (Riberalteños), ex-forest dwellers recently arrived to the urban environment, and extra-regional migrants. Semi-structured interviews yielded data reveling that 58% of all sampled households featured NTFP-related work as part of their livelihood strategies, and 37% of the households derived over half of their total income from such work. The job of extraction or gathering entailed temporary migration and a rural stay during the seasonal harvests. This work was complementary to working in more urban-based processing plants. The ex-forest dwellers were the most reliant upon extraction work, with 1/3 of their income stemming from rural areas. Riberalteños, receiving 1/5 of their income from rural areas, had jobs from the top end (plantation owners) to the bottom end (gathering and processing) of the income spectrum. For the extra-regional migrants, rural income proved to be of generally low importance. Migration patterns, social group of origin, level of neighborhood development, gender and education were seen to be key factors in levels and types of involvement in the industry.

It was found that work in extraction is a fairly lucrative endeavor and that it is not just a last resort livelihood for its urban participants, in contrast to other researchers’ assertions about NTFPs. Additionally, the author points out that rural-urban migration affords the children of NTFP workers opportunities to attend secondary and tertiary school, thereby increasing chances for poverty alleviation. This industry is deemed to be essential to the livelihood security and household resilience of the study’s urban-based participants. A rural-urban continuum concept for understanding urban ethnobotany is supported by this study. “Rather than a rural-urban divide, it is the rural-urban nexus underlying these strategies that explains their flexibility, adaptability, and viability” (p. 1485). The author urges that researchers pay more attention to all the links along NTFP chains of production, and adopt an analytical scope that recognizes the rural-urban continuum fundamental to many modern livelihood strategies.

Prepared by Megan Glore