Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Volume 4 Issue 1 Volume 4, Issue 1 (2000) Article 3

2000

Human Taste and Cognition in Tzeltal Maya Medicinal Use

David G. Casagrande University of Georgia, Department of Anthropology

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Recommended Citation Casagrande, David G.. "Human Taste and Cognition in Tzeltal Maya Medicinal Plant Use." Journal of Ecological Anthropology 4, no. 1 (2000): 57-69.

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Human Taste and Cognition in Tzeltal Maya Medicinal Plant Use DAVID GREGORIO CASAGRANDE1

Abstract Results of recent research strongly suggest that people find beneficial phytochemicals by selecting to use as medicinals and that taste plays a major role in this process. The research reported here involved an experi- ment performed with Highland Tzeltal Maya of , to determine if bitterness served as a chemical cue for plants appropriate for treating gastrointestinal versus respiratory illnesses. Eight Tzeltal men and two women were asked to taste common medicinal preparations, describe the taste, and provide the name and medicinal use of the source plant. They were also shown dried specimens of the same plants and asked for taste, name, and use. Consensus analysis showed that participants had a good knowledge of medicinal plants and agreed about their use, but could not predict the use of individual plants based on taste alone. Bitterness was not correlated with any particular class of illnesses; probably because there is not enough resolution in human taste to deal with the diversity of chemicals that taste bitter but produce different physiological effects. The role of taste is more likely mnemonic than chemical-ecological, and functions in combination with other plant attributes and illness experiences to facilitate human cognition and communication. Results of this study suggest that prototype theory, in which a few plants serve as best examples of a subset of plants used to treat a group of illnesses, may provide a theoretical perspective for understanding how people reduce informa- tional complexity and reconcile the very different domains of plant classification, epidemiological context, and illness experience.

Introduction Anthropologists working in regions far from be necessary. Within eight hours my symptoms their homes quickly become familiar with new ill- diminished, and by the next morning all evidence nesses. Working with the Tzeltal Maya in the Cen- of the affliction had vanished. This was the fast- tral Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, I have become est I had ever recovered from the GI distress that personally acquainted with many of the gastrointes- I experience all too frequently while working in tinal (GI) afflictions familiar to the people who the region. live there. Recently, while experiencing an illness, I later determined that the scientific name of I described my symptoms to a Tzeltal collaborator. the plant was maculatus, a member of He didn’t consider himself a healing specialist. But the sunflower family (). Pharmacologi- without hesitation he claimed that he knew of a cal studies have shown that extracts of the leaves of particular plant appropriate for relieving my symp- this plant are effective at killing bacterial parasites, toms and speeding my recovery, and he left to such as Staphylococcus aureus, and controlling the search for the plant. Within a half-hour he re- spasms associated with cramping (Berlin and Ber- turned with a handful of leaves of a plant called lin 1996). My collaborator was unimpressed with balam k’in, which he crushed into a cup of cold this “new” information. After all, the efficacy of water. He advised me to drink the bitter fluid all at the plant is common knowledge among the people once, and claimed that no further treatment would who live in the area.

1 University of Georgia, Department of Anthropology, [email protected] 58 Journal of Ecological Anthropology Vol. 4 2000 The Tzeltal Maya, like most traditional Further support for the role of taste in me- people, have a complex pharmacopoeia involving dicinal plant selection comes from the observation hundreds of plant species. The degree of consen- that species of the sunflower family (Asteraceae) sus among the population about the complex me- tend to be represented in traditional pharmaco- dicinal uses of around 200 of these species is re- poeia in numbers much higher than would be pre- markable (Berlin and Berlin 1996). The process dicted by the number of Asteraceae species found of experimentation, discovery, and transmission of in people’s environments (Moerman et al. 1999). knowledge can be considered a process of ecologi- People may be more likely to experiment with cal adaptation involving complex relationships Asteraceae because those species are more likely to between pathogens, phytochemicals in the ecosys- contain bitter phytochemicals. For example, the tem, and the biological and cultural constraints on Asteraceae are believed to contain over 2000 types human cognition and communication. These re- of sesquiterpene lactones, all of which are bitter lationships allow one to ask interesting questions. and many of which induce physiological responses For example, how are discoveries of medicinal or are otherwise toxic (Bruneton 1995). plants made? And more importantly, how has the The Tzeltal Maya of Highland Chiapas use vast amount of information that has accumulated many bitter plants as medicinals (Berlin and Ber- been organized in the mind and maintained in lin 1996), and also “favor” Asteraceae species communities without writing? (Moerman et al. 1999). Most of the plants used by Anthropologists have argued that traditional the Highland Maya are used to treat GI illnesses people do not rely on blind trial-and-error in their and they tend to be bitter. Indeed, Smallanthus search for medicinal plants (Moerman 1998). In- maculatus, the Asteraceae used to treat my afflic- stead, characteristics of plants may help guide tra- tion, is said by Tzeltal Maya to derive its power to ditional experimentation and “discovery” of ben- cure from bitterness (Berlin and Berlin 1996). Brett eficial phytochemicals (Brett 1994, Etkin 1988, (1994) has suggested that bitterness serves as a cog- Foster 1994). The way plants taste, especially if nitive cue to the Highland Maya for bitter, may serve as such a guide (Brett 1994, Johns phytochemicals that are appropriate for treating 1990). Many chemical compounds found in plants GI illnesses. Observations of physiological response have evolved as defense mechanisms that induce after ingestion, cultural interpretations of illness detrimental responses in attacking organisms, such events and sharing of information among people as herbivorous insects and mammals, fungi, and may result in a tendency for the Highland Maya other pathogens (Harborne 1991). Many animals, to focus on bitter plants when searching for new in turn, have evolved mechanisms for detecting these allelochemicals, such as the ability for hu- cures for GI illnesses. mans to taste toxins in plants. Some researchers This idea leads to a prediction that Highland believe that taste, combined with cognitive and Tzeltal Maya should be more likely to associate cultural mechanisms to overcome aversions to bad bitter tasting remedies with GI illnesses than other tastes, allows humans to optimize the amount of types of afflictions, such as fevers, coughs or skin allelochemicals they ingest in order to combat para- ailments. I conducted an experiment to determine sites without poisoning themselves (Johns 1990). how taste influences the ways in which Highland This argument is supported by evolutionary evi- Tzeltal Maya think about medicinal plants. The dence ranging from monarch butterflies eating goal was to isolate taste as a variable by preparing milkweed to ingest cardiac glycosides as a defense remedies from commonly used medicinal plants against predatory birds (Harborne 1993), to wild and having participants taste the remedies with- chimpanzees eating bitter and toxic plants dur- out knowing the identity of the source plant. This ing times of high intestinal parasite loads allowed me to test three hypotheses. First, partici- (Huffman et al. 1996). pants should agree about the taste of the unknown Vol. 4 2000 Casagrande / Medicinal Plants, Taste, and Cognition 59 remedy (i.e., they would all use the same Tzeltal Methods lexeme to describe the taste). Second, they should I conducted the study in the municipality of agree about what medicinal uses bitter remedies Tenejapa in the Central Highlands of Chiapas, are best for. And third, bitterness should be statis- Mexico working with a bilingual (Tzeltal and Span- tically correlated with GI illnesses. It was my in- ish) collaborator who is an herbalist with a widely tention that the results would help shed light on respected practice in Tenejapa. We elicited freelists the adaptive processes by which people experiment (Borgatti 1996) of medicinal plants from six men with and share information about medicinal plants. and three women. Nine plants were selected from

TABLE 1. PLANT AND CHEMICAL STIMULI USED IN TASTE TESTS AND THE NUMBER OF INFORMANTS WHO CITED EACH TASTE QUALITY. No. participants Plant species or chemical Tzeltal name2 Taste English gloss citing taste Alnus acuminata najk sup astringent 7 ch’a bitter 1 ya spicy hot 1 unidentifiable 1 Citrus limonia (‘lime’) lima paj sour 7 lek pleasant 2 sup astringent 1 Eupatorium sp. ch’aj te’ ch’a bitter 10 Liquidambar styraciflua so’ te’ sup astringent 5 paj sour 3 lek pleasant 2 Myrica cerifera ch’aj k’olol te’ ch’a bitter 9 sup astringent 1 Psidium guineense pajchak’ lek pleasant 4 ch’a ch’a tik slightly bitter 4 sup astringent 2 Quercus crassifolia jij te’ sup astringent 7 paj sour 1 ch’a bitter 1 unidentifiable 1 sp. takin ch’iel ch’a bitter 10 Tagetes lucida tzitz ak lek pleasant 10 Verbena litoralis yakan k’ulub wamal ch’a bitter 10 phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) — ch’a bitter 10 thiourea — ch’a bitter 10 sodium benzoate (NaB) — ma’yuk no taste 3 paj sour 3 chi’ pik pik salty 2 ch’a bitter 2 control — ma’yuk no taste 8 ch’a ch’a tik slightly bitter 1 sup sup tik slightly astringent 1

2 Determined by consensus analysis of visual interview data.

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jea/vol4/iss1/3 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/2162-4593.4.1.3 60 Journal of Ecological Anthropology Vol. 4 2000 among those that were most frequently cited in lexemes used to describe the taste formed cultur- freelists (Table 1) and that represented various tastes ally meaningful categories. Consensus analysis was and illness classes. For example, two of the nine also used to test the second hypothesis that par- were bitter species used primarily for treating diar- ticipants could predict medicinal uses of each plant rhea, while two bitter species were used to treat based on taste alone; that is, whether medicinal coughs or rheumatism as described by the Tzeltal use categories generated by taste alone formed cul- collaborator and cross-referenced with the data of turally meaningful categories. Berlin and Berlin (1996). Other plants were known To test the third hypothesis, correlation be- to be astringent, sour, or pleasant tasting and were tween answers that a plant was bitter and that it used for a variety of illnesses. We also asked par- was used to treat a gastrointestinal (GI) illness was ticipants to taste paper strips treated with phenylth- tested using the Pearson correlation coefficient (Zar iocarbamide (PTC), thiourea, sodium benzoate 1996) by treating taste and use as bitter/non-bit- (NaB), and a control with no taste (Carolina Bio- ter and gastrointestinal/non-gastrointestinal binary logical Supply, Burlington, North Carolina). (1/0) variables respectively. The same process was We collected, pressed and dried voucher speci- used to test for correlation between bitterness and mens of the nine plants and determined their sci- respiratory illnesses (the second most commonly entific names at the herbarium of El Colegio de La treated class of illnesses after gastrointestinal; Ber- Frontera Sur in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. lin and Berlin 1996). For this discussion, medici- These vouchers were also used as visual stimuli in nal uses (e.g., to treat various types of diarrheas, the interviews. While we were collecting the her- coughs, rashes, etc.) are grouped into major illness barium vouchers we also collected plant material categories (i.e., gastrointestinal, respiratory, der- to prepare remedies in the way that they are com- matological, etc.) based on the categories of Berlin monly prepared by the people of Tenejapa. This and Berlin (1996). almost exclusively involves boiling either the bark, After the taste tests, participants were shown stems, or leaves of the plants. herbarium specimens individually, and were asked Eight adult men and two women were inter- to identify the Tzeltal plant name, taste, and me- viewed individually in Tzeltal with the assistance dicinal uses. Consensus analysis was used to test of the herbalist-collaborator who provided occa- for participants’ overall knowledge of medicinal sional translation into Spanish. Participants were plants, to determine the “culturally correct” name asked to taste each of the preparations one at a of each plant, and to determine the common- time, and then were asked to provide a name for knowledge uses of each plant. the taste, name of the source plant, and medicinal use. The tasting began with a lemon-water prepa- Results ration as a primer. This was followed by a pleas- Consensus analysis of interviews using her- ant, anise-tasting medicinal tea made from Tagetes barium specimens as visual stimuli showed high lucida. The order of the remaining plants and agreement about names, medicinal use and ex- chemical paper strips was independently random- pected taste (Table 2). Taste tests revealed high ized for each interview to reduce potential bias of agreement about how prepared remedies actually one taste masking the next. Participants were also tasted (Tables 1 and 2), supporting the first hy- given water, crackers and sufficient time for tastes pothesis. But there was no meaningful consensus to subside between each tasting. about appropriate medicinal use based on taste Consensus analysis (Romney et al. 1986) was alone (Table 2) leading to rejection of the second performed using ANTHROPAC (Borgatti 1995) hypothesis. These results indicate that participants to test the first hypothesis that participants agreed were generally knowledgeable about the medici- about the taste of the unknown remedy and that nal plants, and that plant names, medicinal uses Vol. 4 2000 Casagrande / Medicinal Plants, Taste, and Cognition 61

TABLE 2. MEDICINAL PLANT INTERVIEW CONSENSUS. Interviews with visual stimuli Plant names Medicinal use Expected taste Agreement (ratio of 1st to 2nd Eigen value) 7.1 5.3 4.9 Average estimated knowledge of participants 0.61 (SD = 0.14) 0.45 (SD = 0.12) 0.39 (SD = 0.18)

Taste tests Reported taste Medicinal use Agreement (ratio of 1st to 2nd Eigen value) 8.1 1.4 Average estimated knowledge of participants 0.78 (SD = 0.11) 0.08 (SD = 0.46)

and taste terms are widely shared and culturally a GI illness than another type of illness. Further- meaningful, but that taste alone was insufficient more, medicinal uses of individual plants obtained for participants to ascertain the appropriate, cul- by visual stimuli were not correlated with the use turally-shared, medicinal use. obtained using taste stimuli (r = 0.12, df = 38, 0.20 Most responses about the medicinal use of < P < 0.50). This further indicates that taste alone plants involved the treatment of GI illnesses (Table was insufficient to allow participants to infer cor- 3). However, responses from the taste tests show rect medicinal use. that bitterness was not significantly correlated with In the taste tests, bitterness was not signifi- GI illnesses (r = 0.14, df = 90, 0.10 < P < 0.20), cantly correlated with respiratory illnesses either leading to rejection of the third hypothesis. In other (r = 0.11, df = 90, 0.20 < P < 0.50). Hence, these words, an individual who identified the taste of an results do not allow one to say, based on taste unknown remedy as bitter was not more likely to stimuli alone, that bitterness is more likely to be say that the remedy was more appropriate to treat correlated with GI illnesses or respiratory.

TABLE 3. TYPES OF ILLNESSES TREATED USING THE NINE PLANTS AS REPORTED DURING THE INTERVIEWS WITH PLANTS IN HAND VS. TASTING UNKNOWN PRE- PARED REMEDIES. Number of responses Major illness class Visual interviews Taste tests Gastrointestinal 36 43 Respiratory 6 18 Emotional 1 5 Fever 2 3 Arthralgias 3 4 Headache 1 2 Reproductive 0 1 Weakness/wasting 0 1 Other 3 6 Total 55 87

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Discussion cognitively link the vast diversity of bitter chemi- A bitter world cals with appropriate biological properties. For Results of the interviews using visual stimuli example, sesquiterpene lactones and alkaloids can indicated that the Tzeltal Maya participants knew all taste bitter, but humans may have a very lim- the plants well and generally agreed about how they ited ability to distinguish among them. Because taste and how they are used to treat illnesses. But the various types of phytochemicals that taste bit- results from the taste tests indicate that taste alone ter are structurally dissimilar, and produce dissimi- was insufficient for participants to predict how a lar biological effects, there must be cognitive pro- plant will be used to treat illnesses, even for the cesses other than taste involved to explain the suc- broadest illness categories. Although it is evident cess of traditional experimentation, memory recall, that many bitter plants are used to treat gastrointes- and sharing of information. tinal (GI) ailments, it is not clear that bitterness It is apparent that the Highland Tzeltal “dis- serves as a cognitive guide for the selection of plants cover” powerful GI treatments that are not bitter. for any particular types of illnesses. The emphasis In this experiment, for example, Tagetes lucida was on GI is likely a result of the rapidly expanding readily identified as a pleasant tasting plant known human population in the Highlands over the past to be used to treat diarrhea and abdominal pain. 20-30 years, which has not been matched by im- Pharmacological studies indicate that Tagetes lu- provements in sanitation (INEGI 1992, 1996). cida contains compounds effective against a vari- Bitterness only appears to be correlated with GI at ety of intestinal parasites (Berlin and Berlin 1996). first glance because most common illnesses treated Caceres et al. (1990) found Tagetes lucida to be the by non-specialists are GI and most medicinal plants most effective entero-bactericide in the Highland are bitter. Guatemalan pharmacopoeia–exhibiting the high- It is possible that the high number of bitter est antibacterial activity against Salmonella enter- medicinals used by the Tzeltal, as well as other tra- itidis and Salmonella typhi. The frequency with ditional people, simply reflects a high occurrence which non-bitter plants occurs in the Tzeltal phar- of bitter plants in the environment. Ankli et al. macopoeia (Brett 1994) suggests that other char- (1999) sampled medicinal and non-medicinal acteristics may be as important as taste in guiding plants used by the Yucatec Maya and found that medicinal plant experimentation. medicinal plants were no more likely to be bitter A more promising direction for future re- then non-medicinals. search involves observing the process of human The notion of bitterness as a biochemical cue experimentation with medicinal plants. Prelimi- would be supported if it could be shown that bit- nary research along these lines led Brett (1994) to ter plants appear in pharmacopoeia more frequently predict that Tzeltal Maya looking for a new me- than in the environment. Unfortunately, it is not dicinal plant would begin by selecting plants that yet technically feasible to estimate the frequency taste like plants known to induce physiological ef- of bitter phytochemicals that occur in an envi- fects similar to the effects desired in a new treat- ronment. Thus, it is not possible to claim, for ment. But it is likely that people would have to any society, that bitterness is represented in phar- begin by selecting a plant that looks like a known macopoeia in excess of that found in the envi- medicinal plant in order to infer that it would taste ronment. The high occurrence of bitter like a known plant. This might at least partially medicinals may simply result from the amount explain a bias to sample within large, morphologi- of bitterness in the world. cally homogeneous botanical families like One reason that taste alone, and especially Asteraceae and Lamiaceae. The alternative is that bitterness, may be inadequate for predicting phar- people continuously and randomly sample plants macological properties is that the specificity in for taste and maintain a cognitive inventory of human taste reception is not adequate to potential medicinal plants. This seems unlikely Vol. 4 2000 Casagrande / Medicinal Plants, Taste, and Cognition 63 given the danger of tasting unknown plants, the Medicinal plant prototypes large number of species involved, and the many The idea of medicinal plants as complex pack- well-documented cases of selection based on vi- ages of information raises an important question: sual characteristics.3 A valuable experiment would how is all of the information organized in a way be to take people to an area with an unfamiliar that is easily recalled and easily shared among flora and ask them to find plants that might be people? Many students of human cognition be- suitable to cure familiar illnesses, and observe which lieve that people organize information in their characteristics they focus on. minds by relying on “best examples” or “proto- In any event, it is unlikely that taste, visual types” of categories (MacLaurey 1991). People characters, or any other criteria can fully explain create subsets of the vast array of items encoun- medicinal plant selection. Medicinal plants ap- tered in the world by recognizing attributes shared pear to serve as complex packages of information, by some items and not by others (Rosch 1978). and different cognitive schemas are evoked by dif- Birds are expected to fly and have feathers and ferent sensorial stimuli. Memories about illness wings, plants have leaves, chairs are for sitting on, experiences conjured up upon seeing a plant differ verbs are words that express action. Some items from the state of mind produced by taste or smell. express such attributes better than others, and Results from this experiment showed that partici- people tend to focus on those items during child- pants’ concepts of medicinal use based on taste were hood learning, when performing memory recall, not correlated with that based on visual stimuli, even or attempting to communicate about categories though people knew the taste of the plant they were (Kempton 1982, Markman 1989, Winters 1990). looking at. Also, in only a few cases were people Ask several Americans to recall all of the birds they able to name a plant by tasting the remedy prepared know and they will mention robins or sparrows from it (Table 4). These results suggest that taste is much more often, and sooner, than penguins one of several personal and cultural mnemonic de- (Boster 1988). vices, along with visual characteristics, past experi- Prototyping appears to be a fundamental cog- ences, and intangible cultural assignations such as nitive mechanism for the organization of complex hot/cold qualities,4 used to manage information information (Boster 1988, Coley et al. 1997, Rosch about medicinal plants. and Mervis 1975) that must be divided up for pro-

TABLE 4. NUMBER OF CORRECT IDENTIFICATIONS OF PLANT NAMES BASED ON TASTE ALONE. Number of Plant species Tzeltal name correct identifications Tagetes lucida tzitz ak 3 Verbena litoralis yakan k’ulub wamal 2 Quercus crassifolia jij te’ 2 Eupatorium sp. ch’aj te’ 1

3 The most widely known cultural interpretation of visual characteristics is often referred to as the doctrine of signa- tures (Etkin 1988, Foster 1994). For example, plants that have red sap may be considered appropriate to treat blood- related illnesses, leaves shaped like kidneys to treat kidneys, etc. 4 Tzeltal illnesses are classified using a dichotomous hot/cold system, and certain plants are appropriate to treat hot or cold illnesses (Berlin and Berlin 1996). This may result from observations of human physiological response to the ingestion or topical application of medicinal plants (e.g., sweating, heat, abdominal sensation, cessation of symptoms; Brett 1994, Berlin and Berlin 1996). Dichotomous classification may also result from historical contact with the European humoral medicinal plant system (Kidwell 1991, Foster 1994).

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TABLE 5. POTENTIAL MEDICINAL PLANT PROTOTYPES AS INDICATED BY MOST FREQUENT RESPONSES FOR TASTE CATEGORIES. Number Taste Latin name Tzeltal name of responses bitter Verbena litoralis yakan k’ulub wamal 9 bitter Salvia lavanduloides ch’a bakal 4 bitter Prunus persica ‘hoja de durazno’ 3 astringent Quercus spp. jij te’ 3 pleasant Tagetes lucida tzitz ak 2

cessing because of the limits of working memory they conform well to children’s expectations about (Miller 1956). Rosch et al. (1976) proposed that essential attributes of living organisms, and bio- because complexity increases as more items are in- logical domains are the earliest to take form as chil- cluded in a set, set boundaries are established in the dren develop (Keil 1994, Markman 1989, Stross most cognitively economical way by paying atten- 1973). Illness experiences have also been shown to tion to the fewest number of observable attributes form domains that include prototypes (D’Andrade that maximize differences between sets of items. et al. 1972, Kay 1979, Young 1981). Medicinal In any group of similar items, some are recognized plant prototypes may serve as powerful inductive as prototypical because they best represent the at- tools helping to structure concepts of disease by tributes that form the pattern of resemblance highlighting attributes of illness experiences. within the group (Mervis et al. 1976). Thus, rob- Because pathogens and flora are continually ins or sparrows are recognized as being more “bird- changing, and ideas are shared within and between like” than birds like penguins (Boster 1988). This communities, traditional medicinal systems rely on is because the domain of “birds” is bounded by a continuous experimentation with new plants set of attributes shared by most members (e.g., (Barsh 1997, Berlin and Berlin 1996). Sharing flight, feathers, wings), but the attributes are not knowledge about successful treatments can lead to exhibited equally by all members (e.g., penguins agreement about a plant’s efficacy (Moerman 1998, have small wings and do not fly). Prototypical Trotter and Logan 1986). As a result, selection of members of a domain are those that best express medicinal plants is an on-going process and much the attributes that define the domain (Rosch 1978). of the knowledge needed for healing common The concept of prototypes is very powerful when physical ailments is distributed throughout popu- applied to sub-groupings within a domain, such lations (Caniago and Siebert 1998, Garro 1986, as plants and animals grouped into folk genera Trotter and Logan 1986). Medicinal plant proto- (Berlin 1992). types may serve as personal and cultural reference Prototype-based set inclusion has also been points through which information about illness and proposed as a basis for inductive thinking (Gelman curing are recalled and transmitted. 1988). Humans appear to use attributes of one The research reported here indicates that some domain to develop hypotheses about contents of plants in Tenejapa do serve as “best examples.” other domains and the relationships between do- When interviewees tasted a bitter remedy that they mains (Coley et al. 1997). Studies of childhood could not identify they would most often say it learning indicate that living things are particularly tasted like yakan k’ulub wamal (Verbena litoralis, good for human inductive development because Table 5). When asked to recall all of the medici- Vol. 4 2000 Casagrande / Medicinal Plants, Taste, and Cognition 65 nal plants they knew, V. litoralis was mentioned (Moerman et al. 1999), and I found no evidence most frequently and sooner than any other plant. that they might be prototypical medicinals. In his Also, all interviewees visually identified V. litoralis research on bird classification, Boster (1988) sug- as yakan k’ulub wamal, a better success rate than gested that the “typicality” of bird species provides for any other plant in the study. Other plants were higher informational content about category struc- also more likely to be mentioned when people were ture than the frequency with which species are trying to identify the plant that they were tasting, encountered. Results of a study that I conducted although not as consistently as V. litoralis was for on Tzeltal knowledge of plants in a relatively inac- bitterness (Table 5). cessible, relict primary forest suggested that me- To understand the role of prototypes it is nec- dicinal knowledge and agreement about plants was essary to consider what might make some medici- high, even though encounters with plants were very nal plants prototypical. Participants did not indi- infrequent (Casagrande 1999). cate that V. litoralis was particularly powerful,5 and It is important to note that the attributes used it has no outstanding visual characteristics. How- to define a set, and which are best exemplified by ever, it does grow close to peoples’ homes where it prototypes, can be culturally based but still reflect is abundant. Salvia lavanduloides was another po- discontinuities in a large domain (Geeraerts et al. tential prototypical medicinal plant (Table 5), but 1994, Hunn 1982). Tzeltal medicinal plant and appeared to be less important than V. litoralis, per- illness classification includes a dichotomous hot- haps because it tends to grow in small, widely-dis- cold system, in which certain plants are appropri- tributed patches further away from homes. ate to treat hot or cold illnesses (Berlin and Berlin Smallanthus maculatus, the plant used to cure me, 1996). Although the hot-cold classification is fairly requires at least a half hour’s search, and was never rigid for illnesses, many plants can be considered mentioned on freelists or as the identity of a taste. either hot or cold depending on the context of their Thus, the frequency with which a plant is encoun- use (Berlin and Berlin 1996). This suggests that tered may cause it to be “favored” in human cog- conceptualizations of efficacy, whether biologically nition and communication. Moerman (1998) has or culturally based, are not unique to each indi- suggested that some plant families (e.g., Asteraceae) vidual plant. Cognitive processes must draw on a dominate traditional pharmacopoeia because their knowledge base that spans the medicinal plant and tendency to grow in disturbed habitats near resi- illness domains, and this complex information dential areas makes it easier to share information must be organized in an efficient manner. about them. Caniago and Siebert (1998) have shown that residents of a Dayak village in Indone- V. litoralis may serve as a prototypical medici- sia were more knowledgeable about medicinal nal plant and facilitates recall and communication plants found in early successional forests than those because biological, ecological, and cultural-based of primary forests. Stepp (1998) has also suggested attributes converge on the species: 1) it is bitter; 2) that the Tzeltal rely more on plants from disturbed it is a member of a common medicinal plant family habitats. (Moerman et al. 1999); 3) because it is abundant But frequency alone cannot explain why some near homes, everyone will probably have used it to plants may be prototypical medicinals. Fabaceae cure diarrhea at some point during their lives; 4) it species, for example, are abundant near peoples’ will be easy for people to talk about its hot/cold or homes in Chiapas (Bye 1993) and have been found biological properties because it is always nearby; and to contain many important phytochemicals (Elvin- 5) it’s used mostly to treat gastrointestinal illnesses, Lewis 1986), but they are much less likely to be which currently are the most problematic illnesses used as medicinals than species of other families

5 Interviews I have conducted suggest that Nicotiana spp. and Datura spp. are considered the most powerful and dangerous medicinal plants in the area.

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jea/vol4/iss1/3 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/2162-4593.4.1.3 66 Journal of Ecological Anthropology Vol. 4 2000

in the region. Interestingly, under this bio-cultural Acknowledgements scenario, visual characteristics and strength may be Funding for this research was provided by a less important. University of Georgia Center for Latin American If prototypical plants like V. litoralis help and Caribbean Studies Dissertation Travel Award. people think and communicate about medicinal Additional support and herbarium facilities were plants and illnesses by representing salient biologi- provided by the Maya International Collaborative cal and cultural attributes, then the Tzeltal Maya Biodiversity Group and El Colegio de la Frontera may draw upon these plants, which are more “me- Sur. Brent and Elois Ann Berlin provided support dicinal” than others, and extrapolate attributes to in the field and helped with research design. Scott other plants and illness experiences. This very likely Taylor assisted with botanical collection. Special plays a role in selecting plants for experimentation. thanks are given to the Tzeltal Maya of Tenejapa An hypothesis that medicinal plant prototypes help for allowing research to be conducted in their com- munity, and especially my principal collaborator, guide medicinal plant selection could be tested by who has asked to remain anonymous. immersing people in an unfamiliar flora and ask- ing them to find potential plants to cure illnesses they are familiar with. The hypothesis could also be tested via discourse analysis. In casual, un- References Cited guided conversation about illnesses and potential ANKLI, A., O. STICHER, AND M. HEINRICH. medicinal plants, one would expect topics to re- 1999 Yucatec Maya medicinal plants versus volve around prototypical plant species. nonmedicinal plants: Indigenous char- acterization and selection. Human Ecol- Conclusion ogy 27:557-580. It is clear that people find beneficial BARSH, R. phytochemicals by selecting plants to use as 1997 The epistemology of traditional heal- medicinals, and that taste plays a major role in this ing systems. Human Organization process. But for the Tzeltal Maya, taste does not 56:28-37. appear to serve as a direct chemical cue for any par- BERLIN, B. ticular type of illness. The research reported here 1992 Ethnobiological classification: Principles showed that individual Tzeltal Maya, who had a of categorization of plants and animals good knowledge of medicinal plants and agreed in traditional societies. Princeton, NJ: about their use, could not predict the use of indi- Princeton University Press. vidual plants based on taste alone. Bitterness was BERLIN, E. A., AND B. BERLIN. probably not correlated with any particular class of 1996 Medical ethnobiology of the Highland illnesses because there is not enough resolution in Maya of Chiapas, Mexico: The gas- human taste to discriminate the diversity of chemi- trointestinal diseases. Princeton, NJ: cals that taste bitter. Furthermore, some non-bitter Princeton University Press. plants are very powerful cures. The role of taste is BORGATTI, S. P. more likely mnemonic, and functions in combina- 1996 ANTHROPAC 4.0 Methods guide. tion with other plant attributes and illness experi- Natick, MA: Analytic Technologies. ences. Prototype theory may offer a way to under- BOSTER, J. S. stand how human cognition and communication 1988 Natural sources of internal category function in attempts to reduce informational com- structure: Typicality, familiarity, and plexity and reconcile the very different domains of similarity of birds. Memory and Cogni- plant classification and illness experiences. tion 16:258-270. Vol. 4 2000 Casagrande / Medicinal Plants, Taste, and Cognition 67

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