Pioneers in European Ethnobiology

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Uppsala Studies on Eastern Europe 4 Pioneers in European Ethnobiology Edited by Ingvar Svanberg and Łukasz Łuczaj 2014 © The authors and Uppsala University 2014 Printed in Sweden by Elanders Sverige AB, 2014 Distributor: Uppsala University Library Box 510, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden www.ub.uu.se [email protected] issn 1104-6481 isbn 978-91-554-8844-4 Contents Preface ...................................................................................................................... 7 Activity Contexts and Biocultural Domains ....................................................... 9 Ingvar Svanberg and Łukasz Łuczaj Pioneers of Spanish Ethnobotany ........................................................................ 27 Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana, Javier Tardío and Ramón Morales »They know all about their plants« .................................................................... 51 Lisa Strecker Among Fishermen and Horse Nomads .............................................................. 73 Sabira Ståhlberg and Ingvar Svanberg The First Collector of Plant Names in Russia .................................................... 99 Valeria B. Kolosova The Fortuitous Ethnobotanist on Ice ................................................................ 113 Ingvar Svanberg Field Work in the Minusinsk Area .................................................................... 131 Aleksandra Ippolitova and Ingvar Svanberg A Pastor who loved Blackberries ........................................................................ 141 Rastislava Stoličná An Involuntary Ethnobotanist? ........................................................................ 149 Piotr Köhler Folk Biology of Slavic-Speaking Peoples ........................................................... 181 Monika Kujawska A Schoolteacher with a Mission ......................................................................... 201 Raivo Kalle and Renata Sõukand Hunting, Gathering and Herding ..................................................................... 219 Dániel Babai, Zsolt Molnár and Antal Filep From Enchanting Rose Gardens to an Ethnobotanical Dictionary .............. 247 Attila Szabó T. Pioneering Ethnobotanists in Italy ................................................................... 263 Andrea Pieroni and Cassandra L. Quave The Engineer of Ethnobotanical Cartography ................................................ 273 Łukasz Łuczaj The Contributions of Early Women Ethnobiologists ..................................... 283 Monika Kujawska and Ingvar Svanberg Mart Mäger and His Research on Estonian Bird and Fish Names ............... 307 Mari Kendla and Helmi Neetar Contributors ....................................................................................................... 323 Preface Ethnobiology is the scientific study of the biocultural domains that develop in the dynamic relationship between human beings, biota and the landscape, from ancient times to the present. North American scholars began to use different labels, such as ethnobotany (1895), ethnozoology (1899), ethnobiology (1935) and ethnoecology (1954), for their research early. European scholars only occa- sionally used these terms before the 1970s. During the 1970s and 1980s, ethnobiology started to emerge in Europe, as our British colleague Roy Ellen stresses in Ethnobiology and the Science of Mankind (2006), from its place as an ancillary activity in the shadow of other core pursuits, to a complete field of inquiry and research in its own right. Strong research envi- ronments now exist in France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. Over the last few years research groups and networks have also developed in Eastern and Northern Europe. Contacts between scholars in these countries have increased in order to develop methodological and theoretical issues. In 2010 our colleagues Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana in Spain, Andrea Pieroni in Italy and Rajindra K. Puri in U.K. co-edited the volume Ethnobotany in the New Europe, with contributions from a new generation of researchers pursuing ethnobiological research in the new European context. The diverse texts reflect the great biocultural diversity that still exists in our part of the world. At about the same time, we, together with Manuel and Andrea, were commis- sioned by the Society of Ethnobiology to write an overview of the history and cur- rent state of European ethnobiology. It was published in the volume Ethnobiology, edited by Eugene N. Anderson, Deborah M. Pearsall, Eugene S. Hunn and Nancy J. Turner (2011). Space only allowed for history to be discussed in broad terms, and we concentrated mainly on the countries whose languages we knew. We could at least show that research on folk biology and folk knowledge about the landscape and its biota has a long and very complex history in Europe. We have a tradition of studying the activity contexts between man and other organisms. Written docu- mentation has existed as long as written languages have been used, and thanks to a long-lasting scientific tradition we have manuscripts dating back to antiquity with information on local knowledge about plants and animals. Contemporary European ethnobiologists are a diverse group, coming from a variety of disciplines (agriculture, archaeology, biotechnology, botany, dialectol- 8 Pioneers in European Ethnobiology ogy, ecology, ethnology, forestry, folklore research, food sciences, geography, history, mycology, pharmacology, philology, sociolinguistics and zoology), but with a strong common interest in bridging biology and humanities in order to develop our research area into an academic field of its own. We work with a great diversity of data provided by archival documents, toponyms, historical sources, folk-lore texts and ethnographical reports, as well as gathered in contemporary interviews and by observation. In October 2010 a significant workshop called »Old treasures in the new Europe«, with representatives from many European countries, was organized in Padise, Estonia. This was a new beginning for ethnobiological research in northern, eastern and south-eastern Europe. A new network of dedicated, mostly young, scholars from various countries has emerged. In October 2011 we met again, this time in the village of Királyrét in northern Hungary, thus attracting further scholars from a wider circle of countries in the eastern and south-eastern parts of Europe. A third meeting was held in Kików near Busko Zdrój, Poland, in October 2013. The network that emerged from these three meetings has been vi- tal and has created co-operation, and opportunities for the co-authoring of many scientific publications. Our overview of 2011 could only show the main developments. However, the pioneers within our fields are individuals and we have therefore asked our contemporary partners in the field to present the biographies and scientific whereabouts of scholars they view as forerunners in their countries. This book therefore pres- ents some of the many people who have contributed to our knowledge about what the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss in 1962 called the »science of the concrete« in our part of Europe. Others could of course have been mentioned as well, but they, however, must wait until another occasion. Our book shows that although ethnobiology is a rather recent word in most European languages, the discipline is mature and long-standing. One of the main challenges in the creation of international comparisons of ethnobiological traditions and data is the fact that very rich and valuable sources were published in relatively minor languages in jour- nals little known outside their own countries. Thus the aim of this volume is not only to present our pioneers but also to facilitate data mining in historical and ethnographic libraries. The publication of this book was made possible with the assistance of a gen- erous grant from Stiftelsen Längmanska kulturfonden and Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Uppsala University, Sweden and University of Rzeszów, Poland Spring, 2014 Ingvar Svanberg and Łukasz Łuczaj Activity Contexts and Biocultural Domains European Studies of Folk Biology Ingvar Svanberg and Łukasz Łuczaj Ethnobiology is an intriguing discipline, giving us an opportunity to study the most essential aspects of man and his place among other species on earth. Human beings have always depended on the biological resources in their environment for their sustenance and well-being. Every aspect of life depends on the Homo sapi- ens’s skill in taking advantage of the landscape with its animals, bacteria, fungi and plants. Naturally, therefore, knowledge on how various organisms can be used is as old as man himself, and the study of how different organisms can be exploited by humans can be traced far back in time. Since human adaptability is enormous and human ability to learn from experience is extensive, the human species has invariably been able to change its habits and transform its natural hab- itat, being able to gather and develop knowledge that was of benefit for survival and expansion. The capacity of human beings to exploit the biological resources in their environment has always been considerable. To give just one example: Greenland- ers, North American Inuit (Iglulik, Kitlinermiut, Netsilik, Nunatsiaviut) and Inupiat people (Nunamiut), as well as various ethnic groups (Chukchi, Evenks, Evens, Koryaks, Nganasans, Yukagirs) in northern Siberia learned to utilize the otherwise indigestible reindeer lichen,

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