ONE KNOWLEDGE, TWO CONDUITS: THE SOCIAL, DEMOGRAPHIC, AND TOXICOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT GOVERN SERI ETHNOMEDICINE. by NEMER EDUARDO NARCHI NARCHI (Under the direction of Brent Berlin) ABSTRACT ! !Ethnomedicinal research has historically focusses on botanical products, ignoring, by and at large, the records on animal-based medicine. Whenever non- botanical -e.g. animal-based- remedies appear on indigenous pharmacopoeias, these are taken with little interest and are explained as de facto - i.e. “They occur because they occur-” This lack of interest impedes ethnobiologists to develop further investigations or theoretical afterthoughts that would enable to articulate ethnomedicinal systems as holistic ecological adaptations. !Among non-botanical medicines, those from marine origins hardly receive any mention. This dissertation describes how do botanical and marine medicines relate within an ethnomedicinal knowledge system. !In this research, I focussed on Seri ethnomedicine. The Seri are an indigenous group of hunter-gatherers located in the mainland portion of the Central Gulf Region in Sonora, Mexico. Seri posses a pragmatic ethnomedicinal system which provides a rich case for this examination as there is little room for cultural features to restrict the flow of ethnomedicinal knowledge between informants. !During a one year long survey in a Seri village, I used participant observation, focus-group interviews, and an ethnomedicinal knowledge test to interview 67 Seri informants. By presenting the individuals with an ethnomedicinal knowledge test, I evaluated each informant"s proficiency in ethnomedicinal knowledge and gathered information on the organoleptic strategies used in the selection of medicinal organisms. I then determined the toxicological profiles of marine and terrestrial medicines. !Seri marine and terrestrial medicines are part of one single pharmacopoeia. The organisms are selected under the same criteria; toxicity. Organisms with higher toxicity profiles are used against more ailments. Flavor plays an important role in detecting toxicity. Organisms with bitter or acrid flavors are characteristically associated with high toxicity. !Seri ethnomedicinal knowledge transmission is conditioned to gender roles. Fathers teach about marine medicine while mothers teach about botanical medicine. Women know more about botanical medicine than men. However, 18% of marine medicine has a gynecological application, and women know at least as much marine medicine as men. !By comparing the selection criteria of marine versus terrestrial medicine an important generalization can be formulated; the brain senses medicines in bitterness. !INDEX WORDS: Seri, Comcáac, ethnomedicine, ethnobiology, marine medicine, cultural transmission, ethnography of hunter-gatherers, Sonora, Mexico! ONE KNOWLEDGE, TWO CONDUITS: THE SOCIAL, DEMOGRAPHIC, AND TOXICOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT GOVERN SERI ETHNOMEDICINE. by: NEMER EDUARDO NARCHI NARCHI B.S. Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexico, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2011 © 2011 Nemer Eduardo Narchi Narchi All rights reserved ONE KNOWLEDGE, TWO CONDUITS: THE SOCIAL, DEMOGRAPHIC, AND TOXICOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT GOVERN SERI ETHNOMEDICINE. by NEMER EDUARDO NARCHI NARCHI Major Professor: Brent Berlin Committee: Stephen Kowalewski Sergio Quesada Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2011 DEDICATION Al mia patrino, mia plej bona majstro Al mia filino, mia pli irreverente lernanto Al mia edzino, mia plej bona amikino Al mia mentoro, por admirinda kariero iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT !This dissertation is a collective effort of many people. Foremost, I would like to thank the people of Haxöl Iihom for letting me stay in the community, learn from them, and offer me their unconditional friendship. !There is no other figure more influential for my academic and personal development that my mother, who deserves the greatest of recognitions and my eternal thankfulness. My nuclear family, Sophia and Arli, have endured all the hardship of a graduate student life and exigencies of a Doctoral program. They have both acted as my motivation and support. !I am deeply grateful to my committee members, starting with Dr. Brent Berlin, who encouraged me to pursue such a peculiar topic ever since I contacted him before enrolling in any graduate program; thank you for your exchange of ideas, your accurate observations and occasional interventions, your way of leading by example, the magical-medicinal chicken broth, your music, and your friendship. !I stand in much debt with Dr. Steve Kowalewski who was not only encouraging, but certainly committed to make me achieve essential improvements not only in the final document, but in every step of the research, and in other academic activities, such as teaching. !An entire dictionary would not be enough to describe how supportive has Dr. Sergio Quesada been towards my professional and personal development. The chats over shared interests in neoliberal development and other aspects of Mexican culture have been both a pleasure and an enriching experience. !Although not formal part of my committee, a considerable amount of my doctoral formation has been shaped by the influence of Dr Victoria Reyes and Dr Ricardo Godoy, from v whom I learned not only the exquisite art of interpreting anthropological data through a statistical lens and vice versa, but also many lessons on how to face the spontaneous nature of fieldwork. !The final version of this dissertation would not have been possible without the proofreading, editing, and constructive criticism of my colleagues Hannes Dempewolf, Dan Eisenberg, and Dr. Carolyn O"Meara. Dan Eisenberg helped me to embark in this project since its primal beginning and throughout the final document there is much of Dan"s brain scattered. Dr. Carolyn O"Meara played a vital part not only in revising the Seri history, spelling, and my below average English grammar, she is also a very generous and enthusiastic colleague eager to enlighten anyone with linguistic, social, and anecdotical aspects of Seri culture. Not to mention her noteworthy ability to convince people they can pursue higher quality in their work. !I cannot show enough appreciation for the tremendous support that Cathy Moser-Marlett and Dr. Steve Marlett have offered me throughout the realization of this project. From advice on how to ensure a satisfactory “Desemboque childhood” for Sophia, to correcting my Seri sentences, and even helped me decipher my field-notes, they have behaved in the most generous and impeccable of ways. ! Dr. Gary Nabhan and Dr. Laura Monti made a remarkable upgrade in the amount of comfort I could get my stay in Haxöl Iihom by lending me their house for a considerably long amount of time. !Thanks to Dr. Tomas Bowen for having the patience to walk me through the complexities of the radioactive dating of the oldest Serian remains and for his generosity in sharing his documents with me. !A definite foundation for the development of this dissertation relies on the taxonomic classification of the specimens used. Thanks to M.S. Raúl Aguilar Rosas (FCM-UABC) who unfortunately could not see the culmination of this research, also to Ocean. Luis E. Aguilar Rosas (IIO-UABC) for classifying the phycological samples. M.S. Dora O. Waumann Rojas vi (FCM-UABC) helped me with the classification of marine invertebrates, and taught me how to take great pictures of these. M.S. José Jesús Sánchez Escalante (DICTUS-UNISON) was very kind in helping me classify the phytological specimens. I also thank Dr. José Eduardo Valdez Holguín (DICTUS-UNISON), Dr. Jose Luis Ferman Almada (FCM-UABC), and Dr. Isaí Pacheco Ruíz (IIO-UABC) for fostering the inter-institutional collaboration with the aforementioned specialists. !Dr. Peter Brosius gave me the most unexpected of joys when he transferred to me his entire HRAF collection on the Seri, which he saved from a recycle bin some time ago. He did not just expanded my library by a hundred-fold in content and quality in one single instant. He also saved me many trips to the main library. Thanks! !I also thank my former classmates; Ocean. Saul Geovanni Cordero Herrera, who in a very noble gesture, generated the beautiful maps enclosed within the next pages, gratis! Dr. Dagoberto Alvarado Aguilar provided me with fundamental MatLab tutoring in a very opportune moment. M.S. Oscar Guzón and his family provided me with his customary camaraderie and lodging on my way to and from Haxöl Iihom to México City. In the meantime, he took me to a marvelous whale watching tour in Mazatlán, Sinaloa. !Taylor Logan made an enormous contribution to this dissertation by designing and generating the map on marine medicines used in antiquity. !I also thank Horacio Liñeiro and his family for the infinite support me and my family received during our trips to Hermosillo. Similarly, I thank my aunt Yazmin Caram and her parents who lodged me in Guadalajara, Jalisco on my way to Haxöl Iihom. !My sister, Alicia Narchi proved to be instrumental in the final phases of my writing. I deeply apologize for all the time I stole from her academic duties. In the end it was worth it, as she can really brag about the wonderful pictures she achieved while photographing Seri art. ¡Chido, hermana! vii !Dr. María Ruth Martínez Rodríguez played a very important role throughout my advancement through the Anthropology program at UGA. The shared lab, interests, and humor forged a very strong intellectual and casual friendship. !I am deeply in debt with the people of Mexico who funded most of my time in the Anthropology program at UGA through CONACYT fellowship #197422 and the DGRI-SEP scholarship. Conceiving the dissertation would not have been possible without the pilot fieldwork funded by Roger and Laree Hague through the Melissa Hague Field Study Award. This work is also a tribute to the memory of Melissa Lynn Hague. Pilot fieldwork was also funded by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute of the University of Georgia and the Tinker Foundation through the Tinker Foundation Summer Graduate Field Research.