Ethnobotanical knowledge acquisition during daily chores: the firewood collection of pastoral Maasai girls in Southern Kenya

Xiaojie Tian

doi:10.1186/s13002-016-0131-x

Abstract

BackgroundResearchers considering children’s traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) highlighted the importance of examining children’s daily activities as empirical contexts for its acquisition. Many of them evaluated children’s TEK acquisition linearly as gain or loss, and paid less attention to the adaptive nature of this knowledge system and the social relationships arising from its acquisition processes. This study approaches children’s TEK acquisition considering these abovementioned aspects. I utilize pastoral Maasai girls’ firewood collection as a case study, and analyze the personal, interpersonal and cultural institutional aspects of girls’ Ethnobotanical knowledge (EK) acquisition within this chore.MethodsParticipant observation and unstructured interviews were used for data collection. I joined 12 girls (6 to 15 years old) on day trips for firewood collection, and documented their participation and performance during this chore. I observed interactions among girls and between girls and women concerning this activity, and investigated girls’ perceptions of local wood species via their descriptions. I also informally interviewed 15 women, between 20 and 80 years old on their evaluation of the wood species to be used as firewood.ResultsCurrent diet change and gender-age roles in chore participation in Maasai society require females to continually participate in firewood collection. Within this social context, girls intensively participated in day trips of firewood collection during the long-term vacation in the dry season. They collected a sizable amount from 24 plant species, and generated EK through personal sensual experiences, such as fragrance, hardness, and heaviness of different wood species. They acquired local taxonomy and terminology of different wood species, and learned others preferences for wood species used as fuel through interpersonal communication. These personal and interpersonal aspects, together with current diet change and division of labor within gender-age roles in Maasai society, provide EK with multi-dimensional meanings in current subsistence strategies.ConclusionsResults of this study show that girls acquired EK with multi-dimensional meanings through daily firewood collection, which cannot be only evaluated in a linear manner. Future studies focused on children’s TEK acquisition should consider the personal, interpersonal, and cultural institutional aspects of this adaptive knowledge system and children’s roles within it.

Highlights

Researchers considering children’s traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) highlighted the importance of examining children’s daily activities as empirical contexts for its acquisition
Growing interest in Traditional Ecological Knowledge in recent decades highlighted the importance of this adaptive knowledge system in the fields of biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource uses [1,2,3]
Other researchers focused on the problems of pastoralists’ TEK acquisition critically emphasized the loss of this knowledge among young generations [9, 13, 14], Most of these studies evaluated TEK acquisition linearly as gain or loss by individuals and paid little attention to its dynamic and adaptive nature [15, 16]

Summary

Introduction

Researchers considering children’s traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) highlighted the importance of examining children’s daily activities as empirical contexts for its acquisition. Many of them evaluated children’s TEK acquisition linearly as gain or loss, and paid less attention to the adaptive nature of this knowledge system and the social relationships arising from its acquisition processes. Other researchers focused on the problems of pastoralists’ TEK acquisition critically emphasized the loss of this knowledge among young generations [9, 13, 14], Most of these studies evaluated TEK acquisition linearly as gain or loss by individuals and paid little attention to its dynamic and adaptive nature [15, 16]. In contrast to the acquisition of knowledge in a school setting, TEK acquisition is heavily embedded in individuals’ daily activities in local social complexities [15, 17], and should not be evaluated purely on personal matters

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