Paper and papermaking have been critical tools in the development of information societies throughout history. Despite their significance, the traditional papermaking and its propagation remains uncertain. This study investigates the potential presence of DNA in traditional paper and papermaking processes using DNA extraction and morphological analysis via acetocarmine and 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining. Results provide strong evidence for the survivability and presence of DNA within traditional paper and papermaking processes. This finding has particular significance for Eastern Asian countries, where paper mulberry was the primary fiber source for papermaking. The presence of DNA in traditional paper may influence our understanding of historical trade routes and fiber material propagation, especially concerning paper mulberry species. The taxonomical classification of paper mulberry remains unclear due to its extensive habitat range, rapid hybridization, morphological similarities, and incomplete historical records of species transfers. The discovery of DNA in traditional paper adds biological evidence to this complex issue. This study's findings have significant implications for the stepping-stone of future ethnobotanical research, particularly in relation to paper mulberry species. Additionally, the remained DNA potentially provides new insights into historical trade patterns, cultural exchanges, and the evolution of papermaking techniques across different regions.

Several methods have been proposed to quantify the cultural importance of plants, animals, and fungi, which can be influenced by sociocultural and ecological factors. To evaluate the relevance of wild mushroom species known by an Indigenous group and Mestizos, and to test whether ethnicity or the availability of mushroom species in different ecosystems influenced the importance of a species, we conducted free listing and semi-structured interviews. We tested the hypotheses with multivariate tests such as principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant function analysis (DFA), and redundancy analysis (RDA). With the free lists, we obtained a total of 29 ethnotaxa, 25 mentioned by Wixaritari and nine by Mestizos. Based on the frequency of mention, the species with the highest cultural importance were, in order, Volvariella bombycina , Pleurotus djamor , and Amanita complex caesarea . According to the PC1 values, the most important mushrooms were Amanita muscaria , Exsudoporus frostii , and the boletes. DFA showed that people separated themselves into cultural groups based on the species they mentioned. The Wixaritari mentioned more species found in temperate forests, and the Mestizos mentioned species almost only from subtropical scrubs. Nineteen species were considered edible, of which those with the highest frequency of mention had the greatest significance. The RDA showed that the most influential factor was the transmission of knowledge; important species were taught to them by their grandparents and parents preserving the cultural importance through generations. In conclusion, ethnicity had a greater influence on the cultural importance of mushroom species than species availability given by ecological zones.

The Holodomor (1932–1933) was a politically driven, genocidal famine that killed millions through starvation and disease, as well as disrupting Ukrainian society and agriculture. Through the analysis of various archival sources, particularly survivor narratives, we obtained information about 72 plants used as famine foods, foods not customarily eaten and plants eaten in unusual quantities or ways during the Holodomor. A total of at least 114 parts of these 72 plants were eaten as alternative foods. Residual parts of crops represented many of these famine foods. A large range of native plants were also consumed. The inventory of Ukrainian famine foods is broadly similar to those from other major global famines.

Ethnographic evidence documents the exploitation of Gambel oak ( Quercus gambelii ) acorns as a food resource in the Great Basin, Southwest, and Colorado Plateau. However, a paucity of identified macro- and micro-botanical acorn remains in the archaeological record has resulted in a critical underestimation of the significance of the resource for Indigenous groups in these regions. This paper reports data from 18 hours of experimental Gambel oak acorn foraging and direct bomb calorimetry to evaluate whether Gambel oak acorns would have been profitable for Holocene foragers and incipient maize agriculturalists. Results show that Gambel oak acorns return a substantial amount of calories at 5,711.12 kcal per hour foraging and were likely a significant resource for early- and middle Holocene hunter-gatherers and an important fallback resource for late-Holocene maize agriculturalists in the region.

The tropical forests, shrublands, and savannas of the South American Dry Chaco are fire-prone ecosystems. Humans have occupied this region for thousands of years, raising the question of how they coped with this recurrent problem. On this point, Indigenous oral traditions are known to encode a broad range of local ecological knowledge and to be capable of preserving this knowledge for centuries. Although the traditions of the Chaco's earliest human occupants are unknown, the story corpora of recent Chaco hunter-gatherer populations have been well documented by anthropologists. Accordingly, we searched these corpora for catastrophic wildfire narratives, which we then coded for the presence of specific types of information relevant to coping with conflagration. We predicted that these stories would contain information about conditions that cause or increase the likelihood of conflagration, fire behavior and effects, human survival strategies, and plant and animal recovery. We parsed this information into 11 distinct content themes: Ambient Conditions, Cause, Direction/Speed, Duration/Frequency, Intensity, Severity, Spread, Coping Strategies, Cues, Animals, and Plants. Results indicate that wildfire stories occur cross-culturally in the Dry Chaco, and reliably encode useful information about past local fire regimes. In so doing, these narratives provide a heretofore untapped source of longitudinal fire ecology data, and attest to the importance of including Indigenous observations in global scientific inquiry.

This article examines the dietary patterns of herders in central-western Argentina, known as puesteros (local herders). We investigate how changes in land use, urbanization, and hunting restrictions have affected traditional puestero herding practices and the contributions of wild and domesticated animals to their diets. The study focuses on two research questions: (1) Has the growth of urban economies and transportation infrastructure in central-western Argentina during the past several decades influenced puestero domesticate and wild animal meat consumption? (2) Does the consumption of large domesticates (e.g., beef from cattle) today decrease when the distance to cities increases and connectivity with markets decreases? We examine the differences in faunal assemblages between high-elevation summer puestos and low-elevation permanent puestos. We expected that puesteros in more remote areas would rely more on wild animals as a food source. However, the results showed that wild faunas were more common in permanent puestos compared to comparatively remote, summer puestos. This can be explained by the different activities carried out in each puesto and the animal biodiversity of each ecoregion. The study also highlights the impact of land use changes and conservation policies on puesteros. New employment opportunities, rural–urban migration, and changes in land ownership have influenced ranching and pastoralism practices as well. We emphasize the need to understand the puestero lifestyle in a broader framework that considers economic, social, and political processes and the importance of zooarchaeology in this study, which provides a valuable tool for documenting and preserving aspects of puestero culture.

Human migration requires developing new relationships with plants. In Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ), settled by Polynesians c. 800 years ago, myriad linguistic and conceptual clues in oral tradition invite examination of this process and the contributions of new and familiar knowledge, to understand the intertwining of social and natural landscapes. We used one enduring form of Māori oral tradition, whakataukī (ancestral sayings), to examine biocultural relationships between humans and plants in AoNZ. We asked first whether plant species mentioned are representative of plant family phylogenies in AoNZ, and globally. We then examined the occurrence frequency of introduced and native plants in whakataukī to tease out plant knowledge that connects to prior experience through the Pacific, including cultivation, and consider how people-plant relationships might be influenced by cultural histories. We found that at the level of plant order, the number of plant species recognized in AoNZ is strongly correlated with the number of species recognized globally. Whakataukī tend to mention plants from orders that have a high number of species present in AoNZ but with some notable outliers. The enrichment of whakataukī references to the Solanales and ferns is driven by the importance of kūmara and aruhe/rarauhe, both key cultivated food crops. Cultivated plants as a group are well represented - both those that traveled with the early settlers, and also native species, highlighting the importance of cultivated plants in constructing a new human ecodynamical landscape. Plants used for ceremonial, medicinal, and food purposes also occur, as do gymnosperms and other forest trees with high cultural value, such as tōtara, rātā, and kauri. We consider our findings in the context of a rapid shift from small islands at tropical latitudes to large temperate islands with a diversity of biomes, and the innovation and adaptability of those creating lives in a new land.

The local knowledge and practices pertaining to wild honeybees in the Philippines are underreported and barely harnessed for development initiatives. This study documents the system of knowledge and practices on wild honeybees of the Cordillera indigenous peoples in Northern Luzon, with the end-goal of tapping into their potentials for sustainable livelihood and ecological management. Based mainly on ethnographic data from wild honey gatherers and maintainers, the findings report on four types of honey-producing wild bees that are exploited in the region, including their physical characteristics, habitat, and nesting and foraging behaviors. Likewise discussed are the practices involved in the hunting or managing of wild honeybee colonies and the harnessing of their by-products. Finally, several issues as well as potential areas for development are identified. Attending to these holds promise for sustaining the traditional economic engagement with wild honeybees while abetting ecological conservation in the region.

Medicinal plants are being used by communities worldwide to treat various conditions, diseases, and illnesses. Nevertheless, knowledge of their use is rapidly declining due to factors like accelerated urbanization, globalization, and biodiversity loss. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, deforestation, and urbanization are the main drivers of biodiversity loss. In order to gain insight into how urban communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo use medicinal plants, we conducted an ethnobotanical study in the municipality of Idiofa, Kwilu Province. We conducted 30 semistructured interviews with residents of Idiofa. Medicinal plant use was recorded through free-listing, and data on plants used, administration methods, and sources of used plants were collected. We analyzed use values, informants agreement ratios, plant locations, and plant distributions. In total, we recorded 99 plant species from 46 plant families used in 330 preparations to treat 112 conditions. Anthropized habitats were the primary source of medicinal plants, and the set of plant species collected from these habitats was subject to biotic homogenization, a process whereby native biotas are systematically replaced by cosmopolitan non-natives. The reflection of this biodiversity in the plant use repertoires of our participants suggests that the use of easily accessible plant species is being adopted by the inhabitants of Idiofa. We hypothesize that the loss of natural ecosystems and habitats, along with the homogenization of the present plant biodiversity in anthropized and urban areas, might therefore be important but overlooked drivers of spatial ethnobotanical use and knowledge homogenization.

Southwestern Amazonia is one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. In this region, plants have a significant place and role in Indigenous peoples’ social relations. They are inseparable actors in human history and crucial social actors within diverse social assemblages. Our article focuses on plant subjectivities in Apurinã ritual encounters, which highlight the elemental role of certain plants in complex relations of various more-than-human and human beings. In the kyynyry and kamatxi rituals of this Arawak-speaking nation living in the Purus River region, the plants are central ritual actors and manifest in immaterial and material ways: they are entities, have their own songs, and are embodied, danced with, and experienced through diverse audible dimensions. Our sources, produced by participative workshops, interviews, co-living with our interlocutors, as well as our own participation in ritual encounters, show how plants are considered to be constituted as relational agents. The plants are identified and known through their relationships, qualities, and the production of multibeings. They follow the same moiety lines as the Apurinã, but some plants become more important than others. Plants reveal varying degrees of relative agentive potency depending on their relationship to other beings, and the role in the life-making of humans, animals, plants, and other more-than-human beings. Furthermore, our community-based approach also points to the development of specific systems of communication, such as in the form of plant instruments’ sounds, storying, and sharing experiences of living with plants.