Comparative phylogenetic methods and the cultural evolution of medicinal plant use

Human life depends on plant biodiversity and the ways in which plants are used are culturally determined. Whilst anthropologists have used phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) to gain an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the evolution of political, religious, social, and material culture, plant use has been almost entirely neglected. Medicinal plants are of special interest because of their role in maintaining people’s health across the world. PCMs in particular, and cultural evolutionary theory in general, provide a framework in which to study the diversity of medicinal plant applications cross-culturally, and to infer changes in plant use through time. These methods can be applied to single medicinal plants as well as the entire set of plants used by a culture for medicine, and they account for the non-independence of data when testing for floristic, cultural or other drivers of plant use. With cultural, biological, and linguistic diversity under threat, gaining a deeper and broader understanding of the variation of medicinal plant use through time and space is pressing

Archaeological evidence of woody vines at Bubog 2, Ilin Island, Mindoro, Philippines.

Ethnographic and historical records in the Philippines document the use of vines for cordage, mats, baskets, hats, medicine, and furniture. Similar usage has been assumed in the more distant past (i.e., neolithic); however, no material evidence has so far been found probably owing to unfavorable conditions inhibiting preservation of this particular organic material. This paper reports the presence of dried and mineralized fragments of woody vines from the archeological site of Bubog 2 in Ilin Island, Mindoro, Philippines. Identified as coming from the families Annonaceae, Dilleniaceae, and Mimosaceae, this occurrence provides the first archaeobotanical evidence in the Philippines of woody vines in layers dated from 5000 BCE to 1000 CE

The shifting ground of swidden agriculture on Palawan Island, the Philippines

Recent literature describing the process and pathways of the agrarian transition in Southeast Asia suggests that the rise of agricultural intensification and the growth of commodity markets will lead to the demise of swidden agriculture. This paper offers a longitudinal overview of the conditions that drive the agrarian transition amongst indigenous swidden cultivators and migrant paddy farmers in central Palawan Island, the Philippines. In line with regional agrarian change, we describe how a history of conservation policies has criminalized and pressured swidden farmers to adopt more intensive "modern" agricultural practices. We examine how indigenous swidden cultivators adjust their practice in response to recent changes in policies, security of harvests, and socio-cultural values vis-à-vis intensification. Rather than suggest that this transition will lead to the demise of swidden, results reveal that farmers instead negotiate a shifting ground in which they lean on and value swidden as a means of negotiating agrarian change. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V