Cultural landscapes and traditional medicinal knowledge among Mapuches: adaptation, maintenance and replacement.

LADIO A H

Puerto Varas

Congreso; 14 th International Congress of Ethnopharmacology. Puerto Varas, Chile.; 2014

Mapuche rural populations living NW Patagonia (Argentina) have developed several strategies for the maintenance of their rich traditional medicine [1, 2]. More than ten years of ethnoecological studies have shown that they utilize different cultural landscapes as source of therapeutic plants (composed in total by more than 120 species), which are delineated by diverse learning and adaptation processes to deal with the present socio-cultural and environmental circumstances. The aim of the work will be to show, by means of quali-quantitative approach, that the differential use of the natural surroundings, the ecological transformation of the land through cultivation, and the in situ protection given to certain wild medicinal plants, are behaviours that demonstrate the strong bio-cultural roots underlying their traditional medical system. We also found that the cultural importance of the different units of the landscape has an organoleptic pattern; it depends on the sensorial characteristics, relative importance and symbolic value of the medicinal species they are composed of. At present, this pharmacopeia is also enriched with exotic plants that come from distant cultural scenarios promoted by massive media, which are obtained through barter with neighbouring populations. Hybridization processes are occurring where the adaptation, maintenance and replacement are part of this interplay. This re-conversion implies revitalization and re-articulation, and makes it possible the survival of the Mapuche traditional medical wisdom. [1] Molares, S & Ladio A. 2009. J. Ethnopharmacol. 122: 251-260. [2] Molares, S & Ladio, A. 2012. Biodivers. Conserv. 21 (4): 1079-1093.).