Open AccessArticle
Overcoming Tribal Boundaries: The Biocultural Heritage of Foraging and Cooking Wild Vegetables among Four Pathan Groups in the Gadoon Valley, NW Pakistan
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Department of Botany, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, KP, Pakistan
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Department of Botany, Government Post Graduate College, Parachinar 26000, KP, Pakistan
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Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, 6108 Halle, Germany
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Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80260, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
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Pharmacy Program, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Batterjee Medical College, P.O. Box 6231, Jeddah 21442, Saudi Arabia
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Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11566, Egypt
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University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 9, 12042 Pollenzo, Italy
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Department of Medical Analysis, Tiskh International University, Erbil 44001, Iraq
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Panayiotis Dimitrakopoulos
Received: 11 May 2021
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Revised: 31 May 2021
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Accepted: 9 June 2021
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Published: 15 June 2021
Simple Summary
To understand how traditional/folk biological knowledge changes across territories, cultures/languages, religions, and generations is crucial if we want to generate robust tools for preserving it. In this study we assessed the effect on foraging (gathering wild vegetables) of the affiliation to four different tribes within the same culture/language/religion in NW Pakistan. Through more than 100 interviews with local peoples conducted over a span of two years information about local wild vegetable names, growth habit, used plant parts, food/cooking details, medicinal perceptions, availability season, and market prices was collected. The survey recorded 51 non-cultivated vegetables while the dominant botanical families were Asteraceae and Fabaceae. Seven species were found to be sold at local and regional markets. Cross-cultural analysis among the wild plants foraged by the four considered tribes showed that the largest number of species was reported by members of the Hadarzai and Umarzai tribes, although most of the quoted wild vegetables were homogeneously gathered among all considered communities, with some more idiosyncratic plant uses among the Umarzai group, who have likely been less affected by the erosion of traditional knowledge or possibly have had less access to traded cultivated vegetables. This shows that food ethnobotanical knowledge exchanges overcome families and tribal boundaries, possibly through continuous social exchanges. The recorded food heritage will be essential for future projects aimed at fostering bio conservation, environmental sustainability, and food security.