Morvarid Hosseini; Mohamad Rahim Forouzeh; Hossein Barani
Abstract
One method used to answer the human concerns in modern society is referring to the empirical knowledge of the past and using the wisdom of the local people's historical knowledge. Among this valuable knowledge, indigenous knowledge is unique in identifying edible plants and their consumption practices ...
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One method used to answer the human concerns in modern society is referring to the empirical knowledge of the past and using the wisdom of the local people's historical knowledge. Among this valuable knowledge, indigenous knowledge is unique in identifying edible plants and their consumption practices in local communities. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify and document the ethnobotany of edible plants in Zebarkhan rangelands located in Razavi Khorasan province. In this study, the traditional beliefs and knowledge of the people about plants were collected in the form of free interviews, participatory observation and continuous presence in 2017-2018. Snowball and purposive sampling were done in order to select participants. The questions posed with the focus on the local names, vegetative forms, methods of harvesting, the organ used, consumption, and plants attributes. The interviews were then continued until the repetitive responses would confirm the reliability and validity of the interview. Finally, the information were classified, analyzed and the key concepts were extracted based on the goal of research.The findings showed that except for the provision of annual food and medical supplies, most of the identified species consisted of multifunctional medicinal and livestock usage and they were also involved with the provision of the livelihood of the residents through collection and sale or forage livestock. The results and findings of this research can be used as a basis for future research on the development of nutrition knowledge and management of rangelands through the improvement and revival with edible and medicinal plants.
kaveh farhadi; morteza salemi ghamsari
Abstract
It goes without saying that food is quite significant which is felt by biologists, psychologists and more importantly by people. However, some societies including Iranians have always witnessed various incidents for thousand years due to its specific geographical and historical condition, shortage of ...
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It goes without saying that food is quite significant which is felt by biologists, psychologists and more importantly by people. However, some societies including Iranians have always witnessed various incidents for thousand years due to its specific geographical and historical condition, shortage of food and even water on the one hand, and many natural disasters and attacks by alien tribes on the other hand. Therefore, they have so much and sometimes unique experience in issues related to food security, management and storage. The said experiences unfortunately keep being forgotten. In most Iranian regions, there are mountains with water and no soil or deserts with soil and no water. Moreover, plants grow and agricultural, garden, and animal products are produced only in some months of the year. On the other hand, dangerous pests such as locust, age, color, natural disasters such as drought, untimely cold weather, flood, hail, and worst of all social insecurities including attacks on Iran which is a record-holder in this regard have all led to collection of experience in such special conditions so as to be used in such unlucky days of shortage or drought. Iranians have innovated various solutions to the extent that they have been able to store the most perishable foods such as milk for one week to two years. This is also true for vegetable, meat and fresh fruits. The present paper is the preliminary stage of a great work about traditional methods of food storage and traditional ways of fighting drought which have been applied by our ancestors for thousands of years. The paper aims at recording the latest experiences of old villagers and stories they have heard or applied about drought and different methods of combating it, food storage techniques and diet management at times of shortage before its too late. One of the findings is drawing of the preliminary graph of food classification in Iranian culture.
