Herbal remedy knowledge acquisition and transmission among the Yucatec Maya in Tabi, Mexico: a cross-sectional study
Affiliation
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of ArizonaDepartment of Anthropology, University of Florida
Department of Anthropology and Bureau of Economic and Business Research, University of Florida
Issue Date
2015
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BioMed CentralCitation
Hopkins et al. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (2015) 11:33 DOI 10.1186/s13002-015-0022-6Rights
© 2015 Hopkins et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).Collection Information
This item is part of the UA Faculty Publications collection. For more information this item or other items in the UA Campus Repository, contact the University of Arizona Libraries at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Ethnobotanical knowledge continues to be important for treating illness in many rural communities, despite access to health care clinics and pharmaceuticals. However, access to health care clinics and other modern services can have an impact on the distribution of medical ethnobotanical knowledge. Many factors have been shown to be associated with distributions in this type of knowledge. The goal of the sub-analyses reported in this paper was to better understand the relationship between herbal remedy knowledge, and two such factors, age and social network position, among the Yucatec Maya in Tabi, Yucatan. METHODS: The sample consisted of 116 Yucatec Maya adults. Cultural consensus analysis was used to measure variation in herbal remedy knowledge using competence scores, which is a measure of participant agreement within a domain. Social network analysis was used to measure individual position within a network using in-degree scores, based on the number of people who asked an individual about herbal remedies. Surveys were used to capture relevant personal attributes, including age. RESULTS: Analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between age and the herbal medicine competence score for individuals 45 and under, and no relationship for individuals over 45. There was an insignificant relationship between in-degree and competence scores for individuals 50 and under and a significant positive correlation for those over 50. CONCLUSIONS: There are two possible mechanisms that could account for the differences between cohorts: 1) knowledge accumulation over time; and/or 2) the stunting of knowledge acquisition through delayed acquisition, competing treatment options, and changes in values. Primary ethnographic evidence suggests that both mechanisms may be at play in Tabi. Future studies using longitudinal or cross-site comparisons are necessary to determine the whether and how the second mechanism is influencing the different cohorts.EISSN
1746-4269PubMed ID
25925957PubMed Central ID
PMC4427964Version
Final published versionae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1186/s13002-015-0022-6 [doi]
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2015 Hopkins et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).
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