Felice Wyndham
University of British Columbia
Plant Knowledge Networks in the Sierra Tarahumara and Beyond
Rarámuri relations to the plant and animal worlds of the Sierra Tarahumara are extensive, varied, and, as all ecological knowledge, rooted in histories of interaction, mobility and negotiation, as well as profoundly influenced by life experience. In this paper I explore plant knowledge networks in a Rarámuri community, focusing on children’s shared knowledge as related to their social ties. Overall, Rarámuri children in this community maintain closer social networks than the adults, and are less segregated by gender. They share knowledge of a core subset of useful wild plants, while older children and adults incorporate other plants into their repertoire in a regular way. I discuss the personal and plant networks in relation to Rarámuri concepts of connectedness such as teke (rimugá) and speculate about how local knowledge networks relate to larger regional and continental patterns of knowledge transmission over time.
