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- Title
Zapotec and Mixe use of tropical habitats for securing medicinal plants in Mexico
- Authors
Sticher, Otto; Heinrich, Michael; Frei, Barbara
- Abstract
Medicinal plants are essential in the medical systems of the Mixe and Zapotec. In this study ethno-ecological strategies, employed by thetwo neighboring Indian groups in Mexico, for obtaining medicinal plants are analyzed. The indigenous classification of the environment isnotably different from the Western one and distinguishes six dissimilar principal 'zones' or land use types. Most ethnomedically important species are cultivated in the 'house garden' or gathered in the community or its immediate surroundings. The house garden, for example, contributes 31.8% and 26.2% of all medical taxa for the Mixe and Zapotec, respectively. These ethnobotanical data on the indigenous uses indicate that anthropogenic types of vegetation yield the largest percentage of medicinal taxa.
- Subjects
MEXICO; BOTANY; ETHNOBOTANY; INDIGENOUS peoples
- Publication
Economic Botany, 2000, Vol 54, Issue 1, p73
- ISSN
0013-0001
- Publication type
Article