Open AcceResearch

This study focuses on the mother-child nexus (or process of enculturation) with respect to knowledge and valuation of wild food plants in a context where accelerated processes of modernization and acculturation are leading to the erosion of knowledge and cultural values associated with wild food plant use, in Wayanad, Western Ghats, India. Wild food plants in this biodiversity hotspot form an important part of local diets and are used as famine foods and medicines. In general, the collection and consumption of these foods are increasingly stigmatized as symbols of poverty and 'tribalness ' (equivalent to 'backwardness'). The study, which falls within the discipline of ethnobotany, involves three socio-cultural groups – the Paniya and Kuruma tribes and non-tribals. Further, it examines the impact in the enculturation process of an unusual educational programme sponsored by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation that is oriented towards creating awareness among children of cultural identity and local biological resources – the study compares children having participated in the programme with those who have not, with their mothers. The process of enculturation is assessed by comparing wild food plant knowledge and values between mothers and their children, and by examining events where knowledg