Wade Davis

This research was carried out in the Apiwtxa village of the Ashaninka people, located on the banks of the Amônia river, in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, on the border with Peru. Living in one of the most biodiverse regions of the planet, this community stands out both for the strength and depth of its spirituality and for its commitment to stewardship of the environment; with a population of but 900, the Ashaninka of Apiwtxa have within the last twenty years planted more than two million trees. In this study, I analyze the connection between the traditional spiritual practices of the Ashaninka people, with the use of ayahuasca, and the propensity of this people to preserve nature, and to achieve a genuinely sustainable development, combining ancestral mandates inspired in part by mythology, with contemporary practices informed by a scientific understanding of forest ecology. As metaphysical convictions inform behavior, a space of reciprocal respect is created whereby indigenous principles mediate the connection between humans and the forest.Indigenous peoples may well be the best guardians of the world's forests and its biodiversity; where indigenous lands are legally demarcated and secured, carbon sequestration is greater and deforestation is demonstrably less. What do they know, and how do they manage their forests? How much of their worldview, which generates sustainability and conservation, comes from a particular cosmology? What does it mean to consider plants as teachers? What is the relationship between Ashaninka spirituality and their propensity to conserve and regenerate the environment around them? In this research, with the invaluable collaboration of Moisés Piyãko, a revered elder and shaman, I explore this relationship, its origins, precepts, and consequences. Analyzing cosmological aspects, ritualistic norms, and the application of this form of knowledge (not only linked to an ancestral past, but also pointing a way forward), I seek to show how this connection exists and is essential for the choices that this community made and makes. In this way, this study is also a tribute to the plurality of worldviews, the diversity of cultures and the richness they bring us, with its potential for exchanges and teachings.

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This thesis represents the first academic study of Bermuda’s historical ethnobotany. Settled by the English in the early 17th century, Bermuda soon gave rise to a set of interfused hybrid cultures formed by people from around the Atlantic Basin. While inhabitants were shunted into political categories according to social standing (slave, slave-owner, indentured servant, land-owner, etc.), in reality each group arrived with traditional ethnobotanical knowledge which they rapidly adapted to the new social, political, and ecological climate. Until the 20th century, Bermudians were dependent on the island’s two dominant, endemic forest species: Sabal bermudana L.H. Bailey (Bermuda palmetto) and Juniperus bermudiana L. (Bermuda cedar). While much is known and has been written about the cedar, this thesis focuses on the palmetto which played an equal, if not more fundamental, role in the island’s economy and daily life. The palmetto was an invaluable source of food, wine, and household goods to 17th century settlers; its leaves were central to the 18th century plaiting and hat-making industry; and, now an endangered species, it is pivotal to today’s conservation and ecological restoration efforts. By tracing the rise and fall of palmetto use in Bermuda, we gain a lens through which to consider Bermuda as a complex social-ecological system, one that, both socially and ecologically, has been in constant flux since its inception. Some of the driving forces explored in this thesis include the adaptation of knowledge from Bermuda’s constituent cultures, the implementation of British colonial values and law, migration, slavery, scarcity of natural resources, starvation, the industrial revolution, and economic globalization.While this multiplicity of factors has led to a sharp decline in plant knowledge in Bermuda in the last century, many Bermudians are keen to preserve their hard-won traditional knowledge, evidenced by the small but impassioned cultural-revitalization and conservation movements on the island. Appendix A, therefore, provides a catalogue of plants of historical and present-day value in Bermuda and serves as a record for present and future generations. This list is supported by herbarium specimens, housed at UBC, to ensure accurate identification.

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