Traditional knowledge and use of wild mushrooms by Mixtecs or Ñuu savi, the people of the rain, from Southeastern Mexico

Summary & key facts

Researchers recorded how Mixtec people (Ñuu savi) in southeastern Mexico know and use wild mushrooms. From 116 interviews in four communities, they identified 106 mushroom species and showed that Mixtec knowledge about names, uses, cooking and where mushrooms grow is detailed and kept alive mainly by teaching within families, protecting forests and keeping the native language. The study found that places with more pine and oak forest, less soil erosion and higher economic marginalization had more mushroom species known and used, and it suggests that careful, locally led mushroom use might help community development if traditional knowledge is respected.

Key facts:

• The team talked with 116 people in four Mixtec communities between 2009 and 2014 to record local names, uses and ways of telling edible from toxic mushrooms.
• They identified 106 different wild mushroom species in the area that grow in pine-oak forest, tropical deciduous forest and grassland.
• Out of those 106 species, 26 are eaten locally, 18 are considered toxic, and 6 are used for play or decoration.
• Another 56 species found are not currently used in the studied villages but the researchers say those 56 have potential as food and 28 of them may have medicinal potential.
• Most recorded mushrooms (about 80) form partnerships with tree roots (a kind of ecological relationship), while around 22 recycle dead plant material and 4 act as parasites.
• The study reports that traditional mushroom knowledge survives mainly through oral teaching, keeping Mixtec cultural identity and language, and by protecting forest areas.
• Communities that had more natural pine and oak forest cover, less soil erosion and greater economic marginalization showed greater mushroom richness and knowledge.
• The authors say that using and managing wild mushrooms in a sustainable way might be an option for local development, but any program should include local knowledge and the Mixtec worldview.

Abstract

Our study showed that conservation and adaptation of ancestral mycological knowledge survives mainly through oral transmition, maintenance of cultural identity, forest protection, preservation native language and also paradoxically through the current socieconomical marginality among the Mixtec people. We also found that those studied communities with a combination of higher vegetation cover of natural pine and oak forests, lower soil erosion and higher economic marginalization showed a greater richness and knowledge of wild mushrooms. Use and sustainable management of wild mushrooms can be an alternative for local integrated development, but local knowledge and traditional worldview should be included into the regional programs of Mixtec biocultural conservation.

Topics

Fungal Biology and Applications Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions Phytochemistry and Bioactivity Studies

Categories

Health Sciences Medicine Pharmacology

Tags

Acculturation Archaeology Biodiversity Biology Ecology Ethnobotany Geography Habitat Immigration Indigenous Maya Medicinal plants Species richness Traditional knowledge