Trans-atlantic diaspora ethnobotany: Legacies of west African and iberian mediterranean migration in central Cuba (Book Chapter)

African Ethnobotany in the Americas

1 August 2013, Pages 217-245

Moret, E.S. 

 

View additional authors

Retrieving additional authors...

Jesus College, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

View additional affiliations

Retrieving additional affiliations...

View references (96)

Abstract

This chapter explores variance in ethnobotanical knowledge based on parallel documented uses between Cuba and its two main centers of mass migration: West Africa and the Iberian Mediterranean. Based on 12 months' fieldwork, it explores the link between medicinal plant-use knowledge, land use, and migrant history at selected sites in central Cuba. Employing natural and social science methods, it seeks to offer a geographical perspective to the study of trans-Atlantic diaspora ethnobotany and New World religious syncretism. Results demonstrate that second-generation residents of selected sites with extensive African immigration (sugar cultivation zones) demonstrate a more detailed knowledge of West African-derived medicinal pharmacopoeia than those in areas with stronger Mediterranean immigration (tobacco cultivation zones). Knowledge derived from the Iberian Mediterranean is more widespread between both agricultural zones and marginally stronger in tobacco cultivation zones of smaller settlement types. This chapter concludes that various strands of diaspora plant-use knowledge thrive in distinct ways in different parts of Cuba, which runs counter to official discourse that portrays traditional medicine as largely derived from Spanish communities. In reexamining religious syncretism in the context of ethnobotany, it advocates a stronger recognition of the important role that African-derived ethnobotanical knowledge has played in Cuba's colonial and postcolonial history. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York. All rights are reserved.

Author keywords

Afro-Cuban religion; Medicinal plants; Mediterranean; Syncretism; West Africa

ISBN: 978-146140836-9;1461408350;978-146140835-2Source Type: Book Original language: English

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-0836-9_9Document Type: Book Chapter

Publisher: Springer New York

View references (96)

References (96)

View in search results format

• Page
• |

• 
  1

  Ademuwagun, Z.A.
  (1979) African Therapeutic Systems. Cited 33 times.
  Crossroads Press, Los Angeles
  

  •  
• 
  2

  Ainslie, J.R.
  (1937) A List of Plants Used in Native Medicine in Nigeria. Cited 55 times.
  Imperial Forestry Institute paper 7. University of Oxford, Oxford
  

  •  
• 
  3

  Aiyeloja, A.A., Bello, O.A.
  Ethnobotanical potentials of common herbs in Nigeria: A case study of Enugu State
  (2006) Educ Res Rev, 1, pp. 16-22. Cited 37 times.
  

  •  
• 
  4

  Alcazar, M.D., Garcia, C., Rivera, D., Obon, C.

  Lesser-known herbal remedies as sold in the market at Murcia and Cartagena (Spain)
  (1990) Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 28 (2), pp. 243-247. Cited 3 times.
  doi: 10.1016/0378-8741(90)90034-Q
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  5

  Alexiades, M.N.
  (1996) Selected Guidelines for Ethnobotanical Research: A Field Manual. Cited 220 times.
  New York Botanical Garden, New York
  

  •  
• 
  6

  Apter, A.
  Herskovits's heritage: Rethinking syncretism in the African Diaspora
  (2004) Syncretism in Religion: A Reader, pp. 160-184. Cited 13 times.
  Leopold AM, Jensen JS (eds). Routledge, London
  

  •  
• 
  7

  Argenti, N., Röschenthaler, U.

  Introduction: Between Cameroon and Cuba: Youth, slave trades and translocal memoryscapes
  (2006) Social Anthropology, 14 (1), pp. 33-47. Cited 11 times.
  doi: 10.1017/S0964028205001928
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  8

  (1919) Cuba-Central Cuba
  Automobile Blue Book. [online map]. Perry Castañeda Library Map Collection. Accessed 12 July 2006. Internet
  http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cuba.html
  

  •  
• 
  9

  Ayala, C.J.

  Social and economic aspects of sugar production in Cuba, 1880-1930
  (1995) Latin American Research Review, 30 (1), pp. 95-124. Cited 12 times.
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  10

  Ayensu, E.S.
  (1978) Medicinal Plants of West Africa. Cited 243 times.
  Reference Publications, Algonac
  

  •  
• 
  11

  Barnet, M.
  (1986) Biogra Fia de un Cimarrón. Cited 5 times.
  Ed. Ciencias Sociales, Havana
  

  •  
• 
  12

  Barrera, A.
  Local herbs, global medicine: Commerce, knowledge, and commodities in Spanish America
  (2002) Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science and Art in Early Modern Europe, pp. 163-181. Cited 31 times.
  Smith PH, Findlen P (eds). Routledge, New York
  

  •  
• 
  13

  Bascom, W.
  The focus of Cuban santería
  (1950) Southwest J Anthropol, 6 (1), pp. 64-68. Cited 21 times.
  

  •  
• 
  14

  Bascom, W.
  (1972) The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. Cited 74 times.
  Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York
  

  •  
• 
  15

  Bastide, R.
  Problems of religious syncretism
  (2004) Syncretism in Religion: A Reader, pp. 113-141.
  Leopold AM, Sinding Jensen J (eds). Routledge, London
  

  •  
• 
  16

  (1997) El Babalawo: Médico Tradicional (Yorubás y Santería Afrocubana)
  Betancourtm lòfaorò Estrada V. Editorial 21, Havana Bolívar
  

  •  
• 
  17

  Arostegui, N.
  Plantas medicinales y aromáticas
  (2001) Revista Bimestre Cubana Dela Sociedad Económica de Amigos Del País, 15, pp. 47-63.
  

  •  
• 
  18

  Boyer, H.M.
  Distribution of sugar cane production in Cuba
  (1939) Econ Geogr, 15 (3), pp. 311-325. Cited 3 times.
  

  •  
• 
  19

  Brandon, G.
  (1991) Light from the Forest: How Santería Heals Through Plants. Cited 2 times.
  Blue Unity Press, Newark
  

  •  
• 
  20

  Bryant, R.L., Bailey, S.
  (1997) Third World Political Ecology. Cited 594 times.
  Routledge, London
  

  •  
• 
  21

  Buckley, A.D.
  (1985) Yoruba Medicine. Cited 31 times.
  Clarendon, Oxford
  

  •  
• 
  22

  Byg, A., Balslev, H.

  Palms in indigenous and settler communities in southeastern Ecuador: Farmers' perceptions and cultivation practices
  (2006) Agroforestry Systems, 67 (2), pp. 147-158. Cited 12 times.
  doi: 10.1007/s10457-005-1704-1
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  23

  Cabrera, L.
  La medicina popular de Cuba: Médicos de anta o, curanderos, santeros y paleros de hoga?o
  (1984) Coleccion Del Chicherekú
  Miami
  

  •  
• 
  24

  Cabrera, L.
  (2000) El Monte: Igbo, Fi Nda, Ewe Orisha, Vititi N Fi Nda. Cited 38 times.
  Notas sobre las religiones, la magia, las supersticiones yel folklore delos negros criollos yel pueblo de Cuba. Ediciones Universal, Miami Canet
  

  •  
• 
  25

  Alvarez, G.A.
  (1911) Atlas de Cuba
  Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
  

  •  
• 
  26

  Carey, H.C., Lea, I.
  Geographical, statistical and historical map of Cuba and the Bahamas Islands
  (1826) A Complete Historical, Chronological and Geographical American Atlas, pp. 31-32.
  H. C. Carey and I. Lea Publishers (ed). H. C. Carey and I. Lea Publishers, Philadelphia
  

  •  
• 
  27

  Carney, J.A.
  Black rice
  (2001) The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas
  Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
  

  •  
• 
  28

  Carney, J.A.
  African traditional plant knowledge in the circum-Caribbean region
  (2003) J Ethnobiol, 23 (2), pp. 167-185. Cited 11 times.
  

  •  
• 
  29

  Carney, J.A.
  Agroenvironments and slave strategies in the diffusion of rice culture to the Americas
  (2003) Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-development Studies, pp. 256-273. Cited 3 times.
  Zimmerer KS, Bassett TJ (eds). Guilford Publications, New York
  

  •  
• 
  30

  Carney, J.A., Voeks, R.A.

  Landscape legacies of the African diaspora in Brazil
  (2003) Progress in Human Geography, 27 (2), pp. 139-152. Cited 21 times.
  doi: 10.1191/0309132503ph418oa
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  31

  (1977) Cuba-sugar
  CIA. Perry Castañeda Library Map Collection. Map 502988. Accessed 12 July 2006. Available from
  http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cuba.html
  

  •  
• 
  32

  (1977) Cuba-economic Activity
  Internet CIA. Perry Castañeda Library Map Collection. Map 502988. Accessed 12 July 2006. Internet Cros
  http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cuba.html
  

  •  
• 
  33

  Sandoval, M.
  (1975) La Religión Afrocubana. Cited 9 times.
  Playor, Madrid
  

  •  
• 
  34

  Dalziel, J.M.
  The useful plants of West Africa
  (1937) The Crown Agents for the Colonies
  London
  

  •  
• 
  35

  Darias, V., Bravo, L., Barquin, E., Herrera, D.M., Fraile, C.

  Contribution to the ethnopharmacological study of the Canary Islands
  (1986) Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 15 (2), pp. 169-193. Cited 55 times.
  doi: 10.1016/0378-8741(86)90154-6
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  36

  Darias, V., Bravo, L., Rabanal, R., Mateo, C.S., Luis, R.M.G., Pérez, A.M.H.

  New contribution to the ethnopharmacological study of the canary islands
  (1989) Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 25 (1), pp. 77-92. Cited 54 times.
  doi: 10.1016/0378-8741(89)90047-0
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  37

  Dunmire, W.W.
  (2004) Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America. Cited 36 times.
  University of Texas Press, Austin
  

  •  
• 
  38

  Ernst and young
  (2006) A Business Guide to Cuba
  [document online]. Accessed 15 Mar 2006. Internet
  http://www.walterlippmann.com/cuba-business-guide.pdf
  

  •  
• 
  39

  Esquivel, M., Fuentes, V., Martínez, C., Martínez, J., Hammer, K.
  The African in fl uence from an ethnobotanical point of view
  (1992) Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources, pp. 83-109.
  Hammer K, Esquivel M, Knüpffer H (eds). Institut für P fl anzengenetik und Kulturp fl anzenforschung, Gatersleben
  

  •  
• 
  40

  Fairhead, J., Leach, M.
  (2003) Science, Society and Power: Environmental Knowledge and Policy in West Africa and the Caribbean. Cited 83 times.
  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  

  •  
• 
  41

  Fuentes, V.
  Plants in Afro-Cuban religions
  (1992) Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources, pp. 110-137. Cited 2 times.
  Hammer K, Esquivel M, Knüpffer H (eds). Institut für P fl anzengenetik und Kulturp fl anzenforschung, Gatersleben
  

  •  
• 
  42

  Fuentes, V., Granda, M.
  Conozca las plantas medicinales
  (1997) Editorial Cienti Fico-Técnica, Havana Gar Field R
  

  •  
• 
  43

  Garfield, R., Santana, S.

  The impact of the economic crisis and the US embargo on health in Cuba
  (1997) American Journal of Public Health, 87 (1), pp. 15-20. Cited 88 times.
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  44

  Geschiere, P.
  Afterword
  (2006) Soc Anthropol, 14 (1), pp. 119-121.
  

  •  
• 
  45

  Gill, L.S., Akinwumi, C.

  Nigerian folk medicine: Practices and beliefs of the ondo people
  (1986) Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 18 (3), pp. 257-266. Cited 29 times.
  doi: 10.1016/0378-8741(86)90004-8
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  46

  Girardi, G.
  El ahora de Cuba: Tras el derrumbe del comunismo y tras el viaje de Juan Pablo II
  (1994) Nueva Utopia, Madrid
  

  •  
• 
  47

  González-Tejero, M.R., Molero-Mesa, J., Casares-Porcel, M., Lirola, M.J.M.

  New contributions to the ethnopharmacology of Spain
  (1995) Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 45 (3), pp. 157-165. Cited 25 times.
  doi: 10.1016/0378-8741(94)01208-H
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  48

  Guerra, F.
  Drugs from the Indies and the political economy of the sixteenth-century
  (1966) Analecta Medico-Historica, 1, pp. 29-54. Cited 7 times.
  

  •  
• 
  49

  Hagedorn, K.J.
  (2001) Divine Utterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santería. Cited 87 times.
  Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC
  

  •  
• 
  50

  Hammer, K., Esquivel, M.
  The role of ethnic minorities-the East Asiatic case
  (1992) Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources, pp. 138-146.
  Hammer K, Esquivel M, Knüpffer H (eds). Institut für P fl anzengenetik und Kulturp fl anzenforschung, Gatersleben
  

  •  
• 
  51

  Hammer, K., Esquivel, M., Knüpffer, H.
  A note on European plants in Cuban agriculture
  (1992) Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources, pp. 75-79.
  Hammer K, Esquivel M, Knüpffer H (eds). Institut für P fl anzengenetik und Kulturp fl anzenforschung, Gatersleben
  

  •  
• 
  52

  Holbraad, M.

  Religious 'speculation': The rise of Ifá cults and consumption in post-Soviet Cuba
  (2004) Journal of Latin American Studies, 36 (4), pp. 643-663. Cited 18 times.
  doi: 10.1017/S0022216X04008119
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  53

  Nuevo atlas nacional de Cuba
  (1989) Academia de Ciéncias de Cuba
  Instituto Geográ fico Nacional
  

  •  
• 
  54

  Havana Klak, T., Jackiewicz, E.
  What has happened to social development policy in the era of neoliberal globalization and emerging markets?: A look at Latin America in global context
  (2002) Revista de Ciencia Politica, 22 (1), pp. 112-129. Cited 2 times.
  

  •  
• 
  55

  Martínez Callis, C.R., Herrera Oliver, P., Olvieto Prieto, R., Moreno Rodríguez, E.
  (1997) Importancia Dela Etnobotánica en Cuba
  Reportaje del Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática. Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, Havana
  

  •  
• 
  56

  Matibag, E.
  (1996) Afro-Cuban Religious Experience: Cultural Re Fl Ections in Narrative. Cited 25 times.
  University of Florida Press, Gainesville
  

  •  
• 
  57

  Mayor, F.
  Preface
  (2003) General History of the Caribbean, 1, pp. 2-5.
  Sued-Badillo J (ed), Autochthonous societies. UNESCO Publishing/Macmillan, Paris
  

  •  
• 
  58

  McClure, S.A.

  Parallel usage of medicinal plants by africans and their caribbean descendants
  (1982) Economic Botany, 36 (3), pp. 291-301. Cited 8 times.
  doi: 10.1007/BF02858552
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  59

  Moreno Rodríguez, E., Bermúdez, A., Oliver, H.
  Las plantas yel espiritismo cruzado en Cuba oriental
  (1995) Fontqueria, 42, pp. 289-308. Cited 4 times.
  

  •  
• 
  60

  Moret, E.S.
  (2007) Afro-Cuban Religion, Diaspora Ethnobotany and Environmental Change in Post-Soviet Cuba
  Ph. D. thesis, University of Oxford
  

  •  
• 
  61

  Moret, E.S.
  The Caribbean
  (2008) Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World: 1750 to the Present
  Stearns PN (ed). Oxford University Press, Oxford
  

  •  
• 
  62

  Moret, E.

  Afro-cuban religion, ethnobotany and healthcare in the context of global political and economic change
  (2008) Bulletin of Latin American Research, 27 (3), pp. 333-350. Cited 7 times.
  doi: 10.1111/j.1470-9856.2008.00273.x
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  63

  Moret, E.S.
  Hegemony, Identity and Trans-Atlantic Modernity: Afro-Cuban Religion (Re) Politicisation and (De)legitimisation in the Post-Soviet Era
  in press
  

  •  
• 
  64

  Morgan, P.D.
  The cultural implications of the Atlantic slave trade: African regional origins, American destinations and New World developments
  (1997) Slavery Abolit, 18 (1), pp. 122-145. Cited 49 times.
  

  •  
• 
  65

  Nesheim, I., Dhillion, S.S., Stølen, K.A.

  What happens to traditional knowledge and use of natural resources when people migrate?
  (2006) Human Ecology, 34 (1), pp. 99-131. Cited 35 times.
  doi: 10.1007/s10745-005-9004-y
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  66

  Neuwinger, H.D.
  African traditional medicine
  (2000) A Dictionary of Plant Use and Applications. Cited 14 times.
  Medpharm Scientific Publishers, Stuttgart
  

  •  
• 
  67

  Ortiz, F.
  (1940) Contrapunteo cubano del tobaco yel azúcar: Advertencia de sus contgrastes agrarios, económicos, históricos y sociales, su etnografía y su trasculturación.. Cited 249 times.
  

  •  
• 
  68

  Cátedra, Madrid Ortiz, F.
  (1975) Los Negros Esclavos
  Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, Havana
  

  •  
• 
  69

  Palmié, S.
  Against syncretism: 'Africanizing' and 'Cubanizing' discourses in North American Òrìsà worship
  (1995) Counterworks: Managing the Diversity of Knowledge, pp. 73-104. Cited 43 times.
  Fardon R (ed). Routledge, London
  

  •  
• 
  70

  Palmié, S.
  (2002) Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition. Cited 177 times.
  Duke University Press, London
  

  •  
• 
  71

  Palmié, S.
  Ackee and Salt fi sh vs. Amalá con Quimbombó? A note on Sidney Mintz' contribution to the historical anthropology of African American cultures
  (2005) Journal Dela Société des Américanistes, 91 (2), pp. 89-122. Cited 6 times.
  

  •  
• 
  72

  Peet, R., Watts, M.
  (1996) Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. Cited 645 times.
  Routledge, London
  

  •  
• 
  73

  Pels, P.

  The Anthropology of Colonialism: Culture, History, and the Emergence of Western Governmentality
  (1997) Annual Review of Anthropology, 26, pp. 163-183. Cited 132 times.
  

  • View at Publisher
• 
  74

  Pérez Medina, T.
  (1998) La Santería Cubana: El Camino de Osha. Cited 3 times.
  Ceremonias, ritos y secretos. Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid
  

  •  
• 
  75

  Rashford, J.
  The search for Africa's baobab tree in Jamaica
  (1987) Jam J, 20 (2), pp. 2-11. Cited 5 times.
  

  •  
• 
  76

  Rashford, J.
  Arawak, Spanish and African contributions to Jamaica's settlement vegetation
  (1993) Jam J, 24 (3), pp. 17-23. Cited 4 times.
  

  •  
• 
  77

  Reyes-García, V., Vadez, V., Tanner, S., McDade, T., Huanca, T., Leonard, W.R.
  Evaluating indices of traditional ecological knowledge: A methodological contribution
  (2006) J Ethnobiol Ethnomed, 2 (21), pp. 1-9. Cited 4 times.
  

  •  
• 
  78

  Roig, Y., Mesa, J.T.
  Plantas medicinales, aromáticas, o venenosas de Cuba
  (1959) Guerrero Casa Mayor y Cia
  Havana
  

  •  
• 
  79

  Roig, Y., Mesa, J.T.
  (1988) Diccionario Botánico de Nombres Vulgares Cubanos, 1-2.
  Editorial Cientí fico-Técnica, Havana Santiago-Valentin E
  

  •  
• 
  80

  Santiago-Valentin, E., Olmstead, R.G.

  Historical biogeography of Caribbean plants: Introduction to current knowledge and possibilities from a phylogenetic perspective
  (2004) Taxon, 53 (2), pp. 299-319. Cited 46 times.
  

  • View at Publisher

  Moret, E.S.; Jesus College, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
© Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.