Ethnobiology Department
Background
Ethnobiology, the study of peoples perception of biotic objects and phenomena, combines the interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary forces of modern science to document, study and validate knowledge systems of traditional people. The history of human efforts to manipulate genes to produce better plants, animals and other categories of biodiversity has been one long progression from observation to explanation, from art to science. There is a hope to discover and codify the ethnobiological knowledge that underlies the traditional people’s perception and management of their environments. Many of them are applied to the study of biodiversity in conjunction with the usual modern agronomic, genetic, physiological, biochemical and other studies.
Studies in Ethiopia
In Ethiopia for example, some researchers have made comprehensive ethnobiological studies on crop farmers’ landraces and came up with checklists of landrace varieties, their vernacular names with meaning and origin, relevant folklore with interpretation plus other categories of diverse oral tradition. These limited ethnobiological studies targeted to crop plants so far conducted in Ethiopia and elsewhere have given valuable information that has been tested and substantiated by applying modern scientific methods. Sorghum landrace varieties identified by Ethiopian farmers as superior in terms of food quality are named locally to be “Wotet-Begunche” and “Marchuke” meaning “Milk in my mouth” and “one that squirt out honey” respectively, were found by breeders to contain high levels of lysine and protein. Likewise some barley landrace varieties identified by farmers have been corroborated and validated by laboratory analysis as having high values of protein and essential amino acid contents.
Relevance of Ethnobiology
The special relevance of ethnobiological study is to bring out the knowledge that has not been able to reach the formal scientific realm. Indigenous knowledge is what people know about nature, life and many other things but not scientifically documented. It has got specialize knowledge about soils, plants, animals, medicines, weather and all sorts of customs, cults, rites, taboos, legends, myths, ethos, values, beliefs, folklore indicating relationships between people and biological resources. Since Ethiopia being known for its biological diversity potential, the associated indigenous knowledge of the diverse communities over the biological resources is also crucially important in the maintenance and utilization of the country’s biological diversity. Thus collecting, documenting, studying and utilizing the indigenous knowledge over biological diversity is an essential element of a national genetic resources conservation and research program.
Objectives of the department
* Collect, document and understand the local peoples’ perception on their biological resources, and disseminate this knowledge for use in the development, conservation and utilization of biodiversity
* Conduct ethnobiological research on the values of indigenous knowledge related to biological resources, and provide scientific ground or base for indigenous knowledge.
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