Wild food plants traditionally gathered in central Armenia: archaic ingredients or future sustainable foods?

Andrea Pieroni (), Roman Hovsepyan, Ajmal K. Manduzai and Renata Sõukand
Additional contact information
Andrea Pieroni: University of Gastronomic Sciences
Roman Hovsepyan: Yerevan State University
Ajmal K. Manduzai: COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus
Renata Sõukand: Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2021, vol. 23, issue 2, No 56, 2358-2381

Abstract: Abstract Current debate highlights that sustainable food systems can be fostered by the cautious and germane use of natural resources. Gathering, cooking, and consuming wild food plants that are widely available in a given environment are traditional practices that in many parts of the world have historically been crucial for effecting the food security and food sovereignty of local communities. In the current study, we analyzed the traditional foraging patterns of Armenians, Pontic Greeks, Molokans, and Yazidis living in a mountainous area of central Armenia; via 64 semi-structured interviews, 66 wild food folk taxa were recorded and identified. While Armenians and Greeks gather a remarkable number of wild food plants (36 and 31, respectively) and share approximately half of them, Molokans and, more remarkable, Yazidis gather less wild food plants (24 and 17, respectively) and share only a few plants with Armenians. This may be due not only to the fact that the latter ethno-religious groups have followed endogamic marriage patterns for centuries, which may have limited the exchange of plant knowledge and practices with their Armenian neighbors, but also to the difficult adaptation to a new environment that Yazidis experienced after moving from Eastern Anatolia and the Nineveh Plains to the study area around a century ago. The traditional practice of gathering wild plants for food is, however, still vividly alive among locals in central Armenia and at least a part of this bio-cultural heritage could represent one of the future pillars of local sustainable food systems and platforms.

Keywords: Wild food plants; Foraging; Ethnobotany; Armenia; Caucasus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-00678-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00678-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00678-1

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().