Alimentary Ethnobotany among present moqoit indian people of Chaco province (Argentina) and comparison with historical sources of 18th and 20th centuries.

Abstract

Alimentary Ethnobotany among present moqoit indian people of Chaco province (Argentina) and comparison with historical sources of 18th and 20th centuries. Plants used as food by Moqoit indian people from Chaco province (Argentina) as well as their specific applications, are here identified from genuine source of information taken during fieldworks. A total of 51 plant species belonging to 25 botanical families, are employed by Moqoit people in 76 forms of preparation and/or consumption. Bromelia hieronymi (5), Aechmea distichantha, Araujia odorata, and Sarcomphalus mistol (4), are the edible plants mostly used. Eighty percent of which (41 species) are native from the Chaco forest, encompassing 82 % of total uses. Raw fruits are the prevalent plant part and form of consumption registered. Comparison with similar data taken during 18th century by jesuit missionaries and during the mid of 20th by Martinez-Crovetto, shows the higher similarity index between the latter ones and those taken at present (0.67). These differences should be explained by the impact of western society over moqoit people, as a consequence of which they were gradually replacing their food items. The edible use of fresh fruits of Scutia buxifolia, the flowers of Glandularia peruviana and the ashes of cfr. Sporobolus spartinus as salt, are here referred to Gran Chaco indigenous people for the first time.