This year we have documented an incredible amount of things that the Tsimane’ know about plants: the names given to them, their uses as medicines, food or fish poison, the plants you can use for making someone fall in love with you or the plants that ensure good luck with the next hunt.
Soon comes the task to to synthesise all our field notes into a coherent form, perhaps a book or a digital database. Over the past few weeks we have met with various Tsimane’ leaders to discuss how to best present the knowledge that we have documented so that it benefits the Tsimane’ in their efforts of strengthening their culture. People proposed educational materials for schools or a book that allows one to look up the medicines their grandparents used. Another important aspect we discussed is knowledge sovereignty: how can we respectfully disseminate this knowledge to the non-Tsimane’ world, what knowledge is sacred, what knowledge should remain secret, what can we publish and how do we publish it? Important questions that are not easily resolved with a single meeting.
The picture shows our meeting with the Consejo Regional Tsimane’ Mosetén, one of the various governing bodies of the Tsimane’ people. We were warmly received by Magalí Tipuni (president, centre), along with other members of the organization’s leadership, including Madelín Guzmán (secretary for gender issues, left). They proposed that they will meet and discuss these questions with the villages in the territory they represent and collectively answer them. In the months to come we will regularly meet online to discuss their findings, allowing us to shape the fruits of our research together.
