Victoria Reyes‐garcía
Biographic Data
| ID | 3580970 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Victoria Reyes‐garcía |
| GIVEN NAMES | Victoria |
| FAMILY NAME | Reyes‐garcía |
| SIGNATURE | GARCÍA V R |
| AFFILIATIONS | ICREA and Institut de Ciència I Technologia Ambientals Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles Spain |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 726 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 45 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Reflections on the future of European ethnobiology
In recent years, ethnobiology has undergone significant transformation. A renewed research framework has emerged that prioritizes an ethics of care-one that emphasizes relationships, interdependence, and responsibility towards both human and non-human others throughout all stages of research. This paradigm shift, led largely by Indigenous scholars and researchers from the Global South, invites European ethnobiologists to critically reflect on how…
Economic convergence, intragenerational economic mobility, and inequality in a native Amazonian small-scale society of Indigenous People in Bolivia
Adult intragenerational rank mobility matters for quality of life. • There are no quantitative studies of intragenerational mobility in small-scale societies. • Mobility study of Tsimane’ Indigenous People in Bolivia starts to fill the gap. • Like developed economies, pockets of rank immobility appear at the top. • But there was also more rank mobility & the bottom (especially men) converged fast. Adult intragenerational mobility reflects society…
Exploring Socio-Ecological Change at Multiple Temporal Scales in the Bas-Ogooué Ramsar Site, Gabon
Crop biocultural traits and diversity dynamics among Bassari farmers
Cultural and ecological dimensions of agriculture are often considered as contrasting in agricultural research. This is well reflected on approaches to variety evaluation and selection that privilege a narrow set of agronomic indicators that do not account for the complexity of farmer-crop interactions. In this work, we explore the concept of ‘crop biocultural traits’ to integrate the social and biological dimensions of crops and the entanglement…
Landraces and climate change: Global Trends Through the Lens of Political Agroecology
As Proficient as Adults: Distribution of Children's Knowledge of Wild Edible Plants in an Arid Environment in Madagascar
In drylands, where resources are scarce, wild edible plant (WEP) knowledge is crucial to overcome food scarcity. Understanding the distribution pattern of local ecological knowledge (LEK) about WEP and identifying knowledge holders are key steps to assessing the resilience and vulnerability of knowledge systems. However, little is known about how WEP knowledge is distributed across life stages and gender of people living in arid regions. Here, we…
Beyond artificial academic debates: For a Diverse, Inclusive, and Impactful Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
In answer to the question "Should ethnobiology and ethnomedicine more decisively foster hypothesis-driven forefront research able to turn findings into policy and abandon more classical folkloric studies?", in this essay I argue that a major strength of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine is their ability to bridge theories and methods from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Hypothesis-driven research is a powerful way to s…
Traditional Crop Management
Traditional crop management is the set of practices used for agricultural production and is based on traditional agricultural knowledge. Traditional crop management is the result of a complex coevolutionary process between natural and social systems, resulting in local strategies for natural resources appropriation. Examples of traditional crop management systems include raised fields, terraces, polycultures, and agroforestry systems. Despite the…
The Adaptive Nature of Culture: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Returns of Local Environmental Knowledge in Three Indigenous Societies
Researchers have argued that the behavioral adaptations that explain the success of our species are partially cultural, i.e., cumulative and socially transmitted. Thus, understanding the adaptive nature of culture is crucial to understand human evolution. We use a cross-cultural framework and empirical data purposely collected to test whether culturally transmitted and individually appropriated knowledge provides individual returns in terms of hu…
Contribution of Natural and Economic Capital to Subjective Well-Being: Empirical Evidence from a Small-Scale Society in Kodagu (Karnataka), India
From famine foods to delicatessen: Interpreting trends in the use of wild edible plants through cultural ecosystem services
Children's daily activities and knowledge acquisition: A case study among the Baka from southeastern Cameroon
BackgroundThe acquisition of local knowledge occurs through complex interactions between individual and contextual characteristics: as context changes, so it changes the acquisition of knowledge. Contemporary small-scale societies facing rapid social-ecological change provide a unique opportunity to study the relation between social-ecological changes and the process of acquisition of local knowledge. In this work, we study children's involvement…
Schooling and Local Knowledge for Collecting Wild Honey inSouthIndia: Balancing Multifaceted Educations
For indigenous populations, schooling and local knowledge systems may be at odds. Understanding indigenous learning systems can help mitigate conflicts between acquisition of local ecological knowledge and academic knowledge. Among boys and men of the Jenu Kuruba of SouthIndia, we compare levels of schooling and local knowledge related to wild honey collection, a central domain of male local ecological knowledge. For boys, school attendance, but …
When Knowledge Follows Blood: Kin Groups and the Distribution of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in a Community of Seminomadic Pastoralists, Gujarat (India)
Understanding the patterns and processes underlying the heterogeneous distribution of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) across communities of natural resource users is a growing research topic. However, social organization as a factor potentially shaping TEK intracultural distribution has received scant attention. Here, we analyze the role played by kinship groups-namely, patrilineal lineages and segments-in shaping bodies of TEK among a gro…
The consequences of linear growth stunting: Influence on body composition among youth in the bolivian amazon
Stunting, or linear growth retardation, has been documented in up to half of all children in rural indigenous populations of South America. Stunting is well understood as a signal of adverse conditions during growth, and has been associated with developmentally induced modifications to body composition, including body fat and muscularity, that stem from early growth restriction. This article examines the relation between short stature and three a…
Factors affecting ethnobotanical knowledge in a mestizo community of the Sierra de Huautla Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
Background Worldwide, mestizo communities's ethnobotanical knowledge has been poorly studied. Based on a mestizo group in Mexico, this study assesses a) the use value (UV) of the local flora, b) gendered differences in plant species, and c) the association between socio-economic variables and ethnobotanical knowledge. Methods To assess the degree of knowledge of plant resources, we conducted 41 interviews collecting information on knowledge of lo…
What Defines Quality of Life? The Gap Between Public Policies and Locally Defined Indicators Among Residents of Kodagu, Karnataka (India)
Tertius gaudens: Germplasm exchange networks and agroecological knowledge among home gardeners in the Iberian Peninsula
Background The idea that knowledge flows through social networks is implicit in research on traditional knowledge, but researchers have paid scant attention to the role of social networks in shaping its distribution. We bridge those two bodies of research and investigate a) the structure of network of exchange of plant propagation material (germplasm) and b) the relation between a person's centrality in such network and his/her agroecological kno…
An empirical comparison of knowledge and skill in the context of traditional ecological knowledge
BackgroundWe test whether traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) about how to make an item predicts a person's skill at making it among the Tsimane' (Bolivia). The rationale for this research is that the failure to distinguish between knowledge and skill might account for some of the conflicting results about the relationships between TEK, human health, and economic development.MethodsWe test the association between a commonly-used measure of ind…
Reinterpreting Change in Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Do pharmaceuticals displace local knowledge and use of medicinal plants? Estimates from a cross-sectional study in a rural indigenous community, Mexico
The effects of local medicinal knowledge and hygiene on helminth infections in an Amazonian society
Traditional Ecological Knowledge Trends in the Transition to a Market Economy: Empirical Study in the Doñana Natural Areas
Researchers and conservation managers largely agree on the relevance of traditional ecological knowledge for natural resource management in indigenous communities, but its prevalence and role as societies modernize are contested. We analyzed the transmission of traditional knowledge among rural local people in communities linked to protected areas in Doñana, southwestern Spain. We studied changes in knowledge related to local practices in agricul…
Short but catching up: Statural growth among native Amazonian Bolivian children
The ubiquity and consequences of childhood growth stunting ( Z score, HAZ) in rural areas of low‐income nations has galvanized research into the reversibility of stunting, but the shortage of panel data has hindered progress. Using panel data from a native Amazonian society of foragers‐farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane'), we estimate rates of catch‐up growth for stunted children. One hundred forty‐six girls and 158 boys 2 ≤ age ≤ 7 were measured annual…
Cultural consonance and body morphology: Estimates with longitudinal data from an Amazonian society
Researchers have hypothesized that the degree to which an individual's actual behavior approximates the culturally valued lifestyle encoded in the dominant cultural model has consequences for physical and mental health. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing data from a longitudinal study composed of five annual surveys (2002–2006 inclusive) from 791 adults in one society of foragers–farmers in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane'. We e…
The Effect of Market Economies on the Well-Being of Indigenous Peoples and on Their Use of Renewable Natural Resources
Assessing the effects of markets on the well-being of indigenous peoples and their conservation of natural resources matters to identify public policies to improve well-being and enhance conservation and to test hypotheses about sociocultural change. We review studies about how market economies affect the subsistence, health, nutritional status, social capital, and traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples and their use of renewable …
Market Economy and the Loss of Folk Knowledge of Plant Uses: Estimates from the Tsimane' of the Bolivian Amazon
Reinterpreting Change in Traditional Ecological Knowledge
From famine foods to delicatessen: Interpreting trends in the use of wild edible plants through cultural ecosystem services
Children's daily activities and knowledge acquisition: A case study among the Baka from southeastern Cameroon
BackgroundThe acquisition of local knowledge occurs through complex interactions between individual and contextual characteristics: as context changes, so it changes the acquisition of knowledge. Contemporary small-scale societies facing rapid social-ecological change provide a unique opportunity to study the relation between social-ecological changes and the process of acquisition of local knowledge. In this work, we study children's involvement…
Do pharmaceuticals displace local knowledge and use of medicinal plants? Estimates from a cross-sectional study in a rural indigenous community, Mexico
Factors affecting ethnobotanical knowledge in a mestizo community of the Sierra de Huautla Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
Background Worldwide, mestizo communities's ethnobotanical knowledge has been poorly studied. Based on a mestizo group in Mexico, this study assesses a) the use value (UV) of the local flora, b) gendered differences in plant species, and c) the association between socio-economic variables and ethnobotanical knowledge. Methods To assess the degree of knowledge of plant resources, we conducted 41 interviews collecting information on knowledge of lo…
The relevance of traditional knowledge systems for ethnopharmacological research: Theoretical and Methodological Contributions
Background Ethnopharmacology is at the intersection of the medical, natural, and social sciences. Despite its interdisciplinary nature, most ethnopharmacological research has been based on the combination of the chemical, biological, and pharmacological sciences. Far less attention has been given to the social sciences, including anthropology and the study of traditional knowledge systems. Methods I reviewed the literature on traditional knowledg…
Evaluating indices of traditional ecological knowledge: A Methodological Contribution
BACKGROUND: New quantitative methods to collect and analyze data have produced novel findings in ethnobiology. A common application of quantitative methods in ethnobiology is to assess the traditional ecological knowledge of individuals. Few studies have addressed reliability of indices of traditional ecological knowledge constructed with different quantitative methods. METHODS: We assessed the associations among eight indices of traditional ecol…
Income inequality and adult nutritional status: Anthropometric evidence from a pre-industrial society in the Bolivian Amazon
Measuring Culture as Shared Knowledge: Do Data Collection Formats Matter? Cultural Knowledge of Plant Uses Among Tsimane' Amerindians, Bolivia
In this article, the authors contribute to the empirical study of culture as shared knowledge by exploring correlations of individual responses to different questionnaires of the same tasks and correlation of individual responses to different tasks. They collected data on ethnobotanical knowledge from 149 adult Tsimane' Amerindians in Bolivia. The authors used a cultural consensus model to calculate individual scores of cultural knowledge for eac…
Moving beyond a Snapshot to Understand Changes in the Well-Being of Native Amazonians: Panel Evidence (2002-2006) from Bolivia
Forces such as the opening of trade, globalization, multinational corporate resource extraction, urbanization, acculturation, and colonization catalyze economic, ecological, and sociocultural change, which can threaten the well-being and habitat of native Amazonians. Understanding these forces is of paramount importance to improve the well-being of native Amazonians and to foster the conservation of biological diversity, yet most analyses of thes…
Social rank and adult male nutritional status: Evidence of the social gradient in health from a foraging-farming society
The Adaptive Nature of Culture: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Returns of Local Environmental Knowledge in Three Indigenous Societies
Researchers have argued that the behavioral adaptations that explain the success of our species are partially cultural, i.e., cumulative and socially transmitted. Thus, understanding the adaptive nature of culture is crucial to understand human evolution. We use a cross-cultural framework and empirical data purposely collected to test whether culturally transmitted and individually appropriated knowledge provides individual returns in terms of hu…
Tertius gaudens: Germplasm exchange networks and agroecological knowledge among home gardeners in the Iberian Peninsula
Background The idea that knowledge flows through social networks is implicit in research on traditional knowledge, but researchers have paid scant attention to the role of social networks in shaping its distribution. We bridge those two bodies of research and investigate a) the structure of network of exchange of plant propagation material (germplasm) and b) the relation between a person's centrality in such network and his/her agroecological kno…
Does village inequality in modern income harm the psyche? Anger, fear, sadness, and alcohol consumption in a pre-industrial society
Is there a divide between local medicinal knowledge and Western medicine? a case study among native Amazonians in Bolivia
BACKGROUND: Interest in ethnomedicine has grown in the last decades, with much research focusing on how local medicinal knowledge can contribute to Western medicine. Researchers have emphasized the divide between practices used by local medical practitioners and Western doctors. However, researchers have also suggested that merging concepts and practices from local medicinal knowledge and Western science have the potential to improve public healt…
The effects of local medicinal knowledge and hygiene on helminth infections in an Amazonian society
When Knowledge Follows Blood: Kin Groups and the Distribution of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in a Community of Seminomadic Pastoralists, Gujarat (India)
Understanding the patterns and processes underlying the heterogeneous distribution of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) across communities of natural resource users is a growing research topic. However, social organization as a factor potentially shaping TEK intracultural distribution has received scant attention. Here, we analyze the role played by kinship groups-namely, patrilineal lineages and segments-in shaping bodies of TEK among a gro…
What Defines Quality of Life? The Gap Between Public Policies and Locally Defined Indicators Among Residents of Kodagu, Karnataka (India)
Nutritional status and spousal empowerment among native Amazonians
Beyond artificial academic debates: For a Diverse, Inclusive, and Impactful Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
In answer to the question "Should ethnobiology and ethnomedicine more decisively foster hypothesis-driven forefront research able to turn findings into policy and abandon more classical folkloric studies?", in this essay I argue that a major strength of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine is their ability to bridge theories and methods from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Hypothesis-driven research is a powerful way to s…
Individual Wealth Rank, Community Wealth Inequality, and Self-Reported Adult Poor Health: A Test of Hypotheses with Panel Data (2002-2006) from Native Amazonians, Bolivia
Growing evidence suggests that economic inequality in a community harms the health of a person. Using panel data from a small-scale, preindustrial rural society, we test whether individual wealth rank and village wealth inequality affects self-reported poor health in a foraging-farming native Amazonian society. A person's wealth rank was negatively but weakly associated with self-reported morbidity. Each step up/year in the village wealth hierarc…
Relationships Between Religious Beliefs and Mountain Pasture Uses: A Case Study in the High Atlas Mountains of Marrakech, Morocco
Inequality in social rank and adult nutritional status: Evidence from a small-scale society in the Bolivian Amazon
Measuring Culture as Shared Knowledge: Do Data Collection Formats Matter? Cultural Knowledge of Plant Uses Among Tsimane' Amerindians, Bolivia
In this article, the authors contribute to the empirical study of culture as shared knowledge by exploring correlations of individual responses to different questionnaires of the same tasks and correlation of individual responses to different tasks. They collected data on ethnobotanical knowledge from 149 adult Tsimane' Amerindians in Bolivia. The authors used a cultural consensus model to calculate individual scores of cultural knowledge for eac…
Income inequality and adult nutritional status: Anthropometric evidence from a pre-industrial society in the Bolivian Amazon
The Effect of Market Economies on the Well-Being of Indigenous Peoples and on Their Use of Renewable Natural Resources
Assessing the effects of markets on the well-being of indigenous peoples and their conservation of natural resources matters to identify public policies to improve well-being and enhance conservation and to test hypotheses about sociocultural change. We review studies about how market economies affect the subsistence, health, nutritional status, social capital, and traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples and their use of renewable …
Market Economy and the Loss of Folk Knowledge of Plant Uses: Estimates from the Tsimane' of the Bolivian Amazon
Evaluating indices of traditional ecological knowledge: A Methodological Contribution
BACKGROUND: New quantitative methods to collect and analyze data have produced novel findings in ethnobiology. A common application of quantitative methods in ethnobiology is to assess the traditional ecological knowledge of individuals. Few studies have addressed reliability of indices of traditional ecological knowledge constructed with different quantitative methods. METHODS: We assessed the associations among eight indices of traditional ecol…
Does village inequality in modern income harm the psyche? Anger, fear, sadness, and alcohol consumption in a pre-industrial society
Nutritional status and spousal empowerment among native Amazonians
BMI, income, and social capital in a native Amazonian society: Interaction between relative and community variables
Researchers have shown interest in the relation between (a) social capital and individual income and (b) the individual health of people of industrial nations. The socioeconomic complexity of industrial nations makes it difficult to arrive at firm conclusions. We circumvent the obstacle by using data from a small-scale rural society of foragers-farmers in the Bolivian Amazon (Tsimane'). We examine the interactions between the outcome (BMI) and re…
Schooling's contribution to social capital: Study from a native Amazonian society in Bolivia
Understanding why traditional cultures weaken matters because they embody humanity's heritage. Schooling has been singled out as an abrader of traditional culture. We assess whether schooling erodes one aspect of traditional culture: social capital as shown by generosity to people outside the household. In industrial nations researchers find positive associations between social capital and schooling. We hypothesize that in pre‐industrial societie…
The effect of rainfall during gestation and early childhood on adult height in a foraging and horticultural society of the Bolivian Amazon
Recent research documents the effects of adverse conditions during gestation and early childhood on growth responses and health throughout life. Most research linking adverse conditions in early life with adult health comes from industrial nations. We know little about the plasticity of growth responses to environmental perturbations early in life among foragers and horticulturalists. Using 2005 data from 211 women and 215 men 20+ years of age fr…
Is there a divide between local medicinal knowledge and Western medicine? a case study among native Amazonians in Bolivia
BACKGROUND: Interest in ethnomedicine has grown in the last decades, with much research focusing on how local medicinal knowledge can contribute to Western medicine. Researchers have emphasized the divide between practices used by local medical practitioners and Western doctors. However, researchers have also suggested that merging concepts and practices from local medicinal knowledge and Western science have the potential to improve public healt…
Social rank and adult male nutritional status: Evidence of the social gradient in health from a foraging-farming society
Evaluating the impact of an environmental education programme: An empirical study in Mexico
This study draws on information from 11 in-depth interviews, two focus groups and 72 written questionnaires to evaluate an extra-curricular environmental education programme on forestry designed for preparatory school students from a small rural community in Mexico. Specifically, the study assessed the impact of the programme on the ecological knowledge of 72 students. Qualitative feedback suggests that students learnt about forestry, acquired gr…
The relation between forest clearance and household income among native Amazonians: Results from the Tsimane' Amazonian panel study, Bolivia
Inequality in social rank and adult nutritional status: Evidence from a small-scale society in the Bolivian Amazon
Moving beyond a Snapshot to Understand Changes in the Well-Being of Native Amazonians: Panel Evidence (2002-2006) from Bolivia
Forces such as the opening of trade, globalization, multinational corporate resource extraction, urbanization, acculturation, and colonization catalyze economic, ecological, and sociocultural change, which can threaten the well-being and habitat of native Amazonians. Understanding these forces is of paramount importance to improve the well-being of native Amazonians and to foster the conservation of biological diversity, yet most analyses of thes…
Traditional Ecological Knowledge Trends in the Transition to a Market Economy: Empirical Study in the Doñana Natural Areas
Researchers and conservation managers largely agree on the relevance of traditional ecological knowledge for natural resource management in indigenous communities, but its prevalence and role as societies modernize are contested. We analyzed the transmission of traditional knowledge among rural local people in communities linked to protected areas in Doñana, southwestern Spain. We studied changes in knowledge related to local practices in agricul…
Short but catching up: Statural growth among native Amazonian Bolivian children
The ubiquity and consequences of childhood growth stunting ( Z score, HAZ) in rural areas of low‐income nations has galvanized research into the reversibility of stunting, but the shortage of panel data has hindered progress. Using panel data from a native Amazonian society of foragers‐farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane'), we estimate rates of catch‐up growth for stunted children. One hundred forty‐six girls and 158 boys 2 ≤ age ≤ 7 were measured annual…
Cultural consonance and body morphology: Estimates with longitudinal data from an Amazonian society
Researchers have hypothesized that the degree to which an individual's actual behavior approximates the culturally valued lifestyle encoded in the dominant cultural model has consequences for physical and mental health. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing data from a longitudinal study composed of five annual surveys (2002–2006 inclusive) from 791 adults in one society of foragers–farmers in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane'. We e…
The Uneven Reach of Decentralization: A Case Study among Indigenous Peoples in the Bolivian Amazon
Decentralization reforms aim at strengthening democracy by promoting political participation among citizens. Research shows (1) that information is a prerequisite for political participation and (2) that people face different private costs in acquiring information. Here we combine the two lines of research and ask: what private costs hamper the acquisition of information on decentralization? For the analysis, we use data from an indigenous popula…
The relevance of traditional knowledge systems for ethnopharmacological research: Theoretical and Methodological Contributions
Background Ethnopharmacology is at the intersection of the medical, natural, and social sciences. Despite its interdisciplinary nature, most ethnopharmacological research has been based on the combination of the chemical, biological, and pharmacological sciences. Far less attention has been given to the social sciences, including anthropology and the study of traditional knowledge systems. Methods I reviewed the literature on traditional knowledg…
Individual Wealth Rank, Community Wealth Inequality, and Self-Reported Adult Poor Health: A Test of Hypotheses with Panel Data (2002-2006) from Native Amazonians, Bolivia
Growing evidence suggests that economic inequality in a community harms the health of a person. Using panel data from a small-scale, preindustrial rural society, we test whether individual wealth rank and village wealth inequality affects self-reported poor health in a foraging-farming native Amazonian society. A person's wealth rank was negatively but weakly associated with self-reported morbidity. Each step up/year in the village wealth hierarc…
Relationships Between Religious Beliefs and Mountain Pasture Uses: A Case Study in the High Atlas Mountains of Marrakech, Morocco
Do pharmaceuticals displace local knowledge and use of medicinal plants? Estimates from a cross-sectional study in a rural indigenous community, Mexico
The effects of local medicinal knowledge and hygiene on helminth infections in an Amazonian society
Ecology (28 works) · Geography (28 works) · Sociology (28 works) · Biology (25 works) · Economics (16 works) · Socioeconomics (16 works) · Political science (14 works) · Social science (14 works) · Demography (13 works) · Psychology (13 works)