Gender and Its Role in the Resilience of Local Medical Systems of the Fulni-ô People in NE Brazil: Effects on Structure and Functionality

Abstract

Ethnobotanical studies focused on understanding how local medical systems are functionally maintained suggest that utilitarian redundancy and knowledge transmission are factors that influence the resilience of the system. However, to date, there have not been any studies that analyze these factors in relation to the variables that influence the variation of knowledge. Given the above, this study aims to analyze the influence of gender in the resilience of the system, using utilitarian redundancy and knowledge transmission as factors. Information from 198 married couples (396 people) was collected from the indigenous community of Fulni-ô (NE Brazil). Knowledge between men and women was analyzed based on the total number of known plants, therapeutic targets, information units, utilitarian redundancy, models of transmission, and sharing for each gender. Fulni-ô men know a greater number of plants, therapeutic targets treated with plants, and information units than women. They also had greater utilitarian redundancy. However, regarding knowledge transmission, sharing among women was greater, transmission is related to gender, and there is no difference between the numbers of models of knowledge information. In the system of local medical knowledge, gender exerts an important role in the resilience of the system. This study shows that men have a greater contribution to the structure and function of the system; however, both genders contribute to the flow of information in the system, which makes both genders important in the feedback of information.