Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Sars' Gate 1, 0562 Oslo, Norway.
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333CR Leiden, The Netherlands.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Jul 5;376(1828):20200086. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0086. Epub 2021 May 17.
In this paper, past plant knowledge serves as a case study to highlight the promise and challenges of interdisciplinary data collection and interpretation in cultural evolution. Plants are central to human life and yet, apart from the role of major crops, people-plant relations have been marginal to the study of culture. Archaeological, linguistic, and historical evidence are often limited when it comes to studying the past role of plants. This is the case in the Nordic countries, where extensive collections of various plant use records are absent until the 1700s. Here, we test if relatively recent ethnobotanical data can be used to trace back ancient plant knowledge in the Nordic countries. Phylogenetic inferences of ancestral states are evaluated against historical, linguistic, and archaeobotanical evidence. The exercise allows us to discuss the opportunities and shortcomings of using phylogenetic comparative methods to study past botanical knowledge. We propose a 'triangulation method' that not only combines multiple lines of evidence, but also quantitative and qualitative approaches. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
本文以过去的植物知识为案例研究，强调了跨学科数据收集和解释在文化进化研究中的前景和挑战。植物对人类生活至关重要，但除了主要作物的作用外，人类与植物的关系在文化研究中一直处于边缘地位。在研究植物过去的作用时，考古学、语言学和历史学证据往往很有限。北欧国家就是这种情况，直到 18 世纪才有关于各种植物用途的广泛记录。在这里，我们检验了相对较新的民族植物学数据是否可以用来追溯北欧国家古代的植物知识。我们根据历史、语言和考古植物学证据评估了祖先状态的系统发育推断。这项研究使我们能够讨论使用系统发育比较方法研究过去植物学知识的优势和不足。我们提出了一种“三角测量方法”，不仅结合了多种证据，还结合了定量和定性方法。本文是“文化进化基础”主题特刊的一部分。
