Utilitarian redundancy in local medical systems - theoretical and methodological contributions
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(2020) 16:62
REVIEW
Open Access
Utilitarian redundancy in local medical systems - theoretical and methodological contributions Patrícia Muniz de Medeiros1* , Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior2 and Fabiane da Silva Queiroz1
Abstract The utilitarian redundancy model (URM) is one of the recent contributions to ethnobiology. We argue that URM can be applied to access use-pressure on plant species, the resilience of socioecological systems (e.g., local medical systems), cultural keystone species, and the role of exotic species in social-ecological systems. Based on previous URM studies, we also emphasize the need to differ practical (considering plants and uses that are currently employed) and theoretical (considering both currently employed and potentially employed plants and uses) redundancy. Based on the main applications of the URM, we propose a new index to access redundancy of a therapeutic indication: the Uredit, so that Uredit = NSp + CR, were Uredit is the Utilitarian Redundancy Index for the therapeutic indication; NSp is the total number of species mentioned for the indication, and CR is the species’ contribution to redundancy (in terms of knowledge sharing). The maximum value that the Uredit could reach is twice the number of species employed for the therapeutic indication. We believe that this theoretical and methodological improvement in the model can improve comparisons of redundancy in different social-ecological systems. We also highlight some limitations of the URM (and our Uredit), and we believe that conscious reasons behind people’s decisions should be incorporated into future studies on the subject. Keywords: Quantitative Ethnobotany, Data analysis, Local medical systems, Social-ecological systems
Background The utilitarian redundancy model (URM), proposed by Albuquerque and Oliveira [1], was based on the concept of ecological or functional redundancy [2–5] and is one of the recent contributions of ethnobiology both to biocultural conservation and to understand the interactions between people and the environment. Although the model has also been used for other use categories, such as fuelwood [6], most of the investigations on utilitarian redundancy have been applied to local medical systems [7]. These systems involve the body of knowledge and practices related to the perception of diseases and * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Campus de Engenharias e Ciências Agrárias. Br 104, s/n, Rio Largo, Alagoas 57100-000, Brazil Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
strategies to deal with disease events [8]. Studies on the URM have adopted two different approaches: (1) the search for species that perform the same function in a local medical system (species that treat the same diseases), and (2) the assessment of the degree of redundancy within a therapeutic indication—whether it is treated with few or several species [1, 7]. Two variations of the redundancy model are pointed out in the study of Albuquerque and Oliveira
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