title: Shamanism or science?
abstract: The interconnection of the three organismic levels, metabolism, morphology, and biogeography, can now be amplified into a multipart architecture, introducing plant bioactivity through ethnobotany-oriented descriptions. Only via such an integrative model, the diverse organismic levels can be connected within a more holistic, realistic scheme. Construction of qualitative and quantitative models via evolutionarily conceived implantation into dahlgrenograms and Sporne indices, allows ethnobotany to acquire predictive validity. The coherence of such systems was demonstrated by comparison of the vast ethnobotanical Brazilian database by Pio Corrêa with relatively very minute databases referring to three Amazonian Indian societies.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia e Farmacodinâmica, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21045-900, Brazil. ogottlieb@abc.org.br
authors.forename: Otto R
authors.initials: OR
authors.lastname: Gottlieb
authors.forename: Maria Renata de M B
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Borin
mesh_terms: D001838:Bolivia / Q000208:ethnology; D001938:Brazil / Q000208:ethnology; D019448:Ethnobotany; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American; D019684:Magnoliopsida; D008954:Models, Biological; D010945:Plants, Edible; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D012586:Science; D019423:Shamanism