title: Asháninka Palm Management and Domestication in the Peruvian Amazon.
abstract: Palms are a natural resource that has been abundantly used by Amerindians for centuries. Only a few palm domestications have been reported in the American tropics, where there is great diversity of theArecaceaefamily. We report the results of a survey combining ethnobotanical and ecological methods to study the past and present management and distribution of palms by the Asháninka indigenous people from the Tambo river region in the Peruvian Amazon. Our objectives were to document palm-related traditional ecological knowledge, to examine correlation between palm abundance and Asháninka management practices and social exchange of palm resources, and to address the question of how the Asháninka have modified palm diversity and distribution in their territory. We found that most palm species have multiple uses; the most intensively managed were palms that provide thatch, notablyAttalea phalerata,Oenocarpus maporaandPhytelephas macrocarpa. Of these,Attalea phaleratawas the most commonly cultivated and was found only in cultivated stands. Our results have implications for understanding the domestication ofAttalea weberbaueri,which is a landrace within theAttalea phaleratacomplex. A closer understanding of this process would require morphometric and genetic methods to compare wild and managed populations.
authors.affiliation: W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Lubicz 46, 31-512 Cracow, Poland.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sosnowska
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, AGH University of Science and Technology, al. A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow, Poland.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Walanus
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Building 1540, Ny Munkegade 114, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Balslev
keywords: Arecaceae palm cultivation; Ethnobotany; Landscape domestication; Peru; Traditional ecological knowledge