It Was the Plants that Told Us: An Ethnographic Analysis into Amazonian Knowledge Transmission

Abstract

Current literature on the transmission of knowledge focuses on transmission between human to human agents. Yet, various indigenous groups hold ontologies which attribute agency and personhood onto the natural world. Non-human agents, including supernatural agents, are perceived to play important roles in the transmission of knowledge pertaining to the acquisition of ethnobotanical knowledge. The present study focuses on the role of non-human agents in the transmission of knowledge and agency attributed to the natural world. Over the course of 3 months, I conducted fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazonian areas of San Martin and Pucallpa. I used participant observation, semi-structured interviews with local plant medicine practitioners and deep hanging out to explore the role of non-human agents in the acquisition of knowledge pertaining to plants and healing modalities. The results suggest that agency and personhood are attributed to plants in these Amazonian communities, and that the plants themselves are believed to play a vital role in the transmission of knowledge.