Ethnomycology
Sveta Yamin‐pasternak, Igor Pasternak
The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology September 5, 2018 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2088
Summary
Ethnomycology examines the roles of fungi in human social experience, bridging the humanities, fine arts, and social and natural sciences. Its early ties to cultural anthropology stem from exchanges between Claude Lévi-Strauss and R. Gordon Wasson from the 1950s to the 1980s. Subsequent research on fungal behaviors, uses, cultural transitions, and social relationships has revealed diverse ideas about human-fungi engagements.
Study at a glance
| Design | review |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Ethnomycology is an inherently multidisciplinary field with roots in cultural anthropology, shaped by mid-20th-century intellectual exchanges, and has since uncovered a wide variety of ideas about human-fungi interactions. |
Abstract
Ethnomycology is concerned with the roles of fungi in the human social experience. An inherently multidisciplinary field, it reaches into myriad cultural domains and crosses interests in the humanities, fine arts, and social and natural sciences. Ethnomycology's early ties to cultural anthropology are in great part connected to the history of exchanges, from the 1950s to the 1980s, between Claude Lévi‐Strauss and R. Gordon Wasson. Since then, the growing body of research on the behaviors, uses, cultural transitions, and social relationships related to fungi has unearthed a great variety of ideas pertaining to human–fungi engagements.