Conspectus of world ethnomycology
Subtitle: fungi in ceremonies, crafts, diets, medicines, and myths
By: Frank M. Dugan
Publisher: American Phytopathological Society
Published: 2011
Place of publication: St. Paul, MN
Language: eng
Number of pages: 151
ISBN-13: 9780890543955
Subjects: Mushrooms; Vegetable Materia medica; Folklore; Therapeutic use; Ethnobotany; Fungi
Description: "This book surveys the folk usage of fungi worldwide from the perspective of a specialist in germplasm conservation and research. It catalogs the scientific names of fungi used for food, medicine, and other miscellaneous applications by indigen­ous peoples, peasant farmers, hunter-gatherers, and others commonly referred to as “folk” in ethnographic literature.

The origins of the discipline of ethnomycology are sketched, and an argument is made for the origins of scientific mycology from the herb-wives and other “wise-women” of premodern Europe. The evolution of ethnomycology is traced from a focus on “entheogenic” fungi to broader folk prac­tices and applications. Synopses are provided of the most important groups and species of fungi used for food or medicine or in craft production on each habitable continent or major geographic region, and a sampling of folklore pertinent to fungi in each such region is given. Multiple examples are provided of the cultivation or harvest of edible or medicinal fungi, especially when such activities sustain sea­sonally employed or underemployed people, such as Roma in Europe, certain immigrant groups in North America, and peasant farmers in various geographic regions.

Liter­ature is cited to guide readers toward in situ and ex situ sources of fungal germ­plasm and to broader appreciation of folk uses (“primitive” biotechnology) of fungi and other anthropological aspects involving the fungal kingdom."--pub. desc.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-121) and index.
Table of contents: title: The Present Scope of Ethnomycology: From Entheogens to Biotechnology ; Tradition and change ; In Wasson's footsteps (sort of) ; Documentation and conservation of fungal germplasm ; Food and nutrition ; Folk medicine and medicinal mushrooms ; Ethical and legal issues; title: Ethnomycological Knowledge in the Premodern Western Tradition: The Herb-wives of Reformation Europe as Midwives to the Birth of Mycology ; Archives and archetypes ; Herb-women, root-women, wise-women, and witches ; The market-women of Europe ; Ethnobotanical and ethnomycological studies ; Carolus Clusius, Franciscus van Sterbeeck, and the beginnings of mycology ; Some important caveats ; Women and mycology in the Enlightenment and beyond; title: Europe and the Mediterranean ; Mycophilia and mycophobia ; Magic and folklore ; Edible fungi ; Medicinal uses ; Miscellaneous uses; title: Asia and the Pacific ; Asian and Pacific ethnomycology sensu Wasson ; Fungi in myths and folklore of Asia and Oceania ; Indigenous uses of fungi for food, medicine, and crafts in Asia and Oceania ; Asian use of fungi for fermented foods; title: Sub-Saharan Africa ; Psychoactive fungi ; Fungi in myths and folklore ; Culinary and medicinal uses of fungi; title: Latin America and the Caribbean ; Ethnographic studies on psychoactive species ; Mythology and folklore ; Culinary and medicinal uses, emphasizing commercial harvest of wild mushrooms and cultivation by farmers; title: North America ; Folklore and mythology, with emphasis on Native Americans ; Fungi as food, medicine, craft supplies, or other uses, with emphasis on Native Americans ; Fungi commercially harvested from the wild or recently cultivated for profit.