Skip to content
Menu
Silene
  • Association
  • Services
  • Projects
    • Consultancy
    • Training and dissemination
    • Publications of Silene
    • Publications of Silene
  • Documentation centre
    • Strategical documents
    • Legal documents
    • Planning documents
    • Management documents
    • Information and sensitization
    • Reflections on nature
    • Reflections on science
    • Declarations
    • Publications of Silene
    • Videographers
    • Wisdom quotes
  • News
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • English
    • Català
    • Castellano
    • Français
Close Menu
25 de October de 2014

Healing Animals, Feeding Souls: Ethnobotanical Values at Sacred Sites in Central Italy

Frascaroli, F; Bhagwat, Sh; Diemer, M.2014

The authors use first–hand vegetation surveys and published records to examine the occurrence of ethnobotanical values at 30 Catholic shrines in Central Italy, and compare them with an equal number of non–sacred control sites. They ask to what extent is there an association of useful plants with sacred places in Italy, as found in other cultural contexts. Their research shows that a greater number of useful plants are found at sacred sites. While this is mainly a consequence of the higher species richness of sacred sites, an association with plants used in animal husbandry is particularly evident, and likely related to the deep historical connection between sacred places and pastoralist traditions in Central Italy. Also, they show that there are significant variations in the distribution of old trees; the largest specimens are found at the center of sacred sites, while tree size visibly decreases away from the shrines. This indicates also that individual trees have been actively managed and conserved at sacred sites, probably driven by the symbolic values that old trees frequently embody. (Shortened summary extracted from the article)

  • Healing_animals_feeding_souls.pdfENG
Biodiversity·Christianity·Conservation·Sacred Sites

Reference

Frascaroli, Fabrizio; Bhagwat, Shonil; Diemer, Matthias. “Healing Animals, Feeding Souls: Ethnobotanical Values at Sacred Sites in Central Italy”. Economic Botany. Vol. 68 (2014), nº. 4, p. 438-451.

Related information

Ancient Sacred Places in Lithuania: Crossroads of Geography, Archaeology and FolkloreLa simbologia cristiana dels arbresSacred Natural Sites: Conservation of Biological and Cultural DiversityThe Diversity of Sacred Lands in Europe: Proceedings of the Third Workshop of the Delos Initiative - Inari/Aanaar 2010

Related Posts

Artisera_India

Sharing Life. the Ecopolitics of Reciprocity

2374_8.tif

Regarding the Pandemic: Spiritual reflections

Estany Banyoles

Natura

Back To Top
Silene
  • Conditions for acceptance of work
  • Legal notice
  • Data privacy
  • Use of cookies
©Silene 2019, design by ConcentricFields
  • Association
  • Services
  • Partners
  • Links
  • Contact