The unpublished Aonik’enk (tehuelches of Santa Cruz) ethnobotany of Raúl Martínez Crovetto (II) and compilation from secondary sources: Uses and practices associated with plants

Abstract

Unpublished data from Raúl Martínez Crovetto on plant practices and meanings among the Aonik’enk people of Santa Cruz documented during 1967, were found at the Institute of Botany of the Northeast (IBONE). Its value is a priori remarkable in view of the limited background on ethnobotany of this human group. The aims of this study were to value, analyze, update and interpret the voluminous set of information documented at fieldwork by Martínez Crovetto, to compile and classify the scattered data found in the literature on the subject, and to compare these data with those referred to for the Selk’nam (onas) of Tierra del Fuego. The methodology corresponds to historical ethnobotany, which considers data from the past as a primary source of information on which the classical ethnobotanical method is applied. A total of 163 data on Aonik’enk ethnobotany from Raúl Martínez Crovetto’s field records were valued, as well as 105 from published secondary sources consulted. In total, 244 different ethnobotanical data about this people are referred for 117 botanical taxa. Most ethnobotanic uses were food (90; 36.7%) and medicinal (81; 33%). The coincidence between the Aonik’enk and Selk’nam data exceeds 60%, indicating the existence of links between their ethnobotany. This contribution is the greatest input into Aonik’enk ethnobotany both for the amount and diversity of data compiled, and for the volume of new unpublished data informed. Edible uses of Rumex species roots and of Chuquiraga avellanedae aerial part are cited here for the first time for Argentina, as well as Mulguraea tridens roots for making of combs.