Prestige and homophily predict network structure for social learning of medicinal plant knowledge.

ABSTRACT: Human subsistence societies have thrived in environmental extremes while maintaining biodiversity through social learning of ecological knowledge, such as techniques to prepare food and medicine from local resources. However, there is limited understanding of which processes shape social learning patterns and configuration in ecological knowledge networks, or how these processes apply to resource management and biological conservation. In this study, we test the hypothesis that the prestige (rarity or exclusivity) of knowledge shapes social learning networks. In addition, we test whether people tend to select who to learn from based on prestige (knowledge or reputation), and homophily (e.g., people of the same age or gender). We used interviews to assess five types of medicinal plant knowl

SUBMITTER: Bond MO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7544085 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature