“Keep trying and you will keep finding”: social knowledge production regarding the use of medicinal plants in rural communities from Uruguay

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we analyze the process of social production of knowledge regarding the use of medicinal plants in three groups of rural women who gather and commercialize plants in the department of Canelones, Uruguay. This study is based on the hypothesis that the social labeling of these practices as exclusive to the domestic sphere has decontextualized and hidden the production of knowledge in such spaces, invisibilizing and not recognizing female contributions. We analyze four behavioral dynamics of this knowledge (conservation, erosion, innovation and transformation) in relation to the influence of the sex/gender system in the production and social valuation of this knowledge. Finally, given that these groups of women commercialize medicinal plants and products, we reflect on the transition of this knowledge into the commercial sphere, the consequences, possible changes and the effects on the social valuation of this knowledge.

Keywords

• Medicinal plants
• social production of knowledge
• gender
• Plantas medicinais
• produção social do conhecimento
• gênero