Circum-Mediterranean cultural heritage and medicinal plant uses in traditional animal healthcare: a field survey in eight selected areas within the RUBIA project

Rubia is the name of a European research project, included in the V framework Programme, whose complete name is Circum Mediterranean ethnobotanical and ethnographic heritage in traditional technologies, tools and use of wild and neglected cultivated plants for food, medicine, textiles, dyng and handicrafts (ICA 3-2002-10023) The project starts from the consideration of the profound impact that the Mediterranean cultures have had in the management of the natural environment. Relics of Traditional Knowledge (TK) that have survived nowadays in many rural areas of the area confirm the strong mutual influences between human cultures, plants, and traditional technologies and know how. The aim of this research project is the recording of ethnographical field data in order to develop a model for the re-evaluation of tools and technologies related to traditional uses of wild and neglected cultivated plants for food, medicine, textiles, dying, handicrafts, and basketry, as well as to identify and evaluate the socio-economic and anthropological context in which these plants have been gathered and processed. For a re-valorisation of this heritage in our days not only collections of objects are necessary, but also small-scale practical experiments of bio-cultural in-situ conservation, socio-cultural analysis of these experiences and their contexts, and a serious re-evaluation of traditional activities and of the continuity of TK transmission in rural communities, are essential in every action aiming to preserve common cultural heritage in the Mediterranean area.