Dining Tables Divided by a Border: The Effect of Socio-Political Scenarios on Local Ecological Knowledge of Romanians Living in Ukrainian and Romanian Bukovina

Abstract

Local cuisine is an important reservoir of local ecological knowledge shaped by a variety of socio-cultural, economic, and ecological factors. The aim was to document and compare the current use of wild and semi-cultivated plant food taxa by Romanians living in Romania and Ukraine. These two groups share similar ecological conditions and historically belonged to the same province, but were divided in the 1940s by the creation of a state border. We conducted 60 semi-structured interviews with rural residents. The contemporary use of 46 taxa (plus 5 cultivated taxa with uncommon uses), belonging to 20 families, for food consumption were recorded. Romanians in Romanian Bukovina used 27 taxa belonging to 15 families, while in Ukraine they used 40 taxa belonging to 18 families. Jams, sarmale, homemade beer, and the homemade alcoholic drink "socată" are used more by Romanians in Southern Bukovina, while tea, soups, and birch sap are used more in Northern Bukovina. We discuss the strong influence of socio-political scenarios on the use of wild food plants. Cross-ethnic marriages, as well as markets and women's networks, i.e., "neighbors do so", may have had a great impact on changes in wild food use. In addition, rapid changes in lifestyle (open work market and social migration) are other explanations for the abandonment of wild edible plants.

Keywords: cultural landscapes; marginal rural areas; non-wood forest products; rural livelihoods; wild food; wild plants.

Figure 1

Study areas in Ukraine (Northern Bukovina) and Romania (Southern Bukovina).

Figure 2

The local landscape in Northern (A,D) and Southern (B,C) Bukovina. Photos by: (A) S. Nagachevskyi, summer 2018; (B–D) N. Stryamets, summer 2019.

Figure 3

A Romanian house with wooden roof (left) and a newly built house in the same village for which the advertisement says “For sale” (right), in Northern Bukovina. Photos by N. Stryamets, August 2018.

Figure 4

Venn diagram of overlap of wild taxa used in both study areas (UaR—Romanians in Northern Bukovina, RR—Romanians in Southern Bukovina).

Figure 5

Taxa reported by the majority of interviewees.

Figure 6

The most used food categories (with at least four Detailed Use Reports (DUR)).

Figure 7

(A) Use of a variety of wild taxa leaves and roots (Quercus spp., Armoracia rusticana) and cultivated taxa (Allium sativum, Anethum graveolens, Ribes nigrum) for fermenting cucumbers; (B) home-smoked sausage and ham, which was smoked using the wood of Fagus sylvatica, Prunus domestica, and Malus domestica, sampled during a field interview. Photos by N. Stryamets: (A) Northern Bukovina, July 2018; (B) Southern Bukovina, July 2019.

Figure 8

Wild food taxa used by the four groups (mentioned by at least three interviewees). The numbers in brackets correspond to interviewees that named the plant taxa (A/B/C/D), where A (dotted green circle)—Ukrainian Hutsuls, B (dotted and dashed brown circle)—Hutsuls in Romania, C (dashed red cycle)—Romanians in Northern Bukovina Ukraine, D (solid blue circle)—Romanians in Southern Bukovina. In the central part of the figure the taxa used by all four groups are represented.

Figure 9

Venn diagram of the comparison of food taxa uses by the four groups. (RH—Hutsuls in Romanian Bukovina, RR—Romanians in Romanian Bukovina, UaH—Hutsuls in Ukrainian Bukovina, UaR—Romanians in Ukrainian Bukovina).

Figure 10

Number of uses of the most used taxa by the four groups (more than 10 DUR).

Figure 11

The dining table of Romanians divided by a border, showing the main differences. Drawings by S. Stryamets.