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. 2021 Feb 8;10(2):367.
doi: 10.3390/foods10020367.

Language of Administration as a Border: Wild Food Plants Used by Setos and Russians in Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, NW Russia

Olga Belichenko  1 , Valeria Kolosova  1   2 , Denis Melnikov  3 , Raivo Kalle  4 , Renata Sõukand  1
Affiliations

Language of Administration as a Border: Wild Food Plants Used by Setos and Russians in Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, NW Russia

Olga Belichenko et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Socio-economic changes impact local ethnobotanical knowledge as much as the ecological ones. During an ethnobotanical field study in 2018-2019, we interviewed 25 Setos and 38 Russians in the Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast to document changes in wild plant use within the last 70 years according to the current and remembered practices. Of the 71 botanical taxa reported, the most popular were Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Vaccinium oxycoccos, Vaccinium myrtillus, Betula spp., and Rumex acetosa. The obtained data was compared with that of 37 Setos and 35 Estonians interviewed at the same time on the other side of the border. Our data revealed a substantial level of homogeneity within the plants used by three or more people with 30 of 56 plants overlapping across all four groups. However, Seto groups are ethnobotanically closer to the dominant ethnic groups immediately surrounding them than they are to Setos across the border. Further study of minor ethnic groups in a post-Soviet context is needed, paying attention to knowledge transmission patterns.

Keywords: Seto; ethnic minority; local ecological knowledge; post-Soviet ethnobotany; wild food plants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study area in Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast. Map base: Wikimedia Commons and OpenStreetMap.org.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Wild plant taxa used by Setos and Russians as well as dishes made from them.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Diachronic distribution of wild plant use over the lifetime of the study participants.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Diachronic distribution of the dishes prepared over the lifetime of the study participants.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cross-cultural comparison of food categories and wild plant taxa.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Overlapping of taxa used by Estonian (EE) and Russian (RU) Setos in the past (P) and currently (C). Only plants mentioned three or more times are analyzed.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Contemporary tear-off calendar ‘Homemade preserves’ for 2021 bought in Pechory with a recipe of salted cucumbers with leaves of Quercus robur, Ribes nigrum, and Artemisia dracunculus on the reverse-side of a page indicating the date.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Last page of the local newspaper ‘Pechorskaia Pravda’ from 24 August 1991. 1. Decree of the district executive committee ‘On the dates of harvesting and procurement of cranberries’. 2. Announcement from the district procurement office (transformed into a cooperative) about accepting rowan berries at 0.8 rubles/kg, apples at 0.4 rub/kg and x Sorbaronia mitschurinii berries at 0.8 rub/kg.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Pechory market. Left: Set of herbs for cucumber lacto-fermentation: Armoracia rusticana leaves, Anethum graveolens stalks with seeds, and Ribes nigrum leaves. July 2018. Right: homemade preserves made from mushrooms and wild and cultivated plants. August 2019. Photos by Olga Belichenko.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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