Ecuador

This thesis aims to answer questions about preconquest natives, defined by archaeologists as the Manteño culture (800-1533C.E.), in the cloud forests of Rio Blanco, Ecuador. Descriptions of the excavation units are made focusing on the architectural aspect of their dwelling. The cultural remains of the inhabitants also helped to conclude that this was a domestic house. Using an ethnoarchaeological theory base, modern home building analogies are employed to address questions about the archaeological process.

This thesis explores how gender and sexuality are expressed in southern Manabí Province, Ecuador. The study employs ethnographic methods to recruit local people who identify as LGBTQ (called LGBTI regionally) to participate in interviews on sexuality and gender identity/expression. Based on this research, I explore the construction of “gay” in this part of Ecuador as identity and performance; additionally, reflective viewpoints of those who self-identify as “gay” are thematically incorporated. The term “gay” is used to describe a spectrum of identities that include: homosexual, transformista, travestí, transexual, and transgénero. These identities are not necessarily static, as many individuals traverse categories in a culturally specific progression that I describe. I propose that coastal Ecuadorians utilize a structuring of sexualities and genders within the region that challenges Western LGBTQ+ labels. This research suggests a new regional depiction of non-conforming identities and their manifestations through language, shared strife, communal beliefs, and individual experience.

The non-random selection of medicinal plants theory, which states that
phylogeny affects the selection of medicinal plants, was proposed by Daniel Moerman
to indirectly prove that traditional medicinal systems are rational and based in part by
the therapeutic efficacy of plants. The logic of this theory is that because members of
a taxonomical group share similar characteristics, some groups will be more
medicinal and will be over-used in pharmacopoeias, while other groups bereft of
secondary metabolites and therapeutic potential will be under-used medicinally. To
test this theory, Moerman linearly regressed the total number of medicinal plants per
family against the total number of plants per family present in an area and examined
residual values to find over-used and under-used medicinal plant families. The
method has been praised for its simplicity. Nonetheless, shortcomings have been
noted and criticized, inspiring researchers to propose new procedures to test for
phylogenetic biases in pharmacopoeias. Negative Binomial regression and
examination of studentized residuals, the method used in this investigation,
ameliorates the original one with a few corrections, conserving the simplicity and solving for all the criticized flaws. Also, this study incorporated different
sociodemographic factors to determine if the intracultural homogeneity of traditional
knowledge affects the results of the non-random selection of medicinal plants theory
analysis. By testing Moerman’s theory, which is one of Ethnobotany’s major theories,
this investigation is in agreement with the call to have more hypothesis-driven
research within a theoretical framework to continue to advance the Ethnobotany field.