Conspectus of world ethnomycology

"This book surveys the folk usage of fungi worldwide from the perspective of a specialist in germplasm conservation and research. It catalogs the scientific names of fungi used for food, medicine, and other miscellaneous applications by indigen­ous peoples, peasant farmers, hunter-gatherers, and others commonly referred to as “folk” in ethnographic literature. The origins of the discipline of ethnomycology are sketched, and an argument is made for the origins of scientific mycology from the herb-wives and other “wise-women” of premodern Europe. The evolution of ethnomycology is traced from a focus on “entheogenic” fungi to broader folk prac­tices and applications. Synopses are provided of the most important groups and species of fungi used for food or medicine or in craft production on each habitable continent or major geographic region, and a sampling of folklore pertinent to fungi in each such region is given. Multiple examples are provided of the cultivation or harvest of edible or medicinal fungi, especially when such activities sustain sea­sonally employed or underemployed people, such as Roma in Europe, certain immigrant groups in North America, and peasant farmers in various geographic regions. Liter­ature is cited to guide readers toward in situ and ex situ sources of fungal germ­plasm and to broader appreciation of folk uses (“primitive” biotechnology) of fungi and other anthropological aspects involving the fungal kingdom."--pub. desc.