BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND ETHNOBOTANICAL EVIDENCE

Abstract

The importance of the different documentary sources for ethnobotanical research is outlined. The possible contributions from some of these sources such as art, archaeological remains and sites, works by writers, chroniclers, scientists and naturalists of the past, documentary funds of archives and other historical records, catalogues of cultivated plants and cadastres. The contributions from some literary sources and narrations of famous travellers are analized in more detail. Works of Andalusian agronomists, chroniclers of the Indies and more specifically texts by Gerald Brenan and Jerónimo Münzer are also studied. Finally the limitations are discussed and the unquestionable values of these documentary sources for ethnobotanical research considered.