Seminar CRIA-UC/MAGAC/DCV - Exploring traditional botanical “knowledge” in the Central African Republic by Margaret Buckner

In this seminar, Margaret L. Buckner will present insights from her research on traditional botanical “knowledge” in the Central African Republic, drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork among Zandé communities. Her work examines how knowledge of medicinal plants is learned, practised, and transmitted through everyday social relations and lived experience, rather than through formal classification systems alone. By exploring the distinction between “knowing” and “knowledge,” Buckner highlights how healing practices are embedded in cultural reasoning, memory, and local ecological engagement. This presentation contributes to ongoing discussions on ethnobotany, medical anthropology, and the role of local knowledge systems in understanding health and human–environment relations.

This seminar is hosted by CRIA, Master’s Degree in Anthropology, Globalisation and Climate Change (MAGAC), offered by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Coimbra, the Sociedade Broteriana and the Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra.