Brent Berlin
Graham Perdue Professor of Anthropology
Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Co-Director, Laboratories of Ethnobiology
Ph.D. Anthropology, Stanford University, 1964
obberlin@uga.edu
I have been conducting ethnobiological research among the Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya of the Highland of Chiapas, Mexico since 1960. Since January 1999, I have been leading a multidisciplinary group of faculty and students in a 5-year project on drug discovery, medical ethnobiology, botanical inventory, conservation, and sustained economic development among the Highland Maya. The project is one of the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Agriculture. It includes researchers from the University of Georgia, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chiapas, Mexico, and Molecule Discovery, Ltd. located in Wales.
One of our goals will be to determine the efficacy of the most important plant species employed in Maya herbal medicine, as well as the pharmaceutically most promising species from the total flora of Highland Chiapas (6000 species), all of which will be analyzed by modern natural products assaying procedures. A significant sample of microorganisms from the region will also be evaluated. We will complete in-depth comparative ethnomedical documentation on the pharmacological preparations and forms of administration of Maya phytomedicines produced from the 600-700 most important medicinal plant species in the traditional pharmacopoeia. All species will be screened for their activity against gastrointestinal, respiratory, and skin infections, as well as cancer, opportunistic diseases associated with HIV-AIDS, central nervous system disorders, contraception, and cardiovascular disease.
In parallel with this work on medical ethnobiology, the Maya ICBG will mount a comprehensive botanical and ethnoecological biodiversity survey of the Central Chiapas Highlands, one of the earth's most biologically diverse regions.. The goal of this work is to achieve comprehensive coverage of the vascular flora of the Highlands of Chiapas, on a municipality-by-municipality basis, significantly enriching the holdings of of local Mexican herbaria and developing the most complete regional floristic database for Southern Mexico. Finally, the project will mount several agroecological experimentation programs directed toward sustainable production of a select number of species that show promise as new crop plants, phytomedicines, crop protection agents, or ornamental species that address local consumption needs and provide alternative sources of income. Production strategies will include regulated harvest, intensive cultivation, tissue culture propagation and home garden management.
Recent publications:- Ethnobiological Classification. Princeton, 1992.
- Medical Ethnobiology of the Highland Maya, with Elois Ann Berlin. Princeton, 1996.
- Huambisa Sound Symbolism. in Sound Symbolism. ed. Hinton, Nichols, and Ohala. California, 1995.
- Linguistic reflections of the pharmacological significance ofmedicinal plants in Tzeltal and Tzotzil. in Ecology Implications of Anthropological Research. ed. Blount and Gragson. Iowa, in press.
