The transmission and transformation of local knowledge of Tyrolean farmers who have immigrated to Brazil, Peru & Australia (Tyrolean Emigrants’ Knowledge)

The transmission and transformation of Tyrolean emigrants knowledge about traditional Tyrolean plant species used in customs, medicine and food will be studied in i) Pozuzo (Peru), ii) Treze Tilas (Brazil), iii) New South Wales and Victoria (Australia) during 30 months. The villages Pozuzo and Treze Tilias were founded by Tyrolean migrants, whereas Australia is characterized through individual Tyrolean migration. The domains of “traditional” plant species in customs, in herbal medicine and in food will be defined in Tyrol and in the study areas for the time of emigration and for now. The analysis will assess what emigrants know about these domains, how they learned about them, how they still pass on knowledge about them (transmission of knowledge) and how their knowledge was/is modified as a consequence of emigration and their lives in environments different from Tyrol (transformation of knowledge). The project shall provide data to better understand the evolution of knowledge during the process of migration. All information will be collected in a consistent manner using the same methods (different types of interviewing and observation) in all study areas in order to asses both intra- and intercultural variation of knowledge.