Abstract
The Maghreb, the north-western tip of Africa, is a geographically, floristically, and culturally rich area with a long history of animal husbandry. Local ethnoveterinary practices reflect Maghrebi beliefs about health and illness, as well as ecological knowledge of the farmers, nomads and other pastoralists. Ethnoveterinary medicine in the Maghreb makes use of ritual, therapeutic materials, especially plants, and other practices such as surgery and cauterisation. Despite the limited sources, through an intensive literature review we have documented 489 different ethnoveterinary medicinal uses for 183 plant species and nine fungal, animal and mineral materials. Preventive practices, including an in-depth knowledge of the environment for grazing management, use of dietary complements, or ritual and cultural prescriptions at specific times, are also important. As our literature review indicates, information on ethnoveterinary practices in the Maghreb is scarce, dispersed in studies with varying aims and ultimately, incomplete. New studies following international ethnopharmacology and ethnobiology research standards should focus on undocumented areas and ethnic groups, an effort most needed at a time when traditional knowledge is rapidly changing, with a tendency of being abandoned. Understanding the adaptation of traditional knowledge and practice to modern livelihoods and resources will be key for achieving sustainable development targets.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bakker J (1992) The rise of female healers in the middle atlas, Morocco. Soc Sci Med 35(6):819–829
Bammi J, Douira A (2002) Les plantes médicinales dans la forêt de l’Achach (Plateau Central, Maroc). Acta Bot Malacit 27:131–145
Bellakhdar J (1997) La farmacopée marocaine traditionnelle. Médecine arabe ancienne et savoirs populaires. Ibis Press, Paris
Bellakhdar J (2003) Le Maghreb à travers ses plantes. Editions Le Fennec, Casablanca
Benchelah AC, Bouziane H, Maka M, Ouahès C (2000) Fleurs du Sahara: voyage ethnobotanique avec les Touaregs du Tassili. Atlantica Séguier, Biarritz
Bouasla A, Bouasla I (2017) Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants in northeastern of Algeria. Phytomedicine 36:68–81
Boulos L (1983) Medicinal plants of North Africa. Reference Publication Inc., Michigan
Davis DK (1996) Gender, indigenous knowledge, and pastoral resource management in Morocco. Geogr Field Notes 86(2):284–288
Davis DK (2006) Prescribing progress: French veterinary medicine in the service of empire. Vet Herit 29:1–7
Domínguez P (2017) Political ecology of shifting cosmologies and epistemologies among Berber agro-sylvo-pastoralists in a globalizing world. JSNBC 11(2):227–248
El Ghalib F (2005) Contribution à l’étude des plantes médicinales marocaines à effet vermifuge. Dissertation, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco
El Kaidi M (2009) Les principales plantes medicinales au maroc: revue bibliographique. Dissertation, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco
Ellen R, Puri RK (2016) Conceptualising ‘core’ medicinal floras: a comparative and methodological study of phytomedical resources in related Indonesian populations. Conserv Soc 14(4):345–358
Fakchich J, Elachouri M (2014) Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used by people in Oriental Morocco to manage various ailments. J Ethnopharmacol 154:76–87
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) (2018) FAOSTAT statistics database. Available at: http://wwwfaoorg/faostat/en/#data. Accessed 14 March 2018
Fennane N (2007) Contribution à l’étude des plantes toxiques et médicinales dans les provinces d’Essaouira et du Haouz. Dissertation, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco
Foster GM (1976) Disease etiologies in non-western medical systems. Am Anthropol 78:773–782
González-Tejero MR, Casares-Porcel M, Sánchez-Rojas CP et al (2008) Medicinal plants in the Mediterranean area: synthesis of the results of the project Rubia. J Ethnopharmacol 116:341–357
Greenwood B (1981) Cold or spirits? Choice and ambiguity in Morocco’s pluralistic medical system. Soc Sci Med 15:219–235
Hamdani H (2011) Catalogue des principales plantes toxiques chez les ruminants au Maroc: répartition géographique et aspect clinique. Dissertation, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco
Hanazaki N, Herbst DF, Marques MS, Vandebroek I (2013) Evidence of the shifting baseline syndrome in ethnobotanical research. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 9:75
HCP (Haut Commissariat au Plan) (2018) La population nomade au Maroc d’après les données du Recensement Général de la Population et de l’Habitat de 2014. Available at: https://www.hcp.ma/La-population-nomade-au-Maroc-d-apres-les-donnees-du-Recensement-General-de-la-Population-et-de-l-Habitat-de-2014_a1800.html. Accessed 10 March 2018
Heinrich M, Edwards S, Moerman DE, Leonti M (2009) Ethnopharmacological field studies: a critical assessment of their conceptual basis and methods. J Ethnopharmacol 124:1–17
Houmani M, Houmani Z, Skoula M (2004) Intérêt de Asso dans l’alimentation du bétail des steppes algériennes. Acta Bot Gall 151(2):165–172
Ibrahim MA, Nwude N, Ogunsusi RA, Aliu YO (1984) Screening of West African plants for anthelmintic activity. ILCA Bull 17:19–22
Idrissi H (2016) Contribution à l’étude des plantes à activité antiparasitaire chez les animaux au Maroc: revue bibliographique. Dissertation, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco
Ilahiane H (2006) Historical dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen). Scarecrow Press, Maryland
ISE 2006. International Society of Ethnobiology Code of Ethics (with 2008 additions). Available at: http://www.ethnobiology.net/code-of-ethics/. Accessed 20 January 2018
Jabiot I (2015) Beldi-roumi: hétérogénéité d’une qualification ordinaire. Les Études et Essais du Centre Jaques Berque 25:1–15
Lazhar M (2015) Traces et identité au Maghreb. Dissertation, Institut de Littérature, Stuttgart University
Lindborg K (2008) GC-MS analysis for polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in Moroccan medicinal tars. Dissertation, Uppsala University
Mateo Dieste JL (2010) Salud y ritual en Marruecos: Concepciones del cuerpo y prácticas de curación. Bellaterra, Alborán
Mathias-Mundy E, McCorkle CM (1989) Ethnoveterinary medicine: an annotated bibliography. Biliographies in technology and social change 6. Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Agricultural and Rural Development (CIKARD), Iowa State University Research Foundation, Ames
McCorkle CM, Mathias-Mundy E (1992) Ethnoveterinary medicine in Africa. Africa J 62(1):59–93
Merazi Y, Hammadi K, Fedoul Firdaous F (2016) Approche ethno-vétérinaire des plantes médicinales utilisées dans la région de Sidi Bel Abbes-Algérie. Eur Sci J 12(18):218–231
Miara MD, Bendif H, Ait Hammou M, Teixidor-Toneu I (2018) Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used by nomadic peoples in the Algerian steppe. J Ethnopharmacol 219(2018):248–256
Niang A (1987) Contribution à l’étude de la pharmacopée traditionelle mauritanienne. Dissertation, Ecole Nationale de Médecine Vétérinaire, Sidi Thabet, Tunisia
ONS-RGPH 1998. Office National des Statistiques. Recensement général de la population et de l’habitat. Alger, Algeria. Available at: http://www.ons.dz/collections/. Accessed 14 March 2018
ONS-RGPH 2008. Office National des Statistiques. Recensement général de la population et de l’habitat. Alger, Algeria. Available at: http://www.ons.dz/collections/. Accessed 14 March 2018
Pieroni A, Giusti ME, de Pasquale C, Lenzarini C et al (2006) Circum-Mediterranean cultural heritage and medicinal plant uses in traditional animal healthcare: a field survey in eight selected areas within the RUBIA project. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 2:16
Rigat M, Bonet MA, Garcia S, Garnatje T, Valles J (2007) Studies on pharmaceutical ethnobotany in the high river Ter valley (Pyrenees, Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula). J Ethnopharmacol 113:267–277
Roskov Y, Abucay L, Orrell T, Nicolson D et al (eds) (2018) Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 26th February 2018. Available at: http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands ISSN 2405-8858. Accessed 27 Feb 2018
Sandron F (1998) L‘immobilité forcée: la sédentarisation des nomades dans le Sud tunisien. Autrepart 5:63–78
Saynes-Vásquez A, Vibrans H, Vergara Silva F, Caballero J (2016) Intracultural differences in local botanical knowledge and knowledge loss among the Mexican isthmus Zapotecs. PLoS One 11(3):e0151693
Teixidor-Toneu I (2017) The evolution of medicinal floras: insights from Moroccan medicinal plant knowledge transmission. Dissertation, University of Reading, Reading
Teixidor-Toneu I, Martin GJ, Ouhammou A et al (2016) An ethnomedicinal survey of a Tashelhit-speaking community in the high atlas, Morocco. J Ethnopharmacol 188:96–110
Teixidor-Toneu I, Martin GJ, Puri RK et al (2017) Treating infants with frigg: linking disease aetiologies, medicinal plant use and care-seeking behaviour in southern Morocco. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 13:4
TPL (2013) The plant list, a working list of all known plant species. Version 1.1, released in September 2013. Available at: http://www.theplantlist.org. Accessed 15 Feb 2018
Viegi L, Ghedira K (2014) Preliminary study of plants used in ethnoveterinary medicine in Tunidia and in Italy. Afr J Complement Altern Med 11(3):189–199
Volpato G, Puri RK (2014) Dormancy and revitalization: the fate of ethnobotanical knowledge of camel forage among Sahrawi nomads and refugees of Western Sahara. Ethnobot Res Applic 12:183–210
Volpato G, Di Nardo A, Rossi D et al (2013a) Everybody knows’, but the rest of the world: the case of a caterpillar-borne reproductive loss syndrome in dromedary camels observed by Sahrawi pastoralists of Western Sahara. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 9:5
Volpato G, Rossi D, Dentoni D (2013b) A reward for patience and suffering: ethnomycology and commodification of desert truffles among Sahrawi refugees and nomads of Western Sahara. Econ Bot 67(2):147–160
Volpato G, Saleh SML, Di Nardo A (2015) Ethnoveterinary of Sahrawi pastoralists of Western Sahara: camel diseases and remedies. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 11:54
Weckerle CS, de Boer H, Puri RK et al (2018) Recommended standards for conducting and reporting ethnopharmacological field studies. J Ethnopharmacol 210:125–132
Westermarck E (1926) Ritual and belief in Morocco, vol 2 vols. Macmillan & Co Ltd., London
Wolfgang K, Sollod A (1986) Traditional veterinary medical practice by Twareg herders in Central Niger. Integrated Livestock Project, Ministry of Animal Resources, Niger, and Tufts University, School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton
Zent S, Zent E (2004) Ethnobotanical convergence, divergence, and change among the Hotï of the Venezuelan Guayana. In: Carlson TJ, Maffi L (eds) Ethnobotany and conservation of biocultural diversity. York Botanical Garden Press, New York, pp 37–78
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Global Diversity Foundation and the Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihoods Association for their support during the authors’ research in the High Atlas mountains, which resulted in an understanding of the local ethnoveterinary practices. Many thanks to Hamid Ait Baskad and Josep Lluís Mateo Dieste for sharing their experiences regarding ethnoveterinary practice in Morocco, and Vincent Manzanilla for designing Fig. 13.1a.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Teixidor-Toneu, I., Elhajjam, A., D’Ambrosio, U. (2020). Ethnoveterinary Practices in the Maghreb. In: McGaw, L., Abdalla, M. (eds) Ethnoveterinary Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32270-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32270-0_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-32269-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-32270-0
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)