The Cultural Use of Mushrooms
Jovana Vunduk, Alona Yu. Biketova
Royal Society of Chemistry eBooks November 23, 2022 DOI: 10.1039/9781839167522-00327 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 4 |
| Key findings | The chapter argues that mushrooms have a long and wide-ranging cultural history beyond current scientific and popular hype, spanning food, medicine, religion, art, fashion, folklore, language, and economics. It highlights food and medicinal uses as the best recorded, and points to quantitative ethnomycology as an emerging field. |
Abstract
Far from being among the hottest scientific topics and a cultural hype, mushrooms have a long history of cultural uses. Food and medicinal uses are the best known and most recorded ones. Who feasted on mushroom-loaded extravagant banquets? Which species are considered among the tastiest? Which ancient texts spoke about mushroom medicine? What is the future of medicinal mushroom use, and how has the recent pandemic affected the mushroom food and medicine markets? With this emerging interest, mushroom's significance is being examined as a part of ancient (shamanism) and even the most recent religions (such as psychedelic Judaism), art, fashion (natural dyes and mycelium-based fabrics; cottagecore and goblincore), beliefs (folktales and fairy rings), superstition, and language (ab) use. This chapter also explores the economic uses, from species supporting the development of the rural communities to those causing mushroom wars. The authors also cover the emerging field of quantitative ethnomycology.