The Language of Wild Food Collection: Verbs and their Implications to Forest Knowledge

Abstract

This is a paper adapted from a talk given at the Equinox 2024: The 4^th Annual International Conference.[1] Much of what I spoke about is from my own experience in central India, in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, where I have lived and worked among the Durwa people. The key point here is ‘wild forest food’ and I use the term to mean foods that are not cultivated, and which are harvested from the wild. The ‘wild’ can therefore be the forest, open scrublands, fallows and field bunds, swamps and wetlands, rocky places, in high altitudes and even in deserts landscapes. The foods I refer to are harvested, processed, cooked or stored (for later use) directly from the wild.