RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The date palm (<em>Phoenix dactylifera</em> L.) in Siwa oasis (Egypt): How ethnographic, morphometric, and genetic analyses together explain the local agrobiodiversity
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 122846
DO 10.1101/122846
A1 Vincent Battesti
A1 Muriel Gros-Balthazard
A1 Clémence Ogéron
A1 Sarah Ivorra
A1 Jean-Frédéric Terral
A1 Claire Newton
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/31/122846.abstract
AB The agrobiodiversity of the Siwa oasis (in Egypt), located at the crossroads of ancient Trans-Saharan routes, is evaluated in this article focusing on the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.), the oasis “ecosystem engineer”. This assessment confronts different ontologies: diversity as expressed and maintained by the folk categorization system of the Siwa inhabitants (through the results of an ethnographical analysis) and diversity described by genetic sciences and a morphometric tool based on the size and geometry of the seeds. This work is also an opportunity to evaluate this tool intended for archaeobotany. Beyond a simple instrumentalization of one discipline by another, this study offers a space of mutual enrichment: on the relative importance of the feral and cultivated date palms, the local relevance of the concept of “cultivar” and the confirmation of the existence of “ethnovarieties”.