This paper examines transition in plant utilisation accompanying subsistence change in a hunter-gatherer community, the Hadza, in Tanzania, by comparing past and present edible plant use among them.
Currently, the Hadza hunter-gatherers living in northern Tanzania have diverse livelihoods besides hunting and gathering due to settlement and agriculture compulsions since the colonial period, emigration of other ethnic groups, expansion of their crop fields over the past half-century, in addition to participation in the tourism industry since the 1990s. Previous studies reported the main food items collected by the Hadza as wild fruits, nuts, roots and honey. In addition, the Hadza had already reportedly obtained maize from neighbouring farmers in the 1960s. In recent years, they have obtained agricultural products from tourism income or by growing their own crops.
The present anthropological research was conducted in Northern Tanzania from 2012. There are numerous herbs among the foraging plants currently used by the Hadza, as the presenter reported at the last ISE Congress in 2024. The plants are not consumed alone like fruits, but rather as side dishes cooked and eaten with cereal staples. The use of such herbs seems widespread among the Hadza, as they engage in tourism and purchase or cultivate grains.
According to Hahn (2019) and conducted by the presenter, some of the most frequently harvested wild food plants used as vegetables today by the hunter-gatherers are weeds, as opposed to raw edible food plants such as fruits and starch- providing plant parts. In addition, the hunter-gatherer communities today prefer ruderal habitats . Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine changes in plant utilisation by Hadza hunter-gatherers by comparing plants they have used previously, as described in past anthropological studies, with those utilised today.