Edible and Healing Plants in the Ethnobotany of Native Inhabitants of the Amazon and Atlantic Forest Areas of Brazil

An important approach of ethnobotany is to apply quantitative methods (Martin, 1995; Alexiades, 1996; Phillips, 1996). Quantifica­ tion in ethnobotany is a useful tool, as long as it is used to address par­ ticular ethnobiological questions (Phillips, 1996). One of the advan­ tages of quantitative methods is that they yield comparable data, either through systematic and replicable data collection or under an etic and an ethic research orientation (Zent, 1996). In this sense, ethnobotanical studies often deal with predefined categories of use,

in order to have comparable data from different surveys and to under­ stand the importance of the plant resources for a given population.