BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET

while Scudder (1962) provided important insight on the dietary role of wild
foods of the Gwembe Tonga, noting more than 139 species regularly used as
human food. Subsequently, Scudder (1971) produced a monograph on the Gwembe,
specifically on the role of gathering in a so-called agricultural society,
and identified famine foods that are sustaining during periods of drought
(Table 24). Scudder also provided data on the problems facing agricultural­
gathering peoples when forced to migrate to new ecological zones where the
botanical spectrum is different -- and many of the plants are toxic. He ex­
amined the previous report by Gadd et al. (1962) on human poisoning among the
Gwembe forced to migrate from their lowland Zambese homes in advance of the
rising waters behind the Kariba Dam, and believed the probability of plant
poisoning through incautious gathering was the cause.
Gelfand (1971) has provided an important work on diet of the Shona of
Zimbabwi, a text paralleling Richard's early work on the Bemba. He identi­
fies, briefly, vernacular terms for edible wild plants regularly used (see
also Gelfand, 1973).
Complementing these abundant data on edible wild plants by ethnic group
are studies of a strict nutritional nature by Clarke (1944) and Thompson (1954)
identifying problems faced by the shift from subsistence farming to urban food
production/occupational tasks. Whitby (1972) produced an excellent overview of
Zambian cooking techniques, noting dietary use of ifimamba and nkungushi (un­
identified wild legumes), and nearly a dozen cultivated leafy vegetables com­
plemented with thirty wild greens, especially Amaranthus spp. and Gyandropsis
gynandra, and use of edible wild flowers. Her publication is especially im­
portant since it provides detailed methods for cooking and cross-cultural
53.