Categorization

One important step in the process of quantitative ethnobotany is categorization. All the quantitative indices calculated with ethnobotanyR are based on counts of uses within these categories. The categories for any study should be developed based on a number of of factors. They should closely follow the aims of the study and the the diversity of information that is available.

For example in a study on the plants used in homegardens in Uganda categories were based on livelihood relevant uses for plants such as for food and medicine. Five of the 102 farmers that were interviewed were growing African custard-apple (Annona senegalensis Pers.). Two farmers used it as a fruit, two used the leaves for medicine and one for technical uses, and one farmer used African custard-apple for its protection from wind and sun. This gave the tree a total of six use reports (UR).

Note that the total UR per species is the sum of all the times that individual respondents named the species for a specific use category and the sum of all those categories. Calculate UR with the ethnobotanyR::URs() function.