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Marcin Kotowski

@ethnobiology.bsky.social

Etnobiolog. Fan przetworów, staroci, ściółki i drożdży.

339 Followers  |  1,580 Following  |  37 Posts  |  Joined: 17.11.2024
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Posts by Marcin Kotowski (@ethnobiology.bsky.social)

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We’ve just published a new thing. This is the first volume out of four planned, and I really hope we’ll manage to finish the whole set. The book is available here:
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

18.12.2025 15:48 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Happy to be a co-author of this brick, which summarises almost 20 years of research on the flora and vegetation of Middle Asia. Full book pdf is available here tinyurl.com/4tck73yj #Botany #Ecology #CentralAsia #MiddleAsia #Tajikistan #VegetationStudies

10.04.2025 12:52 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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(PDF) Tracing vegetation changes through the testimony of early settlers: A spatio-temporal analysis of plant-based place names as ecological evidence PDF | This study presents a spatio-temporal analysis of phytotoponyms as indicators of historical vegetation change in the Silesian region, focusing on... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

So I've recently published a paper demonstrating how place names containing references to vegetation can help reconstruct historical changes in local flora over centuries. Available here: tinyurl.com/y9j9a5fv #HistoricalEcology #ForestEcology #ToponymicStudies #GIS #VegetationDynamics #Ethnobotany:

25.03.2025 22:25 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Tracing vegetation changes through the testimony of early settlers: A spatio-temporal analysis of plant-based place names as ecological evidence This study presents a spatio-temporal analysis of phytotoponyms as indicators of historical vegetation change in the Silesian region, focusing on corr…

Hajle Silesia! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

24.03.2025 09:06 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Reminder that our recent book is available for free in Polish/English under this link www.researchgate.net/publication/... #ethnobotany #cookbook #tajikistan #badakhshan

12.02.2025 08:12 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Cyttaria research under way #Patagonia

10.12.2024 04:39 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Noga, którą są Brytyjczycy od 2020 leży w przedpokoju

24.11.2024 12:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Geschichte der Stadt Grünberg, Schles[ien] - Zielonogórska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 24 cm

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Another, however, was the epidemic of witch hunts that swept Silesia in the 17th century, as we can read about in digitalised materials of Hugo Schmidt and August Förster: zbc.uz.zgora.pl/dlibra/publi... www.dbc.wroc.pl/dlibra/publi... #ethnomycology #ethnobiology #bruegel #bosch

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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13/14
One of these was to be the dance plague often described in historical materials, depicted in the following ritual by Hendrik Hondius.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

12/14
Some researchers claim that the prevailing constant fear of further epidemics in the Middle Ages, extreme malnutrition and the psychoactive effect of ergotism, accompanied by spontaneous loss of limbs, resulted in a massive psychogenic illness that manifested itself in a variety of ways.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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11/14
The hyoscyamine and hyoscine contained in them also cause visual hallucinations, especially the sensation of flying. The process of this treatment was illustrated by Hieronymus Bosch in his “Temptation of St. Anthony,” where we can see a member of the Order of St. Anthony flying with fish.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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10/14
Ergot poisoning, identified with fire, or excess heat, was treated with “cold” medicines such as fish and belladonna berries, also known to contain psychoactive substances.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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9/14
The ergot also had an impact on art. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569) depicted the ergot epidemic in several of his works. The best known of these is the oil painting “Cripples” from 1568

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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This is illustrated in a Munich engraving from 1440.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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7/14
People suffering from ergotism were often treated in hospitals run by the Order of St. Anthony. This treatment consisted mainly of eating bread made from uncontaminated flour. As a token of gratitude to the order, people would give their amputated limbs as a sacrifice to Saint Anthony.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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6/14
The name was associated with burning pain in the limbs, leading to tissue necrosis, resulting in what was expertly called “spontaneous limb amputation.”

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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5/14
It is certain, however, that ergot among the population consuming flour contaminated with its sclerotia was the cause of the disease now known as ergotism, and in the past called "St. Anthony's Fire."

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

4/14
In addition to damaging crops, ergot is also likely to have been responsible for mass public psychosis resulting in numerous judgments about the use of magic. In addition to numerous toxins, it contains lysergic acid, a precursor to the synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide known as LSD.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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3/14
The connection of the fungus to the case may be confirmed by the suspicion of causing damage to the grain as the ergot kernels develops in the ears of grain. The witch trials took place during periods of crop failure that were conducive to ergot growth, i.e. during cool, wet summers.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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2/14
According to the law, she was to be publicly burned at the stake in the execution square by fire. Today, research into witch trials in the 17th century indicates that the real cause of death for these women may have been an inconspicuous fungus - C. purpurea, whose sclerotium is known as ergot.

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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1/14
361 years ago, on November 22, the court of Zielona Gora issued a ruling saying that after “research” the groat seller Anna Stach confessed that “she was a witch, she had a deal with the devil, she was on Bald Mountain, and because of her witchcraft the grain suffered.”

23.11.2024 19:32 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Geschichte der Stadt Grünberg, Schles[ien] - Zielonogórska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 24 cm

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Innym natomiast była epidemia polowań na czarownice, która objęła Śląsk w XVII wieku, o czym możemy przeczytać w dostępnych online materiałach zgromadzonych przez Hugo Schmidta:
zbc.uz.zgora.pl/dlibra/publi...

23.11.2024 12:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Jednym z nich miała być często opisywana w materiałach historycznych epidemia tańca, zobrazowana na poniższym rycie Hendrika Hondiusa.

23.11.2024 12:33 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

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Niektórzy badacze twierdzą, że panujący w średniowieczu ciągły strach przed kolejnymi epidemiami, skrajne niedożywienie oraz psychoaktywny wpływ ergotyzmu, któremu towarzyszyło spontaniczne odpadanie kończyn, skutkowały masową chorobą psychogenną, która objawiała się w rozmaity sposób.

23.11.2024 12:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Zawarte w nich hioscyamina i hioscyna także powodują halucynacje wzrokowe, zwłaszcza uczucie latania. Proces tej kuracji zobrazował Hieronim Bosch w swoim "Kuszeniu św. Antoniego", gdzie możemy zobaczyć lecącego na rybie członka zakonu św. Antoniego.

23.11.2024 12:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Zatrucie sporyszem, utożsamiane z ogniem, czyli nadmiarem ciepła, leczono "zimnymi" lekarstwami, takimi jak ryby oraz jagody pokrzyku wilczej jagody, również znanego z obecności substancji psychoaktywnych.

23.11.2024 12:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Sporysz miał także wpływ na sztukę. Pieter Bruegel Starszy (ok. 1525–1569) zobrazował epidemię sporyszu w kilku swoich dziełach. Najbardziej znanym z nich jest obraz olejny „Kaleki” z 1568 roku

23.11.2024 12:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Zobrazowane jest to na monachijskiej rycinie z 1440 roku.

23.11.2024 12:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Osoby chore na ergotyzm często były leczone w szpitalach prowadzonych przez zakon świętego Antoniego. Leczenie to polegało głównie na jedzeniu chleba z mąki nieskażonej sporyszem. W ramach podzięki dla zakonu ludność oddawała swoje amputowane kończyny w ofierze dla świętego Antoniego.

23.11.2024 12:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0