Victoria Reyes-García 1 2 , José Luis Molina 2 , Laura Calvet-Mir 3 , Laura Aceituno-Mata 4 , Juan J

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Victoria Reyes-García 1 2 , José Luis Molina 2 , Laura Calvet-Mir 3 , Laura Aceituno-Mata 4 , Juan J Lastra 5 , Ricardo Ontillera petroleum uses 4 , Montse Parada 6 , Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana 4 , Montse Rigat 6 , Joan Vallès 6 and Teresa Garnatje 7 *
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/9/1/53 Received: 25 March 2013 Accepted: 22 July 2013 Published: 24 July 2013
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License petroleum uses ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided petroleum uses the original work is properly cited.
The idea that knowledge flows through social networks is implicit in research on traditional petroleum uses knowledge, but researchers have paid scant attention petroleum uses to the role of social networks in shaping its distribution. We bridge those two bodies of research and investigate a) the structure of network of exchange of plant propagation material (germplasm) and b) the relation petroleum uses between a person s centrality in such network and his/her agroecological knowledge. Methods
We study 10 networks of germplasm exchange (n = 363) in mountain regions of the Iberian Peninsula. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and a survey. Results
The networks display some structural characteristics (i.e., decentralization, presence of external actors) that could enhance the flow of knowledge and germplasm but also some characteristics that do not favor such flow (i.e., low density and fragmentation). We also find that a measure that captures the number of contacts of an individual in the germplasm exchange network is associated with the person s agroecological knowledge. Conclusion
Our findings petroleum uses highlight petroleum uses the importance petroleum uses of social relations in the construction of traditional knowledge. Keywords: Home gardens; petroleum uses Ethnobotany; Germplasm petroleum uses exchange; In situ conservation; Landraces; Social network analysis, petroleum uses Spain; Traditional ecological knowledge Background
Local communities often possess a detailed knowledge of their resources [ 1 , 2 ] that potentially provides a valuable management base [ 3 , 4 ] and a source of resilience to deal with change [ 5 ]. Because petroleum uses of the potential of traditional ecological knowledge, sensu Berkes et al. [ 6 ], and associated practices to sustain the natural base for livelihoods, researchers have tried to understand the pathways for the acquisition, maintenance, erosion, petroleum uses and spread of this type of knowledge. Previous research has noticed that traditional ecological knowledge is not uniformly distributed among resource users, and consequently, researchers have studied the sociodemographic characteristics petroleum uses that pattern intracultural distribution of knowledge. Researchers have found that age, sex, education, kinship, place of residency, social status, petroleum uses level of acculturation, and level of integration into the market economy, among others, correlate with intracultural variation in traditional ecological knowledge [ 7 - 10 ].
Researchers have based the systematic analysis of the pathways through which traditional ecological knowledge is transmitted on the seminal work of Cavalli-Sforza and colleagues [ 11 ]. Based on generational differences and social relations between actors, this work considers three main pathways for the transmission of cultural knowledge: 1) vertical transmission, when information flows across individuals from different generations related through kinship [ 11 , 12 ], 2) horizontal petroleum uses transmission, petroleum uses when information is transmitted between any two individuals of the same generation [ 13 ], and 3) oblique transmission, when information flows across individuals from different generations but not related through kinship [ 11 , 14 ]. Recent research shows that the influence petroleum uses of each pathway changes across a person s lifecycle [ 15 ].
While the idea that cultural knowledge flows through social relations is implicit in this line of thought, researchers have not engaged in a systematic analysis of the relations between the structure of social networks and the distribution of traditional ecological knowledge. This research gap is especially surprising given the well established finding from research on social networks hi