Living in the Mycelial World
Topics in Cognitive Science April 30, 2025 Roope Oskari Kaaronen 5 citations
A global, cross-cultural review of ethnographic archives covering 193 societies reveals diverse mushroom-related cultural practices beyond culinary uses, including rituals, medicine, folklore, and fire-making. The analysis highlights how mushroom foraging involves human cognition but also exposes a lack of detail in descriptions of human-mushroom relations. Ethnomycology receives limited attention, largely due to Western mycophobic biases, underscoring the need for expanded research to better understand past and present human encounters with fungi.