Author: Michael J Balick Publisher: Garland Science ISBN: 1000098486 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 487
Book Description
Is it possible that plants have shaped the very trajectory of human cultures? Using riveting stories of fieldwork in remote villages, two of the world’s leading ethnobotanists argue that our past and our future are deeply intertwined with plants. Creating massive sea craft from plants, indigenous shipwrights spurred the navigation of the world’s oceans. Today, indigenous agricultural innovations continue to feed, clothe, and heal the world’s population. One out of four prescription drugs, for example, were discovered from plants used by traditional healers. Objects as common as baskets for winnowing or wooden boxes to store feathers were ornamented with traditional designs demonstrating the human ability to understand our environment and to perceive the cosmos. Throughout the world, the human body has been used as the ultimate canvas for plant-based adornment as well as indelible design using tattoo inks. Plants also garnered religious significance, both as offerings to the gods and as a doorway into the other world. Indigenous claims that plants themselves are sacred is leading to a startling reformulation of conservation. The authors argue that conservation goals can best be achieved by learning from, rather than opposing, indigenous peoples and their beliefs. KEY FEATURES • An engrossing narrative that invites the reader to personally engage with the relationship between plants, people, and culture • Full-color illustrations throughout—including many original photographs captured by the authors during fieldwork • New to this edition—"Plants That Harm," a chapter that examines the dangers of poisonous plants and the promise that their study holds for novel treatments for some of our most serious diseases, including Alzheimer’s and substance addiction • Additional readings at the end of each chapter to encourage further exploration • Boxed features on selected topics that offer further insight • Provocative questions to facilitate group discussion Designed for the college classroom as well as for lay readers, this update of Plants, People, and Culture entices the reader with firsthand stories of fieldwork, spectacular illustrations, and a deep respect for both indigenous peoples and the earth’s natural heritage.
Author: Gary J. Martin Publisher: Springer ISBN: 1461524962 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 285
Book Description
Ethnoecology has blossomed in recent years into an important science because of the realization that the vast body of knowledge contained in both indigenous and folk cultures is being rapidly lost as natural ecosystems and cultures are being destroyed by the encroachment of development. Ethnobotany and ethnozoology both began largely with direct observations about the ways in which people used plants and animals and consisted mainly of the compilation of lists. Recently, these subjects have adopted a much more scientific and quantitative methodology and have studied the ways in which people manage their environment and, as a consequence, have used a much more ecological approach. This manual of ethnobotanical methodology will become an essential tool for all ethnobiologists and ethnoecologists. It fills a significant gap in the literature and I only wish it had been available some years previously so that I could have given it to many of my students. I shall certainly recommend it to any future students who are interested in ethnoecology. I particularly like the sympathetic approach to local peoples which pervades this book. It is one which encourages the ethnobotanical work by both the local people themselves and by academically trained researchers. A study of this book will avoid many of the arrogant approaches of the past and encourage a fair deal for any group which is being studied. This manual promotes both the involvement oflocal people and the return to them of knowledge which has been studied by outsiders.
Author: Daniel E. Moerman Publisher: Timber Press (OR) ISBN: 9780881924534 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 927
Book Description
An extraordinary compilation of the plants used by North American native peoples for medicine, food, fiber, dye, and a host of other things. Anthropologist Daniel E. Moerman has devoted 25 years to the task of gathering together the accumulated ethnobotanical knowledge on more than 4000 plants. More than 44,000 uses for these plants by various tribes are documented here. This is undoubtedly the most massive ethnobotanical survey ever undertaken, preserving an enormous store of information for the future.
Author: Robert A. Voeks Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022654785X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
In the mysterious and pristine forests of the tropics, a wealth of ethnobotanical panaceas and shamanic knowledge promises cures for everything from cancer and AIDS to the common cold. To access such miracles, we need only to discover and protect these medicinal treasures before they succumb to the corrosive forces of the modern world. A compelling biocultural story, certainly, and a popular perspective on the lands and peoples of equatorial latitudes—but true? Only in part. In The Ethnobotany of Eden, geographer Robert A. Voeks unravels the long lianas of history and occasional strands of truth that gave rise to this irresistible jungle medicine narrative. By exploring the interconnected worlds of anthropology, botany, and geography, Voeks shows that well-intentioned scientists and environmentalists originally crafted the jungle narrative with the primary goal of saving the world’s tropical rainforests from destruction. It was a strategy deployed to address a pressing environmental problem, one that appeared at a propitious point in history just as the Western world was taking a more globalized view of environmental issues. And yet, although supported by science and its practitioners, the story was also underpinned by a persuasive mix of myth, sentimentality, and nostalgia for a long-lost tropical Eden. Resurrecting the fascinating history of plant prospecting in the tropics, from the colonial era to the present day, The Ethnobotany of Eden rewrites with modern science the degradation narrative we’ve built up around tropical forests, revealing the entangled origins of our fables of forest cures.
Author: Daniel F. Austin Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 0203491882 Category : Health & Fitness Languages : en Pages : 950
Book Description
Winner of the 2005 Klinger Book Award Presented by The Society for Economic Botany. Florida Ethnobotany provides a cross-cultural examination of how the states native plants have been used by its various peoples. This compilation includes common names of plants in their historical sequence, weaving together what was formerly esoteri
Author: Daniel F. Austin Publisher: University of Arizona Press ISBN: 9780816528370 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 354
Book Description
The Baboquivari Mountains, long considered to be a sacred space by the Tohono OÕodham people who are native to the area, are the westernmost of the so-called Sky Islands. The mountains form the border between the floristic regions of Chihuahua and Sonora. This encyclopedic work describes the flora of this unique area in detail. It includes descriptions, identifications, ecology, and extensive etymologies of plant names in European and indigenous languages. Daniel Austin also describes pollination biology and seed dispersal and explains how plants in the area have been used by humans, beginning with Native Americans. The term Òsky islandÓ was first used by Weldon Heald in 1967 to describe mountain ranges that are separated from each other by valleys of grassland or desert. The valleys create barriers to the spread of plant species in a way that is similar to the separation of islands in an ocean. The 70,000-square-mile Sky Islands region of southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico is of particular interest to botanists because of its striking diversity of plant species and habitats. With more than 3,000 species of plants, the region offers a surprising range of tropical and temperate zones. Although others have written about the region, this is the first book to focus exclusively on the plant life of the Baboquivari Mountains. The book offers an introduction to the history of the region, along with a discussion of human influences, and includes a useful appendix that lists all of the plants known to be growing in the Baboquivari Mountain chain.
Author: Paul E. Minnis Publisher: University of Arizona Press ISBN: 0816540799 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 177
Book Description
Paquimé (also known as Casas Grandes) and its antecedents are important and interesting parts of the prehispanic history in northwestern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest. Not only is there a long history of human occupation, but Paquimé is one of the better examples of centralized influence. Unfortunately, it is also an understudied region compared to the U.S. Southwest and other places in Mesoamerica. This volume is the first large-scale investigation of the prehispanic ethnobotany of this important ancient site and its neighbors. The authors examine ethnobotanical relationships during Medio Period, AD 1200–1450, when Paquimé was at its most influential. Based on two decades of archaeological research, this book examines uses of plants for food, farming strategies, wood use, and anthropogenic ecology. The authors show that the relationships between plants and people are complex, interdependent, and reciprocal. This volume documents ethnobotanical relationships and shows their importance to the development of the Paquimé polity. How ancient farmers made a living in an arid to semi-arid region and the effects their livelihood had on the local biota, their relations with plants, and their connection with other peoples is worthy of serious study. The story of the Casas Grandes tradition holds valuable lessons for humanity.
Author: Janice Timbrook Publisher: ISBN: 9780936494005 Category : Chumash Indians Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
The Chumash people have lived for thousands of years in coastal California from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara, a homeland of uncommon biological richness and diversity. This thoroughly-researched book, in documenting some 175 of the plant species important to Chumash culture, offers a glimpse of life in southern California from pre-European contact through historic times. The 2023 edition adds a new Preface to address topics not explicitly discussed in the original text: plant management techniques that the Chumash employed and their ecological effects; organization of plant knowledge through classification systems and naming; and patterns of usage - which plant families predominated in providing particular necessities of life. The Introduction includes a brief history of the Chumash and explains the purpose of the book, how it is organized, sources, and acknowledgements. The body of the book is a Plant Catalog, organized alphabetically by scientific botanical name and including each plant's common name in English, California Spanish, and as many as six Chumashan languages. Each entry describes in detail not just how the plant was utilized but also its other roles in Chumash life and thought. Following the main text are a Bibliography, an alphabetical listing of Chumash plant-related names and words with their corresponding scientific name and English common name, and an extensive Index. Chumash Ethnobotany draws primarily upon the voluminous and richly detailed field notes and plant collections of John P. Harrington (1884-1961), who interviewed ten Chumash consultants over a period of 50 years (1911-1961). Harrington's Chumash materials comprise some 300,000 handwritten pages and over 450 plant specimens. Information was also incorporated from a wide variety of other sources: ethnographic accounts and modern Chumash consultants; archaeological reports; historical accounts by explorers, missionaries, and settlers; letters, botanical research articles, and floras. Documentation is also provided from neighboring tribes who use or used the same or related species in a similar fashion The book is intended to reach a broad audience, making the information accessible to both interested laypersons and scholars. It is illustrated with Chris Chapman's watercolor botanical portraits and Timbrook's own woodcut-like interpretations of scenes from Chumash life.
Author: Richard Evans Schultes Publisher: Timber Press ISBN: 9780881929720 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Published on the 100th anniversary of the science of ethnobotany, this volume provides a comprehensive summary of the history and current state of the field. The 36 articles present a truly global perspective on the theory and practice of today's ethnobotany. This book is only available through print on demand. All interior art is black and white.
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Author: Patricia Whereat Phillips
Author: Michael J Balick
Author: Gary J. Martin
Author: Daniel E. Moerman
Author: Robert A. Voeks
Author: Daniel F. Austin
Author: Daniel F. Austin
Author: Paul E. Minnis
Author: Janice Timbrook
Author: Richard Evans Schultes