Plants, People, and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany
- ISBN-10
- 1000098400
- ISBN-13
- 9781000098402
- Series
- Plants, People, and Culture
- Category
- Science
- Pages
- 228
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-08-19
- Publisher
- Garland Science
- Authors
- Michael J Balick, Paul Alan Cox
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.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2020-08-19
- 228 pages
- Paperback
- Garland Science
Similar books
-
Ethnobotany of Pohnpei: Plants, People, and Island Culture
By Michael J. BalickEthnobotany of Pohnpei examines the relationship between plants, people, and traditional culture on Pohnpei, one of the four island members of the Federated States of Micronesia. Traditional culture is still...
-
The Cultural History of Plants
By Mark Nesbitt, Sir Ghillean PranceThe text includes an explanation of plant names and a list of general references on the history of useful plants.
-
Plants in Hawaiian Culture
By Beatrice KraussThis book is intended as a general introduction to the ethnobotany of the Hawaiians and as such it presumes, on the part of the reader, little background in either botany or Hawaiian ethnology.
-
Plants, People, and Places: The Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights in Canada and Beyond
By Nancy J. TurnerEssays in this volume, by leading voices in philosophy, Indigenous law, and environmental sustainability, consider the critical importance of botanical and ecological knowledge to land rights and related legal and government policy, ...
-
Traveling Cultures and Plants: The Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacy of Human Migrations
By Andrea Pieroni, Ina VandebroekThe contributors to this volume – all internationally recognized scholars in the field of ethnobiology, transcultural pharmacy, and medical anthropology – analyze these dynamics of traditional knowledge in especially 12 selected case ...
-
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
By Robin KimmererIn Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).
-
Ethnobotany of Palau, Plants, People and Island Culture--Volume 2
By Michael J Balick, Ann Hillmann KitalongThese volumes are the most significant contemporary work of their kind on the biocultural diversity of Palau, resulting from collaboration and partnership of the Belau National Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, National Tropical ...
-
This Is Your Mind on Plants
By Michael PollanIn This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs—opium, caffeine, and mescaline—and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief.
-
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive
By Martín PrechtelThe Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic is both an epic story and a cry to the heart of humanity based on the author’s realization that human survival depends on keeping alive the seeds of our “original forgotten spiritual excellence.” ...
-
Wild Plants and Native Peoples of the Four Corners
By William W. Dunmire, Gail D. TierneyThis is the second book in a series by Dunmire and Tierney exploring native plant uses. The book emphasises prehistoric uses of plants in the Four Corners area, focusing on...