ethnobotany: the study of the relationship between plants and people

• bridges science and traditional knowledge
• ethnobotanists study cultural uses of plants
  • medicinal plants, edible plants, plans with religious use

ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary study involving numerous other disciplines within the life sciences and social sciences

pre modern ethnobotany:

• ancient writers like pliny the elder, theophrastus and dioscorides documented local uses of hundreds of plants in the ancient mediterranean world
• later scientists like linnaeus and darwin often noted the uses of plants they studied

origin of term: american botanist john w harshberger

• coined term “ethnobotany” to describe studies of “plants used by primitive and aboriginal people” during a lecture at university of pennsylvania

modern ethnobotany: richard evans schultes

• former professor at harvard, considered the “father of modern ethnobotany”
• wrote his undergraduate thesis on peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus with religious significance to indigenous people of mexico and n america
• his advisor, oakes ames, insisted that schultes have 1st hand experience with the plant to deepen his studies

schultes’ research

• 1937, schultes traveled to oklahoma to study with the kiowa and learn about ceremonial usage of peyote