Ethnobotany Studies
The analysis of
the use of native plants by members of a specific culture and geographic region
is termed ethnobotany. Plants provide food, medicines, shelter, fiber, oils,
resins, rubber, soap, wax, latex, tannins, and even the air we breathe. Plants
are also used in ceremonial and spiritual rites by many indigenous peoples.
It focuses on traditional knowledge about the use, care, and perception of plants in human societies. Ethnobotany is the study of plant-related traditions in different cultures, combining knowledge of botany, anthropology, ecology, and chemistry.
The use of local plants for various purposes, such as food, medicine, religious
purposes, intoxicants, building materials, fuel, and clothing, has been
documented and studied by researchers in this field.
This area was first defined by Richard Evans Schultz, often called the "father of ethnobotany". The study of plants used by prehistoric societies worldwide is called ethnobotany. Since Schultz's time, ethnobotany has changed and moved from primarily recording traditional herbal knowledge to its application in the modern world, especially in the production of medicines.
Currently,
complex issues such as intellectual property rights and fair benefit-sharing
arrangements arising from the application of traditional knowledge are being
addressed in the field.
History
Story In the
early 20th century, botanist John William Hershberger introduced the concept of
ethnobotany. Although Hershberger conducted many ethnobotanical studies in
North Africa, Mexico, Scandinavia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, ethnobotany did
not gain widespread recognition until Richard Evans Schultz began his travels
to the Amazon.
The origins of
ethnobotany, however, are believed to go back before the first century AD, when
the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides penned De Materia Medica, a thorough
botanical work that described the therapeutic and culinary applications of
"more than 600 Mediterranean plants."
Early in the
20th century, botanist John William Hershberger introduced the concept of
ethnobotany. Richard Evans Schultz's investigations of the Amazon brought
ethnobotany national notice, notwithstanding Hershberger's extensive
ethnobotanical studies, which included trips to North Africa, Mexico,
Scandinavia, and Pennsylvania.
However, the origins of ethnobotany are thought to date back to the 1st century AD, when the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides wrote a comprehensive botanical work, De Materia Medica, detailing the therapeutic and culinary uses of "more than 600 Mediterranean plants."
Middle
Ages and Renaissance Ethnobotanical studies of monastic life were often carried
out in the Middle Ages. However, most of the botanical knowledge was preserved
in gardens, such as physical gardens attached to medical institutions and
places of worship.
Also, read- Ecosystem
Medieval and Renaissance
The ethnographic
elements were not studied in the way that modern anthropologists approach
ethnobotany today but were designed with practical applications in mind for
culinary and medicinal purposes.
Development and Applications in Modern Science Leopold Glück, a German
physician practicing in Sarajevo in the late 19th century, was the first to
investigate the epidemiological aspects of the plant kingdom.
Development and Application in Modern Science
His 1896 paper
on Bosnian rural residents' traditional use of plants for therapeutic purposes
must be regarded as the first contemporary ethnobotanical study.
Matilda Cox Stevenson, Plants of the Zuni (1915); Frank Cushing, Zuni Foods (1920); Keewaydinokī Peschel, Anishinaabe Mushrooms (1998). Wilfred Robbins, John Peabody Harrington, and Barbara Freire-Mareco's collaborative study The Plants of the Tewa Pueblo (1916) are among others who explored plant uses from an indigenous/local perspective in the twentieth century.
Ethnobotanical sampling
and research were initially unreliable and sometimes ineffective because
anthropologists and botanists did not always collaborate. Botanists focused on
identifying species and using plants, rather than focusing on how plants fit
into people's lives.
Meanwhile,
anthropologists focused on the cultural significance of plants and paid only
superficial attention to other scientific topics. The gathering of reliable,
comprehensive, multidisciplinary data started in the early 20th century as
anthropologists and botanists started collaborating more and more. In
ethnobotany, crude data collection gave way to more thorough methodological and
conceptual recalibration in the 20th century. Academic ethnobotany also began
during this period.
Today,
ethnobotany requires a wide range of skills: anthropological training to
understand the cultural concepts surrounding plant perception; botanical
training to identify and preserve plant specimens; and sufficient language
training to understand at least native morphology, syntax, and semantics and to
transcribe local terminology. Mark Plotkin is an ethnobotanist and author of
several books.
He completed
Yale Forestry School, the University of Harvard, and the University of Tufts.
With Lynn Cherry, he wrote children's books entitled In addition to a
handbook for the Trio people of Suriname that provides a thorough account of
medicinal plants, other works include The Shaman's Apprentice (1998), Medicine
Quest: In Search of the Secrets of Natural Healing (2000), and The Tale of the
Shaman's Apprentice (1994).
In 1998, shortly
after the release of The Shaman's Apprentice and the Amazon IMAX film, Plotkin
was interviewed by South American Explorer magazine. In the book, he claims to
be aware of the wisdom of both Western and traditional medicine, and said,
"No system of medicine has all the answers. No dermatologist I have seen
has been able to treat fungal infections more successfully (and cheaply).
There is nothing
like the polio vaccine among the shamans I have worked with or my Amazonian
gurus. It should not be a case of one doctor competing with another. We need to
combine the best elements of all medical systems (herbal medicine, homeopathy,
Ayurveda, etc.) to make healthcare more accessible and cost-effective for
all." Many of the traditional uses of plants remain among tribal people.
However local
healers are often reluctant to share their knowledge with outsiders. Schultes
apprenticed with an Amazonian shaman, which requires long-term commitment and a
real relationship. In Wind in the Blood: Mayan Healing & Chinese Medicine,
Garcia et al. The visiting acupuncturists were able to communicate something in
return, giving them access to a level of Mayan medicine unavailable to
anthropologists.