Pub Date : 2023-10-26DOI: 10.1177/02780771231209605
Mark Bonta
This article examines historical and contemporary evidence for the importance of cycads as sources of psychoactive experiences for ritual and recreational purposes. Methods used include critical analysis and comparison of published and gray literature as well as ethnographic accounts gathered by the author in Mexico and South Africa. The consumption of cycad parts (pollen, coralloid root, and caudex) to derive an intentional psychoactive effect as a drug may implicate the neurotoxic amino acid BMAA, while fermentation and distillation of cycad starch result in intoxication from alcohol. Cycad ingestion is related to medicinal uses, magico-religious practice, and sexual stimulation as an aphrodisiac. Interconnections between these functions, the ceremonial importance of cycads, and conservation implications are discussed. Conclusions include the need to better understand effects on users and on cycad populations, and the potential pitfalls and opportunities psychoactive uses present for community-based conservation.
{"title":"Mind-altering Cycads? Preliminary Evidence of Psychoactive Effects in Cycadales","authors":"Mark Bonta","doi":"10.1177/02780771231209605","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231209605","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines historical and contemporary evidence for the importance of cycads as sources of psychoactive experiences for ritual and recreational purposes. Methods used include critical analysis and comparison of published and gray literature as well as ethnographic accounts gathered by the author in Mexico and South Africa. The consumption of cycad parts (pollen, coralloid root, and caudex) to derive an intentional psychoactive effect as a drug may implicate the neurotoxic amino acid BMAA, while fermentation and distillation of cycad starch result in intoxication from alcohol. Cycad ingestion is related to medicinal uses, magico-religious practice, and sexual stimulation as an aphrodisiac. Interconnections between these functions, the ceremonial importance of cycads, and conservation implications are discussed. Conclusions include the need to better understand effects on users and on cycad populations, and the potential pitfalls and opportunities psychoactive uses present for community-based conservation.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"26 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135018357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-23DOI: 10.1177/02780771231209135
Joshua D. Englehardt, Michael D. Carrasco
This article explores the place of Cycas revoluta in Japanese culture, with a specific focus on the Ryukyu archipelago. Although never domesticated, worldwide evidence points to the sustained alimentary, ethnoecological, and symbolic significance of this ancient order of plants since at least the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Their millennial use in the Ryukyu Islands is a key example of this pattern. Despite this fact, the role of cycads in Ryukyuan and wider Japanese and East Asian cultural systems remains understudied; the broader features of this intriguing aspect of regional culture are virtually unknown outside Japan. This article reviews the social and environmental roles of cycads in ancient and modern Ryukyuan and Japanese cultures, with particular emphasis on their position in indigenous agroecological systems and their incorporation in the sacred landscapes of Buddhist and Shintō religious complexes. In doing so, this article highlights a unique biocultural patrimony and set of ancestral traditions that are in danger of being lost, as cycad habitats succumb to development and as the symbolic significance of cycad use fades from social memory. It concludes with a discussion of how the study of cycads may contribute to contemporary interdisciplinary research and wider heritage discourse to enhance the preservation of the practices, histories, and values related to Japanese cycad culture.
{"title":"From “Cycad Hell” to Sacred Landscapes: Tracing the Cultural Significance of Cycads in the Ryukyu Islands and Japan","authors":"Joshua D. Englehardt, Michael D. Carrasco","doi":"10.1177/02780771231209135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231209135","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the place of Cycas revoluta in Japanese culture, with a specific focus on the Ryukyu archipelago. Although never domesticated, worldwide evidence points to the sustained alimentary, ethnoecological, and symbolic significance of this ancient order of plants since at least the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Their millennial use in the Ryukyu Islands is a key example of this pattern. Despite this fact, the role of cycads in Ryukyuan and wider Japanese and East Asian cultural systems remains understudied; the broader features of this intriguing aspect of regional culture are virtually unknown outside Japan. This article reviews the social and environmental roles of cycads in ancient and modern Ryukyuan and Japanese cultures, with particular emphasis on their position in indigenous agroecological systems and their incorporation in the sacred landscapes of Buddhist and Shintō religious complexes. In doing so, this article highlights a unique biocultural patrimony and set of ancestral traditions that are in danger of being lost, as cycad habitats succumb to development and as the symbolic significance of cycad use fades from social memory. It concludes with a discussion of how the study of cycads may contribute to contemporary interdisciplinary research and wider heritage discourse to enhance the preservation of the practices, histories, and values related to Japanese cycad culture.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"97 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135322736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/02780771231194774
Abigail Nieves Delgado, David Ludwig, Charbel El-Hani
In the introduction to this special issue on ethnobiology and philosophy, we consider how the included papers show that ethnobiology is an inherently pluralist project that has a unique potential to foster inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives on issues such as the complex multispecies relations between humans and non-humans that one finds in livelihood practices such as farming and fishing, in conservation management, or in industrial resource extraction, which need to be addressed to deal with planetary challenges from climate change to food inequality. We also argue that a pluralist ethnobiology moves beyond priority disputes between different disciplines by recognizing that its foundations are inherently diverse but still embraces intellectual synthesis that brings insights from various fields together. We provide, finally, an overview of the contributions to the special issue.
{"title":"Pluralist Ethnobiology: Between Philosophical Reflection and Transdisciplinary Action","authors":"Abigail Nieves Delgado, David Ludwig, Charbel El-Hani","doi":"10.1177/02780771231194774","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231194774","url":null,"abstract":"In the introduction to this special issue on ethnobiology and philosophy, we consider how the included papers show that ethnobiology is an inherently pluralist project that has a unique potential to foster inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives on issues such as the complex multispecies relations between humans and non-humans that one finds in livelihood practices such as farming and fishing, in conservation management, or in industrial resource extraction, which need to be addressed to deal with planetary challenges from climate change to food inequality. We also argue that a pluralist ethnobiology moves beyond priority disputes between different disciplines by recognizing that its foundations are inherently diverse but still embraces intellectual synthesis that brings insights from various fields together. We provide, finally, an overview of the contributions to the special issue.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"43 1","pages":"191 - 197"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43830377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-29DOI: 10.1177/02780771231194772
N. Ross
In this paper, I explore some of my previous and ongoing research at the intersection of folk biology and cognition, focusing on wider philosophical implications. Specifically, I intend to destabilize previous findings of my own research, interrogating them with data from my more recent work and a perspective of ontology, epistemology, and world-making. In doing so, I aim to inject folk biological data to the discussion of ontology and vice versa. In a sense, I address the question of whether ontology is just another word for culture, pushing for more specific definitions of what we might mean by ontology, culture, and reality.
{"title":"Biologies and Beings: World-Making, Cognition, and the Making of Self","authors":"N. Ross","doi":"10.1177/02780771231194772","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231194772","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I explore some of my previous and ongoing research at the intersection of folk biology and cognition, focusing on wider philosophical implications. Specifically, I intend to destabilize previous findings of my own research, interrogating them with data from my more recent work and a perspective of ontology, epistemology, and world-making. In doing so, I aim to inject folk biological data to the discussion of ontology and vice versa. In a sense, I address the question of whether ontology is just another word for culture, pushing for more specific definitions of what we might mean by ontology, culture, and reality.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"43 1","pages":"219 - 227"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45646570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-21DOI: 10.1177/02780771231194779
Sevgi Mutlu Sirakova
Thanks to recent human microbiome research, we are gradually gaining a better understanding of the vital role that microbial diversity plays in health and well-being. However, as industrial food production standardizes fermented foods—making monoculture “probiotics”—we risk losing both microbial diversity and the cultural heritage of how to sustain it. This article takes yogurt as a case study to explore the ongoing disappearance of microbial biodiversity and its relationship to food practices. As an ancient fermentation product, yogurt has a rich biocultural heritage that is reflected in its diverse preparation methods—including, as this article describes, using ants and spring rain. I employed autoethnography as a form of qualitative inquiry to trace the stories of yogurt passed down through generations in my community from the Rhodope Mountains. Here multispecies and sensory approaches allowed me to delve into the intimate cultural and personal aspects of yogurt making. The stories I gathered from Bulgaria and Turkey reveal the richness of interspecies and sensorial connections involved in yogurt production. I argue that these practices cultivate diverse multispecies relationships and provide valuable insights into the broader loss of biocultural diversity. This article is thus an invitation to reflect on the ways in which the contemporary biodiversity crisis is related to the loss of local cultural knowledge, skills, and wisdom that have long nurtured diverse and generative multispecies relationships.
{"title":"Forgotten Stories of Yogurt: Cultivating Multispecies Wisdom","authors":"Sevgi Mutlu Sirakova","doi":"10.1177/02780771231194779","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231194779","url":null,"abstract":"Thanks to recent human microbiome research, we are gradually gaining a better understanding of the vital role that microbial diversity plays in health and well-being. However, as industrial food production standardizes fermented foods—making monoculture “probiotics”—we risk losing both microbial diversity and the cultural heritage of how to sustain it. This article takes yogurt as a case study to explore the ongoing disappearance of microbial biodiversity and its relationship to food practices. As an ancient fermentation product, yogurt has a rich biocultural heritage that is reflected in its diverse preparation methods—including, as this article describes, using ants and spring rain. I employed autoethnography as a form of qualitative inquiry to trace the stories of yogurt passed down through generations in my community from the Rhodope Mountains. Here multispecies and sensory approaches allowed me to delve into the intimate cultural and personal aspects of yogurt making. The stories I gathered from Bulgaria and Turkey reveal the richness of interspecies and sensorial connections involved in yogurt production. I argue that these practices cultivate diverse multispecies relationships and provide valuable insights into the broader loss of biocultural diversity. This article is thus an invitation to reflect on the ways in which the contemporary biodiversity crisis is related to the loss of local cultural knowledge, skills, and wisdom that have long nurtured diverse and generative multispecies relationships.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"43 1","pages":"250 - 261"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46822006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-18DOI: 10.1177/02780771231194773
Daniela Sclavo
The concept of traditional knowledge has been widely used in ethnobotanical studies from the 1970s onward. The aftermath of world-scale Green Revolution projects led to the realization that disparities were not bridged between small- and large-scale agricultural producers and between developed and developing countries. It is within this context that from the 1970s, Mexican ethnobotanical researchers began to integrate ecological, social, and political perspectives to promote alternative modalities of agricultural production. Here, ethnobotanists pushed for the revalorization of traditional agricultural knowledge as the main avenue for a more just and responsible agricultural system. However, in implementing this ideological counterrevolution, ethnobotanists constructed their own signification of the traditional, which shaped how it would be accounted for in the following decades. This paper explores the ways in which early ethnobotanical research in Mexico through the 1970s and 1980s imagined, celebrated, and constructed traditional techniques in agriculture as a counter-response to modern agriculture, and with this, how women were framed as secondary actors in a male-dominated narrative. The argument then proposes that these early works were hierarchical and gendered, which complicates celebratory accounts of the countermovement in Mexican ethnobotany and other fields of knowledge. Therefore, this analysis reflects on how the traditional within ethnobotanical research has been constructed under specific contexts, on how this directly shaped gender constructions, and on the latter's implications to the present day.
{"title":"Framing the Traditional: Counterrevolution and Gender in Mexican Ethnobotanical Research Through the 1970s and 1980s","authors":"Daniela Sclavo","doi":"10.1177/02780771231194773","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231194773","url":null,"abstract":"The concept of traditional knowledge has been widely used in ethnobotanical studies from the 1970s onward. The aftermath of world-scale Green Revolution projects led to the realization that disparities were not bridged between small- and large-scale agricultural producers and between developed and developing countries. It is within this context that from the 1970s, Mexican ethnobotanical researchers began to integrate ecological, social, and political perspectives to promote alternative modalities of agricultural production. Here, ethnobotanists pushed for the revalorization of traditional agricultural knowledge as the main avenue for a more just and responsible agricultural system. However, in implementing this ideological counterrevolution, ethnobotanists constructed their own signification of the traditional, which shaped how it would be accounted for in the following decades. This paper explores the ways in which early ethnobotanical research in Mexico through the 1970s and 1980s imagined, celebrated, and constructed traditional techniques in agriculture as a counter-response to modern agriculture, and with this, how women were framed as secondary actors in a male-dominated narrative. The argument then proposes that these early works were hierarchical and gendered, which complicates celebratory accounts of the countermovement in Mexican ethnobotany and other fields of knowledge. Therefore, this analysis reflects on how the traditional within ethnobotanical research has been constructed under specific contexts, on how this directly shaped gender constructions, and on the latter's implications to the present day.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"43 1","pages":"262 - 273"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47046949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-13DOI: 10.1177/02780771231194776
Nicolas Silva, E. Céspedes
The present paper proposes three desiderata that methodologies for collaboration between philosophy and ethnobiology should satisfy. The account considers that a focus on a sentimentalist virtue epistemology is necessary to effectively address problems and challenges in such collaborations. Our focus on sentimentalism is further elaborated through three desiderata: (D1) The context of the collaboration should encourage receptivity among practitioners; (D2) collaborations should aim to produce knowledge that addresses the problems faced by stakeholders; and (D3) relevant communities and collaborators for each case should be included by attuning to the conditions of the collaboration. To support our argument, we present the methodology of Field Environmental Philosophy as a case study in which attention to these desiderata is thoroughly present, resulting in a successful collaboration. We argue that these desiderata are crucial for understanding collaborations between philosophy and ethnobiology.
{"title":"Three Criteria for Virtuous Collaboration Across Epistemic Practices: A Case From Sentimentalism and Field Environmental Philosophy","authors":"Nicolas Silva, E. Céspedes","doi":"10.1177/02780771231194776","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231194776","url":null,"abstract":"The present paper proposes three desiderata that methodologies for collaboration between philosophy and ethnobiology should satisfy. The account considers that a focus on a sentimentalist virtue epistemology is necessary to effectively address problems and challenges in such collaborations. Our focus on sentimentalism is further elaborated through three desiderata: (D1) The context of the collaboration should encourage receptivity among practitioners; (D2) collaborations should aim to produce knowledge that addresses the problems faced by stakeholders; and (D3) relevant communities and collaborators for each case should be included by attuning to the conditions of the collaboration. To support our argument, we present the methodology of Field Environmental Philosophy as a case study in which attention to these desiderata is thoroughly present, resulting in a successful collaboration. We argue that these desiderata are crucial for understanding collaborations between philosophy and ethnobiology.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"43 1","pages":"239 - 249"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49129639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-10DOI: 10.1177/02780771231194781
Robert A. Wilson, Lucia C. Neco
The ontological turn (OT) is a loose cluster of theoretical approaches within cultural anthropology that advocates a synthetic, overarching way forward for ethnographically oriented cultural anthropology. We argue that in order to contribute substantively to ethnobiology the OT needs to distance itself from a long-standing tradition of thinking within ethnography that assumes some kind of fundamental divide between the natural and the social sciences. This distancing seems especially unlikely in light of the meta-anthropological nature of the OT as primarily a perspective on ethnographic methodology. Instead, we advocate for naturalistic theoretical alternatives for thinking about human sociality, where philosophical innovation develops in concert with ongoing empirical work across the biological, cognitive, and social sciences. We illustrate this perspective by drawing on two naturalistic accounts likely to prove more fruitful for ethnobiological practice, namely, trans-genera models of sociality and progenerative views of kinship.
{"title":"Ethnobiology, the Ontological Turn, and Human Sociality","authors":"Robert A. Wilson, Lucia C. Neco","doi":"10.1177/02780771231194781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231194781","url":null,"abstract":"The ontological turn (OT) is a loose cluster of theoretical approaches within cultural anthropology that advocates a synthetic, overarching way forward for ethnographically oriented cultural anthropology. We argue that in order to contribute substantively to ethnobiology the OT needs to distance itself from a long-standing tradition of thinking within ethnography that assumes some kind of fundamental divide between the natural and the social sciences. This distancing seems especially unlikely in light of the meta-anthropological nature of the OT as primarily a perspective on ethnographic methodology. Instead, we advocate for naturalistic theoretical alternatives for thinking about human sociality, where philosophical innovation develops in concert with ongoing empirical work across the biological, cognitive, and social sciences. We illustrate this perspective by drawing on two naturalistic accounts likely to prove more fruitful for ethnobiological practice, namely, trans-genera models of sociality and progenerative views of kinship.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"43 1","pages":"198 - 207"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49004044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-10DOI: 10.1177/02780771231194777
J. Simpson
This paper seeks to advance the joyful environmental ethic of Robin Wall Kimmerer. According to Kimmerer's environmental ethic of gratitude and reciprocity, each person has a responsibility to share their unique gifts with the world in return for the gifts they have received from nature. Drawing on Karen Barad, this paper contends that nonhumans are active, open-ended, and relational singularities that also provide ontological gifts by coconstituting the very being of humans and the world. Since sharing one's gifts to make good gifts for a nonhuman requires knowing oneself and the nonhuman, this paper argues that open-ended curiosity is an onto-epistemic, environmental virtue because it enables humans to understand nonhumans as open-ended and relational singularities. Epistemically, a person must be open to transforming their beliefs and questions in relation to nonhumans. Ontologically, a person must be open to transforming their bodies, practices, and world in relation to nonhumans. To develop this account of open-ended curiosity, this paper engages the work of Vinciane Despret.
{"title":"Toward a Joyful Environmental Ethic: Open-Ended Curiosity as an Environmental Virtue","authors":"J. Simpson","doi":"10.1177/02780771231194777","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231194777","url":null,"abstract":"This paper seeks to advance the joyful environmental ethic of Robin Wall Kimmerer. According to Kimmerer's environmental ethic of gratitude and reciprocity, each person has a responsibility to share their unique gifts with the world in return for the gifts they have received from nature. Drawing on Karen Barad, this paper contends that nonhumans are active, open-ended, and relational singularities that also provide ontological gifts by coconstituting the very being of humans and the world. Since sharing one's gifts to make good gifts for a nonhuman requires knowing oneself and the nonhuman, this paper argues that open-ended curiosity is an onto-epistemic, environmental virtue because it enables humans to understand nonhumans as open-ended and relational singularities. Epistemically, a person must be open to transforming their beliefs and questions in relation to nonhumans. Ontologically, a person must be open to transforming their bodies, practices, and world in relation to nonhumans. To develop this account of open-ended curiosity, this paper engages the work of Vinciane Despret.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"43 1","pages":"228 - 238"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45674071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-09DOI: 10.1177/02780771231194153
R. Ellen
We all seek to identify plants in our ordinary lives, or as professionals, yet what we mean by ‘identifications’ and our intentions in seeking them are not always the same. Moreover, the ‘identifications’ we achieve are often subject to disagreement. This paper compares the practices of contemporary professional taxonomists in producing herbarium reference collections, and plant naming among Nuaulu subsistence cultivators in eastern Indonesia. I examine how these communities of practice differ as groups and among themselves in the identifications they make of plants. I argue that the differences between them arise from the way material presents itself in radically different socio-cultural contexts, and the purposes for which the identifications are made. Differences between the groups arise from the ways individuals prioritise different kinds of information as it becomes available. Ethnobotanists often seek to translate between different worlds of identification by seeking one-to-one correspondences between scientific and local categories that we describe as taxa, but sometimes fail because the material used to identify plants, and the purposes of identification, are so different. I conclude by asking how intra-cultural and cross-cultural translation might operate in in-between hybrid spaces, such as para-taxonomy, where different assumptions and practices overlap or collide.
{"title":"Identifying Plants as a Process of Cultural Cognition: Comparing Knowledge Production and Communities of Practice in Modern Botanical Science and Nuaulu Ethnobotany","authors":"R. Ellen","doi":"10.1177/02780771231194153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231194153","url":null,"abstract":"We all seek to identify plants in our ordinary lives, or as professionals, yet what we mean by ‘identifications’ and our intentions in seeking them are not always the same. Moreover, the ‘identifications’ we achieve are often subject to disagreement. This paper compares the practices of contemporary professional taxonomists in producing herbarium reference collections, and plant naming among Nuaulu subsistence cultivators in eastern Indonesia. I examine how these communities of practice differ as groups and among themselves in the identifications they make of plants. I argue that the differences between them arise from the way material presents itself in radically different socio-cultural contexts, and the purposes for which the identifications are made. Differences between the groups arise from the ways individuals prioritise different kinds of information as it becomes available. Ethnobotanists often seek to translate between different worlds of identification by seeking one-to-one correspondences between scientific and local categories that we describe as taxa, but sometimes fail because the material used to identify plants, and the purposes of identification, are so different. I conclude by asking how intra-cultural and cross-cultural translation might operate in in-between hybrid spaces, such as para-taxonomy, where different assumptions and practices overlap or collide.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"43 1","pages":"208 - 218"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48149815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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