Ethnobotany

Changing Approaches

The term "ethnobotany" was first used in a lecture by University of Pennsylvania botanist John W. Harshberger in 1895, but scholarly interest in the utility of plants goes back to the beginnings of botany, and practical interest goes back to the beginnings of civilization itself. Initially to survive, and then for civilization to develop, people needed to learn what plants were useful for foods, fuels, medicines, and fibers and how such plant resources could be mined or managed for human benefit. Harshberger's 1896 publication, The Purposes of Ethnobotany, marks the beginning of this academic discipline. Practitioners before and since have approached the subject from widely varying perspectives, resulting in a fluid and rapidly evolving discipline, but one with theoretical underpinnings that are still in their infancy.

Early in the twentieth century, two principal approaches to the study of plants and people developed, and it is not an oversimplification to state that one approach emphasized the "ethno" while the other focused on the "botany." Ethnobotanical studies conducted by botanists tended to be lists of plants arranged by scientific and common names with short commentary on the purpose for which the plants were used, but often with little or no information on how plant resources were managed or fit into people's lives. Anthropologists, on the other hand, were much more concerned with the cultural role of plants in people's lives, but generally only scant attention was paid to the botanical documentation of plant species being studied. One deficiency of some early ethnobotanical studies that did not cross-reference the name of a plant reported with a specimen deposited in an herbarium was that such studies were not reliable, as there was no way for subsequent researchers to confirm the identification or name of a plant cited. Not surprisingly, it was only when scientists of different disciplines began to collaborate with each other on ethnobotanical studies that more compete pictures began to emerge on the relationships between plants and people. In the twenty-first century, ethnobotany is characterized by being an interdisciplinary, dynamic endeavor, one that combines great intellectual challenge with tremendous practical urgency in terms of the conservation of biological and cultural diversity.

Aside from the great intellectual components to ethnobotany, the discipline is of more than academic interest. The contribution of plants to human welfare is beyond calculation. Suffice it to say, without plants there would be no people. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the contributions that ethnobotanists have made in collecting information about plants and fungi from indigenous peoples around the world. Dozens of modern medicines, such as pilocarpine, which is used for treating glaucoma, have active ingredients that came to light through ethnobotanical investigations. Hundreds of foods, fuels, fibers, and fragrances have been discovered by ethnobotanists through their investigations into the relationship between plants and people. It makes sense that indigenous people, who have experimented with using organisms in their natural environment for centuries, or even millennia, would never have survived to the present day if they had not figured out what components of the biosphere were useful, or, conversely, harmful. Ethnobotanists are basically studying the success stories in people's use and attempts to sustain nature, a topic of great and timely importance.

Great efforts are now being put into the prospecting for new commercial products from nature, and this activity, variously termed biodiversity prospecting or chemical prospecting, is now a major activity, supported by governments and industry. The activity is usually associated with the search for new patent medicines, but it applies equally to the search for new, naturally derived products of any sort; for example, a perfume company might undertake a program of searching for new fragrances from the rain forest, using indigenous people's knowledge of floral aromas as a starting point.

Of equal importance are the activities of ethnobotanists that relate to understanding how local people manage their biotic resources; this research has great applicability to land use managers, conservation policymakers, and, of course, to local peoples themselves, as often the very act of documentation of resource use by scientists gives legitimacy to local people's tried- and-true management methods. This approach, when the conservation of bio-diversity is factored into the equation, has been termed the "New Environmentalism" by renowned Harvard University biologist Professor Edward O. Wilson: "The race is on to develop methods, to draw more income from the wildlands without killing them, and so to give the invisible hand of free-market economics a green thumb." Ethnobotanists have a major role in developing the New Environmentalism as a strategy for managing biodiversity and maximizing its conservation, with efforts to make such efforts truly sustainable being the most elusive component.

Methods of Ethnobotany

Until the 1990s, there existed no widely available references on how ethnobotanical studies are conducted; students largely had to work under the supervision of an established researcher and/or figure out methodology through trial and error. This situation has now greatly improved, and aspiring ethnobotanists can consult Miguel N. Alexiades's Selected Guidelines for Ethnobotanical Research: A Field Manual (1996) and Gary J. Martin's Ethno-botany: A Methods Manual (1995). Central to the conduct of ethnobotanical studies is the researcher's understanding of the professional ethics of the situation, and this involves openness and honesty in dealing with the people whose use of plants is being studied, collaborating scientists, government officials, project funding agencies, and all other stakeholders in the dynamic field research process. Ethnobotanists occupy a special position in the middle, serving as brokers of a sort, dealing on one hand with other scientists, policymakers, and funders, and on the other hand with people who may be among the least powerful in society, and for whom the ethnobotanist has a special responsibility in terms of respecting their confidentiality and trust.

Ethnobotanists tend to have their intellectual roots in one or more traditional academic discipline, such as botany or anthropology. Formal training equivalent to a double major in college is a good preparation. A graduate degree is practically required to secure employment as an ethnobotanist. As ethnobotany has become more interdisciplinary, the most interesting and vital studies are increasingly being done by researchers who have training in, for example, medicine and botany, or anthropology, economics, and botany, or informatics, botany, and geography. Obviously, no one individual can possibly encompass the range of disciplines represented in ethnobotany, but students should at least strive to be as broadly trained as possible, at least in the understanding of and appreciation for diverse approaches.

There are a number of practical considerations that an ethnobotanist should keep in mind in anticipation of conducting field research. It certainly helps to be in good physical condition, as fieldwork is often conducted in physically challenging locales and with local people who are fully adapted to those difficult conditions. Assuming the ethnobotanist can keep up with the people he or she wants to interview and learn from, the next consideration is linguistics. Ideally, the ethnobotanist will learn to speak as much of the relevant local language as possible. A less desirable but workable situation is to arrange for interpreters to assist with interviews, keeping in mind that the saying "things can get lost in the translation" has a basis in reality. Aside from the general trait of having a curious, analytic mind, which would describe most successful scientists, additional essential qualities that are required of ethnobotanists are those of patience, as information is usually gathered in a slow, methodical manner, and flexibility, as things rarely work out as planned. Ethnobotany has a large role in elucidating the information about the plant and fungal kingdoms that is needed by science and society. It is a dynamic, intellectually stimulating and rapidly evolving discipline, and one that holds much promise for shedding light on solutions to the crisis in biological diversity.

SEE ALSO AGRICULTURE, HISTORY OF; MEDICINAL PLANTS; NATIVE FOOD CROPS; PLANT PROSPECTING; PSYCHOACTIVE PLANTS.

Brian M. Boom

Bibliography

Alexiades, M. N., ed. Selected Guidelines for Ethnobotanical Research: A Field Manual. New York: New York Botanical Garden Press, 1996.

Balick, M. J., and P. A. Cox. Plants, People, and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany. New York: Scientific American Library, 1996.

Lewington, A. Plants for People. London: Natural History Museum, 1990.

Martin, Gary J. Ethnobotany: A Methods Manual. Staley Thornes, 1995.

Schultes, R. E., and S. von Reis, eds. Ethnobotany: Evolution of a Discipline. Portland, OR: Dioscorides Press, 1995.

Simpson, B. B., and M. C. Ogorzaly. Economic Botany: Plants in Our World, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1995.