Ethnobiology Around the World

Santa Barbara, CA, USA

*Click on the images to enlarge.

	In 1912, as Chumash elder Fernando Librado Kitsepawit (right) directed the building of a tomol (plank canoe), he told ethnographer-linguist John P. Harrington (center) about traditional canoe construction and use that he remembered from his childhood. Harrington took over 3,200 pages of notes on that process, and about 300,000 pages on all aspects of Chumash language and culture during interviews with the last native speakers. Photo courtesy of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
	Barbareño Chumash basket weavers Gilbert Unzueta and Ernestine Ygnacio DeSoto gather Indian rush (Juncus textilis), the principal sewing material in coiled basketry. Through study of museum collections and information from their ancestors recorded by John P. Harrington, Chumash people today are working to revive their traditional arts and languages. Photo courtesy of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
	During John P. Harrington's work with Chumash consultants in the early 1900s, he collected plant specimens and attached tags with names in Chumashan languages, Spanish, and sometimes information on uses. These vouchers have enabled botanical identification of plants discussed in his field notes, revealing that Ephedra and Equisetum were both called cañutillo in Spanish but had different Chumash names and uses. Plant specimen in the Harrington collection, National Anthropologycal Archives, Smithsonian Institution.