Contributions in Ethnobiology
Contributions in Ethnobiology is a peer-reviewed monograph series published electronically by the Society of Ethnobiology. The series is a forum for publishing original book-length research on past or present relationships of human societies with their biological worlds. Contributions are data-rich, state-of-the-art studies, which may be either single-authored or edited volumes with multiple authors. On-line publication allows freedom from traditional publishing restraints on specialist topics, unusual length, and number of figures. The series’ intended readership is interdisciplinary and includes academics and practitioners in archaeology, biology, cultural anthropology, ecology, geography, and pharmacology, among others.
Stay tuned for these publications in our series:
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Explorations in Ethnobiology: The Legacy of Amadeo Rea, edited by Marsha Quinlan and Dana LepofskyCONTENTS
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Sprouting Valley: Historical Ethnobotany of the Northern Pomo from Potter Valley, California, by James WelchCONTENTS
Abstract: Potter Valley, located just over 100 miles to the north of San Francisco, California, has a productive rural economy, with exceptional family vineyards, pear orchards, and cattle farms. It is also the historical homeland of the Potter Valley Pomo, an autonomous indigenous community pertaining to the Northern Pomo language family. In the early 1850s, the wholesale post-settlement appropriation of land in Potter Valley interrupted this group’s environmental management practices and decreased their access to food resources. By the 1870s, starvation, disease, slavery, and massacres significantly reduced the valley’s indigenous population and caused most of the remaining people to move out of the valley. From 1890 through the 1920s, homeopathic doctor and museum collector John W. Hudson conducted extensive amateur ethnographic research among the Pomoans who had once lived in Potter Valley. His field notes, manuscripts, and miscellaneous documents contained a wealth of ethnobotanical information, constituting one of the most thorough records of plant use by any single indigenous community in California. These ethnobotanical data are presented here for the first time, after careful systematization according to contemporary botanical nomenclature. In this richly illustrated book, the author interprets Hudson’s ethnobotanical data in order to provide new insights into Potter Valley Pomo society and its relationship to the historical landscape. Cultural knowledge of over 258 taxa of plants, fungi, and algae is discussed. Many of the uses presented are not documented elsewhere for Pomoan peoples or other indigenous groups. These data provide valuable new information about indigenous landscape management, dietary economies, and ethnomedicine. With timely debates about natural resource management now occurring in Potter Valley and elsewhere, this historical information remains extremely relevant a century after it was collected. |
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Secwepemc People & Plants: Research Papers in Shuswap Ethnobotany, edited by Marianne B. Ignace, Nancy J. Turner, and Sandra PeacockCONTENTS
This volume represents a culmination of collaborative research on Secwepemc (Shuswap) ethnobotany and ethno-ecology based on more than twenty years of research that has engaged Secwepemc elders, community members and a group of indigenous and non-indigenous academic researchers, supported by the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and other local organizations in the Secwepemc Nation. The joint research and writing by knowledgeable Secwepemc elders and plant specialists, working together with academic researchers comprises multiple interdisciplinary approaches that range from ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, nutrition, environmental science, to archaeology and linguistic anthropology. Together, they have enabled a detailed understanding of the practices and knowledge systems surrounding the past and present relationships of the Secwepemc people with the plant world as part of the wider relationship with their homeland and its life forms. This volume of specific research contributions, together with a Secwepemc Ethnobotany to be published separately, will highlight the critical importance of plants and environments for Secwepemc health, well-being and cultural identity. Moreover, this work can serve as a model for other interdisciplinary collaborative community based research projects, and we are proud to be able to present our findings through this new Society of Ethnobiology venue. |
Bush Medicine in Dominica, by Marsha Quinlan |
Members of the Society of Ethnobiology may download volumes at no charge [Join the Society now]. There will be a small fee to non-members for downloading volumes. Prices will depend on the length of the volume.
For further information on the Contribution series, contact the General Series Editors, Marsha Quinlan and Dana Lepofsky at contributions@ethnobiology.org