Since 1992, the Taraco Archaeological Project has endeavored to be a space for collaboration between archaeologists, anthropologists, and Indigenous Aymara community members of the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia. With the overarching goal of understanding the many aspects of the long-term history of Indigenous livelihoods on the peninsula, the project has always been oriented around ethnobiological queries of human-plant-animal interactions across the landscape. This has presented important opportunities for collaborations around current and historical plant and animal focused activities on the peninsula, with the local Aymara experts as guides for the archaeological and anthropological researchers who hope to understand these activities in the past. Here, we hope to critical explore the ways in which these collaborations can be communicated to broader publics through local museusm, tours, and multimedia to not only help preserve and share the learned knowledge but allow it to play a role in supporting the local economy.
, Leah - Anthropology, Northern Arizona University
In collaboration with the Chinanteco peoples of Oaxaca, Mexico, we began a project several years ago to document the local fauna and create educational materials that support conservation while recognizing the importance of the Chinanteco peoples’ Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). After a long pause in our collaboration due to other priorities in the local context, we reconnected and resumed the original plan. The project now highlights TEK by comparing it with Western academic approaches to understanding the mammals of Oaxaca’s mountains. This comparison aims to demonstrate the importance and validity of Indigenous TEK alongside Western scientific knowledge. By integrating both ways of knowing, we provide a more complete and detailed description of the mammals of the Chinantla Alta region and show how each perspective supports and supplements the other, offering a truly holistic approach to studying and understanding animals.
09:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Wolverton
, Steve - University of North Texas
Dombrosky
, Jonathan - Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Leading ethical change in research and related programs commonly takes shape in ethical codes, which may be through professional associations (e.g., the ISE Code of Ethics) or within organizations (e.g., universities). Within the former, a code of ethics represents a professional standard; in the latter processes such as vetting programs and projects through institutional review boards is common. Codes and processes are considered preventative to uphold legal compliance, representing “codified ethics.” A complementary approach is to strengthen the impact of “lived ethics” that challenge norms of professional practice within an organizational community. Lived ethics increase ethical inquiry about impacts of before, during, and after projects, which we term ethical sufficiency. In this paper, we review the structure and progress of implementing ethical sufficiency plans at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. We articulate how the concept of ethical sufficiency has been used and what changes are in development with examples from public facing programs and research projects.
10:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Breesman
, Amy June - Local Contexts
As ethnobotanists and biologists work increasingly with historic and contemporary data collected about and with Indigenous Peoples, what are the necessary actions to ensure outcomes are aligned with the FAIR and CARE principles? In this session, participants will gain an understanding of the Local Contexts tools for Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance: the Notices, the Labels, and the Hub that enables and deploys them in digital environments. Local Contexts is a global nonprofit that supports Indigenous communities to reassert authority in heritage collections and data. Focusing on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, the tools repatriate knowledge and gain control over how data is collected, managed, displayed, accessed, and used in the future. With a focus on examples with Notices and Labels utilized in aquatic research, we will navigate how practitioners can build data infrastructure allowing communities of origin to relate to and assert protocols for data generated by outsider researchers.
10:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Zent
, Eglee - UVM RSENR / IVIC
Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), along with many scholars, view collaborative action as imperative in Abya Yala ethnobiology. Drawing on 25 years of work with IPLCs in Venezuela, we highlight five areas: (1) Territories, supporting self‑demarcation and ancestral land rights; (2) Health, culturally grounded malaria and other health-issues control (local diagnosis, prevention, monitoring); (3) Ethno‑education, community‑led literacy, standardized alphabets, local documentation, and autonomous schools; (4) VITEK, methodology to assess intergenerational transmission and change of traditional ecological knowledge; and (5) Community books—locally authored ecological‑historical knowledge. This collaborative approach, embraced by corazonar paradigm strengthens long‑term cultural and biocultural conservation.
, Robert - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Linares
, Edelmira - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Tobaccos were major smoking ingredients for Native Americans in precolonial times that were employed for ceremonial, spiritual, medicinal and recreational purposes. Of the 15 species of Nicotiana growing in Northern America today, 9 are native. Three species migrated northward and eastward with human assistance. Eight of the species have been identified as being of ethnobotanical importance as since the 1900s (Moerman 1999) while ambiguous “tobaccos” were reported earlier. Based on field notes, herbarium collections and ethnobotanical specimens collected by Edward Palmer (1829–1911), the taxonomic documentation of ethnobotanically important species has been extended back to the mid-19th century. In addition, Palmer's specimens were the basis for the taxonomic descriptions of three of “newly discovered” species. He documented the substitution of native species by the commercial N. tabacum during this period. This example illustrates the importance of voucher specimens and archival sources in historical ethnobotanical studies.
09:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Fejzullahu
, Fahrije - University of Prishtina
Hajdari
, Avni - University of Prishtina
Pulaj
, Bledar - University of Prishtina
Mustafa
, Behxhet - University of Prishtina
The municipalities of Preševo (Albanian: Preshevë), Bujanovac (Bujanocë), and Medveđa (Medvegjë) in southern Serbia, bordering Kosovo and North Macedonia, show considerable biological and cultural diversity. The present study documents traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and compares plant-use practices between Albanian and Serbian communities. TEK were collected using semi-structured interviews with 203 informants (126 Albanians and 77 Serbs). A total of 135 plant taxa were documented: 59 used by both communities, 41 unique to Albanians, and 35 to Serbs. The most frequently cited species were Urtica dioica, Hypericum perforatum, Plantago major, Matricaria chamomilla, and Tilia cordata, which play central roles in healthcare for anti-inflammatory, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and general health purposes. While some medicinal plant uses overlap, differences in species selection, preparation, and plant uses reflect specific cultural and historical backgrounds. This study highlights the rich TEK of southeastern Europe and the importance of preserving it for healthcare and cultural sustainability.
09:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Ojascastro
, James - Atlanta Botanical Garden
For at least the past two millennia, indigenous people spanning the Andes to Mexico have developed traditions of matting the phloem fibers of certain trees through beating to make textiles (i.e., barkcloth). As posited (but untested) by ethnographer Victor von Hagen, literate Mesoamerican cultures, like the Aztecs and Mayans, soon coopted barkcloth for writing to yield amate, a paper analog. Prior to Spanish colonization, both barkcloth and amate were made at scale, but in the five centuries since, both have become severely endangered and are now practiced in single villages lacking mutual contact. Furthermore, although both traditions have evolved in response to cultural, environmental, and economic forces, few updates have been published in the last two decades. Here, we present 1) updates on current practice of amate and barkcloth manufacture; 2) use of contemporary cultural exchange to test von Hagen’s hypothesis; and 3) strategies for their holistic biocultural conservation.
10:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Blake
, A.L. - California State University San Marcos
Although traditional knowledge holders are often highly skilled in identifying numerous biological organisms, Indigenous means of identification are rarely studied (Berlin et al. 1974; Jernigan 2006; Sõukand & Kalle 2010). To reduce this gap, I analyze interactions between Abui plant knowledge holders, their apprentices, and the plants themselves recorded on forest walks on Alor Island, Indonesia. I employ a cognitive framework comprising three components: detection (recognizing individual organisms’ boundaries), matching (linking organisms to mental representations), and labeling (recalling taxon names). I find that in this community, similar to others in Eastern Indonesia (cf. Ellen 2023), plant identification proceeds in an iterative, collaborative, multi-sensory manner. Furthermore, Abui knowledge holders generally assume that detection and matching are “obvious”; they emphasize teaching of plant names, and ecological and use information, over explicit instruction of physical characteristics. This research indicates that Indigenous identification methods themselves may be a form of endangered knowledge requiring attention.
10:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Herron
, Scott - Ferris State University; Herron Environmental Services, LLC
Lopez
, Izzy - Ferris State University
Ergot is known by many names, Claviceps purpurea (Latin) is the most common smut, found parasitizing grain crops of rye and wheat. Lesser known species of Claviceps parasitize other grains, including Claviceps zizaniae (wild rice smut) grows on the host plants Zizania palustris and Zizania aquatica. All species of ergot produce a colorful sclerotia that grow in place of the grain it parasitizes, and can easily get into the food harvest and production systems. These fungi produce powerful vasoconstriction, indusing loss of sensation and blood flow to extremities (known as St. Anthony's Fire or Ergotism), and can result in necrosis and tissue death. Amazingly, the chemistry (ergot alkaloids) of this smut has become managed into pharmaceutical medicines harnessing the powers of vasoconstriction to treat migraines (Cafergot) and child birth hemoraging (Ergometrine). Chemical analysis of Michigan samples of smut from wild rice populations were analyzed for ergot alkaloid contents.
The sacred groves are patches of land that preserved due to their cultural and religious affiliations. In the state of Kerala as in many other parts of India and across the world, sacred groves are also home to water bodies which are preserved in their pristine form due to belief systems. The Palliyane sacred grove in Vadanappily, Thrissur is home to 3 ponds which add to the wealth of flora and fauna in the 2.17 acre of land. The story goes that even when the family that owns the sacred grove had not laid claim to the land, the locals were still respectful of the well in the premise and were engaged in protecting and preserving it. The belief that a well in the sacred grove is as sacred as the grove itself and should not be defiled.
The water bodies present in the sacred groves are testimonials of the role of faith in ecological restoration. The round table examines various sacred groves in India and how cultural norms dictate their conservation adding to ecological wealth of the place.
Sacred groves are patches of land attached to a deity and considered sacred. Sacred groves in Kerala are under threat due to various reasons. Primary among them is the lack of incentive for the owners to maintain them. While faith in the deity and fear of retribution by the gods and the ancestral spirits encouraged sacred grove mainteance. The rising cost involved, increasing demand for land and the changing belief systems have adversely impacted them. Many sacred groves include a small water body like a pond or a well which were accessed only for ritualistic purposes.Demographic demands on land have led to destruction of these ponds and wells.This paper looks into the stakeholder motivation to preserve water bodies in two sacred groves. Reverence to water bodies associated with sacred groves and the operating taboos play a role in water body conservation. Joint efforts of the government, community and the owners of the sacred groves is needed.
09:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Jeevan
, Kavya - Department of Environmental Science, Central University of Kerala, India
Muthuchamy
, Muthukumar - Department of Environmental Science, Central University of Kerala, India
Sacred groves, traditional forest patches protected by cultural beliefs rather than written laws, function as mini-ecozones and carbon repositories. These landscapes, which have existed since the era of shifting cultivation, are increasingly threatened by urbanisation, climate change, and the erosion of traditional practices. We explored selected sacred groves across Kerala to document their floral richness and carbon stock potential. The groves harboured up to 177 plant species, including vulnerable and threatened taxa, with carbon stocks ranging from 30.46 Mg ha⁻¹ to 318 Mg ha⁻¹. Major threats identified included changing community attitudes, overexploitation, uncontrolled growth of climbers and invasive species, increased land-use pressure, and improper waste management. Notably, groves containing waterbodies were less vulnerable to land-use conversion. Strengthening such nature-based, community-driven conservation practices, alongside scientific restoration of degraded ecosystems, can contribute significantly to climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainability goals.
09:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
A. R.
, Amritesh - Amrita School for Sustainable Futures, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
In India, rivers, mountains, forests, and water bodies are understood as sacred within living cultural traditions. Drawing on data from 405 sacred groves in Kerala, this paper explores the central role of ponds, wells, streams, and river edges within grove ecosystems. Most sacred groves are connected to at least one water source, forming integrated biocultural waterscapes. These water bodies are socially categorized. Some ponds are reserved exclusively for ritual occasions, others are protected as habitats for snakes, turtles, and aquatic species, and certain water sources remain completely untouched. Such customary norms function as traditional water governance systems that regulate access and sustain ecological balance. Grove water bodies contribute to groundwater recharge, soil moisture retention, and biodiversity conservation, while also providing clean water access to neighboring communities. The study highlights how sacred grove waterscapes embody culturally embedded conservation practices that enhance ecosystem services and strengthen socioecological resilience in the context of water insecurity and climate change.
10:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Sehgal
, Anju Batta - Adjunct Professor NIT Meghalaya, Sohra India-793108
Himalayan waterscapes of Himachal Pradesh are living repositories of both biological and cultural heritage. Sacred lakes of Renuka, Rewalsar, and Nako represent unique interfaces where ecology, spirituality, and traditional knowledge coexists. These lakes embody biocultural landscape nurtured for centuries through local reverence, rituals, and sustainable resource use. Present study explores interlinkages between aquatic biodiversity, ethnobotanical traditions, and community belief systems, drawing upon field observations, local narratives, and existing ethnographic literature. Renuka Lake, associated with Goddess Renuka and Parashurama, sustains rich aquatic and riparian vegetation, with several ethnomedicinal plants used in local healing traditions. Rewalsar Lake, revered by Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist, demonstrates pluralistic faith-based conservation, supporting lotus, Trapa and sacred groves that serve as micro-reserves of biodiversity. High altitude Nako Lake, located near Indo-Tibetan border, represents Trans-Himalayan Ecological Zone, where fragile aquatic flora exist with age-old Tibetan Buddhist practices of offering. Study highlights emerging challenges, tourism pressure, water pollution, and climate variability threatens these culturally embedded ecosystems.
13:40 to 16:20 (Thursday)
Archaeology and Ethnobiology: Long-Term Perspectives on Biocultural Diversity
Humans, plants, and animals have co-existed and impacted one another for millennia. Archaeology provides a distinct view of the entangled histories of people, animals, plants, and ecosystems over long timescales offering insights into these relationships and the effects of co-existence. This session explores how zooarchaeological and paleoethnobotanical data illuminate biocultural diversity across many different environments, from waterscapes to landscapes. We invite papers that explore how human-environment interactions reveal enduring patterns of biocultural diversity, adaptation, and resilience.
, Patrick - Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Pastoralism’s spread through Kenya may have been slowed by disease challenges presented to livestock by wild taxa. One such disease, wildebeest-derived malignant catarrhal fever (WD-MCF), is carried by wildebeest and extremely fatal to cattle. As herders moved south into the native range of wildebeest, WD-MCF may have kept cattle populations low, hindering pastoral expansion into central Kenya. Today, wildebeest have well-known distributions and annual migration patterns, but archaeological sites document their presence outside of their current range. Extirpation of wildebeest populations by food-producing populations from the prime grazing areas of the Central Rift Valley is one likely cause of their shifting biogeography over time. Carbon, oxygen, and strontium stable isotope analysis of sequentially sampled wildebeest molars from archaeological sites spanning the Holocene reveal shifts in wildebeest distributions and mobility as herding spread throughout East Africa.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Chew
, Zi-Qi - University of California, San Diego/Department of Anthropology
Hsieh
, Ellen - National Tsing Hua University/Institute of Anthropology
Lin
, Chien-Hsiang - Academia Sinica/Biodiversity Research Center
Small-bodied fish (<15 cm TL) play key ecological and cultural roles in Taiwan today, most visibly through their whitebait fishery. Yet their contribution to prehistoric subsistence has remained largely invisible in zooarchaeological research. This study addresses this gap by integrating a novel fine-recovery zooarchaeological method with a systematic compilation of archived ethnographic records on small-fish use. Analysis of archaeological sediments from the Hepingdao B site in northern Taiwan recovered a highly diverse assemblage of 47 taxa dominated by small-bodied species. Ethnographic archival research documented 77 small-bodied taxa exploited across three Indigenous groups. Comparative analysis shows strong overlap between the Late Neolithic assemblage (2800–3300 BP) and contemporary Indigenous fisheries, indicating deep historical roots of specialized, broad-spectrum fishing centered on small-bodied taxa. These findings challenge long-held assumptions that Austronesian fisheries prioritized larger-bodied species and highlight enduring traditions of sustainable, multispecies coastal subsistence.
14:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Welker
, Martin - Arizona State Museum
Breslawski
, Ryan - AR Consultants/Southern Methodist University
Noe
, Sarah - University of California, Santa Barbara
Holland-Lulewicz
, Isabelle - Pennsylvania State University
Caddy
, Kieran - University of Saskatchewan
Nomokonova
, Tatiana - University of Saskatchewan
Losey
, Robert - University of Alberta
Ives
, Jack - University of Alberta
Rabbits and hares are ubiquitous in the archaeological and paleontological records of late Quaternary North America, with modern species displaying well-documented habitat preferences. Given their ubiquity and sensitivity to environmental conditions, accurate identification of leporid species in these records has the potential to aid in paleoecological and paleobiogeographical reconstructions. Unfortunately, most species display overlapping skeletal characteristics, and researchers frequently rely on small skeletal reference collections inadequately capture the inter- and intra-species diversity needed to accurately identify their remains to species. To resolve this problem, we developed an osteometric database of known-species leporids sourced from reference collections across the United States and Canada. Using this database, we modeled the distributions of osteometric traits across species to enable probabilistic identifications for archaeological and paleontological bones. Preliminary application of this method to assemblages from Arizona suggests that snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) may have expanded their range over 150 miles south and west during the Little Ice Age.
14:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Dombrosky
, Jonathan - Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Sinensky
, Reuven - Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Inferences about how the environment factors into past migrations in the northern U.S. Southwest have variously relied on diversity metrics from disintegrated plant and animal datasets. However, there are long-standing issues of how to interpret such metrics given different sampling protocols and scales of analysis. In this paper, we reassess these interpretations by examining how multiple measures of plant and animal diversity structure archaeological inferences about human-environment relationships in the Mesa Verde region. Using a large, multisite database curated by the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, we evaluate patterns in taxonomic richness, evenness, and assemblage composition across the region and through time. Rather than treating individual taxa as direct environmental proxies, we focus on relationships among diversity estimates and how analytical decisions shape perceived environmental change. Our results highlight the need for relational, biocultural approaches to environmental archaeology that move beyond deterministic narratives of decline and migration.
Questions about the sustainability of ancient Maya subsistence focus on the expansion of fields at the expense of the forest. Working with Master Forest Gardeners and leveraging their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of Maya house construction, we use LIDAR data and GIS to assess the capacity of the landscape of the ancient city of El Pilar to provide subsistence and housing materials–trees required for posts, beams, and rafters–for 1,925 domestic structures occupied in the Late Classic (600–900 CE). Assessing the El Pilar cropscape in collaboration with Master Forest Gardeners, the 20-year milpa-forest-garden cycle shows that the regenerative milpa system provides not only sufficient land for subsistence, but yields enough trees to construct and maintain all of the structures at El Pilar. Benefitting from TEK, we promote a new ecological narrative that demonstrates the sustainable balance of forests and fields of the ancient Maya.
15:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Hollenbach
, Kandace - University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Herring
, Catherine - TRC Environmental Companies
During the Late Archaic (6000–3000 years before present [BP]) and Early Woodland (3000–2200 years BP) periods, communities on either side of the Southern Appalachians clearly interacted with each other, as attested by the recovery of soapstone vessels in East Tennessee that were sourced in western North Carolina, and similarities in stone tool and ceramic styles between both groups. Yet groups in East Tennessee appear to have cultivated native crops earlier than their neighbors, with greater recovery of seed crops from Late Archaic sites. Here we compare changes in plant use and land use in both regions during these two periods to tease out nuances in groups’ decisions to invest in native crops in the Ridge and Valley versus the Blue Ridge Mountain region, and the roles that waterways played in this process.
16:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Santana
, Kelly - University of Tennessee Knoxville
Damick
, Alison - University of Tennessee Knoxville
Horn
, Sally - University of Tennessee Knoxville
The United States Forest Service is conducting a study of fire use as a land management tool to maintain woodland and savannah ecosystems under the Southern Tier Oak Restoration Initiative (STORI). As part of this project, a University of Tennessee Knoxville team is studying paleoenvironmental proxies to reconstruct past vegetation change relative to changing fire regimes and land use. To this end, this paper presents analyses of phytoliths from a soil core from Cupola Pond in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri and situates the results in the context of Indigenous fire stewardship and biodiversity among Eastern Woodlands landscapes.
This session convenes researchers working with Indigenous, local, and other community partners to conserve culturally significant species and ecologically or culturally meaningful places. Presentations will explore collaborative approaches to understanding place-based relationships and developing strategies for restoration and conservation.
There is often a disconnect between residents and the natural environment in urban communities. While microforests are increasingly introduced in cities to mitigate environmental challenges such as flooding, air pollution, heat island effects, and biodiversity loss, their social and emotional impacts may be equally significant yet less understood. We present a study conducted in Elizabeth, New Jersey examining four microforests planted over the past four years by the nonprofit organization Groundwork Elizabeth. These sites have already begun to reshape community relationships with local green space. We surveyed three stakeholder groups: (1) residents of housing authority buildings where microforests have been planted; (2) City of Elizabeth employees and local elected officials; and (3) Groundwork Elizabeth staff members involved in planting and maintaining the sites. The survey measures perceived changes in environmental connection, recognition of the importance of urban green space, and emotional well-being.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Salvador Lucero
, Noemi (Mimi) - Inside The Husk Consulting
This investigation proposes a bio-cultural framework for conservation on San Cristóbal Island, Galápagos, recognizing the archipelago as both a site of exceptional ecological isolation and a deeply relational interspecies landscape. Using a trilingual study design in Runa Shimi (Kichwa), Spanish, and English, we trace the motives behind plant introductions to design preventative approaches that respect how plural identities, centered on Indigenous communities, sustain culture during relocation. The study examines how these identities translate essential plants and vegetative understandings into new geographies, which often conflict with hyper-reactive ecosystems. By synthesizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with institutional governance, the framework mandates that conservation recognize plants as both ecological components and sentient cultural beings. This model bridges institutional regulations with community imperatives, affirming that research guided by linguistic reciprocity and relational accountability is the non-negotiable foundation for restoring sensitive island ecosystems while honoring their unique natural history.
14:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Blazina
, Ashley - Washington Dept. of Natural Resources
Western Washington is a diverse landscape: the lands in Washington state west of the Cascade Mountain Range includes nine major interconnected ecoregions, as well as 2/3 of the state's population -- all within 1/3 of the state's land mass. Within this western Washington population are 24 of the reservations (and concentrated populations) of the state's 29 federally recognized Tribal nations, as well as a growing diversity of residents -- approximately 1/5 of the western Washington households speak a language other than English at home. The recent development of the Western Washington Forest Health Strategic Plan was a collaborative process that worked to encapsulate the many definitions, goals, wants, needs, and rights that Western Washington forests have for our residents. This presentation will share the results of this process and its outcomes, as well as reflect on the lessons learned and our continued collective work in this effort.
14:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
MacNaughton
, Kay - Trent University
Promoting local biodiversity is vital to confronting the climate crisis. Globally, invasive species are identified as a major threat to biodiversity, but how does this inform local conservation? Plants are foundational to ecosystem function and cultural identity, making invasive plants a critical site for examining how Western science and Indigenous Knowledge can work together to challenge extractive colonial land management regimes. Michi Saagiig Aki refers to the lands and waters of the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg located within the Great Lakes Basin. A region with high concentrations of invasive plants, which displace culturally significant plants, like manoomin. As a non-Indigenous researcher born and raised in this territory, I employ kinship as a methodological framework though a decolonial lens, engaging in conversations and ceremonies with plants and people. Findings reveal that effective biodiversity conservation requires reciprocal ethics and partnerships between knowledge systems, recognizing invasive plants as participants in disrupted ecosystems rather than adversaries.
15:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Anderson
, Eugene - University of California, RIverside
In 1965-66 and again in 1974-75, I lived with Cantonese fishing people at Castle Peak Bay, Hong Kong. The bay is now filled in, the fishery is destroyed by overfishing and pollution, and the boat-dwelling lifeway of the fishers is barely a memory.
I recorded several hundred names for oceanic life forms, at all levels and of all types. I recorded uses and local knowledge. I link it here to needs for conservation of fish and of local knowledge, in light of the losses.
15:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Vanderleuvenson
, Jaime - Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
Baumflek
, Michelle - USDA Forest Service
The American chestnut is a culturally significant species to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) as documented in timeless cultural stories, and public and archival literature dating back to 1775. However, the literature is often written from a settler colonial perspective. We report on our investigative research into past, present, and future relationships between Cherokee People and chestnut as represented in the literature with cultural interpretation of the results. We analyzed 96 publications which were narrowed down to 45 during three weeks (36 hours) of cultural interpretation with five EBCI cultural consultants. The results determine which publications portrayed accurate, inaccurate, or culturally sensitive information from an EBCI perspective. This project informs the EBCI Natural Resources Department’s chestnut restoration methods, which could include genetically engineered chestnut trees or Indigenous Fire Stewardship. We share what we learned through this process to inform future methods of conducting literature reviews with Indigenous communities.
13:40 to 16:00 (Thursday)
Ecocultural Relationality and Creative Collaboration
, Joshua - State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Many ethnobiologists, indigenous community members, and communities of poor, dispossessed and disenfranchised peoples are facing multifaceted challenges that seek to undermine their knowledges, their rights, and their personhood. Together these challenges can be…exhausting. And while formal protests, rallies and participation in the democratic processes are important, they can situate resistance as oppositional to joy. In this talk I draw upon resistances in Puerto Rico, the American Midwest and Upstate New York to show how joy can be used as a restorative form of resistance. Acts of joy such as being in community, singing, dancing, and planting of gardens can serve to restore interconnection between siloed groups, facilitating intercultural advocacy for the rights of human and more-than-human kin.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Jones
, Deandra - University of Arizona
This presentation draws from my doctoral research examining black bear populations in the Chuska Mountains on the Navajo Nation. The project combines noninvasive ecological methods to estimate population size and distribution with ongoing conversations with community members about their experiences, teachings, and relationships with bears. I examine how Diné values shape research design, interpretation, and engagement. In this context, bears are not only wildlife; they are connected to protection, healing, and ceremony. As a result, research requires careful attention to cultural boundaries, trust, and the protection of sensitive knowledge. Field observations and population data are interpreted alongside stories shared by elders and families about living alongside bears. These narratives deepen understanding of ecological change, conflict, and coexistence on the land. Rather than treating science and community knowledge as separate systems, this work approaches them as interwoven ways of understanding that strengthen one another when carried with respect.
14:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Wall
, Jeffrey - Washington State University
Aksoy
, Elif Başak - Hacettepe University
Utma
, Edibe Erdem - N/A
Çakmak
, Özge - Hacettepe University, Department of Biology
Ouarghidi
, Abderrahim - Penn State University
Van Praag
, Lore - Erasumus University Rotterdam
The fact of ubiquitous and constant environmental change ushers place-attached peoples into alien ecological conditions whether they've migrated or not. Ethnobiology has made progress in understanding the dynamic plant knowledge and ecological adaptation of peoples in diaspora, refugee and otherwise migrated communities. Adapting these advances to in-situ diaspora communities can serve to mitigate their cascading socio-ecological challenges such as rural exodus, slumsprawl, the authoritarian turn in rural politics, and the growing odds of ecological disasters like wildfires. In this talk, I present key outcomes from a 2025 workshop, "Shifting ground, shifting plants: An In-Place Diaspora Methods Bazaar," integrated with preliminary findings from the "Homeland No More" empirical field investigation in Turkey and Morocco. Findings so far stress the need for systematic observation of fluctuations in precipitation regimes, weed pressure, agriculture intensification, pests, and diseases. Additionally, I offer a preliminary systematics of place detachment attuned to gendered, generational, and identity-linked experiences.
14:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Veana
, Natalia
For nearly a century, underwater work has been an important productive activity for the fishing communities of Baja California. The economic context in which these diver-fishermen live, the pace at which they work, and the technology they use cause health problems, many of them severe, for a large percentage of the population (in a sample of 39 divers—active and retired—only two reported never having suffered from any diving-related illness). Based on eight months of participant observation and using a health anthropology approach, this text describes the practical conditions of commercial diving and how the fishermen conceptualize barotrauma, one of the occupational illnesses associated with diving. The study, highlights the human factor in marine research and the life experiences of diver-fishermen, and concludes that the market context has contributed to the precariousness of fishermen's work and high accident rates, leading to health problems and a growing scarcity of seafood.
15:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Knott
, Justin - University of Oklahoma Biological Survey Graduate Research Assistant
This presentation introduces a wastewater pollinator garden designed to demonstrate how treated greywater can sustain critically and culturally important pollinator habitats, such as those supporting the monarch butterfly, while promoting seed banking of native plant species significant to tribal communities. The system integrates ecological engineering with Indigenous knowledge to create living seed banks where water reuse, habitat restoration, and cultural preservation intersect. By combining constructed wetlands, native forb plantings, and pollinator-focused design, this work provides a model for tribal nations seeking to restore biodiversity, strengthen food sovereignty, and conserve the species and stories tied to their homelands.
15:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Delgado
, Claudia - State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry
The concept of Ecosystem Services–the environmental products and processes that benefit humans– has been a major organizing component of conservation and a framework for understanding ethnobiological relationships among peoples and nature. Ecosystem services have environmental, cultural, and health components that are interrelated in an ecological web. Looking at colonialism as a key player in the truncation of fundamental to realized niche allows us to view declines in ecosystem service space from both biological (ie. biodiversity) and social (ie. economics, culture) viewpoints. This paper first defines “Ecosystem Service Space (ESS)” as an n-dimensional hypervolume consisting of variables that facilitate relationships among humans and their non-human kin through an ethnobiological lens. I then discuss how historical and ongoing colonialism truncates realized ecosystem service space, and finally, showcase ESS as a distinct, interdisciplinary tool for anti-colonial science to illuminate the reciprocal relationship between peoples and nature as an extension of themselves.
This paper examines how the memory of the Gulag, ecological concerns, and the Orthodox revival are refracted through legends about and practices at three holy springs in Western Siberia. Legends regarding the holiness of these springs stem from the history of prison camps on these sites and allow for an exploration of lived Russian Orthodoxy and environmental concerns in Western Siberia. This violent past and the sacrality of the springs would seem to be diametrically opposed, but are, in fact, inherently connected in understanding why the springs are considered sacred as well as pure, despite being located in regions associated with high levels of pollution. These cultural and historical elements combine on the site of these breathtakingly beautiful locations to reframe the memory of the Stalinist past and confront environmental degradation in Siberia.
09:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Garibay Toussaint
, Isabel - Universidad Iberoamericana
Among the Kumeyaay of northwestern Baja California (Mexico), water is not merely a resource it is territory. Springs, ephemeral streams, and coastal access points anchor kinship, mobility, subsistence, and ceremonial life. Waterscapes are lived spaces where ecological knowledge and cultural identity are formed together.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork (2022–2025), including participant observation, interviews, and collaborative mapping, this paper examines how territorial dispossession has reshaped Kumeyaay relations with water. Restricted access to ancestral lands has meant the loss of springs, gathering areas, and marine zones, generating both material water insecurity and the erosion of hydrosocial knowledge.
As territory fragments, so do the spaces where ecological memory is practiced and transmitted. By reframing waterscapes as biocultural territory rather than ecological units, this paper highlights how water security, cultural survival, and environmental justice are inseparable in Indigenous borderlands.
09:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Ray
, Celeste - University of the South
Veneration of sacred water sources is a panhuman paradigm transtemporally. Distinct from excavated shafts to acquire water for non-ritual use, holy “wells” are most commonly springs, ponds, pools or lakes that are a focus of religious devotion and are considered physically healing. These community-stewarded sites are nodes of Biocultural Diversity. Visiting such therapeutic landscapes in Ireland involves healing folk liturgies unique to the individual site’s sacred topography, flora, and fauna. Whether these sites are now encompassed by woodlands or endure as isolated green spaces within towns or between cultivated fields, holy wells provide habitats for increasingly rare animals and plants with their own well-related folklore and roles in curative liturgies. Based on ethnographic fieldwork since the year 2000 and archival research of folklore surveys from the 1930s, this paper considers healing plants and soils engaged in well rituals, and the climate-change vulnerabilities of these Sacred Natural Sites.
10:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Nair
, Sreekishen - University of Minnesota - College of Design
This presentation examines the aquatic imagery in Codex Mictlan (Laud), a painted manuscript from Late Postclassic Mexico (1200-1521 CE) that once served as a sacred divinatory calendar. Among its almanacs are those that portray colorful images of watery environments and their animal inhabitants, which are rendered through a pictographic mode that intertwines illustration with image-based writing. Mictlan’s author(s) skillfully applied this graphical system to express aspects of waterlife connected with indigenous cosmology and sacred cycles. The manuscript's calendrical purposes suggest that some of this content may be read in terms of the passage of time, and likely express phenological relationships as sacred events. Of particular interest is Mictlan's 39th page, which presents Tlazolteotl, the Aztec moon goddess, standing before a looming wave containing two crustaceans. This research proposes that the scene associates lunar and tidal activity with animal behavior, thus anchoring its sacred timeline in the living landscape.
10:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Stringer
, David - Indiana University
In this paper, I consider how subaltern populations in colonial landscapes, finding themselves ‘at the crossroads of multiple diasporas’ (Fennell, 2007), can contribute to the survivance of spiritual, biocultural relations with the land. In Roman Britain (43-410 AD), auxiliary soldiers from places as diverse as Holland, North Africa, and Syria came to worship with Celtic peoples at pre-existing sacred springs, giving rise to complex religious syncretism and associated healing flora that would be openly celebrated throughout the following millennium of Christianity. The violent ‘unwondering’ (Norden, 1728) of sacred natural sites through the iconoclasm of the Reformation was then used to exculpate predatory practices and environmental destruction in colonial America. Nevertheless, many rural Afro-descendant communities reveal remarkable continuance of ecological knowledge, often tied to syncretism between African orisha and Christian saints associated with particular plants (Cabrera, 2023), leading to some of the highest levels of local biodiversity in the Americas.
11:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Birkhauser
, Liz - University of Wisconsin-Madison
This presentation examines rivers as living entities and determinants of planetary health across field sites in the Napo-Pastaza Region, Ecuador, and the Tres Fronteras Region, Colombia. Drawing on Kichwa and decolonial feminist concepts of yaku mama (water mother) and cuerpo-territorio (body-territory), I explore how the Napo and Amazon rivers serve as knowledge corridors, facilitators of movements, sustainers of life, and stakeholders in health. Recent ethnobotanical fieldwork on human-plant-environment relationships and health-seeking behaviors, revealed how riverine systems constitute critical actors in the circulation of plant knowledge and health practices across communities. An interfluvial lens reveals how health materializes from relationalities between watersheds, as rivers are dynamic archives of ecological transformation, bearing witness to histories of stewardship, extraction, devastation, and resilience. Cuerpo-territorio applies to entanglements of human and riverine health - what affects the river affects the body - offering insights for planetary health frameworks, recognizing the wellbeing of bodies and rivers as unified.
11:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Michel
, J.T. - Sewanee Herbarium, Ramseur Post-Baccalaureate Fellow, University of the Sou
Situated on the Cumberland Plateau in Sewanee, Tennessee is an unlikely site of domestic water collection and pilgrimage: a roadside perennial spring. Residents of surrounding communities, and from across the region, travel to this source to gather water and to spend time at the site. While most interlocutors possess alternative means of sourcing drinking water, namely municipal supplies or wells, water gatherers collect from this spring preferentially, and unofficial community site stewards have created built structures for access and to commemorate the spring’s cultural value. Through ethnographic accounts, I contend that the individuals who visit this spring site hold multiple motivators for spring visitation that have not been rigorously identified through previous Appalachian study designs. I propose three alternative motivators for spring visitation: personal history, spiritual belief (especially among “Religious Creatives”), and autonomy over personal consumption (for interlocutors’ who worry about “toxicity” of their municipal drinking water).
Berries are the most harvested and valued plant food in Arctic and sub-Arctic communities and are cultural keystone species in the North. Despite deep cultural significance and sustained use across generations, the relationships among berries and people in Arctic regions continue to be underexplored in published research. In this paper, we consider the ways in which people relate to berries and promote berrying in ‘cold’ places using a case study from a sub-Arctic community: Dillingham, Alaska. We posit that the environmental elements of cold climates and the ways that climate extremes shape plant stature and growth ultimately shape the ways people steward plants and landscapes. Interviews with 42 berry pickers identified 29 different practices of berry stewardship. We show how stewardship and berry relationships are shaped by the climatic and ecological conditions of a place, and we identify aspects of berry stewardship and relations unique to northern and cold regions.
09:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Penn
, Jim - Grand Valley State University
This study examined plant use and cultivation practices of the Mayangna, an economically impoverished indigenous group in northern Nicaragua. Agroforestry systems were subsistence-based and important sources of food, building materials, fuel and medicinal plants, game animals and in some cases sources of income. Homegardens were found to be an important source of medicinal, food and spiritual plants, and varied greatly in their size and diversity of useful species. The species composition, use and management practices of both agroforestry systems and homegardens were also influenced by mestizo and indigenous Miskito practices. Surveys of local mestizo homegardens were also conducted to provide comparisons to Mayangna practices. Urbanization and the impacts of gold mining are strong socioeconomic pressures that have pulled Mayangna away from farming and forest use. Climate change and the disruption of seasonal rainfall patterns further exacerbate the situation in an area that is experiencing rapid deforestation and land invasions.
09:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Walshaw
, Sarah - Simon Fraser University
What can cookbooks reveal when viewed as historical sources? In two courses I developed assignments around investigating cookbooks as primary sources. In a lower division history class, "Historical Methods", I designed the class around the sources and methods of food history, including: cookbooks, diaries, ships' logs, oral traditions, and even recipes chiseled onto gravestones. In this class I assign questions about historical cookbooks held in Special Collections at SFU Library. These questions build knowledge of the work and build student confidence to make inferences about overt and implied meanings and what the work says about the historical era. In an upper division class, I crafted an assignment that encourages deeper thematic analysis, allowing students to ponder, for example, what "healthy" is defined as, why "quick and easy" has become a popular recipe ambition, and how authors locate authority. Both assignments develop appreciation for cookbooks as sources of social histories.
10:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Landis
, Catherine - SUNY ESF Center for Native Peoples and the Environment
This study aims to reconstruct Haudenosaunee food systems along the Oneida River, in Onondaga territory, the area known today as central New York. Using paleoecology, archaeological data, historical documents, botanical records, ethnography, and other sources, we compiled data into a hypothetical seasonal round economy around the time of European contact (1600). The Oneida River provides a microcosm of the bounty locally available, while speaking also to the damage wrought by settler terraforming. Onondaga people had access to diverse, abundant, and highly nutritious calorie sources, despite seasonal challenges. When Europeans arrived in the area, they gushed over the flora, fauna, and water before proceeding to dismantle the very ecosystems that kept water clean and life abundant. This story can inspire and direct restoration efforts. It also brings attention to land justice efforts due to the centrality of extensive land base and healthy ecosystems needed to maintain these kinds of foodways.
10:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Cardoso
, Maria Emanuelle Guedes - Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (UNIMONTES)
Socioecological networks act as mechanisms for the circulation of knowledge and propagules in traditional communities, playing a central role in coping with environmental adversities in agricultural systems. This study investigates the adaptive responses of the vazanteiros of Quilombo da Lapinha, in Brazil, in the face of climate and socioenvironmental changes. It is based on the hypothesis that centrality in exchange networks, richness of managed species, and pluriactivity favor permanence in the territory. Through participant observation, interviews, and guided tours with 30 vazanteiros, seven vulnerability scenarios were presented, involving territorial conflicts, scarcity of natural and agricultural resources, and changes in water availability. The hypotheses were corroborated. A strong adherence to pluriactivity was identified, with an average management of 25.7 species, predominance of creole seeds, and strategies of rotation and on farm conservation. The majority 80 percent indicated permanence, highlighting hydrodependence, ancestry, and collectivity as foundations of resistance, climate justice, and the fight against environmental racism.
11:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Puga
, Dominga - University of California San Diego
This presentation examines how agrobiodiversity conservation is enacted and negotiated in everyday agricultural practices in the Chiloé Archipelago, Chile, a global center of potato diversity. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork conducted between January–March 2025 and January–March 2026, I explore how Chilote farmers engage with state-led and international conservation initiatives that promote in situ agrobiodiversity conservation through the circulation of native potato varieties. I focus in particular on recent projects that reintroduce virus-free native potatoes from germplasm banks into homegardens, tracing how these scientifically standardized tubers reshape local practices of cultivation, care, and exchange. While such initiatives seek to integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge into conservation frameworks, they also introduce new forms of management that may diverge from locally grounded understandings of agrobiodiversity. By following native potatoes across laboratories, workshops, and homegardens, this presentation highlights agrobiodiversity as an embodied, relational, and multispecies practice, sustained through ongoing negotiations between institutional conservation agendas and campesino ecological knowledge.
11:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Yang
, Madeline
Indigenous agricultural practices have been foundational to sustainable agriculture for centuries as models that combine environmental wisdom with cultural tradition. With the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity, indigenous wisdom offers under-recognized solutions through an ethnobotanical lens crucial in shaping a more sustainable future. My research examines Indigenous agricultural practices of the Lehigh Valley Lenape, highlighting their ongoing relevance in providing sustainable solutions. With mentorship from Lenape Clan Mother of Pennsylvania, Shelley DePaul, I’ve examined ethnobotanical practices of the Lenape and other indigenous groups worldwide. By honoring techniques rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the Three Sisters, agroforestry, and seed saving, societies can incorporate more sustainable and equitable food systems that benefit human health and increase connection to their food. Based on centuries of ethnobotanical knowledge, Indigenous agriculture practices offer vital, sustainable solutions to climate crisis and the health of humans.
11:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Wooding
, Stephen - University of California, Merced
Yuca (cassava, manioc) is a nutritional staple essential to indigenous Amazonian groups. It is highly diverse, with different types having different uses and agricultural advantages. Despite the importance of this diversity to Amazonian cultures, the factors shaping it have received little research attention. Therefore, we investigated them in a study of yuca types grown by a Bora community in the Upper Peruvian Amazon, with an emphasis on patterns of sharing of variation between the community and communities elsewhere. We found evidence that Boran yuca types show signatures of pressures both restricting and enhancing local variation. The names of Boran types overlapped with outside areas, but not completely, with unique local names. Likewise, morphological variation in Boran yuca overlapped with outside areas, but was measurably different. Our observations of trading and local breeding of feral yuca types may explain these patterns.
, Richard W. - Sewanee: The University of the South
Michel
, JT - Sewanee: The University of the South
Lee
, Mary-Ella - Sewanee: The University of the South
Griffin
, Oakley - Sewanee: The University of the South
Ethnofloras compile culturally significant and useful plant species within a defined landscape, offering a tool that links cultural value to conservation priorities. This project traces the development of an ethnoflora for the 13,000‑acre Domain of The University of the South and examines how such compilations can strengthen landscape‑scale conservation planning while serving as a high‑impact, collaborative teaching practice in ethnobotany. Building from an existing flora of more than 1,200 documented vascular plant species, we identified plants with documented cultural uses or relationships by cross‑referencing the Sewanee flora with databases such as the Native American Ethnobotany Database and Plants for a Future. Beyond documentation, we used spatial analysis to identify habitats of high biocultural and conservation significance. This model can be extended to nearby protected areas, including the new Head of the Crow State Park, and offers institutions and land managers an engaged framework for stewarding regional biocultural diversity.
09:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Beebe
, Laura - Prescott College
What are the potential applications of GIS in identifying Cultural Keystone Places (CKPs)? Given the rising interest in the CKP concept, the popularity of Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) technologies, and increasing public access to spatial datasets, I explore GIS spatial analysis as a formative tool in locating ecosystems of high cultural value through 'hot spot' mapping. Using the Mogollon Highlands of central Arizona, a relatively understudied yet ecologically and culturally diverse region, as a case study, I test the efficacy of GIS applications in classifying clusters of statistical biocultural importance. By synthesizing and overlaying datasets of Juniper distribution, Pinyon Pine endemism, herpetological (snake) diversity, and archaeological surveys, I evaluate whether GIS can serve as one effective predictive tool to be used in tandem with local expert knowledge prior to 'ground-truthing' the presence of Cultural Keystone Places in the field.
09:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Woodard
, Jacob - Miami university
Ross
, Nanci - Drake University
Stevens
, Hank - Miami University
This ongoing research investigates how indigenous land-use legacies shaped the distribution of ethnobotanicals and endemic plant species. Using biodiversity databases (from GBIF and FIA) to analyze plant taxa across the Eastern United States, we are examining the co-occurrence of ethnobotanically significant plants near ancient mound sites and waterways. I predict ethnobotanical species exhibit higher cooccurance in riverine and riparian zone environments, reflecting the historical utility of waterways for trade, migration, and subsistence.
This study hypothesizes that anthropogenic management and use of waterways created distinct biocultural ecological niches, which would create higher cooccurance of ethnobotanical plant taxa in wetland or riverine environments compared to other cultural environments due to their cross-cultural importance. By integrating archaeological data, historical maps, and broad-scale botanical records, this project seeks to investigate the extent to which deep-time human land-use legacy may have structured modern North American forests and the ecology of culturally significant species.
10:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Orrit-González
, Júlia - Universitat de Barcelona
Accelerating biodiversity loss poses major challenges for conservation, especially where ecological change coincides with the erosion of Indigenous and local knowledge. Biocultural approaches respond by recognizing the interdependence between biodiversity and human cultures. Cultural Keystone Species (CKS)—species central to sociocultural identity, livelihoods, and knowledge—connect biological and cultural conservation priorities. This study compiled a global database of CKS from English-language literature and linked it to species conservation status from the IUCN Red List and language vitality data from Ethnologue. Results reveal strong taxonomic and geographic biases, with most CKS being plants and concentrated in North America. While most are not biologically threatened, 60% are keystone to groups speaking endangered languages, indicating widespread biocultural vulnerability, especially among animals. Biological status changed more than cultural vitality. These findings highlight the central role of Indigenous and local stewardship in sustaining biodiversity and provides a policy-relevant foundation for integrating biocultural approaches into conservation strategies.
The Hualapai Indian Tribe of Northwestern Arizona is located amid the Eastern extent of the Mojave Desert within the Basin and Range Geological Province. The valleys that sit within adjacent mountain ranges contain a rich history of Hualapai Tribal seed harvesting practices that became forever changed by colonial pressures. The disastrous effects of cattle grazing on Hualapai Tribal seed gathering sites was recognized by Anglo-Americans by the late 1800’s after less than a decade of ranching. An excerpt from a local newspaper in 1882 reported: “Even the grass that once furnished an abundance of seeds, which were used as food, is now closely cropped by the white man’s stock, and this source of a food supply was well nigh exhausted.” This presentation will explore the ethnobotanical story of Hualapai traditional seed harvesting knowledge examining ethnographic sources, archaeological evidence, and contemporary ethnohistories.
11:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Francis
, Merlin Franco - Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam
In the 1960s, the Puak Belait community abandoned their swamp-dominated cultural landscape in Kuala Balai, Brunei Darussalam, and migrated locally to the Seria town pursuing economic opportunities provided by the oil and gas boom. Their erstwhile homeland, shaped by their cultural practices, is being reclaimed by the swamp forests. However, the cultural influence of the community on the landscape remains indelible, just like the continuing reverence for the latter in the community’s collective memory. Drawing insights from an ongoing collaborative project, I propose to characterize Kuala Balai as a cultural landscape. I will then discuss the selective memories of the cultural landscape and vegetation that continue to shape landscape meanings, fostering community identity. Finally, I will summarize the factors challenging community efforts to renew their physical ties with their home landscape, which is essential for the very survival of the cultural landscape.
11:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Author(s):
Mundhenk
, Norm - retired
I assume that publications like Audubon, National Geographic, National Parks, Sierra, Smithsonian, and our own Journal of Ethnobiology aim to present scientifically accurate facts. But all of these and many others have reported that the lcoation and customs of particular ethnic groups have not changed for millennia. Such statements are not scientific. They are impossible to prove and highly unlikely to be true. Even if DNA from a site might connect it with living people, there is no way to prove who these people were. Even with all that is known about Stonehenge, we do not know what culture built it. The best information we have often relates to language relationships, but this cannot identify a specific people. Such information before written records is beyond scientific recovery. Furthermore, knowing how cultures have changed through the years, it is highly unlikely that any culture would remain unmoved and unchanged for millennia.
11:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
LaTosky
, Shauna - University of Northern British Columbia
Shelow
, Adinew - Jinka University
The intimate relationships between humans, livestock, plants, and microbial life in agro-pastoral communities of southern Ethiopia are mediated by water. Among the Hamar of South Omo, milk production, preservation, and storage are embedded within biocultural systems shaped by seasonal water availability, mobility, and Indigenous knowledge. This paper examines the ethnobiology of herbal smoking of gourds, an ancient milk preservation practice that uses aromatic and antimicrobial plants to sanitise containers, extend milk shelf life, and maintain food safety in water-scarce environments. We situate this adaptive practice within broader waterscape relations by comparing it with the milk-preservation techniques of the agro-pastoralist Mursi to the north. This paper highlights how Indigenous ecological knowledge contributes to microbial management, food security, and socioecological resilience amid new waterscapes (irrigation dams), climatic variability and water insecurity, offering insights into Indigenous dairy technologies relevant to water stewardship and the protection of biocultural diversity in agro-pastoral regions of South Omo.
12:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Author(s):
Istikomayanti
, Yuswa - Universitas Tribhuwana Tunggadewi; Brawijaya University
Batoro
, Jati - Brawijaya University
Setyo Leksono
, Amin - Brawijaya University
Penata Gama
, Zulfaidah - Brawijaya University
This research aims to explore the existence of the Ruwatan tradition as a form of integration between nature and humanity. Currently, the Ruwatan tradition is fading, evidenced by its decreasing frequency in Javanese villages, Indonesia. The bond between nature and humans is not only described through prayers and offerings but is deeply rooted in life philosophy, self-respect, environmental appreciation, and tangible conservation efforts. The community in Bulukerto Village, Bumiaji District, Batu City, East Java, demonstrates a profound concern for the sustainability of this tradition as a core element of their identity as farmers. Participatory methods were used to explore ritual symbolism and the community’s deep connection to their vital natural landscapes. Through this tradition, the community gains a sense of dignity as a unified entity of nature and humanity, a practical integration that has been implemented for centuries.
12:40 to 13:40 (Friday)
From Conference Paper to Publication: Writing your first peer-reviewed publication
This roundtable is aimed at helping early scholars transform a thesis/research paper into a peer-reviewed publication such as a journal article or book chapter. Perhaps the research has been presented as a conference paper or poster, this roundtable will work through the next steps towards developing it further. Participants are welcome to come with works in progress or simply looking to get started with questions. We will also share guidelines and suggestions for submitting to the Society of Ethnobiology publications including Ethnobiology Letters and Journal of Ethnobiology.
This session explores the One Health framework within ethnobiology, emphasizing the interconnection of plants, animals, humans, and their shared environment. One Health recognizes that the health of each is intricately intertwined with the others, shaped by ecological relationships, cultural practices, and environmental change.
Ethnobiology offers a critical foundation for this approach by centering diverse knowledge systems and lived experiences. Research in this space is inherently interdisciplinary, advancing shared goals among diverse stakeholder groups, including scientists, community members, land stewards, and policy-makers.
Presentations will examine not only shared natural resources, such as water, wildlife, and plant systems, but also the shared responsibility for their stewardship. This session highlights the importance of maintaining ecosystem health as both a scientific and ethical endeavor, encouraging dialogue across disciplines and knowledge traditions to support more holistic and inclusive approaches to health.
Indigenous peoples living along the eastern Pacific Coast hold longstanding and deep relationships with the fish who share their territorial waters. Relationships forged and maintained through practices of stewardship, harvest, and reciprocity guided by teachings, songs, stories, protocols, and Indigenous laws. Taken together these peoples, practices, waters, and guiding principles constitute relational food systems. In the case of Indigenous fisheries along the Pacific Coast, the processes of settler-colonialism stand as looming interruptions, sometimes intentionally, to these relationships. This presentation highlights ongoing interruptions to the relationships among people, fish, and water as food injustices. Concurrently, shifts in the political seascape that have been building since colonization as an undercurrent to the dominant fisheries governance regimes are beginning to break, with notable reassertions of Indigenous governance authority over their fisheries. This work considers reassertions of governance authority as renewals of interrupted relationships and examines the diverse forms they are taking.
Author(s):
Morgan
, Ashley - University of Tennessee One Health Initiative
This presentation examines ecotoxicological processes through a One Health lens, showing how contaminants like agricultural runoff, industrial pollutants, pharmaceuticals, and urban effluents move across landscapes and accumulate in aquatic systems. These pathways challenge the “pristine wilderness” fallacy, the mistaken belief that protected or remote areas remain untouched. In reality, hydrological connectivity ensures no ecosystem is isolated; contaminants cross political, geographic, and conceptual boundaries, linking upstream actions to downstream impacts.
Framed by ethnobiology and One Health, this work expands stewardship to include non-human stakeholders. Aquatic organisms, riparian plants, and ecosystems serve as environmental health indicators, yet their signals are often excluded from decisions. Integrating ecotoxicological data with ecological and cultural perspectives advocates for recognizing these non-traditional stakeholders in conservation.
Ultimately, this approaches calls for shifting from fragmented management to relational, systems-based stewardship that acknowledges interconnected health across species and environments, reinforcing the ethical and practical necessity of collective responsibility for ecosystem integrity and resilience.
Author(s):
Maxwell
, Sara - University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Responding to a European Union subsidy for wood pellets burned in the continent’s historically coal-fired power plants, North Carolina’s wood pellet industry in the last 16 years has grown into the world’s top supplier for this powerplant fuel. While the company that runs the factories touts “green energy,” the African American and Native American environmental justice communities around four giant factories on the state’s inner coastal plain complain of high rates of upper respiratory illnesses and other health and environmental disamenities. In keeping with the One Health philosophy of exploring environmental challenges from a holistic perspective that sees the entire planetary environment as one big οἶκος never immune from anthropogenic change, this paper foregrounds these communities’ ecological knowledge in the face of industry narratives that have consistently and historically sought to link the communities’ health problems to personal “lifestyle” choices.
Resource depression is difficult to detect archaeologically. Zooarchaeological analyses distinguish human and environmental impacts on historical landscapes, but modern proxy data strengthen interpretations of past resource use. Method and theory evaluating the impact of hunting pressure on archaeological white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations using body size analyses are well-developed. This research requires location, sex, and management strategy data from modern individuals, but this has not been extensively collected for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). Mule deer have long been significant to Indigenous communities. Mule deer decrease in abundance from Pueblo I to Pueblo III (750–1350 CE) in the central Mesa Verde region. Several well-supported case studies hypothesize that overhunting could explain this decline. A lack of comparative data limits further evaluation of this hypothesis. We develop a modern mule deer database and a white-tailed deer body size correction factor to better interpret hunting pressure impacts on archaeological mule deer.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Poster (in-person)
Author(s):
Sekulic
, Annalee
Rajković
, Ivan - University of Belgrade
With the shifting of climate, infrastructure development and diseases, the habitat of the wild olive tree - Olea europaea var. sylvertris - faces transformation. In this ethnographic case study, I partnered with Vrtovi Lunjskih Maslina (The Olive gardens of Lun) and the many families of Lun, Croatia to investigate how ethnobotanical management practices are negotiated and how the wild olive forest (maslinik) is created in turn. Within the communal forest, grafting acted as a care practice in which ownership is claimed. Pruning, implicated in practices of grafting, develops the visual and biological landscape of the forest, as height and growth are shaped by both human and multispecies factors. After three months of interviews, participant observation, and archival research, both material care practices showed essential, not only to the tree’s biological form but also to the moral claims that define contemporary forest boundaries.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Poster (in-person)
Author(s):
Frost
, Julia R. - The Ohio State University
Hunter
, Sydney A. - The Ohio State University
McCorriston
, Joy - The Ohio State University
Glassy nodules are inorganic ecofacts produced within thermal features and often found within archaeological contexts in the Middle East. They are formed as a result of high firing temperatures that melt amorphous silica and phytoliths within plants. Grasses are particularly high producers of phytoliths and, therefore, contexts containing significant amounts of burned grassy fuels (e.g. dung with processed dried grass or cereal processing waste) are likely to produce these nodules. Here, we test whether glassy nodules are the result of melted phytoliths combining into larger bodies, and we predict that higher firing temperatures will lead to larger sized nodules. We experimentally burned emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccom) at a range of temperatures and documented the amount and size of glassy nodules produced. We found there is a relationship between firing temperature and the size and number of glassy nodules.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Poster (in-person)
Author(s):
Lopez Rojas
, Maria - Environmental Dynamics, University of Arkansas
Plant studies in archaeological sites – archaeobotany – depend on reference collections – i.e., specimen databases – for comparative analysis that support the identification of families and genera of plants. Reference collections from herbaria provide a robust comparison because specimens are well identified by specialists. However, sampling procedures are destructive and sample sizes represent a loss of plant material in specimens. I explored the limitations of small sample sizes (< 0.1 g) for extracting pollen and phytoliths from contemporary plants. I tested the sampling strategy with fresh plants in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and smaller samples did not represent a limitation for extracting pollen and phytoliths. I sampled pollen and phytoliths from herbarium specimens in Costa Rica to develop an extended specimen network – multiple sources of information and subcollections built from a single specimen. The extended specimens represented a remarkable opportunity for encouraging collaborations between botany and archaeology.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Poster (in-person)
Author(s):
Garibay Toussaint
, Isabel - Universidad Iberoamericana
White sage (Salvia apiana) is marketed globally for spiritual and commercial use, yet for the Kumeyaay of northwestern Baja California it remains a living relative embedded in ceremonial practice, territorial memory, and ecological responsibility. This research examines white sage as a culturally significant plant sustained through relational harvesting practices and intergenerational knowledge transmission.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork (2021–2023), including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and landscape walks with Kumeyaay knowledge holders, this study documents local criteria for plant health, seasonal gathering protocols, and ethical guidelines governing harvest. Findings demonstrate that traditional practices emphasize selective cutting, spatial rotation, and spiritual accountability, fostering plant regeneration and landscape continuity.
As global demand and restricted territorial access intensify, these stewardship systems face growing strain. Centering Kumeyaay ethnobotanical knowledge highlights Indigenous biocultural stewardship as essential to sustaining culturally significant flora worldwide.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Poster (in-person)
Author(s):
Silverstone
, Ben - Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education fellow, US Forest Service
Barnoskie
, Kaheetah - Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education fellow, U.S. Forest Service
Kindscher
, Kelly - Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Prior to European settlement, grasslands - including prairies, savannas, and barrens - covered vast areas of the United States and supported biocultural landscapes shaped through long-term Indigenous presence and stewardship. Today, these systems are reduced, contributing to declines in biodiversity, pollinators, and culturally important plants central to Tribal foods, medicine, lifeways, and indigenous knowledges. This project centers ethnobotanical priorities by evaluating Midwestern prairie restorations, emphasizing seed mixes and their capacity to support culturally significant plants and their pollinator relations. We examined how prairie restoration seed mixes vary across space and time, how they differ from remnant communities, their potential relevance to Indigenous cultural and ecological needs, and ethical considerations surrounding the use of historic ethnobotanical data. Results have the potential to reestablish and maintain relationships between tribal communities and medicinal plants, bees, and the entire ecosystem through knowledge-building and future restoration efforts that promote self-sustaining harvests.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Poster (in-person)
Author(s):
Bye
, Robert - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
González
, Nayeli - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Mendoza
, Myrna - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Castro
, Delia - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Rodríguez
, Joel - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Ramírez
, JuanCarlos - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Mera
, LuzMaría - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Severiano
, Patricia - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Linares
, Edelmira - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
The chinampa agroecosystem reflects a precolonial agricultural practice that persists in the wetlands of Xochimilco and contributes to the sustainability of urban wetlands and Mexico City. Due to habitat degradation and current disuse, aquatic quelites (native edible greens), our project focuses on collaboration among farmers, local residents, community organizations, as well as national and local public authorities to rescue traditional knowledge of the management and consumption of : Hydrocotyle ranunculoides (malacotl), Jaegeria bellidiflora (acacapacquílitl), Berula erecta (tzayanalquilitl), and Nasturtium officinale (berro). Participative research includes: in situ and ex situ propagation, enhancement of cultivation practices, documentation of sensorial and nutritional properties, revalorization and enrichment of traditional cuisine.
14:00
Presentation Format:
Poster (in-person)
Author(s):
Myers
, Isabella - Western Carolina University
Evans
, Madison - Fort Lewis College
Our study examines how traditional foodways and ecological knowledge among pre-colonial Cherokee communities influenced soil health, drawing on archaeobotanical data from sites across the southeastern United States, the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee. We further investigate how post-colonial transitions, including the shift from traditional agricultural practices to industrialization, altered local ecological structures through analyses informed by historical record and contemporary soil testing methods. Despite growing interest in Indigenous ecological systems, there remains a significant gap in understanding how cultural and ideological changes nested ecological relationships across temporo-spatial dimensions. Following colonization and industrialization, both plant species and the animals dependent on them have faced compounding pressures from climate change. By exploring the synergistic relationships between plants and soil health within traditional agricultural systems, this research provides critical insights for ecological restoration, tribal food sovereignty initiatives, and broader global conservation efforts.
