As part of a European Research Council project, a team of anthropologists is working on interspecific relations between humans and chiropterans in the Indo-Pacific. Following the special issue entitled “Ethnology of bats” published in the Journal of Ethnobiology (2021), the team intends to open a discussion based on empirical field studies. From the depths of caves to treetops, from church steeples to barns, these synanthropic but often discrete beings populate many ecological environments. Around the world, chiropterans inspire imaginaries, practices (of hunting, cooking, medicine, rituals, tourism, arts, etc.) and narratives (cosmogonic, nursery rhymes, mediatic and political discourses, etc.) that reflect the specificities of their morphology and behavior. These ambiguous beings are at the heart of current ethno-biological concerns: preservation of environments and valorization of local/indigenous knowledge. Dracula, Batman and Halloween monsters are not the only symbols triggered by bats. The session welcomes contributions on interactions with chiropterans around the world, but also invites to the study of interspecific cohabitation and its theoretical and epistemological debates.
The 46th Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, May 21–24, 2025
Primary tabs
2025 Sessions
Session Type:
Oral
Session Organizer(s)/Chair(s):
Laugrand frederic
Email contact:
Session Type:
Oral
Session Organizer(s)/Chair(s):
Molly Carney
Email contact:
Charred Chenopodium or goosefoot seeds are often among the most ubiquitous taxa at archaeological sites globally, though our knowledge of their use in past societies varies by region. Researchers have long recognized the Andes, Mexico, and Eastern North America as centers of domestication and cultivation, though much remains unknown about genera and species diversity and people-plant interactions. Building on this work, scholars across the western hemisphere have also come to recognize these seeds as more than environmental disturbances to actively explore the ways chenopods functioned within past socio-economies as potentially managed and meaningful plants. The Americas are geographically, culturally, and biologically diverse, and many questions still remain regarding chenopod use and consumption. We welcome case studies or synthetic papers that highlight and reframe the ways chenopods functioned in the past and present, adding to continental and global conversations surrounding this versatile genus.
Session Type:
Oral
Session Organizer(s)/Chair(s):
Daniela J Shebitz
Email contact:
When plants and animals fundamental to Indigenous communities are no longer readily available by virtue of habitat loss, climate change, and overharvesting, many traditions that have evolved with these species are also threatened. This session will highlight presentations focusing on the conservation and restoration of species used for food, medicine, basketry, and traditions.
Session Type:
Roundtable
Session Organizer(s)/Chair(s):
SREELEKHA KOPPARAMBIL
Email contact:
The session focuses on bringing to light various ecosystem restoration practices that are culturally relevant to Asian context, with particular referenece India and particular the Southern state of Kerala. The roundtable discussion involves sacred grove owners from Kerala, and officers from Kerala State Forestry Department.
Session Type:
Roundtable
Session Organizer(s)/Chair(s):
Sarah Walshaw
Email contact:
Books are the culmination of years of research and writing and their authors deserve to be celebrated and learned from! We invite recent authors from across the ethnobiology spectrum to join us to share a little about the goals of your work and the process of crafting a book project. Monographs, edited volumes, original research, collections, cookbooks, and related creative works are welcome!
In this session attendees will have the opportunity to learn about recently published volumes and hear from authors directly about the processes involved and how the end product was achieved. This is a great way to learn about the latest works, find that new reading for an upcoming class, or find mentorship for your own book-in-the-making!
Session Type:
Oral
Session Organizer(s)/Chair(s):
Pamela Spalding
Email contact:
This session explores how various examples of Indigenous land stewardship throughout North America provides a powerful example through which to de-center human exceptionalism in resource management and environmental governance. Unlike western ecology, Indigenous concepts of biodiversity usually acknowledge relationality through kinship and obligations between humans, the sacred world, plants, animals, fungi, and abiotic factors. This concept of biodiversity opens space for the emerging field of plant justice and the acceptance of plants as legal ‘persons. It envisions justice for the land involving an agreement between land and people that is simultaneously ecological and cultural. It recognizes that ecological integrity arises from reciprocal exchanges (what systems ecologists might call negative feedback loops or the biogeochemical give and take among members of an ecosystem) that produce biodiversity and ecological stability. It emphasizes moving forward from a widely held understanding amongst many Indigenous peoples of kinship with an animate and spiritual more than human world that is eloquently articulated in distant time stories where humans are surrounded by and interact with intelligences other than that of humans. Following from participatory action methodology this approach suggests that we apprentice to both Indigenous knowledge holders and the plants themselves so that through empathy and learning we might better understand the gifts plants have to offer and what legal dignity looks like for humans, plants and ecosystems.
Session Type:
Oral
Session Organizer(s)/Chair(s):
Jonathan Dombrosky
Email contact:
Landscape archaeology emphasizes the ways that past peoples shaped the environment and how the environment can simultaneously impact human societies. Not bound by study region or time period, this session emphasizes the diverse landscapes that humans have co-created and called home through time. We seek to showcase human-environment interactions through various archaeological subfields, theoretical lenses, and methodological approaches. Presenters interested in human-animal and human-plant relationships are welcome, but so too are those interested in biomolecular archaeology, the built environment, paleoclimate modeling, and beyond. Our goal is to highlight the ethnobiological relevance of landscape archaeology and to provide new ways to appreciate the dynamic history of places.