Ethnobotanical Methods Researchers and Informants in Bolivia
Study of the on-going process of domestication 1. Informant interviews – especially about desired traits, planting methods, methods of selection for breeding or seed stock. 2. Participation observation 3. Collection of native texts 4. Field observations – grain, fruit, or vegetable measurements; altitude, temperature, varietal flowering and maturation rates; mapping locations and distances to fields from farm or village; soil and vegetative analysis of sample fields at various stages of crop-fallow cycle.
Phytoanthropology Phytoanthropology examines the extent of similarities and differences in the responses of various human communities to their plant neighbors, and the reasons for these human responses.
Bo Tree – Ficus religiosa
Silk Cotton Tree – Bombax ceiba
Arrowhead – Sagittaria sagittifolia
Historical Ethnobotany
Hildegard of Bingen
Joseph Smith
Fertile Crescent
King Assurbanipal – BCE In his garden with Queen and Servants
Babylonian Medicine
Datura stramonium
Cannabis sativa
Mandrake – Atropa mandragora
ca. 1474
Water lily – Nymphaea alba
Vitis vinifera var. Pinot Noir
Opium poppy – Papaver somniferum
Ergot – Claviceps purpurea
Fly agaric – Amanita muscaria
Amanita muscaria ornaments?
Sumerian Headdress
Sun god Horus and Tuth-Shena