Anthropology | Ethnobotany
E600 | 27747 | Brondizio

Ethnobotany focuses on past and present, dynamic and interactive
relationship between people and plants: how plants are used, their
social, economic, and cultural values are among important questions in
ethnobotany. The course combines classes on the historical development
of the field, its intersection with related fields in anthropology and
ecology, issues of intellectual property rights, and methods and
fieldwork techniques used for ethnobotanical research. Instead of
focusing on a particular region or field associated with ethnobotany
(e.g., such as pharmacology or paleoethnobotany) this course aims at
introducing students to theory and baseline comparative methodologies
underlying ethnobotany today. The pursuit of specific domains is
encouraged as part of students' assignments (research paper) and
interest. Individual research papers should be used to expand
knowledge on a specific regions or topics. The course has three main
parts: Part 1. Introduction: History, scope, and theoretical
interfaces; Part 2. Intellectual property rights and traditional
botanical knowledge (TBK); Part 3. Multi-level and comparative methods
in ethnobotanical research.