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ANTH 491: Ethnobiology—Traditional Biological Knowledge in Contemporary Global Context (Rev. C6 & C7) Report a Broken Link

Unit 1: Introduction to Ethnobiology

Required Reading
Barbeau, Marius, and William Beynon. 1987. “The Origin of Nettle Fibre.” In Tricksters, Shamans, and Heroes: Tsimshian Narratives I, collected by Marius Barbeau and William Beynon, edited by John J. Cove and George F. MacDonald, 84–88. Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series Directorate Paper no. 3. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Anderson, E. N. 2011. “Ethnobiology: Overview of a Growing Field.” In Ethnobiology, edited by E. N. Anderson, D. Pearsall, E. Hunn, and N. Turner, 1–14. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Ford, Richard I. 2011. “History of Ethnobiology.” In Ethnobiology, edited by E. N. Anderson, D. Pearsall, E. Hunn, and N. Turner, 15–26. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Related Reading
NWT Literacy Council. 2003. Lessons from the Land: Idaà Trail. Yellowknife, NWT: Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.

Unit 2: Ethnobiological Classification

Required Reading
Atran, Scott. 1990. “Common Sense: Its Scope and Limits.” In Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Towards an Anthropology of Science, 1–13, 275–276. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Martin, Gary J. 1995. Ethnobotany: A Methods Manual. London: Chapman and Hall.

Read sections 7.5 to 7.9 on pages 205–221.
Turner, Nancy J. 1987. “General Plant Categories in Thompson and Lillooet, Two Interior Salish Languages of British Columbia.” Journal of Ethnobiology 7, no. 1 (Summer): 55–82.
Related Reading
Sillitoe, Paul. 2002. “Contested Knowledge, Contingent Classification: Animals in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.” American Anthropologist 104, no. 4 (December): 1162–71.

Unit 3: Ethnobotany and Plants as Foods

Required Reading
Nolan, Justin M., and Nancy J. Turner. 2011. “Ethnobotany: The Study of People–Plant Relationships.” In Ethnobiology, edited by E. N. Anderson, D. Pearsall, E. Hunn, and N. Turner, 133–47. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Alcorn, Janis B. 1981. “Huastec Noncrop Resource Management: Implications for Prehistoric Rain Forest Management.” Human Ecology 9, no. 4 (December): 395–417.
Howard, Patricia L. 2003. “Women and the Plant World: An Exploration.” In Women & Plants: Gender Relations in Biodiversity Management and Conservation, edited by Patricia Howard, 1–48. London and New York: Zed Books.
Kuhnlein, Harriet V., and Nancy J. Turner. 2020. “What’s So Special About Indigenous Foods?” In Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples: Nutrition, Botany and Use, 5–8. London: Routledge.
Kuhnlein, Harriet V., and Nancy J. Turner. 2020. “An Overview of the Nutrient Value and Use of Plant Foods by Indigenous Peoples.” In Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples: Nutrition, Botany and Use, 9–23. London: Routledge.
Johnson Gottesfeld, Leslie, M. 1995. “The Role of Plant Foods in Traditional Wet’suwet’en Nutrition.” Ecology of Food and Nutrition 34, no. 2: 149–69.
Johnson Gottesfeld, Leslie M. 1994. “Wet'suwet'en Ethnobotany: Traditional Plant Uses.” Journal of Ethnobiology 14, no. 2: 185–210.

Unit 4: Plants as Medicines

Required Reading
Johnson Gottesfeld, Leslie M. 1994. “Wet’suwet’en Ethnobotany: Traditional Plant Uses.” Journal of Ethnobiology 14, no. 2: 185–210.
Johnson Gottesfeld, Leslie M., and Beverley Anderson. 1988. “Gitksan Traditional Medicine: Herbs and Healing.” Journal of Ethnobiology 8, no. 1: 13–33.
Browner, C. H. 1985. “Criteria for Selecting Herbal Remedies.” Ethnology 24, no. 1 (January): 13–32.
Shankar, Darshan, and B. Majumdar. 1997. “Beyond the Biodiversity Convention: The Challenges Facing the Biocultural Heritage of India’s Medicinal Plants.” In Medicinal Plants for Forest Conservation and Health Care, edited by Gerard Bodeker, K. K. S. Bhat, Jeffrey Burley, and Paul Vantomme, 87–99. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
Moerman, Daniel E. 1998. “Plant Use by Native Americans.” In Native American Ethnobotany, 11–18. Portland: Timber Press.
Chalifoux, Luke, with Anne Anderson. 1980. “The Indian Way.” In Some Native Herbal Remedies, A–C. Devonian Botanic Garden Publication 8A. Edmonton: Friends of the Devonian Botanic Garden.
De Laguna, Frederica. 1972. “Cures, Medicines and Amulets.” In Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit, 654–60. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hellson, John C., and M. Gadd. 1974. Ethnobotany of the Blackfoot Indians, 62–65; 73. National Museum of Man Mercury Series. Canadian Ethnology Service Paper no. 19. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
Kindscher, Kelly. 1992. “Echinacea angustifolia, Purple Coneflower.” In Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide, 84–94. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Hamilton, Alan C. 2004. “Medicinal Plants, Conservation, and Livelihoods.” Biodiversity and Conservation 13: 1477–1517.
Related Reading
Furst, Peter T. 1976. Hallucinogens and Culture. San Francisco, CA: Chandler & Sharp.
Bloxton, James D. II, and Ara Der Marderosian. 2002. “Bioactive Constituents of Alaskan Devil’s Root (Oplopanax horridus, Araliaceae).” Economic Botany 56, no. 3 (Autumn): 285–87.

Unit 5: Plants for Technology

Required Viewing
Woolf, Terry, dir. 1997. The Dogrib Birchbark Canoe. 28 min. Lone Woolf TV Production Services.
Required Reading
Johnson Gottesfeld, Leslie M. 1994. “Wet’suwet’en Ethnobotany: Traditional Plant Uses.” Journal of Ethnobiology 14, no. 2: 185–210.
Turner, Nancy J. John Thomas, Barry F. Carlson, and Robert T. Ogilvie. 1983. “Plant Materials.” In Ethnobotany of the Nitinaht Indians of Vancouver Island, 22–43. Occasional Papers of the British Columbia Provincial Museum no. 24. Victoria: The British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria, and Parks Canada.
Gilmore, Michael P., W. Hardy Eshbaugh, and Adolph M. Greenberg. 2002. “The Use, Construction, and Importance of Canoes among the Maijuna of the Peruvian Amazon.” Economic Botany 56, no. 1: 10–26.

Unit 6: Ethnozoology

Required Viewing
Badger, Mark O., prod. 1987. Make Prayers to the Raven: The Life in the Bear. 28 min. KUAC-TV, University of Alaska.
Gandolfo, Mark, Tom King, and JoAnne Peden, dirs. 1995. Rabbit Boss. 26.5 min. University of Nevada Oral History Program.
Required Reading
Gwich’in Elders. 1997. “Vadzaih, Caribou.” In Nành’Kak Geenjit Gwich’in Ginjik: Gwich’in Words About the Land, 19; 24–38. Inuvik: Gwich’in Renewable Resource Board.
Felger, Richard Stephen, and Mary Beck Moser. 1985. “Animal Life.” In People of the Desert and Sea: Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians, 36–54. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1940. “Interest in Cattle” and “Oecology.” In The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People, 36–48; 72–74. Oxford University Press.
Goldschmidt, Walter. 1976. “The Role of Livestock among the Sebei.” In Culture and Behavior of the Sebei: A Study in Continuity and Adaptation, 112–114; 139–145. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Related Reading
Darwent, Christyann, M. 2005. Review of Hunting, Fishing, and Animal Husbandry at the Farm Beneath the Sand, Western Greenland: An Archaeozoological Analysis of a Norse Farm in the Western Settlement by Inge Bødker Enghoff. Arctic 58, no.1 (March): 85–87.

Unit 7: Animals and World View—Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Alaska

Required Reading
Hall, Ken (Chief Chequekash). 2002. “Legend of the Hunter, Kemano and Kitlope, BC.” Unpublished Manuscript.
Harris, Kenneth B., and Frances M. P. Robinson. 1974. “Strange Feasts.” In Visitors Who Never Left: The Origin of the People of Damelahamid, 45–51. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Enter page 77 to access beginning of reading.
Dene Wodih Society. 1990. “Wolverine, Giant Skunk, and Mountain Lion.” In Wolverine Myths and Visions: Dene Traditions From Northern Alberta, edited by Angela Wheelock and Patrick Moore, xi; 24–27. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.
Boas, Franz, and Henry W. Tate. 1916 “The Prince Who Was Taken Away by the Spring Salmon.” In Tsimshian Mythology.
Brightman, Robert A. 1993. Grateful Prey: Rock Cree Human–Animal Relationships. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Please read the following excerpts:

  • In the section “There Was Just Animals Before,” read: “Animal Transformations.”
  • In the section “Dreaming All the Bottom of the Water,” read: “Introduction.”
  • In the section “The Same Respect You Give Yourself,” read: “Introduction,” “Mortuary Deposition,” and “Animals and Women.”
Johnson Gottesfeld, Leslie M. 1994. “Conservation, Territory, and Traditional Beliefs: An Analysis of Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en Subsistence, Northwest British Columbia, Canada.” Human Ecology 22, no. 4: 443–65.

Unit 8: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Traditional Environmental Management

Required Viewing
Kennedy, Grant, prod., and H. T. Lewis, dir. 1978. Fires of Spring. University of Alberta, Motion Pictures. Streaming permission provided by the University of Alberta.
Maughan, Graham, prod. and dir. 1996. Second Nature: Building Forests in West Africa’s Savannas. 41 min. Cyrus Productions.
Required Reading
Turner, Nancy J. 1999. “‘Time to Burn’: Traditional Use of Fire to Enhance Resource Production by Aboriginal Peoples in British Columbia.” In Indians, Fire, and the Land in the Pacific Northwest, edited by Robert Boyd, 185–218. Oregon State University Press.
Anderson, Kat. 1993. “Native Californians as Ancient and Contemporary Cultivators.” In Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians, edited by Thomas C. Blackburn and Kat Anderson, 151–74. Menlo Park CA: Ballena Press.
Hallam, Sylvia J. 1989. “Plant Usage and Management in Southwest Australian Societies.” In Foraging and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation, edited by D. R. Harris and G. C. Hillman, 136–51. London: Unwin Hyman.
Ford, Richard I., ed. 1994. “Introduction.” In The Nature and Status of Ethnobotany, 2nd ed., 165–67. Anthropological Papers no. 67. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Kunstadter, Peter. 1994. “Ecological Modification and Adaptation: An Ethnobotanical View of Lua' Swiddeners in Northwestern Thailand.” In The Nature and Status of Ethnobotany, 2nd ed., edited by Richard I. Ford, 169–200. Museum of Anthropology, No. 67. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Deur, Douglas. 2005. “Tending the Garden, Making the Soil: Northwest Coast Estuarine Gardens as Engineered Environments.” In Keeping it Living: Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America, edited by Douglas Deur and Nancy J. Turner, 296–327. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Enter page 309 to access beginning of reading.
Related Reading
Davidson-Hunt, Iain, and Fikret Berkes. 2003. “Learning as You Journey: Anishinaabe Perception of Social-Ecological Environments and Adaptive Learning.” Conservation Ecology 8, no. 1 (December).
Trawick, Paul. 2002. “Trickle-Down Theory, Andean Style.” Natural History 111, no. 8: 60–65.
Hamlin, Catherine C., and Jan Salick. 2003. “Yanesha Agriculture in the Upper Peruvian Amazon: Persistence and Change Fifteen Years Down the ‘Road.’” Economic Botany 57, no. 2: 163–80.

Unit 9: Contemporary Issues—Traditional Cultures, Resource Management and Conservation, and Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property

Required Viewing
Wild, Nettie, dir. 1993. Blockade: It’s About the Land and Who Controls It. 90 min. Canada Wild Productions.
Required Reading
Singh, Samar, Avenash Datta, Anit Bakshi, Arvind Khare, Sushil Saigal, and Navin Kapoor. 1997. “Participatory Forest Management in West Bengal, India.” In Harvesting Wild Species: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation, edited by Curtis H. Freese, 49–92. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Horn, Christa M., Michael P. Gilmore, and Bryan A. Endress. 2012. “Ecological and Socio-economic Factors Influencing Aguaje (Mauritia flexuosa): Resource Management in Two Indigenous Communities in the Peruvian Amazon.” Forest Ecology and Management 267, no. 1: 93–103.
Hrenchuk, Carl. 1993. “Native Land Use and Common Property: Whose Common?” In Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Concepts and Cases, edited by Julian Inglis, 69–86. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre and International Program on Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Brush, Stephen B. 1996. “Whose Knowledge, Whose Genes, Whose Rights?” In Valuing Local Knowledge: Indigenous People and Intellectual Property Rights, edited by Stephen B. Brush and Doreen Stabinsky, 1–21. Washington, D.C. and Covelo, CA: Island Press.
Wills, Russel M., and Richard G. Lipsey. 1999. “Executive Summary.” In An Economic Strategy to Develop Non-Timber Forest Products and Services in British Columbia, v–xxiii. Forest Renewal BC Project No. PA97538-ORE Final Report.
Related Reading
Steinberg, Michael K. 2002. “The Globalization of a Ceremonial Tree: The Case of Cacao (Theobroma cacao) among the Mopan Maya.” Economic Botany 56, no. 1: 58–65.
Hamlin, Catherine C., and Jan Salick. 2003. “Yanesha Agriculture in the Upper Peruvian Amazon: Persistence and Change Fifteen Years Down the ‘Road.’” Economic Botany 57, no. 2: 163–80.