African Ethnobotany

African Ethnobotany in the Americas provides the first comprehensive examination of ethnobotanical knowledge and skills among the African Diaspora in the Americas. Leading scholars on the subject explore the complex relationship between plant use and meaning among the descendants of Africans in the New World. With the aid of archival and field research carried out in North America, South America, and the Caribbean, contributors explore the historical, environmental, and political-ecological factors that facilitated/hindered transatlantic ethnobotanical diffusion; the role of Africans as active agents of plant and plant knowledge transfer during the period of plantation slavery in the Americas; the significance of cultural resistance in refining and redefining plant-based traditions; the principal categories of plant use that resulted; the exchange of knowledge among Amerindian, European and other African peoples; and the changing significance of African-American ethnobotanical traditions in the 21st century. Bolstered by abundant visual content and contributions from renowned experts in the field, African Ethnobotany in the Americas is an invaluable resource for students, scientists, and researchers in the field of ethnobotany and African Diaspora studies.

In the mysterious and pristine forests of the tropics, a wealth of ethnobotanical panaceas and shamanic knowledge promises cures for everything from cancer and AIDS to the common cold. To access such miracles, we need only to discover and protect these medicinal treasures before they succumb to the corrosive forces of the modern world. A compelling biocultural story, certainly, and a popular perspective on the lands and peoples of equatorial latitudes—but true? Only in part. In The Ethnobotany of Eden, geographer Robert A. Voeks unravels the long lianas of history and occasional strands of truth that gave rise to this irresistible jungle medicine narrative. By exploring the interconnected worlds of anthropology, botany, and geography, Voeks shows that well-intentioned scientists and environmentalists originally crafted the jungle narrative with the primary goal of saving the world’s tropical rainforests from destruction. It was a strategy deployed to address a pressing environmental problem, one that appeared at a propitious point in history just as the Western world was taking a more globalized view of environmental issues. And yet, although supported by science and its practitioners, the story was also underpinned by a persuasive mix of myth, sentimentality, and nostalgia for a long-lost tropical Eden. Resurrecting the fascinating history of plant prospecting in the tropics, from the colonial era to the present day, The Ethnobotany of Eden rewrites with modern science the degradation narrative we’ve built up around tropical forests, revealing the entangled origins of our fables of forest cures.

The use of poisonous plant extracts for weapons has no greater tradition anywhere on earth than in Africa. They also are a possible source of medicines. In some countries, arrow poisons continue to be utilized, especially for criminal purposes, in tribal warfare and in preventing the depredations of wild animals. On the other hand, the respective cultures are absorbed to an increasing extent by modern urban civilization without other records of their traditions, apart from the oral ones. African Ethnobotany: Poisons and Drugs is the first work that comprehensively reviews the chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of this plant group, which provides hunting poisons and drugs. This book gives the basis for further research. For each plant, the botany if given followed by numerous names in the various African languages and dialects, the use for arrow poison with its composition and distribution, often with very interesting information on ethnological and cultural aspects, the traditional medicine, detailed chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology as well as numerous literature references. This book is valuable in study or research in botany, chemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology.

Research in recent years has increasingly shifted away from purely academic research, and into applied aspects of the discipline, including climate change research, conservation, and sustainable development. It has by now widely been recognized that “traditional” knowledge is always in flux and adapting to a quickly changing environment. Trends of globalization, especially the globalization of plant markets, have greatly influenced how plant resources are managed nowadays. While ethnobotanical studies are now available from many regions of the world, no comprehensive encyclopedic series focusing on the worlds mountain regions is available in the market. Scholars in plant sciences worldwide will be interested in this website and its dynamic content. The field (and thus the market) of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology has grown considerably in recent years. Student interest is on the rise, attendance at professional conferences has grown steadily, and the number of professionals calling themselves ethnobotanists has increased significantly (the various societies (Society for Economic Botany, International Society of Ethnopharmacology, Society of Ethnobiology, International Society for Ethnobiology, and many regional and national societies in the field currently have thousands of members). Growth has been most robust in BRIC countries. The objective of this new MRW on Ethnobotany of Mountain Regions is to take advantage of the increasing international interest and scholarship in the field of mountain research. We anticipate including the best and latest research on a full range of descriptive, methodological, theoretical, and applied research on the most important plants for each region. Each contribution will be scientifically rigorous and contribute to the overall field of study.

This book is an unusually exploration of the ethnobotanical study, through interdisciplinary approach, that combines linguistics, botany and anthropological aspects. It gives an in-depth account of the practical life of the Digo in their day-to-day knowledge and conception of the plant world. The Digo were involved in the study as a representative of the African ethnic groups, which provides for a scholastic challenge to prove other wise. The subject matter is drawn from the general botanical topics, viz plant description, naming, identification, and classification. The coverage, however, is incomplete without considering the fields of plant knowledge application such as agriculture and healing. The book provides for evidence to recognise that, although unwritten, the African Traditional Plant knowledge is not muddled, as first impressions might suggest.

People's Plants is a photographic guide to the useful plants of Southern Africa. Traditional and contemporary uses of more than 650 plants are described and illustrated in 20 chapters, each dealing with a specific category of plant use. More than 530 photographs.