Flashcards on Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology Research Methods

Ethnobotany & Ethnopharmacology Research Methods Guide

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What is ethnobotany?

The study of the relationships between people and plants, including how plants are named, classified, and used by different cultural groups.

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Ethnobotany

39 cards

Card 1

Question: What is ethnobotany?

Answer: The study of the relationships between people and plants, including how plants are named, classified, and used by different cultural groups.

Card 2

Question: What does linguistic ethnobotany study?

Answer: The study of language used to define relationships between plants and people.

Card 3

Question: What is ethno­semantics in ethnobotany?

Answer: The study of the meanings of words, especially as they relate to folk taxonomies of plants and animals.

Card 4

Question: What is ethnotaxonomy?

Answer: The study of the taxonomic systems defined and used by individual ethnic groups to classify plants and animals.

Card 5

Question: What is folk classification?

Answer: The way members of a language community organize knowledge about their biological world (how they name and categorize plants and animals).

Card 6

Question: What are recommended practices for recording indigenous plant names?

Answer: Train in articulatory phonetics, make audio/video recordings with at least two informants, and have transcriptions and analyses done by a linguist.

Card 7

Question: What are the main types of dialogue-based ethnobotanical category labels?

Answer: Linguistic/lexical categories (primary and secondary names), inflectional categories, hierarchical categories, and hidden/grouping categories.

Card 8

Question: What is a primary name in folk classification?

Answer: An unmodified name for something (e.g., 'oak' for Quercus spp.).

Card 9

Question: What is a secondary name in folk classification?

Answer: A modifier applied to a primary lexeme to make a more specific name (e.g., 'blue oak' or 'white oak').

Card 10

Question: Give examples of hierarchical ethnotaxonomical ranks.

Answer: Unique beginner (kingdom), life form (families), generic taxa (genus), specific and varietal taxa (species and varieties), and intermediate levels.