📖 In a paper published in the Journal of Ethnobiology, Marta Macedo examines "how cannabis was part and parcel of the lives of peoples from Angola recruited to São Tomé and, consequently, of the island's plantation worlds in the late nineteenth century." 🇸🇹

🔓#OpenAccess:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02780771231222335

@histodons
@envhum

#Histodons #EnvHum #EnvironmentalHistory #EnvironmentalHumanities #Ethnobiology #AgrarianHistory #HistóriaAmbiental #Angola #SãoTomé #Cannabis #Plantations #HistóriaAgrária

As someone who ran the only other #ethnobotany programme in the UK (Aberdeen, which was closed more than 10 years ago), and who taught #ethnobiology at the Edinburgh Botanics for many years, I believe I am qualified to say that the closure of ethnobotany, ethnobiology, and anthropology at Kent is appalling cultural vandalism.

Dark times are upon us, and the custodians of the lineages of wisdom must be careful now.

@pvonhellermannn

Well intentioned, but tone-deaf, or just completely unaware of conservation biology outside the USA and all modern ethnobiology?

"It's important that we work with communities to understand what their needs are—and then build a better partnership," Carlen said. "We can't just show residents the app and tell them that they need to use it, because that ignores the underlying problem that our society is still segregated and not everyone has the resources to participate."
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10592

This paper seems to overlook that ignoring affluent White urban/global Northern conservation projects can be an act of resistance. It's not just about "not having the resources"; it's about choosing what matters, about having the power to choose one's conversation partners and whether or not to share knowledge.

In #ethnobiology, scientists who happen to be from dominant communities actively work to overcome oppression by listening first, acknowledging anger, awaiting permission to collaborate (which may never come!), co-designing research, and breaking up privilege in their own institutions. We've been in this struggle for decades. Organisations like the #ICCA are led by local/Indigenous community stewards of biodiversity. #IPBES and #GEF worked all this out, even if there are still a few bumps.

Is anyone else here at #IMISCOE ? I just gave a presentation in a wonderful panel on food, sustainability, and migration organised by Elena Mescoli.

#anthropology #migration #ethnobiology #food

Every few years I end up doing a (more-or-less) deep dive into the history and taxonomy of the genus Citrus. It _never_ fails to delight and confuse me.

Talon, Caruso, and Gmitter, _The Genus Citrus_. Woodhead, Duxford UK, 2020.

Woodhead is (of course) a tentacle of Elsevier, but the summary of recent work is just headbending, and they're not even looking at locally produced cultivars and hybrids in particular Asian culture areas. I do wish there had benn a chapter on #ethnobiology . Missed opportunity there.