Fall 2011

Ethnobotany is the scientific study of interaction between human cultures and plants.

This includes a wide range of topics taken from an even wider range of disciplines, and this considers many different types of interactions between people and plants.

Although we draw on examples of interactions from around the world, a special focus is placed on examples of cultural use of plants in Hawai'i and the islands of the South and Central Pacific.

This course provides Foundations Requirement credit (for graduation) as Global & Multicultural Perspectives, Group C.

Learning Outcomes*

1. Students will be able to describe a diversity of ways in which plants and sues of plants have shaped past cultural and historical developments.
2. Students will be able to discuss and appreciate the roles of plants in their personal and family daily lives.
3. Students will be able to define the critical roles plants play in the modern world and into a sustainable future.
4. Students will become familiar with the basic elements of botanical sciences.
5. Students will become familiar with the basic elements of cultural sciences.

Required Readings*

• Abbott, Isabella Aiona.1992. La'au Hawai'i: traditional Hawaiian uses of plants. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.

• Balick, Michael J. & Paul Alan Cox. 1996. Plants, People, and Culture: the science of ethnobotany. American Botanical Council, Austin. 2005 reprint edition.