Ethnobiology and the Science of Humankind

Part of The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Special Issue Book Series, this landmark volume assesses the contribution of recent work in ethnobiology to anthropological thought.

• Considers the ways in which the subject matter and methodologies of ethnobiological research address core anthropological questions.
• Contributors explore a wide range of themes, such as our understanding of those processes which transform the environment, and the evolution of the cultural mind.
• Addresses anthropological issues of general interest, from biology to reflexivity.
  
• Helps to develop the productive relationship between ethnobiology and anthropology.

Preface vi

1. Introduction 1
Roy Ellen

2. Speculations on the First Congress of Ethnozoological Nomenclature 29
Brent Berlin

3. Ethnobiology and the Evolution of the Human Mind 55
Steven Mithen

4. The Interplay of Ethnographic and Archaeological Knowledge in the Study of Past Human Subsistence 77
David Harris

5. Amazonian historical ecologies 97
Laura Rival

6. The Interface Between Medical Ethnobotany and Medical Anthropology 117
Anna Waldstein and Cameron Adams

7. Ethnobiology and Applied Anthropology: rapprochement of the academic with the pratical 147
Paul Sillitoe

8. Meeting of Minds: How do we Share our Appreciation of Traditional environmental knowledge? 177
Eugene Hunn

Index 197

"Roy Ellen manages to assemble a series of articles, most of the written by internationally renowned scholars, which comprise an astonishing variety of themes and theories." (Anthropos, 2009)

"The book's eight chapters succeed admirably in meeting its goal. It provides an eclectic, but reasonably comprehensive overview ... through many thought-provoking examples." (Journal of Anthropological Research)

Roy Ellen is Professor of Anthropology and Human Ecology at the University of Kent at Canterbury. His research, mainly focussed on island southeast Asia, has spanned issues in ethnobiological classification, the ecology of swidden cultivation, deforestation and inter-island trade. His previous publications include On the Edge of the Banda Zone (2003), The Cultural Relations of Classification (1993) and Environment, Subsistence and System (1982). This landmark volume assesses the contribution of recent work in ethnobiology to anthropological thought. Comprising a series of articles written by international scholars, the book considers the ways in which the subject matter and methodologies of ethnobiological research address core anthropological questions about the character of culture, language, cognition, knowledge, subsistence practice and co-evolution.

The contributors explore a wide variety of themes including: our understanding of those processes which transform the environment; the evolution of the cultural mind; classification and cognitive science; the character of cultural transmission; ethnobiology and archaeological interpretation; medical ethnobotany in relation to medical anthropology; and local ecological knowledge as applied anthropology. In this way, the book addresses issues of general interest in anthropology and helps to develop the productive relationship between ethnobiology and anthropology.