The Ethnobotany of Eden

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022654785X
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ethnobotany of Eden by : Robert A. Voeks

Download or read book The Ethnobotany of Eden written by Robert A. Voeks and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-06-27 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Gardeners of Eden

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Publisher : University of Nevada Press
ISBN 13 : 1943859361
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Gardeners of Eden by : Dan Dagget

Download or read book Gardeners of Eden written by Dan Dagget and published by University of Nevada Press. This book was released on 2017-03-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dan Dagget believes that humanity can have a positive effect on the land. He demonstrates case after case of positive human engagement in the environment and of managed ecosystems and restored areas that are richer, more diverse, and healthier than unmanaged ones. Much of pre-Columbian America, he contends, was not a pristine wilderness but an ancient garden managed over millennia by native peoples who shaped the plant and animal communities around them to the mutual benefit of all. Dagget recommends a new kind of environmentalism based on management, science, evolution, and holism, and served by humans who enrich the environment even as they benefit from it. His new environmentalism offers hopeful solutions to the current ecological crisis and a new purpose for our human energies and ideals. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the earth and anyone seeking a viable way for our burgeoning human population to continue to live upon it.

Evolving Eden

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780231119443
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (194 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolving Eden by : Alan Turner

Download or read book Evolving Eden written by Alan Turner and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Garden of Eden as the ideal and untouched site of life's creation persists in popular thought, even as we have uncovered a lengthy fossil record and developed a scientific understanding of evolution. The continent of Africa is a good candidate for Eden: its generally warm climate, rich vegetation, and variety of animal species lend themselves easily to such a comparison. Yet in the time since the first primates appeared millions of years ago, Africa has undergone profound alterations in physical geography, climate, and biota. Linking the evidence of the past with that of the present, this exquisitely illustrated guide examines the evolution of the mammalian fauna of Africa within the context of dramatic changes over the course of more than 30 million years of primate presence. The book covers such topics as dating, continental drift, and global climate change and the likely motors of evolution as well as the physical evolution of the African continent, including present and past climates, and the major determinants of plant and mammal distributions. The authors discuss human evolution as a part of the larger pattern of mammalian evolution while responding to the unique interest that we have in our own past. The meticulous reconstructions of fossil mammals in this book are the result of detailed anatomical research. Restorations of mammalian musculature and appearance take into account the affinities between fossil forms and extant species in order to make well-founded inferences about unpreserved animal attributes. Environmental reconstructions benefit from the authors' visits to more than a dozen wildlife preserves in five African countries as well as the use of an extensive database of published studies on the evolution of landscapes on the continent. A fascinating read and a visual feast, Evolving Eden lays the foundation for a deeper appreciation of contemporary African wildlife.

Plants, People, and Places

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Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN 13 : 0228003172
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (28 download)

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Book Synopsis Plants, People, and Places by : Nancy J. Turner

Download or read book Plants, People, and Places written by Nancy J. Turner and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2020-08-20 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For millennia, plants and their habitats have been fundamental to the lives of Indigenous Peoples - as sources of food and nutrition, medicines, and technological materials - and central to ceremonial traditions, spiritual beliefs, narratives, and language. While the First Peoples of Canada and other parts of the world have developed deep cultural understandings of plants and their environments, this knowledge is often underrecognized in debates about land rights and title, reconciliation, treaty negotiations, and traditional territories. Plants, People, and Places argues that the time is long past due to recognize and accommodate Indigenous Peoples' relationships with plants and their ecosystems. Essays in this volume, by leading voices in philosophy, Indigenous law, and environmental sustainability, consider the critical importance of botanical and ecological knowledge to land rights and related legal and government policy, planning, and decision making in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and New Zealand. Analyzing specific cases in which Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights to the environment have been denied or restricted, this collection promotes future prosperity through more effective and just recognition of the historical use of and care for plants in Indigenous cultures. A timely book featuring Indigenous perspectives on reconciliation, environmental sustainability, and pathways toward ethnoecological restoration, Plants, People, and Places reveals how much there is to learn from the history of human relationships with nature.

Pomegranate Roads

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Publisher : Pomegranate Roads
ISBN 13 : 9780964949768
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (497 download)

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Book Synopsis Pomegranate Roads by : Gregory Moiseyevich Levin

Download or read book Pomegranate Roads written by Gregory Moiseyevich Levin and published by Pomegranate Roads. This book was released on 2006 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Memoir with pomegranates by famed Soviet botanist, Dr. Gregory Levin. Botany, history and myths, range of tastes and rometies, amisine, health benefits of the pomegrante. Adventurous tale of survival in USSR, accounts of treks across trans-caucasus and Central Asia in search of last wild pomegranates.

Plants, People, and Culture

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Publisher : Garland Science
ISBN 13 : 1000098400
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Plants, People, and Culture by : Michael J Balick

Download or read book Plants, People, and Culture written by Michael J Balick and published by Garland Science. This book was released on 2020-08-19 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible that plants have shaped the very trajectory of human cultures? Using riveting stories of fieldwork in remote villages, two of the world’s leading ethnobotanists argue that our past and our future are deeply intertwined with plants. Creating massive sea craft from plants, indigenous shipwrights spurred the navigation of the world’s oceans. Today, indigenous agricultural innovations continue to feed, clothe, and heal the world’s population. One out of four prescription drugs, for example, were discovered from plants used by traditional healers. Objects as common as baskets for winnowing or wooden boxes to store feathers were ornamented with traditional designs demonstrating the human ability to understand our environment and to perceive the cosmos. Throughout the world, the human body has been used as the ultimate canvas for plant-based adornment as well as indelible design using tattoo inks. Plants also garnered religious significance, both as offerings to the gods and as a doorway into the other world. Indigenous claims that plants themselves are sacred is leading to a startling reformulation of conservation. The authors argue that conservation goals can best be achieved by learning from, rather than opposing, indigenous peoples and their beliefs. KEY FEATURES • An engrossing narrative that invites the reader to personally engage with the relationship between plants, people, and culture • Full-color illustrations throughout—including many original photographs captured by the authors during fieldwork • New to this edition—"Plants That Harm," a chapter that examines the dangers of poisonous plants and the promise that their study holds for novel treatments for some of our most serious diseases, including Alzheimer’s and substance addiction • Additional readings at the end of each chapter to encourage further exploration • Boxed features on selected topics that offer further insight • Provocative questions to facilitate group discussion Designed for the college classroom as well as for lay readers, this update of Plants, People, and Culture entices the reader with firsthand stories of fieldwork, spectacular illustrations, and a deep respect for both indigenous peoples and the earth’s natural heritage.

What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be?

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Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022677743X
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? by : John Hausdoerffer

Download or read book What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? written by John Hausdoerffer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-05-28 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book "challenges our relationship to the environment and to each other, not only now but across generations. It is an important question for our time, when communities have become fragmented by a global consumer society, when our selves have become isolated in a competitive and technology-driven economy, and when our spiritual, social, and ecological impacts on human and other-than-human beings extend farther than ever imagined due to globalization and climate change. Through interviews and poetic snapshots into the experience of Indigenous people and others, this book demands that the reader think about how contemporary concerns oblige us to see ourselves as someone's future ancestor and, in turn, creates for the reader a different way of looking at his or her traditions and self"--

The Garden of Eden

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781870673822
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (738 download)

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Book Synopsis The Garden of Eden by : Annemette Fogh

Download or read book The Garden of Eden written by Annemette Fogh and published by . This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writer Annemette Fogh stumbled across the abandoned Garden of Eden on the Venetian island of La Giudecca by accident. Intrigued by its locked wrought iron gate, and curious about this lost paradise, she set about discovering its magical past. The nine-

Killers in Eden

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Publisher : Museum Victoria
ISBN 13 : 0980619084
Total Pages : 167 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (86 download)

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Book Synopsis Killers in Eden by : Danielle Clode

Download or read book Killers in Eden written by Danielle Clode and published by Museum Victoria. This book was released on 2011 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a century, the killer whales of Twofold Bay herded baleen whales towards the harpoons of local whalers, helping them hunt and sharing the rewards. It was a life of industry, adventure and a strange and rare partnership between whale and man. In Killers in Eden, Danielle Clode explores how this relationship between whaler and killer whale developed. Using our knowledge of killer whales to entangle fact from myth, Danielle uncovers the truly remarkable history of the killers in Eden.

Natural

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Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 080701088X
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Natural by : Alan Levinovitz

Download or read book Natural written by Alan Levinovitz and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illuminates the far-reaching harms of believing that natural means “good,” from misinformation about health choices to justifications for sexism, racism, and flawed economic policies. People love what’s natural: it’s the best way to eat, the best way to parent, even the best way to act—naturally, just as nature intended. Appeals to the wisdom of nature are among the most powerful arguments in the history of human thought. Yet Nature (with a capital N) and natural goodness are not objective or scientific. In this groundbreaking book, scholar of religion Alan Levinovitz demonstrates that these beliefs are actually religious and highlights the many dangers of substituting simple myths for complicated realities. It may not seem like a problem when it comes to paying a premium for organic food. But what about condemnations of “unnatural” sexual activity? The guilt that attends not having a “natural” birth? Economic deregulation justified by the inherent goodness of “natural” markets? In Natural, readers embark on an epic journey, from Peruvian rainforests to the backcountry in Yellowstone Park, from a “natural” bodybuilding competition to a “natural” cancer-curing clinic. The result is an essential new perspective that shatters faith in Nature’s goodness and points to a better alternative. We can love nature without worshipping it, and we can work toward a better world with humility and dialogue rather than taboos and zealotry.

Cannabis

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Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520292480
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)

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Book Synopsis Cannabis by : Robert Clarke

Download or read book Cannabis written by Robert Clarke and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary exploration of the natural origins and early evolution of this famous plant, highlighting its historic role in the development of human societies. Cannabis has long been prized for the strong and durable fiber in its stalks, its edible and oil-rich seeds, and the psychoactive and medicinal compounds produced by its female flowers. The culturally valuable and often irreplaceable goods derived from cannabis deeply influenced the commercial, medical, ritual, and religious practices of cultures throughout the ages, and human desire for these commodities directed the evolution of the plant toward its contemporary varieties. As interest in cannabis grows and public debate over its many uses rises, this book will help us understand why humanity continues to rely on this plant and adapts it to suit our needs.

Reflections of Eden

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780575400023
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Reflections of Eden by : Biruté Marija Filomena Galdikas

Download or read book Reflections of Eden written by Biruté Marija Filomena Galdikas and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1971 Birute Galdikas has lived and worked in the forests of Borneo, documenting the lives of the orangutans. This text describes her groundbreaking scientific and conservation work that has been recorded in more than a dozen television documentaries

Reading Clocks, Alla Turca

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022625786X
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Reading Clocks, Alla Turca by : Avner Wishnitzer

Download or read book Reading Clocks, Alla Turca written by Avner Wishnitzer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Up until the end of the eighteenth century, the way Ottomans used their clocks conformed to the inner logic of their own temporal culture. However, this began to change rather dramatically during the nineteenth century, as the Ottoman Empire was increasingly assimilated into the European-dominated global economy and the project of modern state building began to gather momentum. In Reading Clocks, Alla Turca, Avner Wishnitzer unravels the complexity of Ottoman temporal culture and for the first time tells the story of its transformation. He explains that in their attempt to attain better surveillance capabilities and higher levels of regularity and efficiency, various organs of the reforming Ottoman state developed elaborate temporal constructs in which clocks played an increasingly important role. As the reform movement spread beyond the government apparatus, emerging groups of officers, bureaucrats, and urban professionals incorporated novel time-related ideas, values, and behaviors into their self-consciously “modern” outlook and lifestyle. Acculturated in the highly regimented environment of schools and barracks, they came to identify efficiency and temporal regularity with progress and the former temporal patterns with the old political order. Drawing on a wealth of archival and literary sources, Wishnitzer’s original and highly important work presents the shifting culture of time as an arena in which Ottoman social groups competed for legitimacy and a medium through which the very concept of modernity was defined. Reading Clocks, Alla Turca breaks new ground in the study of the Middle East and presents us with a new understanding of the relationship between time and modernity.

Evolving God

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022636092X
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolving God by : Barbara J. King

Download or read book Evolving God written by Barbara J. King and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of How Animals Grieve “contends that religion . . . is a consequence of primate evolution” in this “brilliant book” (Booklist, starred review). Religion has been a central part of human experience since at least the dawn of recorded history. The gods change, as do the rituals, but the underlying desire remains—a desire to belong to something larger, greater, most lasting than our mortal, finite selves. But where did that desire come from? Can we explain its emergence through evolution? Yes, says biological anthropologist Barbara J. King—and doing so not only helps us to understand the religious imagination, but also reveals fascinating links to the lives and minds of our primate cousins. Evolving God draws on King’s own fieldwork among primates in Africa and paleoanthropology of our extinct ancestors to offer a new way of thinking about the origins of religion, one that situates it in a deep need for emotional connection with others, a need we share with apes and monkeys. Though her thesis is provocative, and she’s not above thoughtful speculation, King’s argument is strongly rooted in close observation and analysis. She traces an evolutionary path that connects us to other primates, who, like us, display empathy, make meanings through interaction, create social rules, and display imagination—the basic building blocks of the religious imagination. With fresh insights, she responds to recent suggestions that chimpanzees are spiritual—or even religious—beings, and that our ancient humanlike cousins carefully disposed of their dead well before the time of Neandertals. “Her interpretations result in a provocative hypothesis about the evolution of spirituality.” —The Dallas Morning News

Mobility and Migration in Indigenous Amazonia

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Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 1845459075
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (454 download)

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Book Synopsis Mobility and Migration in Indigenous Amazonia by : Miguel N. Alexiades

Download or read book Mobility and Migration in Indigenous Amazonia written by Miguel N. Alexiades and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to ingrained academic and public assumptions, wherein indigenous lowland South American societies are viewed as the product of historical emplacement and spatial stasis, there is widespread evidence to suggest that migration and displacement have been the norm, and not the exception. This original and thought-provoking collection of case studies examines some of the ways in which migration, and the concomitant processes of ecological and social change, have shaped and continue to shape human-environment relations in Amazonia. Drawing on a wide range of historical time frames (from pre-conquest times to the present) and ethnographic contexts, different chapters examine the complex and important links between migration and the classification, management, and domestication of plants and landscapes, as well as the incorporation and transformation of environmental knowledge, practices, ideologies and identities.

A Garden Eden. Masterpieces of Botanical Illustration

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9783836577403
Total Pages : 576 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (774 download)

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Book Synopsis A Garden Eden. Masterpieces of Botanical Illustration by : H. Walter Lack

Download or read book A Garden Eden. Masterpieces of Botanical Illustration written by H. Walter Lack and published by . This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art meets science in this far-reaching catalogue of botanical illustration. Drawn from the vaults of the National Library of Vienna, these exquisite color reproductions range from 6th-century manuscripts to 19th-century masterpieces and celebrate both the skill of botanical artists and the abundance of natural flora.

The African Roots of Marijuana

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Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 1478004533
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis The African Roots of Marijuana by : Chris S. Duvall

Download or read book The African Roots of Marijuana written by Chris S. Duvall and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-09 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After arriving from South Asia approximately a thousand years ago, cannabis quickly spread throughout the African continent. European accounts of cannabis in Africa—often fictionalized and reliant upon racial stereotypes—shaped widespread myths about the plant and were used to depict the continent as a cultural backwater and Africans as predisposed to drug use. These myths continue to influence contemporary thinking about cannabis. In The African Roots of Marijuana, Chris S. Duvall corrects common misconceptions while providing an authoritative history of cannabis as it flowed into, throughout, and out of Africa. Duvall shows how preexisting smoking cultures in Africa transformed the plant into a fast-acting and easily dosed drug and how it later became linked with global capitalism and the slave trade. People often used cannabis to cope with oppressive working conditions under colonialism, as a recreational drug, and in religious and political movements. This expansive look at Africa's importance to the development of human knowledge about marijuana will challenge everything readers thought they knew about one of the world's most ubiquitous plants.