HNRS-251 | Ethnobotany

Full Title: Ethnobotany

Topic Description:

Together we will look at the relationships between plants and people. The world is full of unique organisms that bring their stories to us, but plants are central to many – royalty, gods, war, trade, medicine, and more. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the class will examine how plant structure and function, diversity, and origins, influence human dependency and therefore, shape our cultures. For example, plants provide medicine, but what is really understood in this situation? We will explore how countries with Western perspective influence non-Western peoples. We will dive into how our dependency on particular species causes damage to plants and their habitats. Is sustainability possible? When plants suddenly disappear from our world, how do humans evolve? What does science say?

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: November 2020