aussie ethnobotany

[opiatefreak]

Hi I would like to get into the ethnobotany of australia Can someone recommend some good books and maybe names of scientists?

[synchromesh]

Medical Ethnobotany of Australia: Past and Present

Be sure to check out the references. Enjoy.

[Sola]

Great reference, don't have that one yet.

Also 'The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants' by Christian Ratsch is a good starter.

[obtuse]

good starting points:

Australian Medicinal Plants, by E.V. Lassak and T. McCarthy

and these three:

Wild Food in Australia

Wild Medicine in Australia

Useful Wild Plants in Australia

by A.B. & J.W. Cribb

They should be enough to get you started. first one is fairly common.

and thanks for that paper synchromesh.

(edit:) and dont forget http://www.bushfood.net/forum/index.php. heaps of good stuff there, i just dont visit enough.

Cheers, Obtuse.

Edited January 2, 2011 by obtuse

[synchromesh]

No worries man. It looks pretty good, eh.

Wild Food Plants of Australia by Tim Low

[t st tantra]

snu's book, 'garden of eden ' has a fair bit on oz psychoactive plants.

t s t .

[random]

Does anybody know of any written from an indigenous perspective, that they could recommend?

[random]

someone, anyone?! ^

[Alice]

I have never come across one, meeka.

[random]

Thanks Alice, will keep checking online. The only book i've found so far is Mayi (means feed/food) published by magabala books. An interesting little book with some basic information and some nice photos.

[Micromegas]

What exactly do you mean by "from an indigenous perspective"? You mean one that talks about the plant mythology; or a book that talks about the way that aboriginals used plants, if you can see the difference.

Aborginal people and their plants by Philip Clarke is a good start, but annoying because it does fail to use botanical names using instead indigenous terms.

also Neville Bonney wrote Adnymathana and Beyond which IMO is a little cracker dealing with indigenous plant use in the Flinder's Ranges. Bonney collaborated with the adnymathana to write this book and there is a strong focus on using their language and customs in the text to the point of frustration. But it is an awesome book particularly if you are familiar with this area and its plants. You can find it, and others, from Stateflora in Belair National Park.

"autralian medicinal plants" by Lassack and McCarthy is also a good introductory read and much of this is based on early settlers observations (and use) of plants being used by aborigines.

The plant mythology is a harder nut to crack both in the literature and epistemologically speaking, because of the great differences that existed across aboriginal groups even those that had the same plants, differences in landscape, and the process of deculturalisation that is only beginning to reverse. Having said that bits and pieces abound in the dreaming stories of certain tribes, for example the adnyamathana relationship with Iga Werta, the Native Orange (Capparis mitchellii) or the Ngarrenjeri and club rushes and sedges and basking weaving traditions. Siilarly, there are a number of articles around that discuss the use of Pituri, Emu Bush and others that were widely used and with a consistent purpose.

Being from SA that's pretty much the limit of my knowledge i would imagine in other states there are books similar to the one by Bonney above, as ethnobotany can be a very localised affair in many respects and so the literature may reflect this.

Aboriginal Men of High Degree by Elkin is also definitely worth a read one of the foremost books on aboriginal culture and I am always irritated i gifted this book away one day; but this book is about shamanism and not plant use.

good luck.

Edited February 3, 2011 by Micromegas

[random]

What I mean by an indigenous perspective is a book that is written by an Australian Aboriginal person, in their own words and yes,describing the cultural use of plants in their particular country and indeed the spiritual aspects of plant use within their mob. I understand there are hundreds of groups of people who may be using the same plant in different ways, i'd just be interested to read an alternative to a non-indigenous person's understanding of particular plant use as they have been 'told' or which is written historically.

[random]

oh and thankyou for your mention of the books you've found interesting and useful, much appreciated.

[gerbil]

hey micromegas, you can get aboriginal men of high degree on fishp0nd at the moment for $15!

[Micromegas]

Thanks gerbil. I found it on amazon for $9.99 the other day. I have to get some other books from there so i'll re-buy it. I may never read it again, but strangely I am still bothered by not having it anymore! But probably I will... read it again!

Cheers.

[Sola]

Some good books there micromegas, I'll have to get some of them myself. I have the Clarke book as well as "Bushfires & Bushtucker: Aboriginal plant use in Central Australia" by Peter Latz.

It's quite informative and has both the Latin names as well as Aboriginal terms. Also Mountford's "Nomads of the Australian Desert" is a really interesting read but I suggest you borrow it from

the library as a copy can go for as much as $1200. Another interesting book is simply called Ngadjuri it's written by surviving descendants of the Ngadjuri culture. Goes into plant use somewhat but

has a lot of cultural stories of land formations and animals. There is also a lot of unpublished material at the state library as well as the Barr Smith, some of it is restricted access but others you

can read.