Tab Article
The encyclopedia of ethnobotany discusses ethnobotanical knowledge of both wild and tamed species, rooted in observations, relationships, needs, and traditional forms of knowledge. The encyclopedia remarks that ethnobotany comes from two words: I) Ethno (meaning "ethnic") referring to people, culture, and collective of beliefs, aesthetics, knowledge, language, and practice, and II) Botany, which is about plants research, from the smallest fern or grass blade to the tallest and oldest tree. Botany covers both wild plant and domesticated species. Domesticated animals are species chosen by humans from wild plant species over time, and then domesticated and trained to best produce: food, fiber, medicine, materials, etc. Domesticated plant species are the subject and purpose of agriculture. This encyclopedia mentions that ethnobotanical knowledge develops over time and is thus always adapting and adding new discoveries, creativity and methods. The encyclopedia also discusses the influence of modern human society on traditional culture and nature's habitats, which has caused loss of specific species and severely damaged communities of bio species (flora, fauna and fungi). It states that displaced or scattered people (who may have experienced multiple generations of observations or customs through oral transmission), eventually lose their ethnobotanical knowledge. But sometimes, as people move around, new relationships with their environment will develop, which creates new or improved ethnobotanical knowledge.
