213 ETHNOBOTANY: PLANTS & PEOPLES
Fall 2006
Tues & Thurs 12:30-1:45, Hamilton 318

Instructor: Gail E. Wagner
Hamilton 300; phone 777-6548; gail.wagner@sc.edu
Office Hours: Mon 2:30-3:30, Thurs 2:00-3:00, or easily by email appointment

COURSE GOALS:

-- Think about the myriad relationships between plants and peoples;
-- Share the excitement and fun of studying ethnobotanical subjects;
-- Advance ethnographic skills in gathering and analyzing data;
-- Advance skills in formulating, researching, writing, speaking, and presenting ideas.

COURSE INCLUDES:
Lectures, class discussions, in-class workshops, videos, slide talks, fieldwork, group work.

REQUIRED READINGS:
Readings are on reserve in the Anthropology Dept. office, 317 Hamilton. They may be xeroxed there for 5 cents/page single-sided or 7 cents/page double-sided. Some are also available in the books on reserve at Cooper Library.

CLASS PROJECT:
The class continues to examine the cultural saliency of the category “vegetable” among American native English speakers.

 

GRADING:
Class attendance is REQUIRED: if you can’t attend regularly, DO NOT SIGN UP!

More than two unexcused absences (one week) results in lowering the grade one notch or more, e.g. from B+ to B. There will not be any make-up work, so work instead at getting the assignments and readings done on time. Credit will be subtracted for each day an assignment is overdue – missing class is no excuse. Grading will be determined as follows:

25% Project Paper and Fieldwork (50 points) A 91-100%

45% Assignments (90 points) B 81-90%

15% Worksheets (60/2=30 points) C 65-79%

15% Course Notebook (30 points) D 50-64%

Points are deducted for missing >2 classes F <50%

Project Paper and Fieldwork “how-to” will be covered in class.

Worksheets (n=6) are on-line on the course Blackboard web page.

Assignments include posting of Homepage on Blackboard, Human Subject Certification,

GE position paper, daily comment on assigned readings, Powerpoint presentation of paper, and other miscellaneous assignments that arise.

Course Notebook substitutes for a final examination in the course.

CLASS ATTENDANCE IS REQUIRED: IF YOU CAN’T ATTEND REGULARLY,

DON’T SIGN UP

PROJECTED SYLLABUS

AUG 24 Introduction
              Hedges

          29 Ethnobotanists [annotate any two of the five readings]
               Read: Dreifus 1999; Martin 1995:xvii-xix; Nabhan 1997:30-42; [Balick and Cox 1996:19-23, 40-44 or Davis 1985:15-22 or
               Davis 1996:1-13,21-27 orRobin 2001]; [Cox 1999:1-12, 24-25 or Milius 2004]

          31 Ethics
               Read: Martin 1995:239-251; ISE code of ethics (on web: Blackboard Assignments)
               DUE: Assignment 1: Post Homepage and email address on Blackboard

SEPT   5 SC Homegarden Project and The Saliency of ‘Vegetable’
                Read: Boster 1986; Puri and Vogl 2005:13-14
                DUE: Worksheet 1: Ethnobotany (online on Blackboard)

            7 Ethnographic Research Methods
               Read: Martin 2004:96-112
               DUE: Assignment 2: USC Human Subjects Certification

          12 WORKSHOP: Interviewing
               Assigned: Interviews
               Read: Martin 2004:116-123; Puri and Vogl 2005:8-13

          14 WORKSHOP: Research Methods.
           * * Meet at Cooper Library, Level 3 classroom
               DUE: Worksheet 2: Ethics and Ethnography

          19 Botanical Background
               Read: Imes 1990; Martin 2004:28-58; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2000

          21 Botany, cont.
               Read: Bye 1986; Martin 2004:59-65

          26 Folk Taxonomy and Linguistics
               Read: Basso 1996; Brown 2000
               DUE: Worksheet 3: Botany

          28 Folk Taxonomy and Linguistics
               Read: Martin 2004:23-25, 215-221
               DUE: Assignment 3: Hypothesis, table headings, at least 3 references cited

OCT   3 Biological Anthropology
              Read: Johns 1999 [bold, underlined = annotate reading]
              DUE: Worksheet 4: Linguistics

            5 Biological Anthropology, cont.
               Read: Moerman 1996
               DUE: Typed Interviews

          10 WORKSHOP: Research Paper
               DUE: Worksheet 5: Biological Anthropology

          12 MIDPOINT
               Paleoethnobotany
               Read: Wagner and Civitello 2000 (link on Blackboard Assignments)

          17 Paleoethnobotany, cont.

          19 FALL BREAK: NO CLASSES

          24 Plant Medicines
               Read: Martin 2004:68-81
               DUE: Worksheet 6: Paleoethnobotany

          26 Plant Medicines
               Secrets of the Rainforest or Shaman’s Apprentice
               DUE: Vegetable paper

          31 Politics and Genetic Diversity
               Read: Nabhan 1989; Nazarea 1998

NOV   2 GMO and Biotechnology
              Read: Eubanks 2000
              DUE: Assignment 4: GE Briefing Paper

           7 ELECTION DAY: NO CLASSES

           9 Genetic Diversity, cont.
              Assignment 5, in class: Seeds of Tomorrow (58 min)

          14 Ethnoecology
               Read: Berkes et al. 2000; Salmon 2000

          16 Ethnography
               Read: Ortiz 1994; Ramirez 2002
               Corn is Life (19 min); Plants and the Cherokee (26 min)

          21 Ethnobotany Today
               Read: Salick et al. 2003
               DUE: Revised paper

          23 Thanksgiving: No Classes

          28 Plants and People
               City Farmer (31 min)

          30 Vegetable Presentations

DEC    5 Vegetable Presentations

            7 Vegetable Presentations
                DUE: Course Notebook

COURSE NOTEBOOK PICKUP
Monday, December 11
2:00 pm