View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa Ethnobotany Education, Opportunities, and Needs in the U.S. Bradley C. Bennett Abstract There is more interest in ethnobotany today, than at any lack of a theoretical orientation. I also offer suggestions time in the discipline’s history. Ethnobotany, however, for addressing these problems. suffers from many deficiencies, especially the lack of re- search support, educational opportunities, and a theoreti- Graduate Education cal basis. Ethnobotanists should expand the definition of ethnobotany to include all plant-people interactions, not Most prospective graduate students face a daunting task just those of traditional societies. They also must integrate ―condensing the list of potential graduate schools down to a manageable number. The aspiring ethnobotanist has more effectively with colleagues in related disciplines and a much simpler charge. There are only a handful of active promote ethnobotany’s relevance to Introductory Botany ethnobotany programs in the United States (McClatchey and other courses. Ethnobotany and ethnobiology are et al. 1999). While it is an easy assignment to identify and natural links to conservation biology, resource manage- evaluate these programs, prospective students face in- ment, and environmental education. An undergraduate tense competition for admittance, since the applicant pool ethnobotany track could provide ideal training for medi- is far larger than the total number of openings each year. cine. To be competitive, prospective students need to pre- The process discourages many graduating seniors and pare better for graduate school. They should have a firm even the most highly qualified students often find no grad- foundation in the botanical and anthropological sciences, uate opportunities in their chosen field. as a minimum. If ethnobotany is to become a mature dis- cipline, it must develop a theoretical framework while not From the perspective of ethnobotany faculty, it is both an abandoning its descriptive history. Expanding ethnobot- exciting and frustrating era. While many of our universi- any’s scope to include all plant and human interactions ty colleagues hustle to recruit a student or two, ethno- greatly increases the funding, research, and job opportu- botanists in academia have the difficult job of selecting nities for the discipline. More importantly, there is no com- among the many highly qualified students who often rank pelling intellectual argument for restricting ethnobotany’s reach to traditional cultures. The Problems Correspondence Bradley C. Bennett, Department of Biological Sciences, A little more than a century since it adopted its present Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199 USA. name, there is more interest in ethnobotany than at any- [email protected] time in its history. Yet, ethnobotany suffers from many de- ficiencies, especially a paucity of funding and education- al opportunities. During the Building Bridges II Education Workshop (1 June 2001), students, faculty, and others ex- pressed these and other concerns. Here, I address the status of education, funding, and employment in the field Ethnobotany Research & Applications 3:113-121 (2005) of ethnobotany and another threat to the discipline --- the http://hdl.handle.net/10125/161 114 Ethnobotany Research & Applications among the top applicants. The downside is that we must rejected Miller’s patent, which he had dubbed “Da Vine” turn down many qualified students, an unpleasant but (Anonymous 1999). Ayahuasca, a ubiquitous element common chore. Another vexation for ethnobotany faculty in most cultures from northwestern Amazonia (Bennett is the large number of applicants who lack either qualifica- 1992a,b; Bennett and Alarcón 1994), was widely known tions or realistic expectations. Jacques Cousteau inspired prior to the patent application (Anonymous 1999). For that thousands to consider careers in oceanography. A gen- reason alone, it did not warrant a patent. Repercussions eration later, the Indiana Jones series ignited interest in of the patent attempt, nonetheless, were serious. In 1996, archaeology. Medicine Man and Tales of a Shaman’s Ap- Acción Ecológica, an Ecuadorian NGO, thwarted ratifica- prentice kindled a similar surge in ethnobotany’s popular- tion of a bilateral IPR agreement between Ecuador and ity. But just as Indy and Jacques revealed little of the true the U.S. due, in part, to the ayahuasca fiasco (Wateringen nature of their disciplines, increased media exposure sel- 1997). Fear of future patent efforts have made it much dom portrays the real character of ethnobotany. more difficult for legitimate researchers to collect and ex- port plant material. In stark contrast to the ersatz excitement portrayed in popular literature, the words of Claude Levi-Strauss are Most ethnobotanists also share some of the blame. Many as applicable to ethnobotany as they are to his discipline, of us argued for increased ethnobotanical funding so that “Adventure has no place in the anthropologist’s profes- we could discover the hidden marvels of the rainforests. sion; it is merely one of those unavoidable drawbacks, Of course, these marvels really weren’t “undiscovered” which detract from the effective work through the inciden- but rather they represent the composite knowledge that tal loss of weeks or months.” Occasionally, the popular rainforest dwellers accumulated over the millennia. The media succeeds. In his book, Earthly Goods: Medicine ethnobotanical leads would generate new drugs, which Hunting in the Rainforest, Christopher Joyce (1994) suc- would foster support for forest conservation or so we ar- cinctly and accurately describes the discipline. “The eth- gued. The success of ethnobotany in discovering new nobotanist spends half his time amid the sacred, trying to drugs, however, has proven to be limited. With the ex- separate mumbo jumbo from ancient if primitive genius, ception of a few new leads (e.g., prostratin an antiviral and the other half amid the profane, looking down the bar- compound from the Samoan plant Homolanthus nutans, rel of a microscope and deciphering the code of taxa, al- Cox 2000), there has been little to show for a decade of kaloids, symbiotes, and the ephemera of ecology.” bioprospecting. In part, the lack of success has been due to misdirected efforts. Yet, despite the few successes, the There is nothing inherently wrong with popularization. hype and paranoia remains. Cultures and forests continue Greater public awareness fosters greater support for the to disappear, while academicians and politicians squabble discipline and attracts student interest. The problem is that over the ownership of biological resources. One author many prospective students develop a quixotic idea about notes, “... traditionally, bioprospecting in developing coun- the nature of ethnobotany. During fieldwork, the romance tries has been the preserve of field researchers in univer- of Dancing with Wolves quickly is supplanted by the reality sities and botanical gardens. … These small-scale activi- of Foxtrotting with Fever and Quickstepping with Quinine. ties added little value to the biodiversity resource and in Ethnobotanical fieldwork can be exhilarating, but it also is any case, are now likely to be discouraged by national characterized by physical discomfort and punctuated by legislation implementing the CBD [Convention on Biologi- drudgery. Christiane Ehringhaus, a former student, accu- cal Diversity]” Anonymous (2001). It is like a cherished li- rately articulated the nature of research. After returning brary that is afire. Instead of extinguishing the flames, we from a five-month expedition with the Kaxinawá in Brazil, argue about who are the legitimate firefighters. she described the experience as being “always lonely but never alone.” Funding Research Opportunities A common complaint from students is the lack of research funding for ethnobotanical research, but students are not Since the early 1990s, conducting ethnobotanical re- the only ones to suffer from the paucity of support. Be- search in developing countries has become increasing- cause of its interdisciplinary nature, ethnobotany does not ly difficult. This is due, in large part, to paranoia about readily fit funding categories of national agencies or pri- traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights. To vate foundations. The National Science Foundation funds be sure, there have been horrific cases, such as the at- botanical research mostly through the Directorate for Bi- tempt to patent ayahuasca. In 1986, the United States ological Sciences. The Directorate’s Division of Environ- Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued Plant Patent mental Biology (DEB) “supports fundamental research No. 5,751 to Loren Miller for a purported unique variety of on the origins, functions, relationships, interactions, and the hallucinogenic vine ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi). evolutionary history of populations, species, communities, The patent generated vociferous and acrimonious pro- and ecosystems. Scientific emphases include biodiver- tests from the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organi- sity, molecular genetic and genomic evolution, mesoscale zations of the Amazon and other groups. In 1999, PTO ecology, conservation biology, global change, and resto- http://hdl.handle.net/10125/161 B. Bennett - Ethnobotany Education, Opportunities, and Needs in the U.S. 115 ration ecology.” Anthropology,