Ethnobiology for the Future: Linking Cultural and Ecological Diversity. Edited by Gary Paul Nabhan. 2016. Arizona University Press, Tucson. 309 pp.

Abstract

conservation. For example, Indigenous conceptualizations of plant domestication and diversification can potentiate multicultural conservation or participatory breeding efforts involving crop or crop wild relative diversity. Similarly vital to such efforts is the discussion of autobiology, or the “ethnobiology of us”, which comprises Chapter 4, in which readers are encouraged to explore the ethnobiological terms and principles that guide their own lives and cultures. Next, the one-size-fits-all approach of certain diets (e.g., the modern Paleolithic diet) is critiqued in Chapter 5, which explores the medically meaningful variation between modern humans and our common ancestors and what this may mean for modern diets. The understudied ethnobiology of microorganisms (e.g., those in fermenting vats, vinegar mothers, human guts) is thoughtfully discussed in Chapter 6. Ethnophenology and climate change are examined in Chapter 7, providing thought-provoking examples of ethnophenological indicators (e.g., gooseberry bushes coming into their full leaves is a sign that it is time to start planting corn) that will likely spark many new research projects.