In July 2016 the first course in Ethnobotany will start at Wageningen!
BIS-90306 Ethnobotany, Period 6. (https://ssc.wur.nl/Studiegids/Vak/BIS-90306)
The course will give a general overview of the state of the art in the science of Ethnobotany. The focus is on traditional plant use in the tropics.
Content: (1): Lectures on theoretical aspects.
Overview of the history of the discipline, link between cultural and biological diversity, ethnobotany and public health, threats to traditional knowledge.
Plant domestication by humans: from wild-harvesting (evaluating sustainability aspects) to cultivation, with special attention to traditional landraces and agrodiversity.
Invited guest lecturers currently active in the Netherlands in ethnobotany-related research will lecture on their subject.
(2) Lectures on quantitative ethnobotanical research methods: interview designs, botanical collecting, documenting traditional knowledge, evaluating harvest sustainability, preference ranking, market surveys, cultivar descriptions, DNA analysis.
Evaluation of different data analyses: interpretation of interviews, plant identification, quantitative analysis, and some frequently used statistical methods.
(3) Excursions to migrant markets where students can witness and practice ‘ethnobotany in action’. Students will design and carry out a sort research project, including quantitative methods, collecting specimens, data analysis and presentation..