Abstract
As a field of study, ethnobotany is known for its interdisciplinary nature, drawing from a range of subjects, such as botany, anthropology, chemistry, ecology, and others. Though ethnobotany is broad and diverse, it does—on occasion—fall short when examining specific theoretical orientations and their applications within the discipline. In addition to this, there are many other forms of theoretical orientation—especially from the social sciences—that may hold great value for ethnobotany; some of these hold extra promise as a result of their inherent connection to themes of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) that have become increasingly acknowledged for their importance in academia in recent years. One such theoretical orientation is queer theory. The following paper provides a brief historical and epistemological overview of queer theory, and proposes a need for the development and practice of queer ethnobotany. Not only does queer theory stand to make ethnobotany a more diverse and accepting field, but it also has the potential to contribute to expanding upon the theoretical toolkit ethnobotanists may draw on in the classroom, the field, and beyond.
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In some cases, citations represent direct use of ideas as one would expect in a typical scientific paper, though in others, this is not the case. Investigations of queer theory in ethnobotany have not been previously carried out, and as such it is important not to understand these references as direct uses of content from the sources, but to instead note that those cited were influential in the development of my own mental process in the creation of these ideas and applications.
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Thanks to Dr. Ina Vandebroek for her help in handling and revising this manuscript.
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The work of this paper was presented (in a significantly abridged form) at the 2023 Joint Conference of the Society for Economic Botany and Society of Ethnobiology in Atlanta, USA under the title of “Pontification in the Pansy Patch: Applications of queer theory in ethnobotany.
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Fatur, K. Queer Ethnobotany. Econ Bot (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-024-09605-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-024-09605-1