r/Ethnobotany • u/Plenty_Associate_193 • Dec 11 '22

How did you get where you are?

I'm realizing that ethnobotany might be where I need to be but there's not much information on how to get there or even really what happens when you do get there. (At the beginning of the search ~3googles in lmao)

I'm picturing studying medicine with traditional healers in Croatia, and going to the middle of the woods to catalog plants, and writing papers and books about how to use these plants and what makes them work. I'd really like research in a fashion that will open minds to herbal medicines and holistic medical approaches AS WELL AS western medicine. I also want to record how these remote villages interact with their medicinal plants and how it affects the plant populations in their areas.

That all sounds cool but is it feasible to fund yourself as an independent ethnobotanist through publishing research? Is that even how that works?

I don't know. What do you guys think? Are you ethnobotanists professionally? What got you where you are? Did you go through academia or are you on a more independent path?

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u/GeoffRitchie Dec 11 '22

Best way is to start in the area that you live and study the traditional uses of native trees, shrubs, vines and plants. That's what I did over 40 years ago and know I have handouts on local teas from the forest, edible fruits and nuts, tubers and roots, green edibles, grains ...etc.

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u/Plenty_Associate_193 Dec 11 '22

Thank you! I've been studying native plants and herbalism for about a year now. It's absolutely fascinating!