Ethnobotany mixes plants, culture, history By CHRIS GULLICK - Staff Writer April 5, 2006 - chicoer.com

Rich, tasty, smelly and textured -- those are a few adjectives to describe the current exhibit at Chico State University's Museum of Anthropology, "Gifts from the Earth: Ethnobotany, an Exploration of People and Plant Relations."
Now, add to those descriptors "increasingly educational," because the museum, which acts as a training ground for student anthropologists and hosts classroom tours for students in elementary and secondary school, will offer a workshop for secondary school teachers later this month.
James Bauml, the museum's guest curator, will conduct the workshop, focusing on ways teachers can incorporate basic biology, botany and ethnobotany into their curricula.
Bauml said his intention is to get teachers together and get them excited with a range of ideas for simple hands-on projects to teach plant science.
For example, when students look at flowers with a hand-held magnifying lens, they suddenly notice tiny hairs and pollen grains.
He said he would begin with a short botany review, since review is always helpful, but naturally he will focus on ethnobotany and the museum's rich display, which will surround them during the workshop.
The exhibit was created by students in Stacy Schaefer's museum studies classes at the university, with Bauml acting as adviser.
Bauml, senior botanist at the Arboretum of Los Angeles County, traveled to Chico three or four times each semester to help with the ethnobotany display, to review the students' work and to ensure its accuracy.
The ethnobotany exhibit, Bauml explained, illustrates the ways people use plants for clothing, construction, nourishment, healing and spiritual needs within their cultures.
For example, he said, the replica of a shaman's hut at the back of the exhibit shows how cane found in Central and South America was used for building by the Wixarika people of Western Mexico. Angel's trumpet flowers are draped over the hut, representing plants they used for healing, and a vine known as "vine of the soul" is displayed on a wall nearby, with an explanation of how the shaman used its hallucinogenic effects.
The shaman was the repository of thousands of years of plant knowledge, Bauml continued, and he quoted a colleague's words: "When a shaman dies, it's like a library burning down."
Elsewhere in the exhibit, displays explain the origin of different foods and flavors, fabrics and flowers. A variety of bamboo cuts afford a tactile experience and vials of seeds and shavings allow an aromatic one.
The history of flavors from three diverse regions contrast in three display cases, showing off items from the Old World, the Mediterranean and Mexico.
Bauml pointed to the items from Mexico, his area of expertise, and described how a drink for royalty was created from the three foods featured in the display -- cacao, chili peppers and vanilla. The placard within the display stated it was "a drink that fed the body and the soul."
Bauml has studied ethnobotanical practices in Mexican cultures, in particular among the Wixarika people, spending time among the people there. The Wixarika, Bauml explained, remained largely untouched by outside influences until about 1880.
Even now, he elaborated, the people would consult their shaman for advice about an illness before going to the clinic for advice from a medical doctor.
"Having that belief goes a long way toward healing," he concluded.
The current exhibit will continue until July 28.
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