The biophilia hypothesis suggests that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984). He defines biophilia as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life".
Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of natural and social sciences that studies the relationships between humans and plants. It focuses on traditional knowledge of how plants are used, managed, and perceived in human societies. Ethnobotany integrates knowledge from botany, anthropology, ecology, and chemistry to study plant-related customs across cultures. Researchers in this field document and analyze how different societies use local flora for various purposes, including medicine, food, religious use, intoxicants, building materials, fuels and clothing. Richard Evans Schultes, often referred to as the "father of ethnobotany", provided an early definition of the discipline:
Ethnobotany simply means investigating plants used by primitive societies in various parts of the world.
Spiritual ecology is an emerging field in religion, conservation, and academia that proposes that there is a spiritual facet to all issues related to conservation, environmentalism, and earth stewardship. Proponents of spiritual ecology assert a need for contemporary nature conservation work to include spiritual elements and for contemporary religion and spirituality to include awareness of and engagement in ecological issues.
Jeremy Narby is a Canadian anthropologist and author.
Hierochloe odorata or Anthoxanthum nitens is an aromatic herb native to northern Eurasia and North America. It is considered sacred by many Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States. It is used as a smudge in herbal medicine and in the production of distilled beverages. It owes its distinctive sweet scent to the presence of coumarin.
Seven fires prophecy is an Anishinaabe prophecy that marks phases, or epochs, in the life of the people on Turtle Island, the original name given by the indigenous peoples of the now North American continent. The seven fires of the prophecy represent key spiritual teachings for North America, and suggest that the different colors and traditions of the human beings can come together on a basis of respect. It contains information for the future lives of the Anishinaabe which are still in the process of being fulfilled.
Beth E. Brant, Degonwadonti, or Kaieneke'hak was a Mohawk writer, essayist, and poet of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario, Canada. She was also a lecturer, editor, and speaker. She wrote based on her deep connection to her indigenous people and touched on the infliction of racism and colonization. She brought her writing to life from her personal experiences of being a lesbian, having an abusive spouse, and her mixed blood heritage from having a Mohawk father and a Scottish-Irish mother. Her published works include three edited anthologies and three books of essays and short stories.
Bryology is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes. Bryologists are people who have an active interest in observing, recording, classifying or researching bryophytes. The field is often studied along with lichenology due to the similar appearance and ecological niche of the two organisms, even though bryophytes and lichens are not classified in the same kingdom.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a Potawatomi botanist, author, and the director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF).
David Abram is an American ecologist and philosopher best known for his work bridging the philosophical tradition of phenomenology with environmental and ecological issues. He is the author of Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (2010) and The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (1996), for which he received the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction. Abram is founder and creative director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics (AWE); his essays on the cultural causes and consequences of ecological disarray have appeared often in such journals as the online magazine Emergence, Orion, Environmental Ethics, Parabola, Tikkun and The Ecologist, as well as in numerous academic anthologies.
Turtle Island is a name for Earth or North America, used by some American Indigenous peoples, as well as by some Indigenous rights activists. The name is based on a creation myth common to several indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of North America.
Nancy Jean Turner is a Canadian ethnobiologist, originally qualified in botany, who has done extensive research work with the indigenous peoples of British Columbia, the results of which she has documented in a number of books and numerous articles.
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings with one another and with their environment.
Ethnoscience has been defined as an attempt "to reconstitute what serves as science for others, their practices of looking after themselves and their bodies, their botanical knowledge, but also their forms of classification, of making connections, etc.".
The Center for Humans and Nature is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization with a mission to explore and promote human responsibilities in relation to nature. The organization is headquartered in Libertyville, Illinois.
Tetraphis pellucida, the pellucid four-tooth moss, is one of two species of moss in the acrocarpous genus Tetraphis. Its name refers to its four large peristome teeth found on the sporophyte capsule.
Nancy Guttmann Slack was an American plant ecologist, bryologist, and historian of science. She was the president of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society from 2005 to 2007.
Indigenous science is the application and intersection of Indigenous knowledge and science. This field is based on careful observation of the environment, and through experimentation. It is a holistic field, informed by physical, social, mental and cultural knowledge. When applied to ecology and the environment, it can be sometimes termed traditional ecological knowledge. Indigenous science involves the knowledge systems and practices of Indigenous peoples, which are rooted in their cultural traditions and relationships to their indigenous context. There are some similar methods of Western science including : observation, prediction, interpretation, and questioning. There are also some areas in which Western science and Indigenous science differ. Indigenous knowledge is place and case-specific and does not attempt to label or generalize natural processes. Western science strives to find commonalities and theories that can be applied to all areas, such as Newton’s Laws of Physics. This is because most Indigenous knowledge stems from the relationship humans have with their environment, which is passed down through stories or is discovered through observation. Western knowledge takes a different approach by isolating targets to study, splitting them from their surroundings and making sets of assumptions and theories. Community is a larger aspect of Indigenous science, and conclusions are shared through oral tradition and family knowledge, whereas most Western science research is published in a journal specific to that scientific field, and may restrict access to various papers.
Cristina Eisenberg is a Latinx and Native ecologist of Rarámuri and Western Apache heritage. She builds government-to-government partnerships between federal agencies and tribal governments to carry out research and restoration projects that combine traditional ecological knowledge with Western science, or Two-Eyed Seeing. She advocates for Native best practices in caring for land, incorporating cultural values such as spirituality, reciprocity, and humility, and she works for Native sovereignty in land management in the western US.
Mariah Gladstone is a Native American chef, food and environmental advocate, entrepreneur, and educator. Gladstone is founder of the online cooking platform, Indigikitchen, where she focuses on the use of Indigenous recipes and ingredients to teach Native American communities how to prepare traditional foods.
