For thousands of years, the Kumeyaay people of northern Baja California and southern California made their homes in the diverse landscapes of the region, interacting with native plants and continuously refining their botanical knowledge. Today, many Kumeyaay Indians in the far-flung ranches of Baja California carry on the traditional knowledge and skills for transforming native plants into food, medicine, arts, tools, regalia, construction materials, and ceremonial items. Kumeyaay Ethnobotany explores the remarkable interdependence between native peoples and native plants of the Californias through in-depth descriptions of 47 native plants and their uses, lively narratives, and hundreds of vivid photographs. It connects the archaeological and historical record with living cultures and native plant specialists who share their ever-relevant wisdom for future generations. Book jacket.

The Kumeyaay occupied the largest and most diverse territory of any Native Californian group--from arid deserts to alpine mountains, foothills, and a large expanse of coast, from what is now San Diego County to northern Baja California. Living as complex hunter-gatherers, the Kumeyaay combined elements of both Californian and Southwestern cultures, including an acorn economy, floodwater agriculture, and the production of paddle and anvil pottery. The Early Ethnography of the Kumeyaay includes the pioneering research of three anthropologists of the early part of the twentieth century--Thomas T. Waterman, Leslie Spier, and Edward W. Gifford. An introduction by M. Steven Shackley and Steven Lucas-Pfingst explores the particular perspective brought to the research by these early scholars, contrasted with recent anthropological research in the region.

An extraordinary compilation of the plants used by North American native peoples for medicine, food, fiber, dye, and a host of other things. Anthropologist Daniel E. Moerman has devoted 25 years to the task of gathering together the accumulated ethnobotanical knowledge on more than 4000 plants. More than 44,000 uses for these plants by various tribes are documented here. This is undoubtedly the most massive ethnobotanical survey ever undertaken, preserving an enormous store of information for the future.

This cookbook invites you to experience the Native American cultures of Southern California through their foods. Full-color photos and detailed recipes showcase the diversity, health, and flavor of modern cuisine made from Southern California native plants in combination with other foods. The results are mouthwatering: dishes including mesquite-rubbed quail marinated in prickly pear juice, "superfood" cookies featuring chia and pine nuts, acorn dumplings, and tepary tart topped with an elderberry reduction. Accompanied by essays that bring to life the rich history and the hopeful future of the Native people of the area, Cooking the Native Way showcases the luscious scents and tastes of vibrant indigenous cultures and is for all who wish to reconnect with the land through gathering, cooking, and savoring.

A Bedouin asking a fellow tribesman about grazing conditions in other parts of the country says first simply, “Fih hayah?” or “Is there life?” A desert Arab’s knowledge of the sparse vegetation is tied directly to his life and livelihood. Bedouin Ethnobotany offers the first detailed study of plant uses among the Najdi Arabic–speaking tribal peoples of eastern Saudi Arabia. It also makes a major contribution to the larger project of ethnobotany by describing aspects of a nomadic peoples’ conceptual relationships with the plants of their homeland. The modern theoretical basis for studies of the folk classification and nomenclature of plants was developed from accounts of peoples who were small-scale agriculturists and, to a lesser extent, hunter-gatherers. This book fills a major gap by extending such study into the world of the nomadic pastoralist and exploring the extent to which these patterns are valid for another major subsistence type. James P. Mandaville, an Arabic speaker who lived in Saudi Arabia for many years, focuses first on the role of plants in Bedouin life, explaining their uses for livestock forage, firewood, medicinals, food, and dyestuffs, and examining other practical purposes. He then explicates the conceptual and linguistic aspects of his subject, applying the theory developed by Brent Berlin and others to a previously unstudied population. Mandaville also looks at the long history of Bedouin plant nomenclature, finding that very little has changed among the names and classifications in nearly eleven centuries. An essential volume for anyone interested in the interaction between human culture and plant life, Bedouin Ethnobotany will stand as a definitive source for years to come.

This monograph provides a glimpse of the Kumeyaay cosmology with worldview, observatories, constellations and stories, including modern interpretations of the calendar. Kumeyaay cosmology was traditionally intertwined with ceremonies, harvest & hunts, burning schedules and the acquisition of spiritual power. Personal conduct was subject to cosmological constraints and rewards. Cosmology was so important that Spanish priests and subsequent U.S. government agents worked hard to repress and expunge the beliefs from Kumeyaay society.