Plant Kin

Fascinating...Plant Kin offers a glimmer of hope in the Anthropocene of the possibilities of alternative and sustainable engagements with plants and their ecologies. * CHOICE * Theresa Miller presents a thoughtful portrayal of shifting ideas about the human place both in the world and in relation to plants in our era of changing climate...Each chapter on its own could be read as a unique contribution; taken collectively, they convey what she calls a sensory ethnobotany perspective that is interdisciplinary in scope...Plant Kin pays careful attention to what Canela indigenous people say and do in order to survive in a changing world that has long seen both the people and their places as sacrifice zones to be scoured for resources to feed global wealth. * American Ethnologist * [Plant Kin] contributes a thorough investigation of traditional ecological knowledge in a specific community and provides an in-depth example of the sociocultural processes that promote agrobiodiversity maintenance among a particular group and key group members. As such, it is a great resource for students of ethnobotany and related fields interested in relationships between cultural and biological diversity. * Economic Botany * Plant Kin is a rigorously researched and carefully construed multispecies ethnography that focuses on the Indigenous Canela of the Brazilian Cerrado or savanna environment...Overall, the book is well-written and well-paced. The use of qualitative ethnographic material and testimonies from interlocutors interspersed with the author's own prose make for a lively and captivating read. * Journal of Latin American Geography * [Plant Kin's] introduction, five chapters, and short conclusion are rich with ethnographic examples, highlighting resilience, multisensory care and multispecies relationships...In Plant Kin, Miller provides a well-written ethnography...it would interest students and scholars in anthropology, ethnobotany, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, and Latin American studies. * Environment and Society *

Theresa L. Miller is an anthropologist working on environmental and social justice issues. She has worked at the Field Museum and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and is currently a Researcher at FrameWorks Institute in Washington, DC.

List of Illustrations Introduction: Toward a Sensory Ethnobotany in the Anthropocene Approaching People and Plants in the Anthropocene Approaching Sensory Ethnobotany Introducing the Canela People Introducing the Plant Kin Following the Pathways of This Book 1. Tracing Indigenous Landscape Aesthetics in the Changing Cerrado Tracing a Canela Aesthetics of Land Understanding the Canela Bio-Sociocultural Life-World Understanding the Changing Cerrado Approaching the Canela Territorial Landscape Becoming Resilient: Living with and Valuing the Land 2. Loving Gardens: Human-Environment Engagements in Past and Present-- Understanding Indigenous Landscape Transformations Gardening: A Brief History, 1814-Present Loving Forest and Riverbank Gardens in the Twenty-First Century Learning from Star-Woman: Origins of Horticulture and Biodiversity Maintenance Gardening as Resistance 3. Educating Affection: Becoming Gardener Parents Parenting Plants: Skills, Practice, Process Learning, Knowing, and Feeling with Plants Understanding Gendered Multispecies Bodies Caretaking of Plant Children: The Experts Becoming Strong, Becoming Happy, Becoming Well Making and Growing with Plant Kin 4. Naming Plant Children: Ethnobotanical Classification as Childcare Categorizing Plants: Sensory Pleasures Noticing, Naming, Sorting, and Saving Expanding Multispecies Families Writing: Plant Childcare in the Twenty-First Century Multispecies Loving, Open Taxonomies, and Living Lists 5. Becoming a Shaman with Plants: Friendship, Seduction, and Mediating Danger Talking with Plants Becoming a Shaman: Engagements with Nonhumans Shamanic Caring Shamanic Mediating: Dangers in the Gardens Becoming Friends to Plants in Canela Scalar Animism Conclusion: Exploring Futures for People and Plants in the Twenty-First Century Advocating for Sensory Ethnobotany in Multispecies Futures Epilogue Acknowledgments Appendices Appendix A: Living Lists of Canela Cultivated Crops Appendix B: Living Lists of Canela Native Plants in Savannah, Chapada, and Riverbank Appendix C: Star-Woman (Caxetikwyj) Mythic Story Notes References Index