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Ethnobotany (from ethnology, study of culture,〔The Random House Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged Edition, Jess Stein ed. in chief, Random House, New York 1966 p. 489〕 and botany, study of plants) is the scientific study of the relationships that exist between peoples and plants. Ethnobotanists aim to document, describe and explain complex relationships between cultures and (uses of) plants, focusing primarily on how plants are used, managed and perceived across human societies. This includes use for food, clothing, currency, ritual, medicine, dye, construction, cosmetics and a lot more.〔Acharya, Deepak and Shrivastava Anshu (2008): Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices, Aavishkar Publishers Distributor, Jaipur, India. ISBN 978-81-7910-252-7. pp 440.〕 Richard Evans Schultes, called the "father of ethnobotany",〔(New York Times on Richard Evans Schultes (obituary) )〕 explained the discipline in this way: Ethnobotany simply means () investigating plants used by primitive societies in various parts of the world.〔(Academy of Achievement - Interview with Richard Evans Schultes (1990) )〕 Intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing arrangements are important issues in ethnobotany. ==Roots of ethnobotany== Though the term "ethnobotany" was not coined until 1895 by the US botanist John William Harshberger, the history of the field begins long before that. Pythagoreanism, which originated in 500 BC included a refusal to eat beans, perhaps because of the human relationship of the beans through matter. Theophrastus the father of botany wrote of plants and people's usage of them in his works. In A.D. 77, the Greek surgeon Pedanius Dioscorides published ''De Materia Medica'', which was a catalog of about 600 plants in the Mediterranean. It also included information on how the plants were used, especially for medicinal purposes. This illustrated herbal publication contained information on how and when each plant was gathered, whether or not it was poisonous, its actual use, and whether or not it was edible (it even provided recipes). Dioscorides stressed the economic potential of plants. For generations, scholars learned from this herbal publication, but did not commonly venture into the field until after the Middle Ages due to the Inquisition. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ethnobotany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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