Ethnobiology

Ethnobiology is the study of the biological sciences as they are practiced by the various ethnic groups stud­ied by ethnology. In other words, Ethnobiology is con­cerned with all of the knowledge of the various ethnic groups (including those in Western societies) on the sub­ject of plants and animals; "science" derives from the Latin scientia which means "knowledge."* Neither is the verb "practice," to describe the relation between the various peoples and their sciences, an accidental term: it accurately conveys the theoretical and practical duality of the sciences, something which French ethnobiologists often Endeavour to describe using the dual notion of savoir and savoir-faire in the matter of recording the knowledge of other societies.

Ethnobiology is comprised of two branches, ethnob­otany and ethnozoology, and the first of these is funda­mental by virtue of the number, quality and earthiness of the work produced under its name. The historical begin­nings of Ethnobiology are lost in the mists of time, and vary with different cultures, where interest in botanical and zoological knowledge is intermingled with myths of origin, genesis texts or sacred books. Here we under­stand it to begin in the period which saw the appearance of the first Western designations directly related to the discipline, that is, in the 1860s. Ethnobiology is to be dis­tinguished from sodobiology, with which it is not con­nected. While the latter aims to study, at least so far as the social sciences are concerned, various social behaviors such as incest, matrimonial rules and filiations phenomena, which it attempts to explain solely by means of biology, the former is more concerned with discourse and actions upon material than with behavior, and ascribes to biology nothing more than a secondary role.

Questionnaire:

• What is Ethnobiology?
• Explain more about the Ethnobiology
• What are the branches of the Ethnobiology?