African Ethnobotany in the Americas [Paperback]

African Ethnobotany in the Americas provides the first comprehensive examination of ethnobotanical knowledge and skills among the African Diaspora in the Americas. Leading scholars on the subject explore the complex relationship between plant use and meaning among the descendants of Africans in the New World. With the aid of archival and field research carried out in North America, South America, and the Caribbean, contributors explore the historical, environmental, and political-ecological factors that facilitated/hindered ?transatlantic ethnobotanical diffusion; the role of Africans as active agents of plant and plant knowledge transfer during the period of plantation slavery in the Americas; the significance of cultural resistance in refining and redefining plant-based traditions; the principal categories of plant use that resulted; the exchange of knowledge among Amerindian, European and other African peoples; and the changing significance of ?African-American ethnobotanical traditions in the 21st century.

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Bolstered by abundant visual content and contributions from renowned experts in the field, African Ethnobotany in the Americas is an invaluable resource for students, scientists, and researchers in the field of ethnobotany and African Diaspora studies.

1. Introduction (Robert Voeks and John Rashford)
Crops and Cultivators
2. Seeds of Memory: Botanical Legacies of the African Diaspora (Judith Carney)
3. Did Enslaved Africans Spark South Carolinas 18th-Century Rice Boom??? (Stanley B. Alpern)?????????????????????????
4. African Origins of Sesame Cultivation in the Americas (Dorothea Bedigian)
Handicrafts and Crafters
5. By the Rivers of Babylon: The Lowcountry Basket in Slavery and Freedom (Dale Rosengarten)
6. Gathering, Buying, and Growing Sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia sericea): Urbanization and Social Networlă&