The University of Texas (UT) is one of the largest public institutions of higher learning in the United States. UT islocated in Austin, Texas and has a current enrollment of about 51,000 students.

Courses

Ethnobotany an Introduction (ANT 393, 3 credits)

Ethnobotany, is the interdisciplinary field that studies the relationships between humans and plants.  It is not simply the study of plants that are useful to humans, but rather includes the placement of plants within their total cultural context in particular societies.   It includes the ways that humans perceive the different kinds of plants, the ways they classify plants, the things they do to plants (such as destroying “weeds”, protecting certain “wild” plants, and “domesticating” and planting specific kinds of food and medicinal plants), and the ways in which various members of the plant world influence humans and their lifeways.   This course proposes to introduce the student to such general topics as systems of  plant classification and nomenclature, plants and archeaology, plant cultivation, food plants, medicinal plants, entheogenic plants and divination, plants in cosmology and religion, plants in construction and furniture, plants in clothing and ornament, plants in discourse, plants and the question of pre-Columbian contacts, and the impact of humans on plants (including forest management).  These topics will be explored in a seminar format and often exemplified from a perspective of indigenous Mesoamerican communities.

Mesoamerican Ethnobotany (Ant 393, 3 credits)
This course intends to cover a larger region, Mesoamerica,to formulate a program for ethnobotanical work in indigenous communities, and to deal with suchgeneral topics as systems of classification and nomenclature, plants and archeaology, plant cultivation,food plants, medicinal plants, entheogenic plants and divination, plants in cosmology and religion, plants in construction and furniture, plants in clothing and ornament, plants in discourse, plants and the question of pre-Columbian contacts, and the impact of humans on plants (including forest management).

Economic Botany (BIO 351)
An in-depth analysis of the origin of domesticated plant species, the role in nature of plant products, and the ways natural products have been altered through artificial selection.

Envir, Devel, & Food Productn (GRG 339K)
This course focuses on “indigenously developed” and what used to be call “traditional” farming methods and techniques. Such practices are those not dependent on either fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, or other external inputs, and hence have been called “Low extenal-input technologies” (LEIT). Based on “indigenous technical knowledge” (ITK), they are typically small in scale, involving for the most part the labor of individuals, families, and communities. Emphasis is placed on those systems most commonly used in various parts of the world today and in times past.

Faculty
Brian Stross (Anthropology); bstrossATmail.utexas.edu