(25%) Based on (4) Global Learning
I chose this outcome because connecting with people and learning to tackle significant issues is essential. It gives me the tools to understand different perspectives, build empathy, and learn how to make a real difference.
Week 4 Reflection – Tending Sweetgrass.docx
This is the Introduction of our topic for the Reserach report
To what extent are indigenous plant names used today?
Our topic is about indigenous plant names and to what extent they are used in botany. This is important because these names help the people who originally used them know what they are and their uses. But colonialism has greatly impacted that by changing names and not keeping any of the original knowledge. So, it is important that we find ways to conserve any knowledge we can about the plants and see if we can uncover any knowledge that was originally thought to be lost. Another reason this is important is to be inclusive to people who might still use the indigenous information about the plants. To help us and anyone who wants to learn about indigenous knowledge or species names in general. As the indigenous people have many years of knowledge that is normally passed from generation to generation orally. If researchers went to those areas to learn and acquire this knowledge, they could apply it to the science they know and share it online or archive it for future people to use and learn.
The unknown is just how many plants still have their original names compared to the names they current names. As even scientific names are still confusing, which contributes to the loss of the original knowledge about the plants. This may also be due to the on going debates on how to change the names and the ways they can go about it. Another thing that is unknown is the amount of knowledge that was lost when the plants were renamed. Because it is likely that the information was only known when the plant had its previous name. The main unknowns to us are the fact that we still don’t know to what extent indigenous plant names are used. Due to the lack of relevant knowledge about this topic or any records to help us connect the relationship between scientific names and the indigenous names for species.
Some relevant facts about our topic are that there are many different resources that are used in this research. Mainly presenting the facts that researchers are reaching out to indigenous people to get the best information they can to properly show how they are slowly being able to change names and also use the information that was already know by indigenous people. Also, that there are people working to change the names of things that might be offensive or are associated with a terrible person. Another possible fact is that when researcher do start learning about indigenous names and the knowledge that comes with it. Sometimes they are able to make new discoveries that haven’t been made before and find something new. Another relevant fact is that researchers could have gone to the people with indigenous knowledge and ask about what they know. But most of the time they aren’t asked, which leads to large gaps in knowledge that don’t need to be.
During the research into this project and our question we were able to find many reasons why and get an idea of the extent to which indigenous names are used. As this is our big question that may not have been answered the way we wanted. But helped us get some knowledge to push us in the right direction to start looking for better more Indepth answers. With our topic it was hard enough to find resources to the point where we have to change our question to even nstart getting decent results for information. So finding the sources that we did is an amazing way to get a better look at the taxonomy in the world and the nomenclature behind species that are known and named.
Though our facts may not be the most factual, they are a start to help people get a beter idea of our question and understanding our thinking during this project. All we hope for is that we can incorporate the knowledge that we learned and possibly teach others about it to get their opinions. Along with seeing what they can help us add to the information we learned during our research for this project.
(25%) Based on (5) Information Literacy
My research question for my Final Project
” Our question is somewhat relevant to me (Sophia), because my research group is focusing on colonialism based on plants. I may not be a part of the indigenous knowledge group, but our topics have a lot of things in common.( Karmen) While my research group isn’t focusing on any plant knowledge, the question is still relevant because we are working with reparative justice regarding the history of slavery at MOBOT and to grow knowledge and perspective; it’s important to research reparative justice in different forums. “
Our reference page of the articles we used in our final project.
References:
Evans, K. (2024, February 20). Change species names to honor indigenous peoples, not colonizers, researchers say. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/change-species-names-to-honor-indigenous-peoples-not-colonizers-researchers-say/
Phaka, F. M. (2020). Environmental science investigations of folk taxonomy and other forms of indigenous knowledge. South African Journal of Science, 116(1/2). https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2020/6538
McGlone, M. S., Heenan, P. B., Wilton, A. D., & Anderson, A. (2021). Proposal to ‘restore’ indigenous names misunderstands the complementary nature of botanical nomenclature and indigenous vernacular plant names. New Zealand Journal of Botany, 60(3), 215–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/0028825x.2021.2011752
Khasbagan, K., & Soyolt, S. (2008). Indigenous knowledge for plant species diversity: A case study of wild plants’ folk names used by the Mongolians in Ejina Desert area, Inner Mongolia, P. R. China. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-4-2
Faccenda, K. (2021, March 27). Decolonization of common names. iNaturalist Community Forum. https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/decolonization-of-common-names/21512
Gillman, L. N., & Wright, S. D. (2020). Restoring indigenous names in taxonomy. Communications Biology, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01344-y . This communications article is posted on Communications Biology which is a peer reviewed journal.
Briggs, J. (2005). The use of indigenous knowledge in development: problems and challenges. Progress in Development Studies, 5(2), 99-114. https://doi.org/10.1191/1464993405ps105oa This article pdf was from Sage Jornals which is a peer reviewed journal.
Mosyakin, S. L. (2022). Attempts to introduce a system of national, racial and/or ethnocultural discrimination in codes of biological nomenclature should not be tolerated: Comments on some recent proposals (Wright & Gillman, 2022, etc.). Taxon, 72(3), 469–482. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12837 This article was posted on Wiley Online library, which is a creible peer—reviewed journal.
This research article is posted on PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) which is a peer-reviewed article Van Andel, T. R., Van ‘T Klooster, C. I. E. A., Quiroz, D., Towns, A. M., Ruysschaert, S., & Van Den Berg, M. (2014b). Local plant names reveal that enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World flora. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(50).
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1418836111
Mabry, M. E., Caomhanach, N., Abrahams, R. S., Gaynor, M. L., Pham, K. K., Williams, T. M., Murphy, K. S., Smocovitis, V. B., Soltis, D. E., & Soltis, P. S. (2024). Building an inclusive botany: The “radicle” dream. Plants People Planet, 6(3), 544–557. https://doi.org/10.1`002/ppp3.10478
This one of my reviews of an article from our final project
This review, “Building an Inclusive Botany: The Radical’ Dream,” was published in the New Phytologist Foundation, a peer-reviewed journal. The purpose of this review is to talk about systemic racism and exclusionary practices in botany. Their goal is to decolonize talks about ways to make the botany field less colonial and to create a space for more diversity by bringing forth and recognizing underrepresented voices. They want us to re-examine the roots of botany and the value of Indigenous plant knowledge systems. in multiple cultural perspectives and pushing them forward to create a more holistic, sustainable, and equitable scientific community. An argument they propose is the need to shift from Eurocentric approaches and decolonize the field of botany.
The content in this review mostly talks about how women, black, brown, and Indigenous folks have been excluded from botany’s history and current practices. They talk about how some botanical collections have been history inaccessible to marginalized groups, which limits their contributions. Wiping out any critical knowledge and perspective that can enrich the understanding of plants and ecosystems. The review also critiques the dominance of western plant naming. Often erasing Indigenous knowledge and local plant names that may have richer, deeper meanings and reasoning also enriches the understanding of plants and ecosystems. They provide examples of how black and indigenous contributions to botany have been underrepresented in traditional counts despite being essential to the field’s development. By referencing initiatives like #BLACKBOTANISTWEEK, the review highlights current-day efforts to honor overlooked figures.
The review also points out the potential benefits of digitizing the herbarium collections and making it widely accessible for other diverse researchers to contribute their botanical research. By putting these collections online, researchers, especially those who might not have access to the physical collections, can contribute to botanical research. The author is just worried about the fact that digitization could lead to the risk of replicating exclusionary practices if not done correctly. For example, if the resources are already reflecting Western knowledge and don’t include Indigenous insights, it could further silence those communities. The authors stress the importance to taking a thoughtful approach when it comes to digitization so that diverse perspectives are not left out of the conversation
Ultimately, the review wants to invoke a rethinking of botany in a more inclusive light that acknowledges and opens the doors to the diverse contributions to the field both historically and present day.
In conclusion “Building an Inclusive Botany: The Radical’ Dream,” calls for a shift toward inclusivity in botany by embracing and recognizing the contributions of marginalized groups. Moving forward, the field should focus on incorporating indigenous knowledge making research more assessable for everyone and ensuring that studies are done with inclusive and diverse perspectives. This is going to require some dismantling barriers to participation and creating a better environment in botanical research and education.
This is relevant to our question because before knowing how often indigenous plant names are being used, we need to know why or why not they are being used and explore why they are being overlooked. Also, recognizing the historical or cultural reasonings for the lack of inclusion is essential for filling these gaps to know what we can do to use them more often. Or how to bring about ways to open people’s eyes and bring awareness to the importance and value of indigenous knowledge in fields like botany.
These examples show my ability to analyze and review text.
(25%)Based on (9) Problem-Solving Skills
This is my exam one score. While I don’t have my exam two scores, this would show my achievement in problem-solving.
(25%) Based on (10) Quantitative Literacy
This is the proposed experiment from our final project, which shows the ability to analyze data.
5. Proposed Experiment
Our independent variable is the change for scientific names to be changed to indigenous or less colonialist/ offensive names.
Our dependent variable is the extent to which indigenous names for species are used today.
Our control group is the amount of information that we have about the indigenous names that are still used compared to the scientific names that are commonly used instead.
A figure we can construct is a bar graph that contains the scientific names and then the known indigenous names of the species, in about rough estimates as the exact number is either unknown or is always changing.
| currently used (estimated) | decolonized/renamed in process of being fixed | |
| Indigenous names | 3,500 | 1,700 |
| Scientific names | 350,000 | 500 |