Abstract
Biocultural heritage preservation relies on ethnobotanical knowledge and the paleoethnobotanical data used in (re)constructing histories of human–biota interactions. Biocultural heritage, defined as the knowledge and practices of Indigenous and local peoples and their biological relatives, is often guarded information, meant for specific audiences and withheld from other social circles. As such, these forms of heritage and knowledge must also be included in the ongoing data sovereignty discussions and movement. In this paper we share the process and design decisions behind creating an online database for ethnobotanical knowledge and associated paleoethnobotanical data, using a content management system designed to foreground Indigenous and local perspectives. Our main purpose is to suggest that the Mukurtu content management system, originally designed for physical items of cultural importance, be considered as a potential tool for digitizing and ethically circulating biocultural heritage, including paleoethnobotanical resources. With this database, we aim to create access to biocultural heritage and paleoethnobotanical considerations for a variety of audiences while also respecting the protected and sensitive natures of Indigenous and local knowledges.
Highlights
Paleoethnobotanical data are critical across a wide array of fields but has been helpful in understanding the intersections between environmental change and human adaptive responses [1,2], in dietary reconstructions and gene-culture co-evolutionary processes [2,3], in the agricultural sciences [4,5], in food security [6], in restoration ecology [7,8,9], and even in strengthening local cultural identities and community connections [10,11]
The term biocultural heritage is multifaceted as it entails the ancestral rights of Indigenous peoples over the biodiversity they have conserved for generations, and the responsibility to continue to do so for future generations
When paleoethnobotanical identification criteria do exist for archaeological audiences, it is often couched in expensive or otherwise hard-toaccess articles, books, herbaria, or personal reference collections
Summary
Paleoethnobotanical data are critical across a wide array of fields but has been helpful in understanding the intersections between environmental change and human adaptive responses [1,2], in dietary reconstructions and gene-culture co-evolutionary processes [2,3], in the agricultural sciences [4,5], in food security [6], in restoration ecology [7,8,9], and even in strengthening local cultural identities and community connections [10,11]. The cost of printed books often entails economic barriers to those who are unable to afford these works or other ethnobotanical resources These static resources are usually written for specialist audiences and do not often have space or capacity to encompass multiple perspectives, changing viewpoints, or restricted forms of knowledge. In response to these barriers, we created and share an online ethnobotanical database website, “Cultural and Historic Guide to Northwest Native Plants” (http:// nwnativeplants.org, accessed on 20 January 2022) designed to engage and facilitate these intersecting heritage realms. We follow Fernández-Llamazares, et al [13] when we refer to biocultural heritage and ethnobotanical knowledge; we are referring to the heritage and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to recognize their intergenerational connections to place through livelihoods, cultural identities, worldviews, institutions, and ecological knowledge
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