Abstract
In light of correspondence between interdisciplinary representations of plant abilities, this paper raises questions about plant/human-animal relationships and in so doing problematizes the category/species boundaries that both establish and characterize the differences between plant and animal. Using a more than human (Cf. Whatmore 2002; Head et al., 2012) multi-species (Kirksey and Helmreich 2010) framework that rejects reductionist methods in favour of a relational, materialities approach; an alternative method to consider plant/human-animal relationships that focuses on edibility and the consequences of ingestion is proposed. Termed the Edibility Approach, this method foregrounds the ways that plants influence human bodies as a result of their edibility and considers the corollary processes that occur during ingestion and after digestion. Interrogation of the social effects of eating plants and the part plants play in inciting behaviours as if from “the inside” of bodies adds a nuanced direction to the study of plant/human-animal relationships. This phyto-centric framing offers a new botanical ontology and conceptual tool. By focusing on the dependencies between species, it proposes that there is a multi-vocal embodied dialogue occurring between species through digestion.
Highlights
Whatmore 2002; Head et al, 2012) multi-species (Kirksey and Helmreich 2010) framework that rejects reductionist methods in favour of a relational, materialities approach; an alternative method to consider plant/human-animal relationships that focuses on edibility and the consequences of ingestion is proposed
It is obvious that whilst simultaneously spinning the plates of multiple ontologies, plant activities can be both re/presented and re-modelled. Reimagining plants in this way supports the view that plants are active rather than passive, responsive rather than reactive, and may be as aware of people as they are of other animals
Plant abilities have been extended out from the conventional description many of us are familiar with; Plantae has transformed from virtually oblivious, simple, photosynthesizing entities to reappear as tremendously complicated beings with extraordinary, previously unimagined abilities
Summary
Studies from diverse disciplines claim that conventional definitions of plants (as useful passive resources without volition) inadequately describe plant abilities. Amalgamating the intentions inherent in these approaches provides an alternative to orthodox frameworks that rely on reduction to achieve results This method enables relationships themselves and the ecological processes (that occur because beings engage) to be considered rather than the products or outcomes of relationships and, in so doing, reveals what happens to the world when foci change. In this case, I shift the focus onto the relationality of edibility and the physical processes of digestion and assimilation of plants into people’s bodies to reveal the influences that plants hold on (and around) bodies as a result of being edible. This interdisciplinary approach blends the relational focus of the moves cited above to achieve what Witmore (using Latour’s theory of ontological symmetry, 1999) calls an “analytical levelling” (Witmore, 2007: p. 547) of the material world, which thereby closes the representational gap furrowed by the modernist myth that separates life into categories, groups and bits (Witmore, 2007: p. 552)
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