For thousands of years, the Kumeyaay people of northern Baja California and southern California made their homes in the diverse landscapes of the region, interacting with native plants and continuously refining their botanical knowledge. Today, many Kumeyaay Indians in Baja California carry on the traditional knowledge and skills for transforming native plants into food, medicine, arts, tools, regalia, construction materials, and ceremonial items.
Kumeyaay Ethnobotany written by Michael Wilken-Robertson explores the remarkable interdependence between native peoples and native plants through in-depth descriptions of 47 native plants and their uses, lively narratives, and hundreds of vivid photographs.
For thousands of years the Kumeyaay have interacted with the unique vegetation in the lands now known as Baja and Alta California. These hunting, gathering, and fishing peoples forged a way of life based on a profound knowledge of the area’s rich and varied environments. Over the centuries, they continuously refined this botanical knowledge and transmitted it to subsequent generations.
Spanish explorers and missionaries gave the first written descriptions of the Kumeyaay and their environments through vivid accounts of mobile bands seasonally utilizing locally available plant foods and producing ceramics, baskets, bows and arrows, and fiber nets. Only two and a half centuries ago, Spain began to occupy their land, and by 1848, Kumeyaay territory had been divided into two distinct nation states–Mexico and the United States.
Discover the fascinating life of the Kumeyaay people and their profound relationship with the botanical world!
$29.95
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