Iwigara - American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science

by Enrique Salmon

The belief that all life-forms are interconnected and share the same breath—known in the Rarámuri tribe as iwígara—has resulted in a treasury of knowledge about the natural world, passed down for millennia by native cultures. Ethnobotanist Enrique Salmón builds on this concept of connection and highlights 80 plants revered by North America’s indigenous peoples. Salmón teaches us the ways plants are used as food and medicine, the details of their identification and harvest, their important health benefits, plus their role in traditional stories and myths. Discover in these pages how the timeless wisdom of iwígara can enhance your own kinship with the natural world.

Enrique Salmón is a Rarámuri (Tarahumara). He is head of the American Indian Studies Program at Cal State University East Bay, in Hayward, California. He holds a BS from Western New Mexico University, an MAT in Southwest studies from Colorado College, and a PhD in anthropology from Arizona State University. He has been a scholar in residence at the Heard Museum and has served as a board member for the Society of Ethnobiology. He has published many articles on indigenous ethnobotany, agriculture, nutrition, and traditional ecological knowledge. He has also spoken at numerous conferences and symposia on the topics of cultivating resilience, indigenous solutions to climate change, the ethnobotany of Native North America, the ethnobotany of the Greater Southwest, poisonous plants that heal, bioculturally diverse regions as refuges of hope and resilience, and the language and library of indigenous cultural knowledge.

Timber Press; Illustrated edition, 2020, hardcover, 8.38 x 9.38 inches, 248 pages.