planthropology

English

Etymology

Coined by anthropologist Natasha Myers, from plant +‎ anthropology

Noun

planthropology (plural planthropologies)

1. The study of plants in order to understand their relationships to humans and human culture.
   • 2016, Natasha Myers, “Photosynthesis”, in Society for Cultural Anthropology‎^[1]:

     We must get to know plants intimately and on their terms. And so we need a planthropology (Myers 2015a) to document the affective ecologies taking shape between plants and people, to learn to listen to their demands for unpaved land and for a time outside of the rhythms of capitalist extraction.

   • 2019, Theresa L. Miller, Plant Kin: A Multispecies Ethnography in Indigenous Brazil‎^[2], University of Texas Press, page 6:

     As anthropology questions the boundaries between human and plant lives with the plant turn and a planthropology (Myers 2017), so too is plant science questioning long-held assumptions about plant behavior and communication.

   • 2021, Laura Pountney, Tomislav Marić, Introducing Anthropology: What Makes Us Human?‎^[3], Polity Press:

     Using human-plant relationships to help understand human culture is known as 'planthropology' (Myers 2017).