Mentoring is an Intellectual Pillar of Ethnobiology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1656
Keywords: Mentoring; Writing; Support; Education

Abstract

Ethnobiology relies on community partnerships and relationships between elders or other knowledge keepers and students. Our Society of Ethnobiology, like all academic organizations, has its own issues with discrimination and abuses of power. But more than other academic disciplines, contemporary ethnobiology is practiced with and strengthened by close, respectful working relationships. As such, we offer our thoughts on the lessons ethnobiology brings to mentorship and accountability while outlining some of the specific steps we are taking as an academic and practicing community.

Author Biographies

Andrew Flachs, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Andrew Flachs is an environmental anthropologist who studies food, agriculture, and ecological knowledge in the American Midwest, South India, and Bosnia.

Elizabeth A. Olson, Department of History, Sociology, and Anthropology, Southern Utah University, Cedar City

Elizabeth A. Olson is a medical and environmental anthropologist with interests in ethnobotany, community-based conservation, Indigenous peoples of Mexico, and public health.

John M. Marston, Department of Anthropology, Boston University, Boston

John M. Marston is an environmental archaeologist who studies agriculture, resilience, climate-change adaptation, and the environmental implications of empire in the ancient eastern Mediterranean and western Asia.

Andrew Gillreath-Brown, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman

Andrew Gillreath-Brown is a research assistant and PhD student in the Department of Anthropology, Washington State University. His research focuses on prehistoric agriculture and paleoclimatic reconstruction, mostly in the American Southwest. His research has also integrated environmental and GIS modeling to study the evolutionary ecology of subsistence prior to regional abandonment. Andrew also currently serves as an Executive Board Member for the Tennessee Council for Professional Archaeology and an Editorial Assistant for Ethnobiology Letters.

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Ethnobiology Letters Cover, Volume 10, Issue 1, 2019
Published
2019-12-04
How to Cite
Flachs, A., Olson, E. A., Marston, J. M., & Gillreath-Brown, A. (2019). Mentoring is an Intellectual Pillar of Ethnobiology. Ethnobiology Letters, 10(1), 104-108. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1656
Issue
Vol 10 No 1 (2019)
Section
Editorials

Copyright (c) 2019 Andrew Flachs, Elizabeth A. Olson, John M. Marston, Andrew Gillreath-Brown

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