What can humans learn from plants in this time of widely perceived ecological disruption? And how can concepts drawn from ethnobotanical and ethnobiological inquiry help to guide understanding of interspecies relations in this historical moment? This essay departs from these basic questions by centering five key concepts derived from contemporary social theory for examining human understanding of plant lifeworlds: translation, equivocation, refusal, animacy, and agency. In doing so, it makes the case for how these concepts can invite ethnobiologists and ethnobotanists to question what we think we know about human–plant relations and the broader worlds that we collectively constitute.
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