Ethnobotany at the USU Museum of Anthropology
Thursday, Jun. 21, 2012
The executive director of the American West Heritage Center is the next featured guest at Utah State University’s Museum of Anthropology and its Saturdays at the Museum series. The theme for the day June 30 is ethnobotany.
Bill Varga offers a presentation at the museum at 1 p.m., discussing how Native Americans and pioneers used plants found in northern Utah for medical, culinary and cultural purposes. Many of these plants can still be used for the same purposes today.
In addition to the presentation, there will be crafts for children, including making cordage and paper flowers. The museum will also give tours of the exhibits “Atlatls, Nets, and Pinyon Nuts: Gathering Food in the Prehistoric Great Basin” and “Great Basin Basketry.”
Event organizers offer a description of “ethnobotany,” provided by the National Tropical Botanical Garden.
“Ethnobotany along with the related disciplines of ethnobiology and ethnoecology are of central importance for understanding and improving the sustainability of our relationships with the living world.”
Varga’s presentation at the museum will demonstrate how an understanding of the living world allowed Native Americans and pioneers alike to prosper in the harsh land that defines northern Utah.
In addition to the Saturday activity series, community members and USU students alike can visit the museum during its standard operating hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Funding for the Saturday events is provided by a grant from the United States Institute of Museum and Library Services. More information about the IMLS is available online.
The USU Museum of Anthropology is on the USU campus in the south turret of the historic Old Main building, Room 252. Admission is free. For Saturday activities, free parking is available in the adjacent lot, south of the building.
For more information about museum events, call museum staff at (435) 797-7545 or visit the museum website.
The Museum of Anthropology is part of the Anthropology Program at USU in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Related links:
- USU Anthropology Program
- USU Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology
- USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Source: Museum of Anthropology
Contact: USU Museum of Anthropology, (435) 797-7545, anthro.museum@usu.edu
