Becoming an ethnobotanist requires a college education and often an advanced degree. One can approach ethnobotany from various angles, including personalized degrees, and pursue careers in pharmaceuticals, anthropology, and more. Students should plan internships and seek opportunities to gain experience in the field.
There are several approaches one can take to becoming an ethnobotanist. They all involve pursuing a college education, and many require students to earn an advanced degree. Becoming an ethnobotanist takes a lot of work and commitment, but it is also very rewarding as people successfully complete their education and training. Once qualified, an ethnobotanist can work in a variety of fields depending on their interest, from pharmaceuticals to anthropology.
Ethnobotany is a field that studies the relationships between humans and plants. This field is quite broad and sometimes ill-defined, including topics such as plants used in traditional healing by tribal peoples, the history of agriculture, superstitious beliefs about plants, plants that can be used for dyes, plants used in textiles, and so on. Because the field is so broad, people can approach ethnobotany from many angles, creating more than one way to become an ethnobotanist.
A small number of colleges and universities offer bachelor’s degrees in ethnobotany, with more schools offering graduate work in this field for people who want to become ethnobotany. Students interested in specific topics such as discovering new pharmaceuticals or learning about traditional uses for native plants may want to do some research to see the type of coursework offered by various ethnobotany programs and the type of research being carried out. by the faculty.
It is also possible for a student to create a personalized degree in ethnobotany by working with academic advisors and faculty staff. One can become an ethnobotanist through disciplines such as general botany, anthropology, sociology, molecular biology, pharmacology and biology, among other things. Students interested in taking this approach should talk to the schools they are interested in to see if the school will allow the student to create an ethnobotany curriculum and if the school has the logistical support to help the student.
While at school, students should plan internships and other ethnobotany opportunities. Someone who wants to become an ethnobotanist can get a head start by doing summer research with working ethnobotanists, helping to catalog botanical collections, participating in anthropological research to learn more about working with tribal populations, and so on. This experience will also be useful when the student seeks employment in the field; he or she can turn a summer internship into a career or use work experience as a resume item to make a prospective employer more interested.
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