The Tradition of Caribbean Ethnobotany
Caribbean Ethnobotany has its genesis within the intermix of biodiversity and socialization. The communities of peoples in the Caribbean were challenged to fashion a health care system based on nature’s resources.
Plants are abundant in the Caribbean archipelago, with its high degree of endemicity, and it was a natural process of observing their properties and applying their offering of leaves, fruit, roots, bark and seeds for healing. The embedded biocultural knowledge carried by the custodians of the myriad cultures has contributed to a vibrant heritage of plant usage across the Caribbean. The practice suffers from the limitations of knowledge transfer and translation in the contemporary landscape.
In our museum exhibit we attempt to share this rich tradition through visual and interactive tools.
Listen to what Ras Ils of Barbados has to say about Botanical Treasures.
Learn about the traditional uses of Okra.
Learn about the traditional uses of Turmeric.
Journey to the past as we outline some aspects of traditional medicine during the 1600s / 1700s in Barbados.
Familiarise yourself with the tradition of using plants in the form of Cooling Teas, as practiced in Barbados and shared throughout the Caribbean heritage.
Join us as we walk through a Caribbean Garden.
We hope you enjoyed exploring the biodiversity in this room!
Please continue the Herbal Museum experience as you click below to view Cooling Teas of Barbados, Herbarium Specimen, or Plant Medicine - During Slavery.