Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
hardcover, 456 pages
Published Oct. 13, 2020 by Milkweed Editions.
Updated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages. Beautifully bound in stamped linen cloth with a bookmark ribbon and a deckled edge, this edition features five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson. In increasingly dark times, we honor the experience that more than 350,000 readers in North America have cherished about the book--gentle, simple, tactile, beautiful, even sacred--and offer an edition that will inspire readers to gift it again and again, spreading the word about scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants.
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals …
Updated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages. Beautifully bound in stamped linen cloth with a bookmark ribbon and a deckled edge, this edition features five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson. In increasingly dark times, we honor the experience that more than 350,000 readers in North America have cherished about the book--gentle, simple, tactile, beautiful, even sacred--and offer an edition that will inspire readers to gift it again and again, spreading the word about scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants.
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings--asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass--offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
This book has permanently changed the way I think about the world. It made me so overwhelmed with emotions that at times I had to set down my phone and cry for a few minutes. But it is beautiful. It is poignant and important and it has given me renewed hope for a world that is increasingly terrifying.
Kimmerer spends a lot of time in this book comparing and contrasting Western science to indigenous ways of knowing, specifically from the Potawatomi tradition. As she's someone formally trained in western science, I understood her thesis being that indigenous ways of knowing can coexist with western science, but more than anything, I felt that this book did a really good job justifying why we shouldn't treat science as the end all be all of knowledge.
On one hand, I think this book reintroduced my very secular mind to the ways in which having a spiritual connection to nature can be extremely enriching and can add to our collective understanding of the natural world
On the other hand, it provides a basis for understanding where exactly science falls short in its attempt to catalogue the universe, as well as exposing its "objectivity" for the many ways in which it is actually …
Kimmerer spends a lot of time in this book comparing and contrasting Western science to indigenous ways of knowing, specifically from the Potawatomi tradition. As she's someone formally trained in western science, I understood her thesis being that indigenous ways of knowing can coexist with western science, but more than anything, I felt that this book did a really good job justifying why we shouldn't treat science as the end all be all of knowledge.
On one hand, I think this book reintroduced my very secular mind to the ways in which having a spiritual connection to nature can be extremely enriching and can add to our collective understanding of the natural world
On the other hand, it provides a basis for understanding where exactly science falls short in its attempt to catalogue the universe, as well as exposing its "objectivity" for the many ways in which it is actually ideologically motivated.
All in all, this book is definitely going to be a cornerstone of my worldview with respect to knowledge for the foreseeable future. Not to mention the fact that Kimmerer is just a really awesome writer in general
I'm glad that I decided to listen to the audiobook. You can hear the care and passion in Robin's voice as she tells her stories.
This book made me want to reconnect with nature. It brought to light so many things that I never would have even considered as someone who was raised without nature being a regular thing in my life. There was an abundance of information to be found in this book, from why the cost of Native-made goods is on the higher side (spoiler, it's because they don't take from the earth before it's ok to) to how a swamp ecosystem would have provided enough nutrients for people to survive without even needing to hunt. I had no idea that cattails could be used in so many ways.
I have a feeling this is an audiobook that I will be listening to a few times over the …
I'm glad that I decided to listen to the audiobook. You can hear the care and passion in Robin's voice as she tells her stories.
This book made me want to reconnect with nature. It brought to light so many things that I never would have even considered as someone who was raised without nature being a regular thing in my life. There was an abundance of information to be found in this book, from why the cost of Native-made goods is on the higher side (spoiler, it's because they don't take from the earth before it's ok to) to how a swamp ecosystem would have provided enough nutrients for people to survive without even needing to hunt. I had no idea that cattails could be used in so many ways.
I have a feeling this is an audiobook that I will be listening to a few times over the years.
EV1 says: I literally cried at every new chapter. This is one of the best books I have ever read on Nature and a great inspiration for my own pagan journey
Very interesting. I like how she couples her love of "Native science" (as she calls it) and western science. She shares so much knowledge and the love of Native American culture.
This is too beautiful for words
Now, it took me awhile to get into this book. I tend to be annoyed with people who use "Western science" as a derogative unironically. I also think that the pictures of the Native life are way over-idealized. However, all of it is irrelevant. This is a kind of story that does not need to be true to be worth telling.
This book has a good chance of shifting your perception of nature and of ecological matters, completely, and transform your relationship with the world. And I don't say that often.
