The Herbal Anthropology Project is excited to announce our new partnership with the Huichol Center for Cultural Survival (near Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico) to support them in the installation of their new herbarium! A herbarium is a collection of dried plant specimens used for dozens of scientific and educational purposes. The Huichol Herbarium will serve as a legally-protected repository of traditional knowledge and by documenting culturally significant plants and fungi along with the associated biocultural knowledge and Huichol language. Additionally, we will be equipping the Huichol Herbarium with seed bank technology so that the community may conserve traditional crop varieties and other endangered genetic material. The Huichol Herbarium will be a critical resource for the Huichol Community in their fight to preserve their ancient culture.
BENEFITS OF A COMMUNITY-LED HERBARIUM
1) Legally-protected documentation of globally endangered plant species on sacred Huichol lands. This facility is unique in preserving Huichol rights to their intellectual property.
2) Conservation of Huichol traditional knowledge and language. Sacred and medicinal plants and fungi will be documented as well as the practices, songs, rituals, processing techniques, and ecological knowledge that accompany them.
3) Training of tribal youth in both traditional customs and Western biological studies.
4) Education of Huichol community on culturally significant plants that are in geographically remote locations to prevent discontinuation of this knowledge.
5) Seed-banking and crop genetic diversity conservation to support food sovereignty initiatives.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
We are gathering volunteers to help with fundraisers around the U.S. (San Francisco, Austin, New York City), and social media support. Please let us know if you’re interested.
If you cannot volunteer hours, please consider a donation! We are a 501(c)3 organization, all donations are tax deductible.
Please contact jane@herbalanthropology.org for more details.