Date of Project
5-1-2024
Document Type
Honors Thesis
School Name
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Communication
Major Advisor
Dr. Josef Jareczek
Second Advisor
Dr. Justin Klassen
Third Advisor
Dr. Michele Abee
Abstract
This project sought to collect and contextualize the historical and contemporary names given to plants by inhabitants of the Midwestern United States, understanding plant names as cultural artifacts that can offer insight into the communities in which they were created and evolved. Formatted as a series of entries, this collection gathered these names and contextualized them within other artifacts of cultural significance, such as art or poetry, and alongside historical research on their origins and cultural environments. Examining plant names through the fields of linguistics, semiology, anthropology, cultural studies, taxonomy, and ethnobotany, this work traces the names of various plants across the historical communities of the land now known as the Midwest for consideration as artifacts encoding cultural values, uses, and relationships.
Recommended Citation
Wesseler, Sophie, "What's In a Name? Plant Naming as Cultural Artifact and Story in the Midwestern United States" (2024). Undergraduate Theses. 150.
https://scholarworks.bellarmine.edu/ugrad_theses/150
Included in
Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons, Human Geography Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Language Interpretation and Translation Commons, Linguistic Anthropology Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Other Plant Sciences Commons, Philosophy of Science Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons