Plants and People: Karnataka Rites of Passage

Plants and People is a close examination of the ways in which plant life and human life are intertwined in two rural villages of Hassan District, Karnataka State, India, via the symbolic uses of plants in of rites of passage. After presenting a general overview of South Asian cultural traditions related to symbolic uses of plants and basic ethnobotany concepts, the book describes rites of passage of multiple castes – birth, maturation, marriage, pregnancy, death, and rituals for ancestors and ferocious goddesses. A discussion of key plants and ritual themes follows. One annex discusses ways that the Kannada language classifies plants and plant parts. The authors conducted ethnographic research in Karnataka in 1966-67. A follow-up 1976-77 study of plants by Suzanne Hanchett analyzed folk taxonomy, local understandings of plant types and plant parts. Includes photos and other illustrations, a Bibliography, Glossary of botanical and Kannada plant names, and an Index.