Page 9 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

found at Etowah, Georgia, which
It is clear that the indigenous peoples were knowledgeable about the natural history around them. For them it was a matter of survival. Their use of plant and animal materials was often sophisticated and nuanced. Sometimes, our understanding of their knowledge fails to appreciate the nuance. Some tribes refused to eat bear, for instance: it was not all about total exploitation of the environment in which they lived. There are a number of excellent books on ethnobotany (as an example) on which we can draw to understand how the indigenous peoples melded culture and the natural environment.
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