The Year of Botany Project is not only about collecting plants, but also about understanding the lives of the people who lived with and used the plants. Recently, the Penn Museum blog featured a post on the ethnographic collection that was brought out of storage in 2024 and cataloged for YOB.
From the blog:
“The ‘Year of Botany’ project has been particularly helpful in illustrating the relationship between archaeobotany, ethnobotany, and ethnographic studies. Understanding the plants that are indigenous to the area around Ban Chiang through archaeology helps identify the plant species in the region that would have been around for hundreds and probably thousands of years. Local wisdom for understanding the properties of each plant makes it possible to best utilize those plants for particular functions. Thus we can understand the reasoning behind using one type of reed or wood for a particular trap or food processing device versus another.“
Joyce White demonstrating a fish trap in 1980-81, similar to ones in the current museum collection
Penn Museum’s post also highlights how the collection came to Penn, and the revival efforts of YOB’s team including catalogue translation from Thai, reconstruction, and creation of digital resources to make the collection accessible. There is also a feature on Mew, one of the staff who helped translate and provide local knowledge about these amazing artifacts. You can access the full post here: https://www.penn.museum/blog/discovering-local-wisdom-from-southeast-asia/