Social exchange and vegetative propagation: An untold story of British potted plants (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate) |
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| Authors: | Roy Ellen Réka Komáromi |
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| Institution: | 1. Was until recently Convener of the Kent‐Kew Programme in Ethnobotany and Director of the Centre for Biocultural Diversity at the University of Kent. He has undertaken field research in island Southeast Asia and in southeast England, where he has been managing the British Homegardens Project. His most recent book – on a quite different subject – is Nuaulu religious practices: The frequency and reproduction of rituals in a Moluccan society (2012). His email address is rfe@kent.ac.uk.;2. Has an MSc in Ethnobotany from the University of Kent, has undertaken fieldwork in Cameroon and the Republic of Congo for Kew Gardens, and was a research assistant on the British Homegardens Project. She is an independent ethnobotanical consultant, currently involved in research on Rastafari ethnobotany. Her email address is rekomaromi@gmail.com. |
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| Abstract: | Using data collected in Kent as part of the ‘British Homegardens Project’, we show how mode of reproduction in houseplants serves to increase biological fitness through selection and distribution through informal human social networks, and how those same modes lend themselves to the articulation and maintenance of social networks, instantiating memories and meanings, and providing opportunities for plant‐based narratives |
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