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Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge Among
the Chumash People of Southern California

Jan Timbrook, M.A. with botanical watercolors by
Chris Chapman

Published by Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in collaboration with Heyday Books, Berkeley.

An account of a Native American people’s dynamic relationship with the natural world.

Chumash Ethnobotany is the first thorough treatment of all aspects of plant knowledge among the first people of the Santa Barbara region. It covers the full spectrum of the interrelationships between people and plants: not just how people use plants but also how they think about them, classify them, weave stories about them and manipulate them, and how plants affect peoples' lives.

Chumashan peoples lived from Malibu to Morro Bay, from the northern Channel islands to the mountain ranges bordering the southern San Joaquin Valley. For millennia they were sustained by fishing, hunting, and gathering wild plants. By the eve of Spanish contact their numbers had grown to twenty thousand, perhaps the highest population density in prehistoric North America, and remarkable for a non-agricultural people. Nearly everything the Chumash made and used involved plants — food, medicine, shelter, clothing, tools of all kinds, basketry, religious paraphernalia, and more.

This book is intended for anyone interested in Native American cultures, plants, and the environment. It is written in a straightforward and engaging style accessible to the general reader, and also includes technical botanical and linguistic details, copious references, and a thorough index to satisfy scholars. The pages are adorned with two dozen lovely botanical watercolor paintings by Oak Group artist Chris Chapman and nine illustrations by the author.

Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-59714-048-5
272 pages (6 x 9) with illustrations throughout
$27.95

Reader Comments
This is stunning! What an amazing, beautiful, valuable volume. I just can't get over it. I keep paging through it, exclaiming over and over. Thank you for this magnificent gift. You have really made a difference in the world with this.
–Marianne Mithun, Ph.D.

Congratulations on this very important work. You have brought so many things to light for me, for my community, and for the world. You have my profound respect and affection.
–Nicolasa Sandoval, Ph.D.

What an accomplishment! Your introduction is great - so reader-friendly that it encourages one to plunge into what could be a rather intimidating encyclopedia of plants. The individual descriptions are in just the right tone - interesting and engaging, yet informative. The book, with the lovely watercolors, is not only beautiful, but in a comfortable format to read and enjoy.
–Virginia Guess, Ph.D.

About the Author

Jan Timbrook, an anthropologist and ethnobiologist who specializes in the indigenous Chumash people of the Santa Barbara region—particularly their uses of plants in food, medicine, and basketry—is now in her thirty-fourth year in the anthropology department at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Click here to buy a copy of Chumash Ethnobotany today.