Ethnobotany is placed in a contemporary, holistic context of ethnobiology, in which its essence, assumptions, issues, and methods are introduced. Human interrelationships with plants, animals, and other life forms are portrayed in a continuum that extends from the dawn of human emergence to the present, encompassing societies at all levels of wealth and achievement, including those biotechnological, and in all expressions of culture. Unifying themes are found in the explicit marriage of biology, especially systematics, ecology, and phytochemistry, to human selection. Taken together these themes place ethnobotany at the intersections of the biological and human realms and give it a perspective in which nature and humanity are intimately intertwined.

Key words: biotechnology, culture, ecology, ethnobiology, selection, systematics