July/August 1984 RAIN Page 11 community for educational purposes. The program has met with much success among both the young and old of the community. In fact, it has sparked a renaissance of sorts, where the young are learning “the old ways" and the elders feel a renewed sense of worth from sharing their knowledge. (For more information, write to Nuxalk Food and Nutrition Program, Health Clinic, PO Box 93, Bella Coola, BC, VOT ICO, Canada.) Similar work has been initiated among the Tlingit and Haida of southeast Alaska. This program has gathered several indigenous foods to determine nutritional values, and has produced a videotape that demonstrates traditional foocl preparation techniques. (Helen Hooper, Indian Health Service, Mt. Edgecumbe, AK 99835.) These last examples show how valuable ethnobotany can be in addressing contemporary concerns. Living things, particularly plants, are at the interface of human needs and thought with nature. What happens when this vital link is severed? Among the Nuxalk people, there is a widespread problem with obesity and poor health. The lack of vital ties to the original resource base, to the flora and fauna, represents a tremendous vacuum in their culture, and contributes to the atrophy of the culture's resilience and integrity. , For the rest of us, the Anglos of North America, this issue prompts us to define our relationship to this land. Are we denizens, inhabitants? Will we continue to rape the land? To ship produce 3000 miles from its source, to a concrete jungle that has little or no tie to its resource base? The programs mentioned above have value not only for native groups, but for the current inhabitants of a region as well. Learning about different cultures can give us access to new ways of thinking about the world. Tomorrow morning when you stumble to the kitchen for a caffeine fix to get you through the day, why not consider instead a trip to the backyard to rub down with some stinging nettles? □ □ For more information about next year's conference, write to the Society of Ethnobiology, PO Box 1145, Flagstaff, AZ 86002. Subscriptions to the Journal of Ethnobiology (quarterly, $15lyear) are also available from the above address. ACCESS: Nature Mushroom: The Journal of Wild Mushrooming, quarterly, $12/year from: Box 3156 University Station Moscow, ID 83843 Mushroom lovers alert! This is a journal to fulfill your wildest fungi fantasies. Volume 1, Number 1 rolled off the presses last fall with articles on spores. Amanita virosa, and the 19th century mycologist Charles H. Peck. The first issue also evaluates nine well-known mushroom field guides. News from NAMA (North American Mycological Association), informative advertising, and recipes round out this new periodical. —Mimi Maduro Finding Your Way on Land or Sea: Reading Nature’s Maps, by Harold Gatty, 1983, 271 pp., $8.95 from: The Stephen Greene Press Fessenden Road Brattleboro, VT 05301 Harold Gatty claims that aborigines and native guides have no monopoly on competent pathfinding. Furthermore, you need no compass or maps anywhere on earth to find your way—only well- trained senses and an understanding of what your senses reveal. Gatty, an Australian navigator, honed his powers of observation at sea. He soon realized that finding his way in the wilds required only observation and deduction. In this book—originally published as Nature is Your Guide in 1958—he tells you what to look for. You can tell direction from lichens, wind-sculpted trees, or anthills. At sea, you can release birds to point the way to land. Gatty explains why we walk in circles (we're unbalanced). This book is packed with useful information and interesting facts. If you're planning to visit the wilderness. Camel caravan in Australia keeping smoke from three fires in line (FROM: Finding Your Way on Land or Sea) read this book first as insurance against loss of map and compass, and use the pointers in this guide to increase your awareness of the nuances in nature. —TK San Francisco: Wild in the City (poster), by Nancy Morita, 1983, 23 by 35, $4.50 plus $1.50 postage from: Wild in the City 6 Cypress Road San Anselmo, CA 94960 San Francisco used to be a pretty wild place—before it became San Francisco. Today, the city is so densely covered with pavement and buildings that it's hard to imagine Indians and grizzly bears roaming the peninsula. This hand-lettered and -drawn, black-and-white poster shows two views of the city: native (before 1750) and today (1980s). (Nancy Morita expects to have a full-color version available later this year.) The native map shows Ohlone village sites (one near today's Candlestick Park) and such natural features as beach and dune (Golden Gate Park overlies former beach/dune terrain), chaparral, and salt-water marsh. For each natural area, the poster lists the native flora and fauna and the soil type, and notes which species are now regionallyrare, endangered, or extinct—such as freshwater jellyfish, tule elk, and moon snail. This is the kind of information that makes me want to travel back in time, about 250 years, if only for a glimpse at San Francisco's wildest days. —TK
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz