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Theresa L Miller

University of Maryland, College Park, Anthropology, Graduate Faculty Member

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Researcher, 2019-present
FrameWorks Institute
Washington, DC

Graduate Faculty Member, 2019-present
Department of Anthropology
University of Maryland-College Park

Environmental Social Scientist, 2017-2019
Keller Science Action Center
Field Museum
Chicago, IL

Postdoctoral Associate, 2016-2018
Department of Anthropology
University of Maryland, College Park

Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow, 2015-2017
Department of Anthropology
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC

DPhil in Anthropology, 2015
MPhil in Social Anthropology, 2010
Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK

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Books by Theresa L Miller

Plant Kin: A Multispecies Ethnography in Indigenous Brazil

University of Texas Press, 2019

Using sensory ethnobotany to understand people-plant relationships and gardening practices in the... more

Papers by Theresa L Miller

Botanical Ontologies: Integrating Ontology Into Ethnobotanical Research

by Lewis Daly, Katherine E French, and Theresa L Miller

Journal of Ethnobiology, 2016

The title of this special section of the Journal of Ethnobiology, which grew out of a conference ... more The title of this special section of the Journal of Ethnobiology, which grew out of a conference of the same name held at the University of Oxford in 2014, is intentionally provocative, immediately inspiring a number of questions: What might it mean to look at human-plant relations “ontologically”? What, indeed, is an “ontology,” and how does it relate to plants? Can the field of ethnobiology fruitfully engage with theoretical movements in the social sciences and humanities that advocate an ontological approach to human-nonhuman relations? In the epoch of the Anthropocene and in light of the realization that the activity of human beings alters not only local ecosystems and the constitution of the atmosphere, but also the geological and tectonic foundations of the planet how might human-plant relations be re-conceptualized and theorized? Further still, how can the relation be-tween theory and practice be reformulated in light of these challenges? In this special section, we grapple with these difficult questions while remaining grounded in the interdisciplinary research concerning people and plants presented by our contributors.

Less Palatable, Still Valuable: Taste, Crop Agrobiodiversity, and Culinary Heritage

by Greg de St. Maurice and Theresa L Miller

People across the world eat many things that they readily admit are not particularly tasty. Takin... more People across the world eat many things that they readily admit are not particularly tasty. Taking into consideration that taste and palatability are culturally conditioned , this special issue explores the relationship between taste and value by focusing upon crops that are perceived to be socioculturally important even as they are characterized as bland, less delicious, and even " bad. " The articles in this issue pay particular attention to the importance of contributing factors to consuming and valuing the less delicious including agrobiodiversity maintenance, healthful-ness or well-being, symbolism, ritual use, and culinary heritage. They suggest ways of incorporating the " less delicious " into the safeguarding of agrobiodiversity and culinary heritage and the promotion of healthful foodways. This introduction ties the themes of taste and value together across time and space to contextualize the articles that follow.

Valuing the Bad and the Ugly: Tasting Agrobiodiversity Among the Indigenous Canela

Food, Culture & Society, 2017

Living Lists: How the Indigenous Canela Come to Know Plants Through Ethnobotanical Classification

This paper explores how members of the indigenous Canela community of northeast Brazil value and ... more

Valuing varietal diversity: indigenous Canela horticulture in northeast Brazil

Society, Biology & Human Affairs, 2014

This paper explores how the indigenous Canela community of northeast Brazil cultivate multiple va... more This paper explores how the indigenous Canela community of northeast Brazil cultivate multiple varieties of many crop species for combined ecological, nutritional, socioeconomic, social-cultural, cosmological, and aesthetic reasons. A particular focus is given to Canela ethnobotanical classification of socio-culturally significant crop species and varietals, including maize, manioc, yam, squash, and beans, as well as other non-native species that have been incorporated into the modern Canela garden. The data examined in this paper show how valuing biodiversity and varietal diversity in particular is central to the Canela worldview, in which society and ecology form a holistic whole.

Growing Gardens: Towards a Theory of Ecological Aesthetic Performances in Indigenous Amazonia

Revista Enfoques, 2012

This article focuses on the production and performance of material culture in indigenous Amazonia... more This article focuses on the production and performance of material culture in indigenous Amazonia. When understood as the study of various relationships between persons and things, material culture studies can include an examination of human-plant relationships involved in gardening practices and plant cultivation. This article will demonstrate how North-Western Jê societies conceive of gardening practices as a series of multi-sensory aesthetic ecological performances through which meaningful human-plant relationships are created and maintained. It will be shown how analyzing gardening as an aesthetic performance can lead to a renewed understanding of the material and symbolic aspects of plant cultivation and of material culture studies as a whole.

Animistic Ecological Ethics within the Ramkokamekra-Canela Indigenous Community of Northeast Brazil

UNESCO ECCAP WG2: Repository of Ethical Worldviews of Nature, 2012

Maize as Material Culture?: Amazonian Theories of Persons and Things

Journal of the Anthropology Society of Oxford (JASO)-online, 2011

Book Reviews by Theresa L Miller

Book review of Seeds of Resistance, Seeds of Hope: Place and Agency in the Conservation of Biodiversity, edited by Virginia D. Nazarea, Robert E. Rhoades, and Jenna E. Andrews-Swann

CAFE: Culture, Agriculture, Food & Environment - the Journal of Culture & Agriculture, 2014

Book Review of Islands in the Rainforest: Landscape Management in Pre-Columbian Amazonia by Stéphen Rostain

Archaeological Review of Cambridge, 2013

DPhil Thesis by Theresa L Miller

Bio-Sociocultural Aesthetics: Indigenous Ramkokamekra-Canela Gardening Practices and Varietal Diversity Maintenance in Maranhão, Brazil

MPhil Thesis by Theresa L Miller

The Aesthetics of Environment: an Exploration of Indigenous Maize Cultivation and Biocultural Diversity in Central Brazil

Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, 2010

Conference Presentations by Theresa L Miller

Botanical Ontologies Conference Program: A Cross-Disciplinary Forum on Human-Plant Relationships, Oxford, 16-17 May 2014

by Lewis Daly, Theresa L Miller, and Katherine E French

Hunger, Gender, and Social Assistance in the Canela Indigenous Society of Northeast Brazil

Varietal Diversity and Shamanic Experience: Canela Encounters with Cultivated Plants

Indigenous Amazonian Environmental Knowledge and its Application in the Social Sciences

Talks by Theresa L Miller

Conjuring Property: An Interview with Jeremy Campbell

by Jeremy Campbell and Theresa L Miller

Conjuring Property: Speculation and Environmental Futures in the Brazilian Amazon, by Jeremy Camp... more

Plant Kin: A Multispecies Ethnography in Indigenous Brazil

University of Texas Press, 2019

Using sensory ethnobotany to understand people-plant relationships and gardening practices in the... more

Botanical Ontologies: Integrating Ontology Into Ethnobotanical Research

by Lewis Daly, Katherine E French, and Theresa L Miller

Journal of Ethnobiology, 2016

The title of this special section of the Journal of Ethnobiology, which grew out of a conference ... more The title of this special section of the Journal of Ethnobiology, which grew out of a conference of the same name held at the University of Oxford in 2014, is intentionally provocative, immediately inspiring a number of questions: What might it mean to look at human-plant relations “ontologically”? What, indeed, is an “ontology,” and how does it relate to plants? Can the field of ethnobiology fruitfully engage with theoretical movements in the social sciences and humanities that advocate an ontological approach to human-nonhuman relations? In the epoch of the Anthropocene and in light of the realization that the activity of human beings alters not only local ecosystems and the constitution of the atmosphere, but also the geological and tectonic foundations of the planet how might human-plant relations be re-conceptualized and theorized? Further still, how can the relation be-tween theory and practice be reformulated in light of these challenges? In this special section, we grapple with these difficult questions while remaining grounded in the interdisciplinary research concerning people and plants presented by our contributors.

Less Palatable, Still Valuable: Taste, Crop Agrobiodiversity, and Culinary Heritage

by Greg de St. Maurice and Theresa L Miller

People across the world eat many things that they readily admit are not particularly tasty. Takin... more People across the world eat many things that they readily admit are not particularly tasty. Taking into consideration that taste and palatability are culturally conditioned , this special issue explores the relationship between taste and value by focusing upon crops that are perceived to be socioculturally important even as they are characterized as bland, less delicious, and even " bad. " The articles in this issue pay particular attention to the importance of contributing factors to consuming and valuing the less delicious including agrobiodiversity maintenance, healthful-ness or well-being, symbolism, ritual use, and culinary heritage. They suggest ways of incorporating the " less delicious " into the safeguarding of agrobiodiversity and culinary heritage and the promotion of healthful foodways. This introduction ties the themes of taste and value together across time and space to contextualize the articles that follow.

Valuing the Bad and the Ugly: Tasting Agrobiodiversity Among the Indigenous Canela

Food, Culture & Society, 2017

Living Lists: How the Indigenous Canela Come to Know Plants Through Ethnobotanical Classification

This paper explores how members of the indigenous Canela community of northeast Brazil value and ... more

Valuing varietal diversity: indigenous Canela horticulture in northeast Brazil

Society, Biology & Human Affairs, 2014

This paper explores how the indigenous Canela community of northeast Brazil cultivate multiple va... more This paper explores how the indigenous Canela community of northeast Brazil cultivate multiple varieties of many crop species for combined ecological, nutritional, socioeconomic, social-cultural, cosmological, and aesthetic reasons. A particular focus is given to Canela ethnobotanical classification of socio-culturally significant crop species and varietals, including maize, manioc, yam, squash, and beans, as well as other non-native species that have been incorporated into the modern Canela garden. The data examined in this paper show how valuing biodiversity and varietal diversity in particular is central to the Canela worldview, in which society and ecology form a holistic whole.

Growing Gardens: Towards a Theory of Ecological Aesthetic Performances in Indigenous Amazonia

Revista Enfoques, 2012

This article focuses on the production and performance of material culture in indigenous Amazonia... more This article focuses on the production and performance of material culture in indigenous Amazonia. When understood as the study of various relationships between persons and things, material culture studies can include an examination of human-plant relationships involved in gardening practices and plant cultivation. This article will demonstrate how North-Western Jê societies conceive of gardening practices as a series of multi-sensory aesthetic ecological performances through which meaningful human-plant relationships are created and maintained. It will be shown how analyzing gardening as an aesthetic performance can lead to a renewed understanding of the material and symbolic aspects of plant cultivation and of material culture studies as a whole.

Animistic Ecological Ethics within the Ramkokamekra-Canela Indigenous Community of Northeast Brazil

UNESCO ECCAP WG2: Repository of Ethical Worldviews of Nature, 2012

Maize as Material Culture?: Amazonian Theories of Persons and Things

Journal of the Anthropology Society of Oxford (JASO)-online, 2011

Book review of Seeds of Resistance, Seeds of Hope: Place and Agency in the Conservation of Biodiversity, edited by Virginia D. Nazarea, Robert E. Rhoades, and Jenna E. Andrews-Swann

CAFE: Culture, Agriculture, Food & Environment - the Journal of Culture & Agriculture, 2014

Book Review of Islands in the Rainforest: Landscape Management in Pre-Columbian Amazonia by Stéphen Rostain

Archaeological Review of Cambridge, 2013

Bio-Sociocultural Aesthetics: Indigenous Ramkokamekra-Canela Gardening Practices and Varietal Diversity Maintenance in Maranhão, Brazil

The Aesthetics of Environment: an Exploration of Indigenous Maize Cultivation and Biocultural Diversity in Central Brazil

Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, 2010

Botanical Ontologies Conference Program: A Cross-Disciplinary Forum on Human-Plant Relationships, Oxford, 16-17 May 2014

by Lewis Daly, Theresa L Miller, and Katherine E French

Hunger, Gender, and Social Assistance in the Canela Indigenous Society of Northeast Brazil

Varietal Diversity and Shamanic Experience: Canela Encounters with Cultivated Plants

Indigenous Amazonian Environmental Knowledge and its Application in the Social Sciences

Conjuring Property: An Interview with Jeremy Campbell

by Jeremy Campbell and Theresa L Miller

Conjuring Property: Speculation and Environmental Futures in the Brazilian Amazon, by Jeremy Camp... more