But her concept of reciprocity comes from her background as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and her training in Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Kimmerer is a professor of botany, trained in universities and mainstream science. In the midst of this era of multiplying, accelerating crises, there is something emotionally stabilizing about Kimmerer’s book, and I think that can be attributed to her central concept: reciprocity. But it appears that Braiding Sweetgrass has crossed over to a wider audience. What accounts for the book’s success? Certainly, a genre exists for lyrical nature writing. First published in 2013, it is at this writing number two on the New York Times bestseller list of non-fiction books in paperback, a list it has appeared on now for 119 weeks. When they do, they may place it among the most important works of its kind, up there with Walden, say, or Silent Spring. At some point, intellectual historians will have to reckon with the phenomenal success of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
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