ES 321 Final Flashcards
Cultural Landscapes*
- Cultural & physical medium through which people form perceptions and are formed.
- Includes creation stories, fishing/hunting practices, ceremonial places, travel routes, community histories, etc.
- Is constantly evolving
Culture is the ___, natural area is the ___, the cultural landscape is the ____.
agent
medium
result
Social Space
- active role in social relations
- shaping the land has social meaning
Space
- Structures what is possible in terms of movement, visibility, present & future productivity, etc.the
- Physical territory
- Objective
Place
- Invested with stories, histories, memories, etc.
- Space with meaning
- Subjective
Kincentricity*
- The belief that humans and nature are part of an extended ecological family that shares ancestry & origins
- Acknowledges that a healthy environment is achievable only when humans regard life around them as kin
Environmental Determinism
-The idea that the environment and its parameters determine what occurs within that landscape (culture, settlement, society, etc.)
Critique: ignores the fact that humans influence their environment through time & space
The Raramuri
- Believe that all things have a soul and share the same breath
- Humans used to be part plant, and when they emerged into the present world, so did plants and animals as “humans in a different form”
What might happen if we saw the ‘resources’ around us as family members: cousins, siblings, etc.?
- If we have this kincentric view, we would be far less likely to thoughtlessly exploit resources into extinction, and we would take extreme measures to protect them
- Valuable/worthy of respect
Laguna Pueblo
- New Mexico
- It was not until they recognized humans were sisters and brothers to all life that they could “emerge” and become humans on Earth
“The Land Ethic”
- Each individual member of the community is ethically bound to maintain cooperative relations with the biotic community.
- Enlarges the community to include soil/water/plants/animals…“the land”
CMT
- Culturally Modified Trees
- eg. Stripping cedarbark to build canoes; involves respect and acknowledgment of the dynamic nature of life
Traditional Food Systems*
- Used to identify all culturally accepted foods within a particular culture available from local native sources; very diverse
- Includes management, beliefs, histories, practices, TEK, relationships, etc.
Cultural Keystone Species
- Plants/animals foundational to a culture, in terms of diet, materials, medicine, etc.
- Cultural icons, without which societies would be very different; featured in language, ceremonies, narratives, etc.
- e.g. salmon & blue camas for Coast Salish
“Country Foods”
- Term used by the Inuit to describe traditional foods
- Provide shared cultural connection between family & community
- Bring people together at community events
“Earth Ovens”
- Used to process (Balsam) roots
- Very resilient food system in the long term
The Nutrition Transition
- Decline in use of traditional foods=increased consumption of processed foods
- Has led to obesity, alcoholims, diabetes, and other health concerns among indigenous groups
Threats to traditional food systems include…
- Habitat destruction/degradation
- Access (loss of traditional territory, relocation, lack of time/resources, etc.)
- Environmental contamination (heavy metals, POPs, etc.)
Food Security
When all people at all times have physical & economic access to nutritious food that meets dietary needs and preferences in quantity to maintain an active/healthy lifestyle
Fallowing
Letting cultivated land rest for a certain period of time before using it again because over use depletes the soils nutrients
Crop Rotation
Growing different types of crops in various seasons
Anthropogenic Soil
- Anthropogenic refers to environmental alterations resulting from the presence or activities of humans
- Soils originating as a result of human activity, either created deliberately or inadvertently
Terra Preta
- Anthropogenic soil in the Amazon Basin made by adding charcoal, bone, and manure
- “black soil”
- Product of indigenous soil management that is very productive and continues to regenerate itself
Biochar
- Created through gasification… burning biomass in the absence or reduction of oxygen
- Key component of Terra Preta
Shell Midden
- Rich soils in BC
- Often viewed as the unintentional disposal of waste, BUT it was using soil & waste intentionally (to increase productivity or build platforms)
Why is Western redcedar a Cultural Keystone Species?
- Considered the “Tree of Life”
- Wood is lightweight, rot-resistant, splits easily, and can be removed without killing the tree
- Versatile: used for shelter, clothes, tools, medicine, art, etc.
- Culturally Modified Tree (bark stripping, aboriginal logging, dendroglyph)
Dendroglyphs
Carvings in trees using to mark trails, territory, etc.
What does “Keeping it Living: mean?
- Not adversely affecting populations by overharvesting/damage
- Maintaining the ability for species to continue to grow/reproduce
- Maintaining health of all life in an ecosystem
- Maintaining the knowledge, skills, and wolrdviews that support sustainable resource use
- Includes: selective harvesting, tilling, weeding, burning, fertilizing
Define Cultural Keystone Place and it’s main attributes
- Places of high cultural salience for a particular group , critical to their identity and well-being
- Reflected by the people’s origin stories, place-baced narratives, discourse, art
- “Virtually every square foot shows evidence of human influence”
- eg. Cadboro Bay
Examples of plant management
-Burning
-Weeding/Cleaning
-Tilling
-Transplanting
-Habitat creation/enhancement
-
Burning
Prescribed low intensity burns, usually as a rotation over several years to increase productivity; eg. blue camas
Weeding/Cleaning
Manual pulling or digging out of brush or weedy growth, removing large rocks, removing harmful plants
Habitat Creation/enhancement
Creating new drainage, light, or nutrient regimes through digging, cutting trees etc.; eg. estuarine root gardens, terracing
Tilling
Turning over the soil to enhance moisture, aerate the soil, cycle nutrients, and make harvesting easier; eg. camas prairies
Pruning/Coppicing
Cutting branches/upper growth of a tree or shrub to stimulate new growth; eg. salmonberry, Saskatoon berries.
Selective/partial/rotational harvesting
Taking only a portion of a plant or only some individuals from a population; eg. western redcedar bark harvestin
Coastal Migration Theory suggests the peoples arriving in North America for the first time were already…
Marine adapted
What is “management”?
Set of actions taken to guide a system towards achieving desired goals and outcomes
-Management system= sum of these actions/goals/objectives; the process through which they are legitimized, and the institutions/actors involved
Order of events in fishing season for Saanich reefnet fishery
- The Calling of the Salmon Ceremony
- Dropping of the Anchor Ceremony (4 main anchors into position)
- The First Salmon Ceremony
- End of Season Ceremony (indicated by the sound of the cricket)
What is a fish weir?
-Structure built of wooden posts placed within stream intended to capture fish as they swim with the current
What is a clam garden?
- Clam gardens are beach flats that have been expanded for clams to grow in a larger area of a specific intertidal zone. Has been creating a more productive and predictable food source for 100+ years.
- Similar to terracing- reducing gradient to create a larger productive surface area
- Complex interaction between people, sea level, and clams over space and time
Herring
- Staple food, central to social, cultural, and economic relations of coastal Indigenous communities…Herring fishery a critical management problem and aboriginal rights and title issue today
- Example of SBS (archaeological record indicates a pattern of consistent abundance)
- TEK is helping to reimagine what herring management should look like
Shifting Baseline Syndrome
-Herring have been mismanaged as populations have been compared to short term data rather than natural conditions… meaning that the “baseline” has been “shifting”
