Midterm Flashcards
Ethnoecology
Study of interactions between people and the ecosystem they inhabit
Study of cultural ecological knowledge and of interactions between human societies and their environments
Etic approach
Study of peoples classification/ knowledge of their natural world measured against scientific classify
Perceptions of behaviour or belief by an observer from outside a culture
Emic approach
Representation of local understandings and perspectives within their own context
Perceptions of behaviour or belief from a person within a culture
Etic vs emic
Etic is overemphasized in western science grounded in idea of neutral
Move towards an emic approach
Knowledge of communities should be in the hands of the community
Folk taxonomies/ ethnoscience
How people understand and categorize the world around them
Only in context of local knowledge systems
Ethnosphere
Accumulated knowledge, practice, experience and understanding comprising cultural systems
Coevolved with the biosphere (accumulation of biological and ecological complexity) to build resilience
Traditional ecological knowledge
Place-based knowledge of environment
Orally transmitted
Within cultural context
Usually long time frame
Traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom
Evolving over many centuries
TEK is 100s of generations old
Collective, cumulative, adaptive knowledge
Levels of traditional knowledge and management systems
Local knowledge of land animals
Land and reproduce management systems
Social institutions
World view
Transmission of TEKW
Feasts and celebrations
Language
Traditional teachings
Inherited responsibilities
Science vs TEK
Science~
Universal application
Global is scope
Generalizing theories
TEK
Local knowledge grounded in many generations of observations and experiences
Local knowledge and ecosystems known in superior detail and coherence
They are complementary systems
Ethnoecology and ethnobotany
Fields the focus on TEK the knowledge that relates to the plants and ecosystems of peoples home environments
Lines of evidence in ethnoecology
Palaeobotany/palaeoecology Archaepbotany/ palaeoethnobotany Language Historical and ethnographic traditions Participatory research
Palaeobotany/palaeoecology
What landscapes used to look like in the past
Environments of early humans
Climates, ancient vegetation, landscapes
Latter Pleistocene to late Holocene
Archaepbotany/ palaeoethnobotany
ID, dating, and analyzing plant remains in context of known human use and occupation
Barriers: preservation, find evidence, few remaining sites
Material culture
90-95% is organic
Participatory research
Do interviews
Say we are working with community but hard to do in short time and low funded
Research in communities the emphasizes community participation, uses TEK
Applications of TEK
A way people understand environment that is more preside and detailed
Resource management
Protected areas
Biodiversity conservation
Governments duty to consult
Legally required to consult but resource companies get to do this which leads to rushed work that does not include community
Ecologists learning with indigenous peoples
Get a deeper understanding of the natural world
For example can help mitigate effects of climate change
Skolt Sami people of Finland saw local decline of Atlantic salmon and got scientists to help restore them
development-stability-crisis-adaptation
Crisis are important because they lead to change. Management teaches us lessons of more sustainable practises. Resource crisis potentially important for renewal of management institutions
Traditional management practises
Practice of knowledge is how cultural and social systems adapt to ecosystems.
Management made a note a degree of control over life
Managed landscapes
Entirely cared for landscapes, interconnected
Low intensity tending practises such as pruning to more intensive forms such as controlled burns. Specific species/resources require specific management practices. Learn through adaptation
Adaptive management
Ecosystems adapt and are nonlinear which leads to uncertainty. Cause does not always equal affect. So our management needs to be adaptive
Knowledge practice belief complex
- World view ~ spiritual beliefs cultural values and ethics, understanding what it means to be in the world
- Institutions and social mechanisms ~ Ritual and ceremony, stories in place names, authority structures, knowledge transmission
- Practises ~ monitoring, protection, resource rotation
Camus
Source of carbs, replanting small roots, weeding death Camas, arrating, who has access to the site, burials around the edges
Bio cultural diversity
Diversity of life in all its manifestations, biological, culture, and linguistic, which are interrelated within a complex social ecological adaptive system.
Based on the link between biological and cultural diversity
Link between cultural and biological diversity?
High amount of languages show high amount of plant diversity. Areas that have high diversity tend to have a very diverse climate and rough terrain, people stayed there for a long time and developed practises and knowledge. Cultures facilitate diversification. Stable conditions
Potato
From Andean Mountain range terraces that have slightly different potatoes based on elevation. Ended up with over 5000 potato variations
What does cultural diversity equal cultural complexity
No, talking about the differences between groups of neighbouring people.
Languages in BC
Close to 60 different dialects, 30 distinct languages. Most of these languages are endangered
Importance of language
Losing a language means you lose a way to understand the world. Language represents diversity which allows us to be more flexible to change
Agro biodiversity
Unlikely to survive outside of traditional agricultural practices. Diversity is maintained by local indigenous knowledge practice belief complexes
Global Agrobiodiversity loss
A girl biodiversity is a subset of biodiversity that is connected with agricultural systems. Estimates we have lost approximately 75% of crop plant genetic diversity some say up to 93%. Loss is huge because it makes us less able to adapt. Example the potato in Ireland only had one kind of potato which got a disease and caused a famine