Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

context is provided by Wapishana cultural ecology, of which a broad overview is thus
provided. Particular attention is given to the ecological effects of existing patterns of
resource use. The major theoretical influences on the approach used are summarised
below. A comprehensive review of Amazonian cultural ecology is provided by Sponsel
(1986); a more recent general overview of Amazonian ethnography includes a
section on human ecology and thus updates this somewhat (Viveiros de Castro
1996).
The modern discipline of ethnobiology dates back to the pioneering work of
Conklin (1954), whose description of Hanunoo plant nomenclature and classification
represented the academic community's first recognition of the accuracy and
complexity of non-western biological knowledge systems, and of the cognitive
underpinning they provide to human exploitation of the natural environment. Since
then, a substantial body of data has accumulated on the classificatory systems
underlying perception of and engagement with the natural world. Best known of this
is the work of Brent Berlin and his associates, from which has emerged a description
of a complex psychological basis to botanical and zoological classification among the
Tzeltal Maya, forming the basis of a model which Berlin considers to be generally
applicable to folk systems of biological classification (Berlin et al. 1974; Hunn 1977;
Berlin 1992). Following in Berlin's footsteps, researchers have documented elaborate
systems of folk classification of biological kinds among many other tribal groups (e.g.,
Taylor 1990). Many of these studies are somewhat limited by their use of linguistic
data recorded in interview settings highly abstracted from its usage in everyday
practical situations. Study of folk classification within its broader cultural context has
revealed dimensions of complexity obscure to studies with a narrower psychological
focus (Ellen 1975, 1993; Randall 1976; Gardner 1976; Kay 1975). Similarly, several
ethnobiological studies have focused on the employment of conceptual knowledge
within the practice of various subsistence activities, including swidden agriculture
(Johnson 1974), hunting (Hyndman 1984), and collection of wild plants (Alcorn
1981). Such studies have illuminated complex and sophisticated cognitive
foundations of subsistence practices among geographically and culturally diverse
groups of people. Over the same time period, a variety of approaches in the study of
human ecology has demonstrated the practical complexity of traditional strategies of
resource use.
The pioneering work of Julian Steward and Betty Meggers on Amazonian human
ecology was closely focused on the nature of environmental constraints on culture
(Steward and Murphy 1977; Meggers 1954, 1996). The emphasis of these studies on