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

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction and Definitions
This thesis is broadly concerned with the practical utility, potential and realised, of
the ethnoecological knowledge of one indigenous group resident in Guyana, members
of the Wapishana people. Its theoretical orientation derives from the work of several
writers. The focus on and practical assessment of ethnoecology is inspired largely by
Darrell Posey and his co-workers, who offer a broad definition of ethnoecology as,
‘indigenous perceptions of “natural” divisions in the biological world and plant-animal-
human relationships within each division’. This, in various aspects, is argued to have
applications in development (Posey et al. 1984: 97). I prefer to use the term
‘ethnoecological knowledge’ rather than ‘ethnoecology’, restricting the meaning of
the latter to the academic study of ethnoecological knowledge. Under the definition
given, ethnoecological knowledge can be considered a subset of ‘indigenous
knowledge’, defined by Purcell as, ‘the body of historically constituted (emic)
knowledge instrumental in the long-term adaptation of human groups to the
biophysical environment’ (Purcell 1998: 260). This definition deviates from that of
‘indigenous people’ in that the criterion of long-term historical association with a
particular point in space is absent. The emphasis is rather on the retention of some
measure of political, economic and cultural autonomy relative to the state and,
consequently, a perspective on planned change different from that of extra-local
actors (Purcell 1998). Of the various terms used more or less interchangeably to
refer to what Purcell has defined as ‘indigenous knowledge’ (Ellen and Harris 1997),
my preference is for ‘local knowledge’. I believe this adequately to emphasise the
autochthonous character of such knowledge without the historical implications of the
term ‘indigenous’. In this work, I use the terms more or less interchangeably, such
that ‘indigenous knowledge’ is employed to refer to the local knowledge of,
specifically, groups conventionally considered to be indigenous.
1.2 Thesis Statement and Research Questions
The core of the research data presented takes up an argument advanced most clearly
by Townsend (1995), who assessed specific information on animal ecology provided
by a Murui leader and naturalist within a framework derived from scientific ecology.
Here I explore further Townsend’s idea that data on the local ecology such as can be
provided by local experts on natural history forms a body of information of potential
use in the context of formal investigation of the ecology of an area. Key to my