The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

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146 The cultural context of biodiversity conservation political features in which the process of knowledge generation and transmission is embedded. Given this framework, which embraces a diachronic perspective to focus on current and past experiences, it has to be recalled that the cultural frame cannot be captured in its totality but only in fragmentary aspects. As the described processes are far more complex than any ethnographic description can acknowledge, the chapter deals with selected facets of larger systems that are interlinked by ubiquitous elements such as particular knowledge expressions and symbols, which make up crucial patterns of the constantly evolving cultural context. As has been outlined in a prior chapter, environmental anthropology is distinguished by a diversity of subject matters and methods. One of the latest trends of investigation has been framed in terms of research in ethnoecology, upon which the findings in the following chapters are based. As commented by Faulstich (2005: 622f.), the study of »cultural explications of nature« entails focused research on indigenous knowledge, including those aspects of culture that relate to environmental concerns directly in terms of natural resource use patterns and indirectly through social configurations, cosmological notions and religious beliefs. Emphasising local understandings of nature, ethnoecological research focuses on the importance of cognition in shaping human behaviour. Thus, it entails the investigation of systems of perception, cognition, belief, symbols and uses of the natural environment. It shows that indigenous practices of land use and resource management are not only adapted to local ecosystems but have shaped those ecosystems in ways that have made them more diverse and stable. Local cognitive understandings of the environment and specific knowledge systems of indigenous communities are closely intertwined with broader social, economic and political contexts. Thus, analytical attention centres explicitly on the nexus between biophysical, socio-cultural and politico-economic domains. Many of the factors that influence local land use practices lie outside the control or knowledge of peasants who are increasingly becoming part of an intensified global system. An understanding of these connections requires the analysis of the political, economic and social context of ecological change. The human environmental relationship is essentially dynamic in a variety of ways and social entities develop through continual interaction between human beings, the material world and the symbolic realm. Meanings encoded in and represented by the landscape are in a continually evolving relationship. It is thus a creative process of constant evaluation, integration and adaptation to inputs coming through a variety of channels that are also external to the local system. Uncertainty and unpredictability are characteristics of all ecosystems, included managed ones. Social learning appears to be the way in which societies respond to uncertainty. Often this involves learning not at the level of the individual but at the level of society or institutions; adaptive management is thus designed to improve on trialand-error-learning. Such environmental knowledge and accompanying practices are closely related to commonly held values about how people understand the world and their place in it. Nevertheless, these values may change with the appearance of new forms of knowledge and technologies.
Local expressions of indigenous knowledge 5.1 The context of doing – the empirical dimension 147 [T]hought and action form a unity. (McCarthy 1996: 107) The following analysis of resource management practices portrays farmers' experiences as expressed through customary production methods and seasonal land use activities in the field of agri- and silviculture. In particular, it explores how these strategies are reflected in the features of the local landscape created by farmers and highlights local knowledge inherent to the management of different land use units essentially based on the tropical soil and forest resources. Giving primary attention to the corpus and practice of knowledge expressions, annual and perennial plant inventories and cropping patterns will be described that form integrated parts of the diversified farmsteads. The aforementioned swidden farming is but one constituent element of the diverse ecological zones the land use patterns are based upon. The milpa system also includes activities such as the gathering of forest products as well as hunting and fishing, which together comprise further important components of the local subsistence economy.
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Göttinger Beiträge zur Ethnologie
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Published in 2008 by Universitätsv
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Bibliographische Information der De
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CONTENTS Acknowledgements Prologue
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Contents 5.2 The context of meaning
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Acknowledgements Many other friends
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ABBREVIATIONS ADICI Asociación de
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2 The cultural context of biodivers
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10 The cultural context of biodiver
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3 THE DISCURSIVE CONTEXT - conceptu
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The discursive context paradigms ar
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The discursive context environmenta
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The discursive context of pluralist
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The discursive context mental chang
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The discursive context and the ›s
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The discursive context More critica
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The discursive context 3.1.3 Concep
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The discursive context ristic power
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The discursive context Given the hi
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The discursive context frame that g
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The discursive context agencies eng
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The discursive context In the end,
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The discursive context entific cred
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The discursive context in a protect
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The discursive context Wells and Br
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The discursive context accelerated
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The discursive context Beyond its s
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The discursive context tivity that
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The discursive context a religious
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The discursive context The sense of
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The discursive context to us as adu
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The discursive context In this way,
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The discursive context concurrence.
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The discursive context In discussin
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The discursive context In the same
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The discursive context efforts payi
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The discursive context 3.4.1 The co
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The discursive context In order to
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The discursive context Apart from t
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Page 125 and 126: 4 THE LOCAL CONTEXT - national poli
Page 127 and 128: The local context 4.1.1 Biological
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Local expressions of indigenous kno
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250 The cultural context of biodive
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252 The cultural context of biodive
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EPILOGUE At the end of my last stay
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REFERENCES
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References Atran, Scott et al. (200
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References Brush, Stephen B. & Dore
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References Dove, Michael (1996). Ce
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References Gari, Josep-Antoni (2000
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References Hajer, Maarten & Frank F
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References Kockelman, Paul (2003).
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References Messer, Ellen (2001). Th
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References Oviedo, Gonzalo/Luisa Ma
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References Redford, Kent/Katrina Br
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References — (2002a). Participant
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References UNEP-WCMC (2003). Tradit
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APPENDIX
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Appendix Map 4.3 Alta Verapaz and m
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Göttinger Studien zur Ethnologie h
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