No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Hunting and Morality as Elements of Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Abstract
Contemporary subsistence hunting practices of North American Indians have been questioned because of hunters’ use of modern technologies and integration of wage-based and subsistence livelihoods. Tribal traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has been questioned on similar grounds and used as justification for ignoring tribal perspectives on critical natural resource conservation and development issues. This paper examines hunting on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation in North Central Wisconsin, USA. The study used semi-structured interviews with hunters from the reservation to document their contemporary hunting practices and the traditional moral code that informs their hunting-related behaviors and judgments. Subsistence hunting is framed in the context of TEK and attention focused on the interplay between TEK’s practical and moral dimensions. Results indicate the importance of traditional moral codes in guiding a community’s contemporary hunting practices and the inseparability and interdependence of epistemological, practical, and ethical dimensions of TEK.
... Research has shown that resource-dependent people make sense of ecological change through existing epistemic frameworks (Gupta 1998), which hybridize with other forms of knowledge, including western technical expertise (Birkenholtz 2008). Much of the research in this vein examines the relationship between different forms of ecological knowledge and their translation into agrarian practices by building on the concept of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK; Berkes 1999;Nadasdy 1999;Reo and Whyte 2012). Here TEK is conceptualized as being composed of three elements: ...
... (1) a knowledge system, (2) a system of practice, and (3) a belief system. The knowledge system is place specific and accumulates over time by incorporating understandings of ecological relationships within ecosystems (Reo and Whyte 2012). Ecological knowledge might include local taxonomies, understandings of groundwater flow, and predictive methods for the timing of precipitation events or for the total precipitation for any given season. ...
... Research drawing on TEK relies on ethnographic methods to elucidate the relationship between local experiences and accounts of ecological change, formal understandings of the same, and resource management policy. This research approach has informed state-led research and management of beluga whales (Huntington et al. 1999), fisheries (Pitcher 2001;Drew 2005), wilderness protection (Watson et al. 2003), North American Indian hunting practices (Reo and Whyte 2012), and conservation generally (Tang and Gavin 2010). This body of research has sought to understand how TEK and traditional resource management systems can enable resource-dependent communities to cope with socioecological change (Nadasdy 1999;Berkes, Colding, and Folke 2003). ...
How do farmers understand and predict weather variability; in what ways are local weather prediction techniques institutionalized (e.g., in new agricultural practices or cropping decisions) to meet the agricultural challenges of climate change–induced socioecological variability; and how do these vary across space, according to socioecological difference? This article examines these questions through a case study examination of local weather prediction methods and adaptive strategies to ongoing weather-related variability by groundwater-dependent, irrigating farmers in Rajasthan, India. Conducted in 2009 and 2011, the work finds, first, that farmers rely on multiple local methods of weather prediction, which, along with multiple and often conflicting social and ecological factors, inform their cropping decisions. Second, these prediction methods and associated cropping strategies interact with a number of strategies to mitigate weather and agrarian variability more generally, such as new cropping strategies, seasonal migration, and market articulations. The article advances our thinking about what climate change, as yet another (but perhaps unique) agrarian perturbation, means for farmers’ livelihoods. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of the analysis for formal climate change adaptation strategies and related ongoing groundwater policy.
... According to Salmon (2000Salmon ( , 1331, "Nearly all indigenous cultures share a set of structures (expressions, metaphors, concepts) that describe their links to the natural world." Subsistence prac-tices are the application of traditional ecological knowledge, beliefs, applications, and expertise that indigenous people have passed from generation to generation (Reo and Whyte 2012). ...
... Some of the traditional foods of this region included deer, turkey, bear, fish, shellfish, corn, squash, beans, peas, pumpkins, blackberries, sweet potatoes, and strawberries (Swanton 1931;Hudson 1976;Burnette 2013). Subsistence living tends to include foods that are carefully sourced and free of the chemical trappings found in grocery stores (Reo and Whyte 2012). Furthermore, traditional foods are seen as healthier alternatives and as more suitable to the indigenous physiological makeup than foods found in the Western diet (Ruelle and Kassam 2013), which now includes a great amount of processed foods that are high in fat, sugar, and carbohydrates (Bodirsky and Johnson 2008). ...
... Thus, values are often embedded in the continued application of subsistence. Reo and Whyte (2012) studied the benefits of subsistence within the context of deer hunting practices among the Lac du Flambeau Indians in North Central Wisconsin. Within these traditions, they find a thematic sense of morality tied to the hunters' guiding principles (Reo and Whyte 2012). ...
Indigenous peoples of the United States tend to experience the most severe social, behavioral, and physical health disparities of any ethnic minority. This critical ethnography uses the framework of historical oppression, resilience, and tran-scendence to examine indigenous peoples' perspectives on and experiences with subsistence living, investigating how subsistence living may contribute to well-being and resilience by promoting physical exercise, a healthy diet, and psychological health. Thematic analysis of data from 436 participants across two southeastern tribes reveals three overarching themes: fostering fond memories and family bonding through "living off the land," enabling experiential intergenerational teaching and learning, and promoting resourcefulness and offsetting economic marginalization. Results indicate that subsistence is an important avenue to promote sustainable and organic approaches to health and well-being within indigenous communities by facilitating positive nutrition and diet, exercise, and subjective well-being.
... Effective management of ecosystems, natural resources, and harvesting practices is essential for ecosystem health, and sustained harvesting (Chapin et al. 2009). Although the value, importance, and benefits of the incorporation of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), particularly of traditional ecological knowledge, into western science-based knowledge systems have been well recognized over the past few decades (Berkes et al. 2000;Berkes et al. 2007;Houde 2007;Reo and Whyte 2012;Simpson 2004;Whyte 2013), suitable mechanisms for collecting and incorporating IKS into policy level decision making are not yet well understood. As a result, current natural resource management decision-making processes in Canada, especially at the governmental and academic levels, are guided primarily by western science-based knowledge systems. ...
... This concept, also referred to as Etuaptmumk, is described by Mi'kmaq Elder Dr. Albert Marshall (2004) as B… learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing … and learning to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all.Î ndigenous knowledge systems contain unique ways of understanding ecological relationships intertwining biological, spiritual, cultural, social, and management information that could contribute to more informed decision making over natural resources when coupled with western, science-based knowledge systems. Developed over millennia of intricate relationships between indigenous peoples and their territories, IKS have been adapted and transmitted across generations (Reo and Whyte 2012). Many Indigenous knowledge systems, including those of the Mi'kmaq, are interconnected by nature but for the ease of conceptualization we will separately discuss five components: practice, beliefs, values, adaptation, and transmission (Berkes 2006). ...
... Using Mi'kmaq knowledge of the American eel, Anguilla rostrata, each component of the knowledge system will be introduced. Similar to the findings identified by Reo and Whyte (2012) for the hunting practices of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, the beliefs and values of the Mi'kmaq knowledge system form a moral code and give a framework for determining acceptable and non-acceptable eeling practices. Eeling knowledge has been transmitted through generations by oral tradition and observation, and adapted over time to the changing environment and socio-economic landscapes. ...
Effective management of ecosystems, natural resources, and harvesting practices is essential for ecosystem health and the sustainable use of marine resources. Although the value, importance, and benefits of the incorporation of indigenous knowledge, particularly of traditional ecological knowledge into western science-policy decision-making have been well recognized over the past few decades, suitable mechanisms for collecting and incorporating indigenous knowledge into policy level decision making are not yet well understood. This study examines the Canadian government’s assessment process for the American eel, Anguilla rostrata, as well as the community level management process for the eel fishery in Eskasoni First Nation, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. This case study allows for an exploration of the challenges arising from differing worldviews and possible mechanisms for meaningful integration of indigenous values into governmental policy level decision-making.
... The cultural and subsistence relationships that indigenous peoples maintain with the Earth's resources and systems are defined by the traditions and beliefs practiced by indigenous peoples. For example, an indigenous community may use spiritual ceremonies, educational traditions, and coming of age rituals to ingrain practical knowledge and ethical principles about how to hunt in ways that do not exhaust species populations and ensure adequate food for individual community members (Reo and Whyte 2012). ...
... Indigenous ethics of reciprocity entail systems of creating and maintaining useful knowledge of how humans can be good stewards of the Earth. Indigenous knowledge of stewardship interconnects ceremonies that express respect for species and promote conservation practices that ensure species' health and sustainability (Reo and Whyte 2012;Trosper 2009;Kimmerer 2000;McGregor 2012). ...
The recognition of climate change issues facing tribal communities and indigenous peoples in the United States is growing, and understanding its impacts is rooted in indigenous ethical perspectives and systems of ecological knowledge. This foundation presents a context and guide for con-temporary indigenous approaches to address climate change impacts that are comprehensive and holistic. Tribal communities and indigenous peoples across the United States are re-envisioning the role of science in the Anthropocene; working to strengthen government-to-government relationships in climate change initiatives; and leading climate change research, mitigation and adaptation plans through indigenous ingenuity. Unique adaptive capacities of tribal communities stem from their ethics and knowledge, and help frame and guide successful adaptation. As documented in the Special Issue of the Climatic Change Journal on the impacts of climate change to U.S. indigenous communities (Maldonado and others 2013), these issues include the loss of traditional knowledge; impacts to forests, ecosystems, traditional foods, and water; thawing of Arctic sea ice and permafrost; and relocation of communities. This collaboration, by more than 50 authors from tribal communities, academia, government agencies, and NGOs, demonstrates the increasing awareness, interest, and need to understand the unique ways in which climate change will affect tribal cultures, lands, and traditional ways of life. Climate change is expected to affect animal and plant species that indigenous people depend on for their livelihoods, health and cultural practices. The impacts of climate change on forests and other ecosystems that are home to many of these species require tribal engagement in climate change research, assessments, and adaptation efforts. This paper synthesizes key is-sues and case studies related to climate change impacts on tribally valued forest resources and tribal adaptive responses to climate change.
... The traditional communities world over relate their native ecosystems, culture, spiritual acts and ways of living with livelihood support systems (Posey 1999;Reo and Whyte 2012), which are governed by the hunting and food gathering practices, traditional and biodynamic agriculture, and community-based resources management (Samson and Pretty 2006;Camacho et al. 2010). These practices are regulated through traditional ecological knowledge mediated by informal sociocultural institutions. ...
... VanVliet and Nasi 2008). Unrestrained hunting caused by commercial motives in Trs villages, and differences in cultural and ecological ethics among the hunters of both social systems (Reo and Whyte 2012), which regulate the behavior of biodiversity user groups, ultimately affect the extent of conservation (Singh et al. 2013). In spite of widespread economic poverty, as we observed in the Adi community, the remote villages are said to have strong environmental ethics, and thus they contribute significantly to the biodiversity conservation (Sarah 2002). ...
Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India is considered a biocultural diversity hotspot, with diverse tribal peoples and immense floral and faunal diversity. This rich diversity, sustained through the morang (community forests) and jhum (slash and burn) cultivation systems, is the backbone of native communities’ livelihood security. Kebung (Ratufa bicolor) and other squirrel species are intricately related to biocultural systems of the Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh. Primary surveys and participatory rural appraisals were carried out in 20 villages of East Siang and Upper Siang districts of the state. Results indicated that Kebung squirrels are hunted from successional forests, including from morang and jhum lands. They are an integral part of the Adi sociocultural, economic and livelihood systems, being used for food, medicinal, ceremonial and other purposes. Hunting methods vary in the traditional and transitional Adi villages. Recently, kebung populations have diminished, and this is attributed to overhunting. In particular, a decrease in kebung populations in some morang and jhum habitats has threatened the biocultural resources of the Adi. Knowledge and management practices relating to kebung hunting are gradually eroding among the younger Adi generations. However, the community recently passed a resolution for kebung conservation, supported by the customary norms. We conclude with a discussion of policy requirements for sustainable management of kebung populations to maintain Adi biocultural and livelihood security.
... Thus traditional practices may be combined with scientific knowledge and otherwise adjusted to novel circumstances (Berkes et al., 2000;Chazdon et al., 2009;Cundill et al., 2011). The frequent claim that new technologies (such as guns) and new motives (non-subsistence, politically active hunters, as seen in the Messina Strait and the Brescia passes) invalidate the traditional nature of hunting practices is echoed in conflicts over indigenous hunting rights (Reo and Whyte, 2012;Smith and Marsh, 1990). Reo and Whyte (2012) argue that continuity of a hunting ethic is the key characteristic of traditional hunting (see also Fischer et al., 2013b). ...
... The frequent claim that new technologies (such as guns) and new motives (non-subsistence, politically active hunters, as seen in the Messina Strait and the Brescia passes) invalidate the traditional nature of hunting practices is echoed in conflicts over indigenous hunting rights (Reo and Whyte, 2012;Smith and Marsh, 1990). Reo and Whyte (2012) argue that continuity of a hunting ethic is the key characteristic of traditional hunting (see also Fischer et al., 2013b). We would identify the hunting ethic as the values related to dwelling practices of hunting. ...
Migratory bird hunting has a long tradition in the Mediterranean, but remains a highly controversial issue. Here we examine the Mediterranean migratory bird hunting controversies through the case of Italy. We interviewed key informants and carried out participant observation on both legal and illegal migratory bird hunting and migratory bird protection, in four key migratory bird hunting sites in Italy. In many cases, both migratory bird hunters and bird protection activists consider themselves as the stewards of nature. Environmentalists accuse hunters of illegal practices, while hunters believe anti-poaching activists aim to threaten the existence of hunting itself. Yet surprisingly, the legality of specific hunting practices emerges as peripheral to the concerns of both groups. The lack of dialogue and increasingly polarized positions on both sides make it difficult to assure compliance with EU and national migratory bird hunting laws, and hinders finding shared solutions that consider differing values in a rapidly changing society.
... Hunting is the main activity that allows human populations to interact with wild animals, being a material, moral and spiritual practice linked to socio-ecological systems. This activity is influenced by environmental, cultural and economic aspects that regulate the ways in which natural resources are used and therefore characterize a population, being fundamental for the physical and symbolic reproduction of different indigenous and local communities [1][2][3][4][5]. ...
... In this study, hunters stated that the main reason for making use of an animal is taste, followed by ease of sale and abundance. The perspective around flavor has already been mentioned above, being a variable related to hunting, since the abundance of the species increases the chances of finding the resource and the energy returns [2,3,8,20,33]. ...
Background
Hunting wild animals is essential for nutrition, clothing, predator control and disease treatment. As part of a system based on food choices and uses, it is influenced by ecological, economic and sociocultural patterns. In this context, the aim is to identify the game fauna of interest in the Brazilian semiarid region; indicate the methods, uses, patterns of choices and cultural importance of the fauna and identify which sociodemographic variables influence the knowledge and use of faunal resources.
Methods
Information on hunting and fauna use was obtained through semi-structured interviews, complemented with free interviews and informal conversations. The cultural importance of the species was calculated through the current use value. The generalized linear model was created to verify whether the sociodemographic profile of hunters influences the knowledge and use of game species.
Results
The results showed a representativeness of 56 species. The group of birds was the most representative in terms of taxonomic richness (48.2%), followed by the group of mammals (26.8%), reptiles (21.4%) and amphibians (3.6%). The animals mentioned are used for food, trade, control hunting (slaughter of animals considered invaders of property or harmful to humans), pets, zootherapy and ornamentation. Sociodemographic variables shaped the knowledge of faunal resources, in which the age of hunters showed a negative correlation with the number of known species.
Conclusions
The meaning and forms of use attributed to each species depend on ecological, economic and sociocultural factors, which dictate the relationship between human communities and natural resources. Socioeconomic variables shape hunting patterns in all its aspects, whether in perception that hunters have of the resources, forms of use and utilization of hunting strategies.
... The traditional moral code is the system of communally held moral judgments members use to guide their practices, and also informs and reifies norms and rules. The judgments are specifically moral when they (1) concern interpretations of right and wrong, good and bad or proper and taboo, and (2) reflect traditional values, such as respect for the woods, selfreliance or reciprocity (Reo and Whyte 2012). Subsistence practices, moral judgments, and values are traditional when they are transmitted to and instilled in community/family members through intergenerational relationships as evident through ritualization (i.e., incorporation into ceremonies) and relative consistency across generations (Ibid). ...
Describes how field sports, particularly hunting, contribute to reductions in feelings of isolation, disconnection, and disassociation among returning veterans, due to ancient but evolving cultural contexts, meanings, and rituals of field sports, which eventually become entangled in tribe-like individual and group identities, rituals, and symbols.
... While the Zulu practice of bull killing stands out because of the apparent suffering it inflicts on the bull, the Chippewa practice of deer hunting exemplifies an instance of cultural killing that has been adapted to foster and actualize group members' responsibility for minimizing conflict between their own capabilities and those of other species. As explained by Reo and Whyte (2012), the Chippewa People have hunted white-tailed deer as a cultural practice for thousands of years. Although primarily a means of subsistence, the practice of hunting white-tailed deer is integral to the Chippewa People's collective identity, social relationships and orientation to the nonhuman world. ...
The capabilities approach provides a promising basis for developing a theory of interspecies justice grounded in the inherent dignity of all sentient striving beings. As currently formulated, the approach provides guidance for identifying the entitlements of each being, but not for managing tradeoffs between the capabilities of humans and nonhumans. Through considering cultural practices that put human capabilities in conflict with the capabilities of animals, we propose and defend two criteria for evaluating practices that harm animals for human purposes. The adaptability criterion, derived from Nussbaum’s work on capabilities for humans, distinguishes practices that preserve the ability of people to exert ethical agency in a context of changing values and material circumstances. The regulatory criterion, derived from consideration of the interdependence of human and animal capabilities, distinguishes practices that foster the skills and habits people need to create an ecologically just social order. In applying these criteria to cases of human-animal capability conflict, we demonstrate their potential to resolve such conflicts in a way that redresses the effects of colonization and domination, while appreciating – but not romanticizing – the knowledge and ecological respect of people who once lived in less destructive relationships with other species.
... It requires building relationships of trust through respectful exchange of information and crosscultural learning, from formulation of research questions or management problems to interpretation of results and identification of appropriate actions (Mason et al. 2012). In particular, recognizing the centrality of ethics and cosmology or worldview to TEK (Houde 2007, Reo and Whyte 2012, Leonard et al. 2013) and the imperative for indigenous peoples to retain sovereignty with respect to cultural knowledge (National Congress of American Indians 2013) are fundamental to successful, ethical partnerships. ...
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has been proposed as a basis for enhanced understanding of ecological systems and their management. TEK also can contribute to targeted inventories of resources not included in standard mensuration. We discuss the results of a cooperative effort between the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) and USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA). At the urging of member tribes, GLIFWC staff worked with tribal gatherers to document TEK regarding desired characteristics of birch bark for traditional uses and translated this into an inventory field guide. The guide was provided to FIA, which incorporated the methods into its field manual and trained inventory crews in implementation of the protocol. Birch bark data were collected during three field seasons from 2004 to 2006. Results show birch bark supply has declined. Lessons learned from this multiyear, multistage project provide a model for future targeted inventory efforts.
... Anishinaabe and other Indigenous peoples have built up knowledges of how to live adaptively with nonhumans and the environment that are shared and imparted most often through oral and performative means, including stories, ceremonies, and intergenerational and family activities (e.g. hunting, Reo and Whyte 2012) . These knowledges represent valuable capacities for adaptation planning because they are community-based, and hence trustworthy (Scheman 2012;Werkheiser 2015). ...
Forthcoming in Keepers of the Green World: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Sustainability, edited by Melissa K. Nelson and Dan Shilling. This essay is written to address conversations about the best ways to engage in knowledge exchange on important sustainability issues between Indigenous knowledges and fields of climate, environmental and sustainability sciences. In terms of sustainability, a crucial facet of the self-determination of peoples such as Indigenous nations and communities is the responsibility and the right to make plans for the future using planning processes that are inclusive, well-informed, culturally-relevant, and respectful of human interdependence with nonhumans and the environment. Indigenous knowledges often play a crucial role in Indigenous planning processes. In my work, I have found that scientists often appreciate what I will call here the supplemental-value of Indigenous knowledges—the value of Indigenous knowledges as inputs for adding (i.e. supplementing) data that scientific methods do not normally track. In the domain of supplemental-value, Indigenous people’s planning processes will improve, in turn, by having access to the supplemented and hence improved science. But it is also the case that Indigenous knowledges have governance-value. That is, they serve as irreplaceable sources of guidance for Indigenous resurgence and nation-building. Scientists should appreciate governance-value because it suggests that for some Indigenous peoples in knowledge exchange situations, we need to be assured that the flourishing of our knowledges is respected and protected. I hope to make the case for why it is important for scientists who work with Indigenous peoples to understand governance value in the hopes that this understanding will improve their approaches to knowledge exchange with Indigenous peoples.
... Regardless of whether it is Indigenous society or the ecosystem, everything is interdependent. Numerous studies have indicated that, in TEK and norms, the functional basic knowledge of natural resources must first be established, such as learning how to manage and adjust the growth and decline of arable land areas and species in hunting areas (Berkes et al. 2000;Reo and Whyte 2012;Watson et al. 2003). ...
The history of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples is not well developed in written form, but has been passed down in oral form based on memories from the collective consciousness. However, tracing the cultural roots of Indigenous peoples’ concepts of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and science is necessary to more deeply engage with Indigenous epistemologies. The main purpose of this narrative inquiry is to explore traditional concepts of the Indigenous Atayal aborigines of gaga (moral rules) and utux (faith) from a hunting culture, which has constructed their sustainability. This study was performed using qualitative social sciences. We listened to and collected stories by local tribes that live at elevations of 300-1300 m in northern Taiwan, and then conducted an analysis based on a joint construction of cultural meanings from rights-holders such as Atayal officers, tribe leaders, and local hunters. Using concepts from TEK, we determined how these concepts of gaga and utux became established in the lives of the Atayal people, and how Indigenous Atayal hunters have devoted their skills to maintaining the culture which sustains their resilient landscapes and ecosystems. Through the special cultural connotations of hunting knowledge and specifications, the hunting behavior of Taiwan’s Atayal can shape a harmonic balance with ecological systems, and facilitate learning about competition and rules of survival in the natural environment.
... Trosper argues that principles like these allow a society to buffer, self-organize, and learn in response to environmental issues (Trosper, 2009). A study by Nick Reo and Whyte describes the case of one Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) community in which governance of subsistence hunting practices was structured by a web of interconnected responsibilities to deer, forests, and fellow community members (Reo and Whyte, 2012). Elsewhere Reo and Jason Karl discuss how this responsibility-and morality-based governance structure is a viable form of regulation according to some criteria in comparison to the governance structure for hunting endorsed by the state of Wisconsin, which emphasizes different sources of motivation and values (Reo and Karl, 2010). ...
Indigenous ethics and feminist care ethics offer a range of related ideas and tools for environmental ethics. These ethics delve into deep connections and moral commitments between nonhumans and humans to guide ethical forms of environmental decision making and environmental science. Indigenous and feminist movements such as the Mother Earth Water Walk and the Green Belt Movement are ongoing examples of the effectiveness of on-the-ground environmental care ethics. Indigenous ethics highlight attentive caring for the intertwined needs of humans and nonhumans within interdependent communities. Feminist environmental care ethics emphasize the importance of empowering communities to care for themselves and the social and ecological communities in which their lives and interests are interwoven. The gendered, feminist, historical, and anticolonial dimensions of care ethics, indigenous ethics, and other related approaches provide rich ground for rethinking and reclaiming the nature and depth of diverse relationships as the fabric of social and ecological being.
... Worldview consists of those values and beliefs regarding humans' role in the world, thus constituting the foundation on which other ecological knowledge content levels are built. Aspects of this model are well supported by previous case studies and empiri-cal analyses (King 2004, Medin et al. 2006, Houde 2007, Ross et al. 2007, Reo and Whyte 2012. ...
This article explores the generation, transmission and nature of ecological knowledge used by tribal and nontribal natural resource management agency personnel who collectively manage a 666,542-acre forest in northern Minnesota. Using key informant interviews and an adapted grounded theory analysis, we documented the forms of knowledge participants expressed in their descriptions of the forest and forest management, including traditional and western scientific ecological knowledge. We found that study participants across agencies use multiple forms of knowledge, that this knowledge is generated and transferred in distinct ways and that participants acknowledge several challenges and opportunities to integration of traditional and western scientific knowledge in forest management. Overall, ecological knowledge expressed by study participants revealed multiple ways of knowing the forest. Knowledge varied most distinctly in the influence of cultural identity and spiritual or metaphysical connections to the forest on knowledge generation, transmission and content. Formalizing existing informal knowledge integration efforts with attention to power structures, institutional culture and knowledge application is recommended.
... Recognizing the legal and ethical status of Indigenous rights holders (Reo and Whyte, 2012;Reid et al., 2020) and their position as stewards (Popp et al., 2020) can be part of the way forward. Fisheries researchers could see more meaningful impacts from their research if they actively engage Indigenous rights holders within knowledge mediation spaces. ...
Conservation researchers have been shown to be motivated by the application of their work to address real world problems. However, a significant number of recent studies in the sociology of science and related fields such as knowledge exchange and knowledge mobilization have shown that direct influence of conservation science on policy and practice is rare. To improve conservation science uptake, we need a better understanding of how knowledge mediation and interpretation by potential knowledge users actually happens. This article examines qualitative data from a set of 65 interviews with government staff and other stakeholders and rights holders involved with rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) management in British Columbia, Canada. The focus of the investigation is on the ways that scientific knowledge moves through this network of actors. We approach knowledge exchange and mobilization as a social and political process. Our analysis makes use of the concept of knowledge mediation spaces as the specific settings in which actors deliberate and make sense of multiple forms of knowledge and competing social interests. Four knowledge mediation spaces were identified in the case study: sharing expertise and best practices, consultation on policy direction, program delivery, and research partnerships. Sharing of knowledge among actors in this network was found to be influenced by the movement of individuals from one organization to another throughout their careers. We also found that there is frequent interaction among actors for problem solving and seeking expert advice and that scientific methods strongly inform the actions of fisheries actors; yet science does not always play a role in policy formation. We recommend researchers place more emphasis on engaging stakeholders and Indigenous rights holders more directly in order to inform their research agendas and to facilitate more direct pathways for knowledge exchange, and by extension impacts on management and conservation.
... This has been referred to as "cultural distance" (Natcher et al. 2005) and is founded within two cultural knowledge systems: the indigenous knowledge system (IKS) and the Western knowledge system (WKS). Core elements of IKS are shared by indigenous communities worldwide and are a way of life founded on forming a web of relationships with human and nonhuman parts of the environment (Holm et al. 2003;Reo and Powys Whyte 2012). The IKS is considered nonlinear, where metaphysical (spiritual and physical) realities are encouraged and considered valid. ...
In 2007, the state of Michigan and five tribes entered into a consent decree that provides opportunity for collaborative fishery assessments and restoration activities. The struggles found in state and tribal cooperation are well known by many fisheries practitioners; less well known is the benefit, although described extensively in literature. To achieve this benefit, each participating culture must be granted an equitable and mutually beneficial role in the comanagement arrangement. To comprehend the range of perspectives and values for fishery assessment and restoration activities, we conducted semistructured interviews with state and tribal agency participants and evaluated work plan data. Similarities included focus on ecosystem sustainability and harvest opportunities; however, participants often assigned and described value differently through divergent western and indigenous knowledge systems. New areas for fostering cultural understanding, broader views, collaboration, and networking to develop shared priorities are proposed.
... As this may become a more and more common necessity in the Anthropocene (Hobbs et al. 2013), one might well ask what exactly is being restored if targets are speculative and forecast. However, as in the arguments about what constitutes a traditional resource use practice among indigenous people, most researchers agree that an underlying ethic and worldview remains the same while technologies change (Smith & Marsh 1990;Berkes et al. 2000;Reo & Whyte 2012). Similarly, we found that local calls for restoration of the Delta refer not only to the biophysical environment but also to the deeper relationships of territory-making. ...
Wetland and estuary restoration presents a number of complex challenges that are primarily social, cultural, economic, and governance-related rather than ecological. Here we consider the case of wetland restoration in the Po Delta, Italy. Wetland restoration of the Po Delta is a goal of a broad range of actors in the region and this project is a response to local calls for action. We investigate why local stakeholders are unsatisfied with apparently successful restoration projects, and appraise the factors that favor both the fulfillment of environmental targets and establishment of cooperative relations. We suggest that historical legacies of land use in the Po Delta have influenced current governance practices in a complex and fragmented governance context. Also, patterns of wetland restoration and wetland management practices differ between wetland types, and their outcomes may be influenced by the number of stakeholders involved, funding, and ability to generate direct revenues from management. However, there seem to be no blueprint solutions to successful wetland management and wetland restoration, and results are uneven at the landscape scale and often depending on contingencies. Maintaining traditional practices that retain cultural importance may be seen as part of restoration by local people. As a landscape that is highly anthropogenic and in continuous motion, we argue that the Delta exemplifies some of the challenges that restoration will face in a world increasingly characterized by novel ecosystems. We suggest actions that could contribute to enhancing wetland restoration outcomes in the Po Delta.
... Research already shows the importance of existing epistemic frameworks, local systems of knowledge, and vernacular systems of classification in studying local perceptions of environmental change (Gupta 1999, Lakoff 2010. This body of research relies mainly on concepts and ideas developed in environmental anthropology and ethnoecology (e.g., Brosius 1999, Kottak 1999, Nazarea 1999, and focuses on the study of systems of local knowledge (hereafter LK) (Berkes 1999, Davis andWagner 2003) and stresses the fact that, beyond psychological aspects, such systems also include theoretical, practical, and symbolic dimensions (Nadasdy 2007, Reo andWhyte 2012). ...
Global environmental change (GEC) is an increasingly discussed phenomenon in the scientific literature as evidence of its presence and impacts continues to grow. Yet, while the documentation of GEC is becoming more readily available, local perceptions of GEC— particularly in small-scale societies—and preferences about how to deal with it, are still largely overlooked. Local knowledge and perceptions of GEC are important in that agents make decisions (including on natural resource management) based on individual perceptions. We carried out a systematic literature review that aims to provide an exhaustive state-of-the-art of the degree to and manner in which the study of local perceptions of change are being addressed in GEC research. We reviewed 126 articles found in peer-reviewed journals (between 1998 and 2014) that address local perceptions of GEC. We used three particular lenses of analysis that are known to influence local perceptions, namely (i) cognition, (ii) culture and knowledge, and (iii) possibilities for adaptation.We present our findings on the geographical distribution of the current research, the most common changes reported, perceived drivers and impacts of change, and local explanations and evaluations of change and impacts. Overall, we found the studies to be geographically biased, lacking methodological reporting, mostly theory based with little primary data, and lacking of indepth analysis of the psychological and ontological influences in perception and implications for adaptation. We provide recommendations for future GEC research and propose the development of a “meta-language” around adaptation, perception, and mediation to encourage a greater appreciation and understanding of the diversity around these phenomena across multiple scales, and improved codesign and facilitation of locally relevant adaptation and mitigation strategies.
... Relationships among humans, animals and supernatural forces during pond fishing62 Our study, like these others, raises the question of whether the adoption of new technologies and the passage to a cash economy erode the values and management systems linked to subsistence activities(Reo and Whyte 2012, Shepard 2014). We can also ...
In the Congo basin, fishing activities are a major source of protein and of income for many households. Fishermen combine a broad range of fishing methods adapted to the seasonality of the floodplain and the particular features of its habitats. Pond fishing is a collective fishing method that consists in emptying pools still flooded during the low-water season in the otherwise dry floodplain in order to capture the fish that have sought shelter there. This practice is widespread in central Africa but has rarely been described in detail. Studies often depict this activity as quite simple and practiced by groups of women only. Our study, conducted in the region of Mossaka, in Congo Republic, reveals another reality. We found that pond fishing engages dozens of men, women and children working together and that this activity is based on a range of skills and know-how. Pond fishing is one of the most productive and socially valued fishing methods in the region. Like the technical dimensions of pond fishing, its social and symbolic dimensions are also little described in literature on the subject. Because pond ownership is a source of income and prestige, pond fishing crystallizes social competition. Yet, the collective nature of this fishery enhances alliances and social networks. Pond fishing is also rooted in beliefs about multiple relationships between humans, fish, crocodiles, and supernatural forces inhabiting the ponds. Pond fishing, like collective fishing as a whole, has been in decline for the last 50 years. Fishermen nowadays engage preferentially in individual techniques. We examine whether these individual fishing methods allow maintenance of the social and cultural functions of inland fisheries.
... In turn, unlike knowing through facts (saber), knowledge (conocimiento) gained from experiences and stories about conociendo an animal were seen as paths towards environmental stewardship for campesino youth. Similar hunting narratives and LTK have been found to inform campesino and indigenous conservation ethics and concerns (Reo and Whyte 2012;Smith-Cavros et al. 2012). These findings show that the relationship between campesino hunting corpus and praxis presents a window into campesino cognitive systems (Baraona 1987;Toledo 1990). ...
Campesinos are the most numerous hunters in Latin America. Yet, local and traditional knowledge (LTK) among campesinos about hunting is often invisible to conservationists who perceive them as nonindigenous or illegal hunters. Moreover, research and methods for accessing campesino hunting LTK are limited in theory and practice. Conservationists therefore know little about campesinos’ cultural understandings of hunting. We assessed the LTK of Nicaraguan campesinos to determine whether they shared cultural hunting knowledge. Through 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork, an ethnoecology framework, and cultural consensus analysis, we found that campesino hunting LTK was shared across the study community. This knowledge extended from a worldview that emphasized subsistence and hunting secrets to ensure bountiful harvests, expressed through folk taxonomies, hunting strategies, campesino-dog relationships, and preparation of hunted animals. Campesino hunting LTK emerged from campesino culture, yielding numerous implications for conservation in Latin America.
... Anishinaabe and other Indigenous peoples have built knowledges of how to live adaptively with nonhumans and the environment, lessons which are shared and imparted most often through oral and performative means, including stories, ceremonies, and intergenerational and family activities (e.g. hunting, Reo and Whyte 2012). These knowledges represent valuable capacities for adaptation planning because they are community-based and, perhaps for that reason, are trustworthy (Scheman 2012;Werkheiser 2015). ...
... For instance, traditional values, morality, and spirituality, important elements of Indigenous knowledge and lifeways, are woven into subsistence systems in complex and subtle ways. 26 And these elements of Indigenous sociocultural systems are more persistent, or change very slowly, even while outward expressions of culture undergo rapid evolution. Th us, in our view the threats to Indigenous peoples and their cultures posed by invasive species and other forms of rapid environmental change are not as dire as they are oft en made out to be. ...
... From this perspective, TEK is a body of useful knowledge actualised through engagement with specific environments. Alternately, TEK is understood by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors in a holistic sense as knowledge arising out of the inextricable relationships between the physical, relational, ethical, and spiritual (Reo & Whyte, 2012). This "integrated package" of local knowledge, institutions, practices, classifications and management systems, worldviews, and rules about knowledge distribution provides the values and ethical underpinnings for these systems (Nakata, 2002). ...
Natural hazard management agencies across the settler countries Canada, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United States (or CANZUS countries) are presently involved in an increasing range of collaborative and consultative engagements with Indigenous peoples. However, perhaps because these engagements are diverse and relatively recent, little has been written about how they emerged and, from these agencies' perspectives, little is known about how these engagements find their motivation within government natural hazard management frameworks. In this article, we review existing academic and grey literature to categorise the origins of recent and present engagements and then identify and elaborate on the key rationales informing natural hazard management agencies' interactions with Indigenous peoples. We argue both that the broad principles of sustainability and inclusion have transformed these interactions and that developmentalist approaches and an overemphasis on Indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge can sometimes undermine this work. Incorporating critiques of settler colonialism relevant to the CANZUS context, this review aims to support established, emerging, and future collaborative engagements by investigating and analysing the literature to date.
... The traditional foods of many tribes tend to be much healthier and less costly than those available within the socioeconomic and geographic constraints where many Indigenous peoples reside. Subsistence living tends to include food that is carefully sourced and free of the chemical trappings found in grocery stores (Reo & Whyte, 2012). Furthermore, traditional foods are seen as healthier alterNatives and more suitable to Indigenous physiological makeup than the Western diet (Ruelle & Kassam, 2013), which now includes a great amount of processed foods high in fat, sugar, and carbohydrates (Bodirsky & Johnson, 2008). ...
Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to examine mental, sociocultural, behavioral, and physical risk and protective factors related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related outcomes among U.S. Indigenous peoples.
Methods: A total of 51 articles met the inclusion criteria of research focusing factors for CVD among U.S. Indigenous peoples (Mental n = 15; Sociocultural, n = 17; Behavioral/Physical, n = 19).
Results: This review reveals clear risks for CVD, which tended to be elevated for females. Mental health problems (depression, anxiety, PTSD/trauma, alcohol, and other drug (AOD) abuse) were clearly associated with CVD, along with enculturation, social support, and the social environment – including discrimination and trauma. Poor diet and obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol were behavioral or physical factors.
Discussion: Overall, identified research was limited and in beginning stages, lacking more information on etiology of the interconnections across sex and the mental, sociocultural, and behavioral determinants of CVD.
... Anishinaabe ways of life also stress the importance of future planning in order to live adaptively throughout the year, given metascale forces such as seasonal changes and shifting ecological trends that affect economies and trade, the availability of fi rst foods and medicinal plants, and the timing of ceremonies (Clifton, 1986 ). Anishinaabe and other Indigenous peoples have built knowledges of how to live adaptively with nonhumans and the environment, lessons that are shared and imparted most often through oral and performative means, including stories, ceremonies, and intergenerational and family activities (e.g., hunting; Reo and Whyte, 2012 ). These knowledges represent valuable capacities for adaptation planning because they are community-based and, perhaps for that reason, are trustworthy (Scheman, 2012 ;Werkheiser, 2015 ). ...
... In the past, when scholars used essentialism like "AI/AN peoples are more inclined to be 'X' than non-Native peoples" as a point of departure, the direction of the ensuing debate has not always been productive. Take, for instance, the longstanding debates over whether or not AI/AN peoples are or were more environmentally inclined compared to other ethnic groups (see Cronon, 1983;Kerch, 1999;Nadasdy, 2005;Orr and Ruppanner, 2016;Reo and Whyte, 2011;White, 1995). Other debates in scholarship include whether or not AI/AN peoples were more inclined to socialism (see Dunbar-Ortiz, 2015;Pinel, 2007) or political and social harmony (see Orr, 2017), or whether "sovereignty" was a concept appropriate for AI/AN peoples (see Alfred, 1999;Cobb, 2005;Barker, 2005). ...
Public deliberation has risen to the forefront of governance as a technique for increasing participation in policy making. Scholars and practitioners have also noted the potential for deliberation to give greater influence to historically marginalized populations, such as Indigenous peoples. However, there has been less attention paid to the potential fit between the ideals of deliberation and the governance and decision making practices of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) peoples. In this paper, we begin to address this gap by analyzing accounts of AI/AN governance from the perspective of deliberation, and note areas of overlap, synergy, and conflict. We conduct a close reading of key historical and ethnographic accounts of four historical AI/AN contexts—the Iroquois Confederation under the Great Law of Peace, 19th century accounts of the Ojibwa village, the Santa Clara Pueblo government in pre-19th century, and Yup’ik village life in the early 20th century—and a more contemporary case in the form of the Santa Clara Pueblo’s Constitution from the Indian Reorganization Act period. We then apply two sets of key criteria for deliberative democracy—from the scholars Robert Dahl and John Gastil—to these accounts and note the ways in which each system is or is not congruent with these frameworks of deliberation. We find variations between these historical tribal contexts in our analysis. Social components of deliberation, such as respectful discussion and equal opportunities to participate, were partially or fully present in many accounts of governance practices, but it was less clear whether the analytic components, such as discussion of a range of solutions, were included in some forms of tribal governance. We then explore the potential implications of our findings for public deliberation within and in AI/AN tribes. We note that deliberative scholars and practitioners should be wary of overgeneralizing about AI/AN tribes.
... In terms of coloniality and the ontological separation of humans and nature, KNP&R appears to have made more progress than Jasper and many southern parks, with its recognition of First Nation cultural reintegration as an indicator of ecological integrity and with land claims agreements ensuring CAFN and KFN citizens the right to harvest for subsistence within their respective traditional territories. Of the three, this represents the most significant move beyond a conservation ethic that views humans as inherently destructive to nature and rather supports an Indigenous worldview in which humans are part of natural ecosystems and cycles (Berkes et al. 2000;McGregor 2009;Reo and Whyte 2012). Signage in the park and the visitor centre also educate visitors that the park is indeed a homeland, not a people-free wilderness. ...
This paper questions whether the rescaling of conservation practice in Canada to include local and Indigenous communities, NGOs, and private market‐based actors represents a move away from wilderness‐thinking in conservation, and what implications this might have for the future of conservation in Canada. We explore the links between Cronon's “wilderness” ethic and coloniality, racism/sexism/classism, and political economy, and the extent to which recent trends in conservation practice, such as co‐management arrangements, private tourism proposals, and a shift in programming to attract a diverse public to parks, help us to move beyond the limited vision for conservation and environmentalism that the wilderness ethic provides. We interrogate the ways in which the concept of wilderness is being employed, resisted, and transformed by a multitude of actors in three parks and conservation areas across Canada. We argue that although recent developments in conservation practice help to redress some of the worrisome aspects of wilderness‐thinking in parks, they also reinforce and re‐emphasize problematic lines of thinking and praxis. While the wilderness character of Canadian parks has shifted a great deal since the turn of the 20th century, the wilderness ethic remains deeply embedded within conservation discourse and practice. Cronon's critique of the wilderness ethic has been foundational to critical literature on conservation in Canada. The rescaling of conservation to include Indigenous communities, NGOs, and private interests in some ways represents a departure from wilderness‐thinking in conservation. Despite advances made, a problematic wilderness ethic remains deeply embedded within conservation discourse and practice. Cronon's critique of the wilderness ethic has been foundational to critical literature on conservation in Canada. The rescaling of conservation to include Indigenous communities, NGOs, and private interests in some ways represents a departure from wilderness‐thinking in conservation. Despite advances made, a problematic wilderness ethic remains deeply embedded within conservation discourse and practice. Le présente texte s'interroge à savoir si le réorganisation des pratiques de conservation au Canada pour inclure les communautés autochtones et locales, les ONG et les acteurs du marché privé constitue un virage par rapport au concept de nature sauvage et, si oui, quelles en sont les conséquences pour l'avenir de la conservation au Canada. Plus précisément, nous étudions les liens entre l'idélologie de la « nature sauvage » de Cronon et la pensée coloniale, le racisme/sexisme/classicisme et l'économie politique ainsi que l'importance des tendances récentes en matière de conservation, démarches qui nous aident à aller au‐delà de la vision limitée de la conservation et de l'environnementalisme que propose l'idéologie de la nature sauvage. Ces tendances récentes sont les arrangements de cogestion, les propositions de tourisme privé de même que les changements dans la programmation pour attirer un public diversifié dans les parcs. Nous analyserons aussi les façons dont le concept de nature sauvage est utilisé, contrecarré et transformé par une multitude d'acteurs dans trois parcs et aires de conservation du Canada. Nous soutenons que même si les progrès récents dans les pratiques de conservation contribuent au redressement de certains aspects préoccupants de l'idéologie de la nature sauvage dans les parcs, ils renforcent et réaffirment également ce mode de pensée dans la recherche et la pratique. Au final, bien que le contexte biophysique des parcs canadiens ait énormément changé depuis le tournant du 20e siècle, l'idéologie de la nature sauvage demeure profondément ancrée dans les discours et les pratiques de conservation.
... This has been referred to as "cultural distance" (Natcher et al. 2005) and is founded within two cultural knowledge systems: the indigenous knowledge system (IKS) and the Western knowledge system (WKS). Core elements of IKS are shared by indigenous communities worldwide and are a way of life founded on forming a web of relationships with human and nonhuman parts of the environment (Holm et al. 2003;Reo and Powys Whyte 2012). The IKS is considered nonlinear, where metaphysical (spiritual and physical) realities are encouraged and considered valid. ...
Headwater Heaven is a descriptive essay that describes the migratory life history phase of king salmon.
... What it seems to be a trend is the fact that the opinions about the legitimacy of hunting vary between the different types of practice, where the perceptions of motivations and forms of hunting perform an important role in the establishment of these points of view (Heberlein and Willebrand 1998), making it possible to question the morality of the so-called "traditional hunting" and the evaluation of the relevance of these practices within the context of traditional ecological knowledge (Reo and Whyte 2012). ...
Wild animal hunting is still a recurring practice around the world, being motivated by multiple factors and being directly related to cultural and environmental aspects. Due to the wide range of possible approaches to the subject of hunting, ethnozoology seeks to understand it under an interdisciplinary approach, considering related historical, ethical, social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects. This justifies its importance as a conservation tool. Thus, this article is part of a heuristic investigation and seeks to synthesize the main considerations about hunting and its dynamism.
Through an engagement with interactions between human cognition and social and natural ecologies, recent South Korean films critique perceived deficiencies in Korean cultural forms and practices. The two eco-themed films that are the main focus of this article, Daeho (The Tiger) and Syupeomaenieotteon Sanai (A Man Who Was Superman), thematize an implicit acquiescence to the environmental status quo within South Korea’s inward-looking culture. A Man Who Was Superman, in particular, articulates nested social structures with the effect that social ecology affords a meta-level for a range of social and ecological issues. The foregrounding of these issues is achieved by disrupting the narrative expectations associated with a particular genre – that is, by modal shifts into magical realism and CGI, by evocations of transcendence and by uses of point-of-view shots that present many scenes from a non-human perspective. In each film, viewer interaction with embodied simulation of affect and emotion produces a response which is simultaneously cognitive, empathic and potentially ethical.
Most micronations located in South Korea have only a virtual existence and little, if any, public recognition. The exception is Nami Island, which branded itself as the Naminara Republic in 2006, and is a popular and financially successful tourist resort. This article considers aspects of place-branding applied to Nami Island and draws comparisons with the eponymous setting of the acclaimed television series Hotel Del Luna (2018). The physical island and the virtual hotel share many components of a micronation schema, although the hotel is not a self-declared micronation. Both are embedded within, but culturally separate from, the surrounding state. Each has evolved an origin myth and a sustaining mythic narrative developed from contemporary Korean media-lore: Nami Island markets itself as a fairy tale space and exploits images from the popular TV drama Winter Sonata, which lures many of its visitors, while Hotel Del Luna draws upon and adds to media-lore about ghosts and the supernatural. Commercial enterprises which playfully assert their cultural separation from South Korea, these micronations self-consciously model a utopianism markedly absent in the country which surrounds them.
This Handbook provides an essential guide to the study of resources and their role in socioenvironmental change. With original contributions from more than 60 authors with expertise in a wide range of resource types and world regions, it offers a toolkit of conceptual and methodological approaches for documenting, analyzing, and reimagining resources and the worlds with which they are entangled.
The volume has an introduction and four thematic sections. The introductory chapter outlines key trajectories for thinking critically with and about resources. Chapters in Section I, “(Un)Knowing Resources,” offer distinct epistemological entry points and approaches for studying resources. Chapters in Section II, “(Un)Knowing Resource Systems,” examine the components and logics of the capitalist systems through which resources are made, circulated, consumed, and disposed of, while chapters in Section III, “Doing Critical Resource Geography: Methods, Advocacy, and Teaching,” focus on the practices of critical resource scholarship, exploring the opportunities and challenges of carrying out engaged forms of research and pedagogy. Chapters in Section IV, “Resource-Making/World-Making,” use case studies to illustrate how things are made into resources and how these processes of resource-making transform socio-environmental life.
This vibrant and diverse critical resource scholarship provides an indispensable reference point for researchers, students, and practitioners interested in understanding how resources matter to the world and to the systems, conflicts, and debates that make and remake it.
Indigenous communities have often been marginalized in the sciences through research approaches that are not inclusive of their cultures and histories. The term traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has entered the discourse in wildlife management and conservation; however, there can be challenges in cross‐cultural communication and conceptualizations of TEK when working between Western and Indigenous paradigms. Indigenous research methodologies (IRM) is an area of scholarship intended to build ethically and culturally appropriate ways to conduct research with Indigenous communities. I implemented 7 tenets of IRM in research to explore the conceptualization of TEK and wildlife management with the Yurok Tribe of California, USA. After conducting semi‐structured interviews with 20 Yurok community members from 2011 to 2013, I conducted emergent analysis and present 5 themes from the interviews related to phases of time, the conceptualization of Yurok TEK, and views on wildlife management through the Yurok cultural lens. This research may be helpful to wildlife biologists, students, academics, and others who are interested in IRM and culturally sensitive wildlife research with Indigenous communities. By bridging concepts from Indigenous studies, wildlife management, and human dimensions of wildlife, this work may serve as a nascent trajectory that creates more inclusive space for Indigenous peoples and worldviews in The Wildlife Society and other scientific disciplines. Use of Indigenous research methodologies, along with social science approaches to traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and wildlife studies, has potential to provide researchers with new frameworks for working with tribal communities. Understanding how TEK is conceptualized through an Indigenous cultural lens provides fertile ground for integrated research inclusive of both Indigenous and Western scientific paradigms.
Most micronations located in South Korea have only a virtual existence and little, if any, public recognition. The exception is Nami Island, which branded itself as the Naminara Republic in 2006, and is a popular and financially successful tourist resort. This article considers aspects of place-branding applied to Nami Island and draws comparisons with the eponymous setting of the acclaimed television series Hotel Del Luna (2018). The physical island and the virtual hotel share many components of a micronation schema, although the hotel is not a self-declared micronation. Both are embedded within, but culturally separate from, the surrounding state. Each has evolved an origin myth and a sustaining mythic narrative developed from contemporary Korean media-lore: Nami Island markets itself as a fairy tale space and exploits images from the popular TV drama Winter Sonata, which lures many of its visitors, while Hotel Del Luna draws upon and adds to media-lore about ghosts and the supernatural. Commercial enterprises which playfully assert their cultural separation from South Korea, these micronations self-consciously model a utopianism markedly absent in the country which surrounds them.
The idea of the ecological Indian dates back to at least the early modern period in Europe and initial colonial encounters
between Europeans and Native North Americans. In the minds of Europeans, and later Euroamericans, the ecological Indian represented
a softly spoken “noble savage,” a natural conservationist who was attuned to the earth’s rhythms. As the following essay reveals,
this racial trope remains alive and well in the modern history of North America, inhibiting meaningful dialogue between white
Americans and Indigenous/First Nations people on environmental issues and the rapid pace of global warming. Through case studies
of the Campo Indian Reservation in southern California, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and Native American opposition
to the construction of oil pipelines through tribal lands, in addition to analysis of the environmental writings of Indigenous
scholars and activists such as Deborah McGregor and Winona LaDuke, this essay aims to advance historical and environmental
discourses beyond racial stereotypes. The article also seeks to encourage a deeper, serious, and more meaningful engagement
with Native American environmental knowledge and social practices to more effectively meet the environmental challenges confronting
Native and non-Native peoples alike in twenty-first-century North America.
Entry on the keyword "Indigeneity" for Keywords for Environmental Studies (NYU Press), edited by Joni Adamson , William A. Gleason and David Naguib Pellow. About the book: Understandings of “nature” have expanded and changed, but the word has not lost importance at any level of discourse: it continues to hold a key place in conversations surrounding thought, ethics, and aesthetics. Nowhere is this more evident than in the interdisciplinary field of environmental studies. Keywords for Environmental Studies analyzes the central terms and debates currently structuring the most exciting research in and across environmental studies, including the environmental humanities, environmental social sciences, sustainability sciences, and the sciences of nature. Sixty essays from humanists, social scientists, and scientists, each written about a single term, reveal the broad range of quantitative and qualitative approaches critical to the state of the field today. From “ecotourism” to “ecoterrorism,” from “genome” to “species,” this accessible volume illustrates the ways in which scholars are collaborating across disciplinary boundaries to reach shared understandings of key issues—such as extreme weather events or increasing global environmental inequities— in order to facilitate the pursuit of broad collective goals and actions. This book underscores the crucial realization that every discipline has a stake in the central environmental questions of our time, and that interdisciplinary conversations not only enhance, but are requisite to environmental studies today.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is increasingly being applied in the field of wildlife conservation, yet conceptualizations of what TEK is and views regarding whether TEK is science remain diverse and, at times, conflicting in the TEK discourse. Many practical and philosophical challenges come with the pursuit of TEK initiatives, potentially leaving wildlife researchers and managers wondering how to conduct projects effectively and also in a culturally sensitive manner. The consideration of historical and philosophical contexts that affect tribal communities may be beneficial in such cases. I provide a historical context by presenting chronological events of Indian Country in the United States as related to Federal Indian Law in parallel with the development of wildlife management as a profession. Additionally, I explore the philosophical context of TEK as science by discussing Western and Indigenous scientific paradigms and their linkages to TEK. Finally, given these contexts, I provide several suggestions for developing culturally sensitive approaches to TEK research in the wildlife field. © 2018 The Wildlife Society. Many practical and philosophical challenges come with the pursuit of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) initiatives, potentially leaving wildlife researchers and managers wondering how to conduct projects effectively and also in a culturally sensitive manner. I present historical context of Indian Country in the United Sates and philosophical context of Indigenous and Western scientific paradigms to provide suggestions for the development of culturally sensitive TEK research regarding wildlife.
The seeming absence of mutual consent in interspecies sports makes it difficult to justify non-human animals participating on equal terms with humans in for example sport hunting. Nevertheless, hunted animals might appear to be ‘playing the game’ to the extent they resort to counter-deceptions, which often fool the hunters or their dogs. In this paper, we consider whether counter-deception by hunted animals is evidence that they are not playing the hunter’s game at all, or rather playing a different serious game of survival, one in which they repudiate the role of ‘worthy opponent’ instead by playing the role of trickster-resistors.
In this thesis I will examine the role values play in the co-production of knowledge between traditional knowledge and science. In order to understand the role values play, I will first develop clearer definitions of traditional knowledge, science, and co-production than the problematic definitions currently employed in the literature. I will also create new terms to replace the inadequate terms currently in use. “Traditional knowledge” will become “Indigenous peoples’ understandings” (IPUs), and science will become “scientific understandings” (SUs). I will show that values that underlie the concepts of IPUs and SUs are compatible, allowing co-production between the two groups to occur. The definitions of IPUs and SUs will then be held as a standard by which co- production projects can be measured. I will examine several benefits co-production projects offer, and deal with problems posed by co-production. Finally, I will briefly outline problems with current policy governing co-production in Canada.
Although hunting is declining in western countries, numbers of people taking the hunting exam in Sweden are stable and new demographic groups are becoming hunters. Through interviews done in Sweden with both new and experienced hunters, as well as focus groups with young hunters at agricultural colleges, we investigate how they navigate praxis and ethical frameworks taught in hunting. Using theories on moral learning, as well as Walzer's thick and thin moral argument, we contrast the views of these young hunters with the ethical principles outlined in the educational literature for the hunting exam. We then present how young hunters reasoned around issues regarding hunting ethics, animal welfare, and the place of hunting in modern society, both inside and outside the classroom. The young hunters we spoke to acted as moderators of modern trends in hunting, often bringing ‘destabilizing’ influences like social media and female hunters. Young hunters are enculturated into traditional hunting structures and, in the process, caught in a dialectic between modern influences and traditional hunting culture. Our findings highlight challenges such as ‘false consensus’ and ‘ethical trade‐offs’ in the learning of hunting ethics, that emerge potentially due to a lack of space for deliberation on hunting ethics. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Forthcoming in "Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices of Environmental Sustainability" edited by Melissa K. Nelson and Dan Shilling.
Indigenous rights, knowledge and value systems are linked inextricably to the lands, waters and non‐human beings that form the environments of Indigenous Peoples. Across the globe, the rights of Indigenous peoples are being formally recognized and as a result, efforts are being made to include Indigenous Knowledge and value systems in environmental policy and decision making. Scientists and decision makers must not only recognize this reality, but also operationalize these efforts through meaningful changes to create space for the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous values, and sovereignty within the current methods for scientific enquiry and the development of environmental policies. Professionals in the environmental field have a responsibility to ensure that their work has a positive impact on Indigenous Peoples and their environments. In this study, we explore the concept of consultation and informed consent through the lens of the development of environmental policy and decision making. We will discuss these concepts in the context of ecological risk assessment related to a case study focussed on contaminated sediment in a harbour within the Great Lakes. We will demonstrate a process that deconstructs the current protocols for risk assessments at sites with localised pollutants in sediment and rebuilds them with elements that recognize both Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. This process includes collaborative fieldwork, relationship building, and informal and formal interviews with participants and community members. By utilizing such approaches, we were able to develop a risk assessment framework that recognizes the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples and promotes effective Nation‐to‐Nation decision making.
This essay addresses the silences and soundings of Rebecca Belmore's (Anishinaabe) and Julie Nagam's (Anishinaabe/Métis/German/Syrian) sound art, which reflects their environmentalism and profound commitment to Indigenous ways of knowing, making, and listening. Working at the intersection of sound art and politics, the two perform sonic interventions into settler colonial spaces—the National Parks system and the gallery, respectively. Belmore's Wave Sound (2017) and Nagam's Our future is in the land: If we listen to it (2017) illustrate how their sound art gravitates toward the ecological and considers what healthy and unhealthy relationships between humans and the nonhuman world—plants, animals, resources—sound like. Belmore and Nagam introduce marginalized perspectives and voices to address the problematic authority of whiteness that conspicuously dominates the discourse on music, sound, and environment—a relatively homogenous and exclusionary artistic, technological, and scientific discussion.
In India and the United States, Lepcha and Diné youth are articulating decolonial futures that diverge from past aspirations. Rather than demanding big infrastructure such as dams or power plants, Indigenous youth forward decolonial visions that reimagine the landscape and energy technologies. In this article, we suggest that Lepcha and Diné activists are articulating a youthful decolonial futurity—a vision for the future where their generation and the ones to follow can flourish in their own territories and on their own terms. We propose youthful decolonial futurity as a prefigurative politics specific to Indigenous youth, who view their activism as integral to creating a future where their communities have more control over decision‐making processes and their ancestral territories. What emerges is a consideration of the role of Indigenous youth in building a language and politics of decolonisation against the roles of power brokers, elites, and naysayers.
Over the past 40 years global recognition has occurred for indigenous groups to be represented and have input in how natural resources are managed. This has largely occurred because of how management decisions have consequences to indigenous groups that reach beyond natural resource issues but into cultural, spiritual, social and political elements including sovereignty, legitimacy, justice, equity and empowerment and using indigenous paradigms to meet indigenous needs. In the United States numerous legal agreements have been reached that pair state and tribal agencies into co-management. This project concerns a recent co-management agreement between the State of Michigan and five Native American tribes where each has specific rights and responsibilities for fishery management. Using interview data collected from state and tribal participants and quantitative data from respective fishery agency work plans this Dissertation explores the co-management relationship, how well it is functioning, differences and similarities in participant values, worldviews, and perspectives, priorities for fishery biological assessment and restoration priorities and what the hopes for their co-management relationship. We found there was little understanding between state and tribal participants regarding how they understood each other's priorities for fishery management or the biological assessments and restoration activities they identified should occur. State and tribal participants viewed the fishery resource and the value of science in management differently through unique knowledge systems (Western scientific and indigenous). These knowledge systems likely accounted for the difference we found in how the agencies prioritized biological assessments and restoration activities. The state participants often described broad scale assessments and activities as a priority while tribal participants often described those that occurred near tribal reservations, benefit native species, and promoted treaty protected harvest rights. Participants identified barriers towards successful co-management and they stemmed from legal negotiations and a history of conflict that had hindered personal and professional relationships amongst the agencies. However, even with these barriers participants recognized the value of collaborating for fishery management and proposed how they believed an ideal relationship would and could function. We propose strategies that could assist the groups in realizing a successful co-management institution.
Herein we provide a comprehensive review of research pertinent to Lynn White, Jr.’s contentions in 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis' (1967) about the negative environmental impacts of 'Judeo-Christian' ideas as well as subsequent claims that the world’s predominant religions are becoming more environmentally friendly. Definitive conclusions are difficult given the complexity of biocultural systems; nevertheless, extant research has identified many themes and dynamics that hinder environmental understanding and mobilization by religious individuals, whether Abrahamic or involved in religions that originated in Asia. Some indigenous traditions, however, appear to foster pro-environmental perceptions and behaviors as do some nature-based cosmologies and value systems, which are often deeply informed by the sciences and direct experience within environmental systems. Our review overturns common misperceptions regarding the role of religion in environmental behaviors and concludes that additional research is warranted to better understand under what circumstances, and with which communicative strategies, religious or other individuals and groups might be more effectively mobilized in response to contemporary environmental challenges.
American Indians have long managed forests and wildlife for different values than Euro-Americans. Does this result in measurable differences in forest and wildlife conditions? We examined forest and wildlife management on the Ojibwe and Menominee reservations in Wisconsin and compared ecological conditions on tribal vs. non-tribal lands. The longer rotations and selective logging that tribal forest managers often use result in older trees, higher basal area, and greater carbon storage. Resurveys over 30+ years show that tribally managed forests sustain better tree regeneration, greater plant diversity, and fewer invasive species than non-tribal forests. The regeneration of key conifers benefits deer by providing winter habitat for white-tailed deer. These different conditions on tribal lands reflect differences in forest and deer management, habitat conditions, and wolf densities. By all these criteria, tribal management has sustained forest structure, tree regeneration, plant and animal diversity, and associated ecosystem processes better than conventionally managed forestlands.
In this thesis I contrast historical and contemporary forms of hunting and gathering among Lakota people currently living in village-communities on reservations in the states of North and South Dakota (USA). In particular, the focus and main locus of analysis is laid on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, while examples from other Lakota reservations as well as Plains Cree reserves in Alberta, Canada, are only brought up as a means for making transnational or cross-tribal/cultural comparisons among Plains peoples yet regionally limited to the Northern Great Plains.
I show that although social organization, economic relevance of hunting and type of animals predominantly hunted by the Lakota have changed throughout history in processes of adaption responding to larger infrastructural shifts, specific aspects of a worldview related to hunting, which was strongly shaped by the nomadic way of life of these peoples on the Northern Plains during the 19th century, have persisted and still ideationally permeate many spheres of social life. I argue that shared communal values and emic perceptions about human-nature relationships among Lakota and other Plains peoples are to a great extent ontologically rooted in a cosmology that was an outcome of a historical lifestyle as hunter(-gatherers) of buffalo. Despite socio-economic changes leading to the demise of that very foundational subsistence-based nomadic existence, elements of this lifestyle have nevertheless survived into modern day by their sustained relevance, adaption and application in social, economic, political, healthcare and educational contexts (to serve individuals’ quests for self-discovery and to support political aims for self-determined development of Native nations).
Hunting and gathering are analyzed along two dimensions - as a practice and as a constitutive basis of a worldview and values. While, when looking at historical processes, it can be seen that the practice has changed in many ways due to technological, political and socio-economic shifts, its pursuit remains an economic necessity for some and it is still regarded by many as a continuation of a traditional way of life reflecting certain values, serving also as a source or marker of cultural identity.
Furthermore, I argue that these cultural values, which originally fulfilled particular social functions (and to some extent still do today) in a nomadic hunter-gatherer societal structure and its contemporary remnants (for instance by regulating the distribution of food, encouraging commensality and defining social hierarchies), have been adapted in political contexts by tribal agents; They are either emphasized, silenced or reinterpreted to foster conditions of social, economic and political well-being on reservations or reserves and thus aiding nation-building processes embedded within larger institutional contexts of (inter-)national politics in a global market economy.
Through an engagement with interactions between human cognition and social and natural ecologies, recent South Korean films critique perceived deficiencies in Korean cultural forms and practices. The two eco-themed films that are the main focus of this article, Daeho ( The Tiger ) and Syupeomaenieotteon Sanai ( A Man Who Was Superman ), thematize an implicit acquiescence to the environmental status quo within South Korea’s inward-looking culture. A Man Who Was Superman , in particular, articulates nested social structures with the effect that social ecology affords a meta-level for a range of social and ecological issues. The foregrounding of these issues is achieved by disrupting the narrative expectations associated with a particular genre – that is, by modal shifts into magical realism and CGI, by evocations of transcendence and by uses of point-of-view shots that present many scenes from a non-human perspective. In each film, viewer interaction with embodied simulation of affect and emotion produces a response which is simultaneously cognitive, empathic and potentially ethical.
Signatory states of the Convention on Biological Diversity must ‘protect and encourage the customary use of biological resources in accordance with traditional cultural practices that are compatible with conservation or sustainable use requirements’. Thus the management of traditional hunting of wildlife must balance the sustainability of target species with the benefits of hunting to traditional communities. Conservation policies usually define the values associated with wild meats in terms of income and nutrition, neglecting a wide range of social and cultural values that are important to traditional hunting communities. We elicited the community-defined benefits and costs associated with the traditional hunting of dugongs Dugong dugon and green turtles Chelonia mydas from communities on two islands in Torres Strait, Australia. We then used cognitive mapping and multidimensional scaling to identify separable groups of benefits (cultural services, provisioning services, and individual benefits) and demonstrate that traditional owners consider the cultural services associated with traditional hunting to be significantly more important than the provisioning services. Understanding these cultural values can inform management actions in accordance with the Convention on Biological Diversity. If communities are unable to hunt, important cultural benefits are foregone. Based on our results, we question the appropriateness of conservation actions focused on prohibiting hunting and providing monetary compensation for the loss of provisioning services only.
Resource managers are increasingly engaging with tribes and first nations and looking for methods to incorporate their perspectives, priorities and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into public land and resource management. Many initiatives that engage tribes and their TEK holders only seek tribal input, such as biological data, that is most easily integrated into existing management structures. Increasing attention on tribal belief systems would provide a more holistic understanding that could benefit TEK-related initiatives. Such a shift could reduce misunderstandings about tribal natural resource perspectives and lead to insights valuable for society at large.
: For anthropologists who are involved in Arctic climate change research, cultural conceptions of time and sentience have yet to receive explicit research attention, choosing rather to focus on the societal effects of climate change and formulating more adaptive human responses. Notwithstanding the value of this research, the methodologies often used tend to reflect a culturally based assumption that there exists a single characterization of time and sentience that applies to all Arctic residents. Based on collaborative research with the Koyukon community of Huslia, Alaska, this paper challenges that assumption and identifies some of the cross-cultural challenges of conducting climate change research when differing notions of time and sentience are encountered.
Indigenous peoples with a historical continuity of resource-use practices often possess a broad knowledge base of the behaviour of complex ecological systems in their own localities. They are aware that biological diversity is a crucial factor in generating the ecological services and natural resources on which they depend. Some indigenous groups manipulate the local landscape to augment its heterogeneity, and some have been found to be motivated to restore biodiversity in degraded landscapes. Their practices for the conservation of biodiversity were grounded in a series of rules of thumb which are apparently arrived at through a trial and error process over a long historical time period. It is vital that the value of the knowledge-practice-belief complex of indigenous peoples relating to conservation of biodiversity is fully recognized if ecosystems and biodiversity are to be managed sustainably. Conserving this knowledge would be most appropriately accomplished thorugh promoting the community-based resource-management systems of indigenous peoples. -from Authors
Recent global environmental and social changes have created a set of “wicked problems” for which there are no optimal solutions.
In this article, we illustrate the wicked nature of such problems by describing the effects of global warming on the wildfire
regime and indigenous communities in Alaska, and we suggest an approach for minimizing negative impacts and maximizing positive
outcomes. Warming has led to an increase in the areal extent of wildfire in Alaska, which increases fire risk to rural indigenous
communities and reduces short-term subsistence opportunities. Continuing the current fire suppression policy would minimize
these negative impacts, but it would also create secondary problems near communities associated with fuel buildup and contribute
to a continuing decline in subsistence opportunities. Collaborations between communities and agencies to harvest flammable
fuels for heating and electrical power generation near communities, and to use wildland fire for habitat enhancement in surrounding
forests, could reduce community vulnerability to both the direct and the indirect effects of global climate change.
This paper examines the economic adaptations and subsistence hunting involvement of householders between the ages of 20 and 35 in the Copper Inuit community of Holman. Social, economic, and political changes throughout the Canadian Arctic have made it impossible for young adults to pursue the same mixed economic strategies as previous generations. A general decrease in subsistence hunting involvement is characteristic of the younger generation. Nevertheless, some young householders have made a conscious effort to remain active in subsistence hunting and fishing to provide for themselves and related househol ds. Some have even increased subsistence hunting involvement as their own parents age and become increasingly infirm. Other householders are less active in hunting and fishing, but continue to view land-based harvesting as central to a sense of Inuit identity. The motivations, economic position, and family background of a sample of active and less active young adult hunters are explore d in an attempt to understand the pressures experienced by young adults as they strive to make a place in a northern society radi cally different from that of their parents at a similar age. While the authors recognize the economic value of subsistence harvesting and the foods that result from it, we also emphasize the less easily quantified dimensions of subsistence ideology and its impact u pon physical health, psychological well-being, and community integration.
Subsistence harvesting and wild food production by Athabascan peoples is part of an integrated social–ecological system of interior Alaska. We describe effects of recent trends and future climate change projections on the boreal ecosystem of interior Alaska and relate changes in ecosystem services to Athabascan subsistence. We focus primarily on moose, a keystone terrestrial subsistence resource of villages in that region. Although recent climate change has affected the boreal forest, moose, and Athabascan moose harvesting, a high dependence by village households on moose persists. An historical account of 20th century socioeconomic changes demonstrates that the vulnerability of Athabascan subsistence systems to climatic change has in some respects increased while at the same time has improved aspects of village resilience. In the face of future climate and socioeconomic changes, communities have limited but potentially effective mitigation and adaptation opportunities. The extent to which residents can realize those opportunities depends on the responsiveness of formal and informal institutions to local needs. For example, increases in Alaska’s urban population coupled with climate-induced habitat shifts may increase hunting conflicts in low-moose years. This problem could be mitigated through adaptive co-management strategies that project future moose densities and redirect urban hunters to areas of lower conflict.
The American Indian Quarterly 26.3 (2002) 378-392
By designating wilderness protection on federal public lands, Congress expressed its intent to minimize human disruption of sensitive habitats. It delegated authority to agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service to develop and implement rules to carry out that intent. However, wilderness designations and the regulations that enforce them can conflict with preexisting property rights and claims, including those of Native Americans who have treaty-based and traditional tribal rights. The ensuing conflicts may pit Native Americans against environmentalists and recreational users, while placing public lands managers in the middle as they attempt to enforce the laws and satisfy the often competing demands of multiple constituencies.
When four members of the Bois Forte band of Chippewa decided to fight criminal charges based on their admitted use of motorized vehicles in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), their defense in U.S. v. Gotchnik represented such a clash between Indigenous traditions and tribal rights on one side and federal environmental protection mandates on the other that it became the first fully litigated case involving treaty rights within a designated federal wilderness.
Beyond the handful of individuals directly involved and their tribe, the criminal litigation reflects a divide between those who seek to exercise treaty-based property rights and those who oppose any exemptions or exceptions to protective wilderness designations. In such situations, that divide may potentially split Native American groups and environmentalists, who are often allies in "green" litigation.
The principal stakeholders in this type of dispute are tribes with traditional claims to land now encompassed by designated wildernesses, environmentalists, recreational users of public lands, the federal government—and by the inherent nature of litigation—judges (Ruckel 1999; Powers 2000). The resolution of conflicts between Indigenous rights and environmental laws has wide policy and legal ramifications for how agencies manage wilderness areas and how they balance competing demands; the degree of legal recognition bestowed on historical and treaty rights of Indigenous peoples; legislative proposals to expand or alter the wilderness system and how it is used; how the public values and uses wilderness areas; and how judges determine or refine public policy.
At a time of strengthened assertions of Native American rights and, simultaneously, growing concern among environmentalists about the willingness of the federal government to protect public lands, this article analyzes a key criminal case in which treaty rights and wilderness protection laws collide. It traces the litigation and discusses how the conflict and its resolution affect tribal use of public lands for subsistence purposes ostensibly guaranteed by treaty. The case also suggests that the judicial system may be an imperfect mechanism to resolve such conflicts, which otherwise may be settled through compromise and negotiation.
The BWCAW stretches over more than 1.1 million acres of northern Minnesota's Superior National Forest. The largest wilderness east of the Rocky Mountains, it began in 1938 as the Superior Roadless Primitive Area and is now perhaps the best-known unit in the federal wilderness system. The Superior National Forest Web site notes "that the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has changed little since the glaciers melted. With over 1,500 miles of canoe routes, nearly 2,200 designated campsites and more than 1,000 lakes and streams waiting, the BWCAW draws thousands of visitors each year" (Superior 2003). Existing regulations include restrictions on motors and mechanized travel, permit requirements, campfires, and designated entry points (Superior 2003; Freedman 1995).
Wilderness designations inherently require a balancing of competing interests, some easily identifiable and others much harder to calculate. As the Superior National Forest Web site states, "We recognize that human resource use in the Superior for both economic and recreational purposes should be balanced with consideration for the land and its non-human inhabitants" (Superior 2003).
The use of motors, including boat motors, in designated wildernesses is a divisive, long-contentious issue; it arose during early attempts to pressure Congress to enact a wilderness statute. At one point in 1957, for instance, a Minnesota newspaper accused Boundary Waters advocate and National Parks Association president Sigurd Olson of "openly and vigorously advocating the prohibition of the use of outboard motors" in...
Hunting remains an important subsistence activity for many indigenous peoples of the Neotropics. This paper describes indigenous hunting patterns using a mixed-methods approach in southern Guyana from a space and place perspective that takes into account both biophysical and cultural/spiritual factors. Findings confirm those of others, that distance from community, mediated by characteristics of the biophysical environment, impacts where hunters go. Mapping of the spiritual landscape, however, demonstrates that sense of place is also important. This paper argues that researchers and managers should be careful to incorporate both the local environmental and cultural/spiritual contexts in studies that inform biodiversity and sustainable resource-use management.
Resumen:
La cacería persiste como una actividad importante de subsistencia para muchos pueblos indígenas de los neotrópicos. Aquí describimos los patrones de cacería en el sur de Guyana usando un método mixto, desde una perspectiva del espacio y lugar que toma en cuenta factores biofísicos y culturales. Nuestros resultados coinciden con los de otros investigadores, en que la distancia del pueblo, mediada por la característica del ambiente físico, afecta las zonas donde actúan los cazadores. Nuestro mapeo del paisaje cultural, demuestra que el 'sentido de lugar' también es importante. Argumentamos que los investigadores y los que manejan estos territorios deben incluir, no solamente el ambiente físico, sino el contexto cultural que forma parte de la biodiversidad y el manejo y uso de los recursos sustentables.
This paper investigates consistency in applied moral philosophy with regard to the recent controversy over Makah whaling in the state of Washington. The first part presents both sides of the controversy. The second part examines the meaning of ‘tradition’ and distinguishes between ‘new’ and ‘old’ traditions. The third part explores what might constitute moral consistency for the Makah and what might constitute moral consistency for the larger community.
Climate change is already being experienced in the Arctic with implications for ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. This paper argues that an assessment of community vulnerability to climate change requires knowledge of past experience with climate conditions, responses to climatic variations, future climate change projections, and non-climate factors that influence people's susceptibility and adaptive capacity. The paper documents and describes exposure sensitivities to climate change experienced in the community of Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories and the adaptive strategies employed. It is based on collaborative research involving semi-structured interviews, secondary sources of information, and participant observations. In the context of subsistence hunting, changes in temperature, seasonal patterns (for example timing and nature of the spring melt), sea ice and wind dynamics, and weather variability have affected the health and availability of some species of wildlife important for subsistence and have exacerbated risks associated with hunting and travel. Inuit in Ulukhaktok are coping with these changes by taking extra precautions when travelling, shifting modes of transportation, travel routes and hunting areas to deal with changing trail conditions, switching species harvested, and supplementing their diet with store bought foods. Limited access to capital resources, changing levels of traditional knowledge and land skills, and substance abuse were identified as key constraints to adaptation. The research demonstrates the need to consider the perspectives and experiences of local people for climate change research to have practical relevance to Arctic communities such as for the development and promotion of adaptive strategies.
Ancient conceptualizations of ecosystems exist in several Amerindian, Asia-Pacific, European, and African cultures. The rediscovery
by scientists of ecosystem-like concepts among traditional peoples has been important in the appreciation of traditional ecological
knowledge among ecologists, anthropologists, and interdisciplinary scholars. Two key characteristics of these systems are
that (a) the unit of nature is often defined in terms of a geographical boundary, such as a watershed, and (b) abiotic components,
plants, animals, and humans within this unit are considered to be interlinked. Many traditional ecological knowledge systems
are compatible with the emerging view of ecosystems as unpredictable and uncontrollable, and of ecosystem processes as nonlinear,
multiequilibrium, and full of surprises. Traditional knowledge may complement scientific knowledge by providing practical
experience in living within ecosystems and responding to ecosystem change. However, the “language” of traditional ecology
is different from the scientific and usually includes metaphorical imagery and spiritual expression, signifying differences
in context, motive, and conceptual underpinnings.
Much of the world’s biodiversity has been in the hands of traditional peoples, societies of hunters and gatherers, herders, fishers, agriculturists, for great many generations. Most living resources of the earth have been utilised for a historically long time; exceptions are few (e.g., open-ocean and deep-sea species). As Gomez-Pompa and Kaus [1990] observed, even tropical forests of the ‘Amazon were not untouched environments but the result of the last cycle of abandonment’ by traditional users. The fact is that pre-scientific, traditional systems of management have been the main means by which societies have managed natural resources over millennia [Berkes and Farvar, 1989; Gadgil et al., 1993]. Biological diversity has persisted despite, and in some cases because of, these systems of management so that we have any biodiversity today to speak about.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Natural Resource Management examines how traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is taught and practiced today among Native communities. Of special interest is the complex relationship between indigenous ecological practices and other ways of interacting with the environment, particularly regional and national programs of natural resource management. Focusing primarily on the northwest coast of North America, scholars look at the challenges and opportunities confronting the local practice of indigenous ecological knowledge in a range of communities, including the Tsimshian, the Nisga'a, the Tlingit, the Gitksan, the Kwagult, the Sto:lo, and the northern Dene in the Yukon. The experts consider how traditional knowledge is taught and learned and address the cultural importance of different subsistence practices using natural elements such as seaweed (Gitga'a), pine mushrooms (Tsimshian), and salmon (Tlingit). Several contributors discuss the extent to which national and regional programs of resource management need to include models of TEK in their planning and execution. This volume highlights the different ways of seeing and engaging with the natural world and underscores the need to acknowledge and honor the ways that indigenous peoples have done so for generations. © 2006 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. All rights reserved.
A partir d'une etude de cas ethnohistorique, les AA. proposent une analyse comparative des philosophies de la technologie et de leurs consequences pour l'environnement dans deux societes differentes habitant la partie meridionale du detroit Puget dans l'Etat de Washington (Etats-Unis) : les Salish cotiers meridionaux d'une part, et la societe industrielle-urbaine contemporaine de l'autre. Ils soutiennent qu'il existe une difference fondamentale entre les systemes metaphysiques et ethiques des autochtones et des populations immigrees apres le contact europeen de 1792, difference qui a permis aux Amerindiens de maintenir un equilibre avec l'ecosysteme pendant des millenaires, alors que l'intrusion de la societe exterieure a deteriore cet ecosysteme en moins de deux siecles. Dans le contexte des enjeux sociopolitiques et ecologiques contemporains, ils tentent d'evaluer dans quelle mesure cette difference s'est maintenue et, le cas echeant, de quelle maniere elle influence les attitudes envers l'environnement et la nature humaine.
This paper takes a critical look at the project of "integrating" traditional knowledge and science. The project of integration has been and continues to be the cornerstone of efforts to involve northern aboriginal peoples in processes of resource management and environmental impact assessment over the past 15 years. The idea of integration, however, contains the implicit assumption that the cultural beliefs and practices referred to as "traditional knowledge" conform to western conceptions about "knowledge." It takes for granted existing power relations between aboriginal people and the state by assuming that traditional knowledge is simply a new form of "data" to be incorporated into existing management bureaucracies and acted upon by scientists and resource managers. As a result, aboriginal people have been forced to express themselves in ways that conform to the institutions and practices of state management rather than to their own beliefs, values, and practices. And, since it is scientists and resource managers, rather than aboriginal hunters and trappers, who will be using this new "integrated" knowledge, the project of integration actually serves to concentrate power in administrative centers, rather than in the hands of aboriginal people.
Blending social analysis and philosophy, Albert Borgmann maintains that technology creates a controlling pattern in our lives. This pattern, discernible even in such an inconspicuous action as switching on a stereo, has global effects: it sharply divides life into labor and leisure, it sustains the industrial democracies, and it fosters the view that the earth itself is a technological device. He argues that technology has served us as well in conquering hunger and disease, but that when we turn to it for richer experiences, it leads instead to a life dominated by effortless and thoughtless consumption. Borgmann does not reject technology but calls for public conversation about the nature of the good life. He counsels us to make room in a technological age for matters of ultimate concernâthings and practices that engage us in their own right.
In 1995, the Makah Indian Tribe (USA) publicly announced that it wished to revitalize its tradition of whale hunting. The Makah had treaty rights to hunt whales dating back to 1855 but gave up whaling in the 1920s. Environmentalists and animal rights activists adamantly opposed the Makah's claim, but the tribe was successful in obtaining permission to go whaling again. Vehement reactions followed. The discourse on the Makah whale hunting rights soon shifted to discussing the merits and demerits of Makah culture and the genuineness and legitimateness of the tribe's wish to reconnect to its tradition. The present article describes and analyzes the debate, in particular as it relates to the issues of Makah heritage and its contested authenticity.
traditional knowledge of indigenous community and the value of this knowledge for managing SES. Moreover, it gives a framework of different type of knowledge: local-manager-institution-world view being the latter the most difficult to change
Nothing appears more ancient, and linked to an immemorial past, than the pageantry which surrounds British monarchy in its public ceremonial manifestations. Yet, as a chapter in this book establishes, in its modern form it is the product of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ‘Traditions’ which appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented. Anyone familiar with the colleges of ancient British universities will be able to think of the institution of such ‘traditions’ on a local scale, though some - like the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge on Christmas Eve - may become generalized through the modern mass medium of radio. This observation formed the starting-point of a conference organized by the historical journal Past & Present, which in turn forms the basis of the present book. The term ‘invented tradition’ is used in a broad, but not imprecise sense. It includes both ‘ traditions’ actually invented, constructed and formally instituted and those emerging in a less easily traceable manner within a brief and dateable period - a matter of a few years perhaps - and establishing themselves with great rapidity. The royal Christmas broadcast in Britain (instituted in 1932) is an example of the first; the appearance and development of the practices associated with the Cup Final in British Association Football, of the second. It is evident that not all of them are equally permanent, but it is their appearance and establishment rather than their chances of survival which are our primary concern. © E. J. Hobsbawm, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Prys Morgan, David Cannadine, Bernard S. Cohn, Terence Ranger. 1983.
Indigenous groups offer alternative knowledge and perspectives based on their own locally developed practices of resource use. We surveyed the international lit- erature to focus on the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in monitoring, responding to, and managing ecosystem processes and functions, with special attention to ecological resilience. Case studies revealed that there exists a diversity of local or traditional practices for ecosystem management. These include multiple species management, resource rotation, succession management, landscape patchiness management, and other ways of responding to and managing pulses and ecological surprises. Social mechanisms behind these traditional practices include a number of adaptations for the generation, accumulation, and transmission of knowledge; the use of local institutions to provide leaders/stewards and rules for social regulation; mechanisms for cultural internalization of traditional practices; and the devel- opment of appropriate world views and cultural values. Some traditional knowledge and management systems were characterized by the use of local ecological knowledge to in- terpret and respond to feedbacks from the environment to guide the direction of resource management. These traditional systems had certain similarities to adaptive management with its emphasis on feedback learning, and its treatment of uncertainty and unpredictability intrinsic to all ecosystems.
A book on the history, philosophy, and teachings of the Ojibway people, as passed down to the present generation by parents, grandparents, and elders of the Lac Court Oreilles Reservation (Wisconsin), contains material from oral tradition and is named "Mishomis," the Ojibway word for grandfather. Other Ojibway words and names appear in the text, with translations; a brief pronunciation guide is provided. The 15 chapters recount Ojibway myths and legends, describe features of Ojibway life, such as the clan system, and discuss historic events, such as the migration of Anishinabe and happenings since the coming of French traders in 1544. The text is illustrated with many drawings and maps. Stories included concern the Creation, Original Man's travels, Original Man and his grandmother, the Earth's first people, the great flood, Waynaboozhoo and the search for his father, Waynaboozhoo and his return to the people, the Seven Grandfathers and the little boy, the old man and the first Midewiwin ceremony, the pipe and the eagle, the sweat lodge, and the Seven Fires of the Ojibway. (MH)
Technology is often touted as a collective solution to environmental problems. However, what if technology results in trade-offs in long-term resilience that ultimately pose a critical vulnerability for society? In this study, we examine the change in values of freshwater from traditional to convenience-oriented values in remote, resource-dependent communities that are in the process of modernization. Individuals living in remote resource-dependent communities in Alaska were interviewed and asked a series of questions concerning their values toward freshwater and the importance of those values. As age of the individual decreased, traditional-subsistence values of water diminished, and both convenience and recreational values of water increased. Individuals from communities without municipal water systems expressed greater traditional-subsistence values and less convenience-oriented values than individuals from communities with municipal water systems. The data presented suggest that as communities increasingly adopt the dominant social paradigm associated with Western cultures, their values of freshwater change from traditional and cultural values to convenience and recreational values. The implications of this transformation in values are discussed as a form of technology-induced environmental distancing.
This article explores ethnic relations surrounding an environmental issue by focusing on Chippewa spearfishing in northern Wisconsin and its impact on local lake property owner/anglers, merchants, fishing guides, and Department of Natural Resources representatives. Tourism has suffered since court rulings have legalized off-reservation spearfishing. These court rulings recognize Chippewa treaty rights going back to 1837. The walleye, a prized fish in this region, has become increasingly scarce and is the focus in this environmentally based social conflict. Using a social constructionist perspective and interviews with 55 persons involved in this controversy, the main features of the conflict are isolated and interpreted, and suggestions are offered for its amelioration. The various stakeholders involved in the dispute have framed the decline in walleye catch in different ways and have made claims that each of their views is valid. For the Chippewa, walleye depletion is an angler problem, and their spearing is claimed to be a sacred entitlement; for the non-Native people, spearfishing is claimed to be an unfair Chippewa privilege that contributes to the decline in walleye catch. These divergent sentiments and interests are shown to be mired in cultural misunderstandings, physical separation between the Chippewa and the non-Native people, and a history of poor social relations.
This article explores the character of conservative legal activism in post–civil rights America, arguing that this activism is motivated by two related factors: (1) resentment over the increased political participation of historically marginalized Americans and (2) principled allegations that these historically marginalized Americans are making illegitimate claims for “special,” not equal, rights. I argue that the allegation of special rights is tied to the activists' resentment in multiple and complex ways. On the one hand, the allegation that the rights claims of the historically marginalized are illegitimate claims for special rights is itself an expression of resentment. Like arguments that oppose redistributive social change by relying upon discourses of color blindness, states' rights, evangelical Christianity, and community harmony, special rights talk channels resentment into recognizable and intelligible forms. But, on the other hand, the use of special rights talk is not simply cover for an underlying, fully formed resentment. Instead, the allegation of special rights propels and amplifies activists' resentment, transforming it from one that is based primarily upon competing self-interests into one that is concerned with values, morality, and national identity. Special rights talk thus partially constitutes resentment; it hardens the resolve of opponents of redistributive social change, encouraging them to understand themselves as defenders not only of their own self-interests but also, primarily even, as defenders of the core American values and ideals that are promoted by equal rights and assaulted by special rights. Thus convinced that their opposition is authorized by American tradition, conservative legal activists redouble their counter-mobilization efforts, leading to an exacerbation of already tense conflicts. A case study of the nationwide anti-treaty-rights movement grounds this analysis.
Antiracist white feminists and ecofeminists have the tools but lack the strategies for responding to issues of social and environmental justice cross-culturally, particularly in matters as complex as the Makah whale hunt. Distinguishing between ethical contexts and contents, I draw on feminist critiques of cultural essentialism, ecofeminist critiques of hunting and food consumption, and socialist feminist analyses of colonialism to develop antiracist feminist and ecofeminist strategies for cross-cultural communication and cross-cultural feminist ethics.
Ecosystems are complex and difficult to predict and control. Western science-based societies have tended to simplify ecosystems
to manage them. Some indigenous and other rural groups who interact closely with a given resource system seem to have developed
practices that are adapted to live with complexity. This paper examines how indigenous Cree hunters in James Bay, subarctic
Canada, understand and deal with ecological complexity and dynamics, and how their understanding of uncertainty and variability
shape subsistence activities. The focus is the Canada goose (Branta canadensis) hunt which is adaptive to shifts and changes in local and regional conditions. Ecological understandings of Cree hunters
allow them to account for and deal with a very large number of variables at multiples scales. The Cree deal with these variables
qualitatively, an approach consistent with some scientific ways of dealing with complexity, such as adaptive management and
fuzzy logic.
This paper provides empirical evidence to support existing anecdotal studies regarding the mechanisms by which human communities become vulnerable to rapid changes in freshwater resources on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. We interviewed adults, stratified by age, sex, and extended family, in Inupiat communities on the Seward Peninsula. Using categorical indices as part of a semi-structured interview we elicited a respondent's perception of the availability and quality of freshwater resources in their community as well as their perception of change in the availability and quality of freshwater during the period of their lifetime in that community. Significant relationships were observed between age groups for the perception of change in the availability of the local water source and the perception of change in its quality—older generations perceiving more change than younger age groups. These perceptions of change were examined with respect to recent historic changes in precipitation and temperature on the Seward Peninsula. These findings suggest that individual perceptions are instrumental in determining whether or not change merits response. The findings also provide evidence that oral traditional knowledge systems have shifted from continuous to discontinuous transmission, distancing the users from traditional resources. We discuss the role of collective knowledge, through the transmission of knowledge from elders to subsequent generations, in aiding the development of a community's ability to note and respond to changes in critical natural resources.
This paper develops a vulnerability-based approach to characterize the human implications of climate change in Arctic Bay, Canada. It focuses on community vulnerabilities associated with resource harvesting and the processes through which people adapt to them in the context of livelihood assets, constraints, and outside influences. Inuit in Arctic Bay have demonstrated significant adaptability in the face of changing climate-related exposures. This adaptability is facilitated by traditional Inuit knowledge, strong social networks, flexibility in seasonal hunting cycles, some modern technologies, and economic support. Changing Inuit livelihoods, however, have undermined certain aspects of adaptive capacity, and have resulted in emerging vulnerabilities in certain sections of the community.
Indians of the Northwest Coast of North America had cultural continuity for at least two millennia before contact with people from the old world. This archeological fact suggests that their societies had achieved sustainability and resilience in relationships to their ecosystems and the salmon runs. The governance principles used by Northwest Indians in managing fisheries and other resources provided resilience. In addition to a land ethic, these principles included exchange systems based on public reciprocity. Property rights were clear and trespass was a capital offense. Chiefs and titleholders had to be generous facilitators. Leadership authority over land was contingent upon adherence to ethical and generous behavior as well as good management. These indigenous institutions were quite different from the rules currently governing the management of most ecosystems. In critiquing current institutions, many ideas similar to those in the indigenous systems have been proposed in isolation; the example described in this paper suggests the importance of combining them.