Whilst there are popular ideas about which champion Aboriginal environmental knowledge, many of these are based more on romantic notions than on any detailed understanding of what might be the content of this knowledge. This book is based on a grounded and broad assessment of less well known details of Aboriginal knowledge and provides both a great deal of detail and a new assessment of rituals and practices. Aboriginal environmental knowledge is examined here as an integrated source of both religious and scientific knowledge. An important finding is that Aboriginal environmental knowledge also includes knowledge about education for attitudes considered appropriate for survival. Though evidence for this is readily available in the literature, it has not been part of current depictions of Aboriginal environmental knowledge.
Presents the results of a workshop on the documentation and application of traditional environmental knowledge through community-based research. The workshop brought together a small number of teams from most regions of the world to discuss effective methods for documenting the unique environmental knowledge and understanding that characterizes the heritage of all indigenous peoples around the world. Includes: Canada1s North (the Dene, reindeer management in the Belcher Islands); the South Pacific (Marovo area of the Solomon islands); the African Sahel (oral history); and Northern Thailand (development). Maps.
This volume provides an overview of key themes in Indigenous Environmental Knowledge (IEK) and anchors them with brief but well-grounded empirical case studies of relevance for each of these themes, drawn from bioculturally diverse areas around the world. It provides an incisive, cutting-edge overview of the conceptual and philosophical issues, while providing constructive examples of how IEK studies have been implemented to beneficial effect in ecological restoration, stewardship, and governance schemes. Collectively, the chapters in the Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Environmental Knowledge cover Indigenous Knowledge not only in a wide range of cultures and livelihood contexts, but also in a wide range of environments, including drylands, savannah grassland, tropical forests, mountain landscapes, temperate and boreal forests, Pacific and Indian Ocean islands, and coastal environments. The chapters discuss the complexities and nuances of Indigenous cosmologies and ethno-metaphysics and the treatment and incorporation of IEK in local, national, and international environmental policies. Taken together, the chapters in this volume make a strong case for the potential of Indigenous Knowledge in addressing today’s local and global environmental challenges, especially when approached from a perspective of appreciative inquiry, using cross-cultural methods and ethical, collaborative approaches which limit bias and inappropriate extraction of IEK. The book is a guide for graduate and advanced undergraduate teaching, and a key reference for academics in development studies, environmental studies, geography, anthropology, and beyond, as well as anyone with an interest in Indigenous Environmental Knowledge.
"The most current and comprehensive book of its kind, Aboriginal Peoples and Natural Resources in Canada explores the opportunities and constraints that aboriginal people encounter in their efforts to use water resources, fisheries, forestry resources, wildlife, land and non-renewable resources, and to gain management power over these resources. This examination begins with a historical perspective, and takes into account cultural, political, legal and geographical factors. From the contemporary research of the author, the reader is informed of the most current developments and provided with a well-reasoned outlook for the future." "This book is an essential resource for aboriginal people engaged in the use and management of natural resources, and for those who seek professional training in the field. Anyone wanting to know more about the social and environmental issues pertaining to more responsible and equitable environmental and ecological management will find a wealth of information in this volume."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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.
Dr Berkes approaches traditional ecological knowledge as a knowledge-practice-belief complex. This complex considers four interrelated levels: local knowledge (species specific); resource management systems (integrating local knowledge with practice); social institutions (rules and codes of behavior); and world view (religion, ethics, and broadly defined belief systems). Divided into three parts that deal with concepts, practice, and issues, respectively, the book first discusses the emergence of the field, its intellectual roots and global significance. Substantive material is then included on how traditional ecological and management systems actually work. At the same time it explores a diversity of relationships that different groups have developed with their environment, using extensive case studies from research conducted with the Cree Indians of James Bay, in the eastern subarctic of North America. The final section examines traditional knowledge as a challenge to the positivist-reductionist paradigm in Western science, and concludes with a discussion of the potential of traditional ecological knowledge to inject a measure of ethics into the science of ecology and resource management.
Collection of papers from the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Workshop, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, ANU, 1988; articles by Head, Kalotas, Rose, Kimber, Baker, Johannes, Wilkins, Walsh, White and Meehan annotated separately.
"Technological capability has led, through Euro-American global domination, to the muting of other cultural views and values, even threatening their continued existence. There is a growing realization that the diversity of knowledge systems demand respect; some refer to them in a conservation idiom as alternative knowledge banks. The scientific perspective is only one. We now have many examples of the soundness of local science and practices, some previously considered 'primitive' and in need of change. However, this book goes beyond demonstrating the soundness of local science and arguing for the incorporation of others' knowledge in development, to maintain that we need to look quizzically at the foundations of science itself and further challenge its hegemony, not only over local communities in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and elsewhere but also the global community.--Publisher