Ethnoecology Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Ethnoecology Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Atran, Scott, Douglas Medin, Norbert Ross, Elizabeth Lynch, John Coley, Edilberto Ucan Ek, Valentina Vapnarsky. 1999. Folkecology and Commons Management in the Maya Lowlands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 96:7598-7603.
Methods Keywords: Social network analysis, folkecology, cultural consensus analysis
Methods annotation:
Atran and colleagues address two questions: (1) In what ways do the folkecological models held by different cultural groups in the same habitat affect their use of common resources?, and (2) How is folkecological knowledge transmitted within and between groups? Their study area is the Maya Biosphere Reserve, and they compare the native Itzaj Maya, immigrant Ladinos and immigrant Q’eqchi Maya.
They first evaluated behavior by looking at (1) extent of forest destruction, (2) number of species planted, and (3) agroecological practices, concluding that the Itzaj were the least destructive, planted the most species, and had cultivation practices that maintain soil fertility. The Q’eqchi fell at the other end of the spectrum on all three measures and the Ladinos fell in between.
A list of the species most important to forest health was compiled based on interviews with all three groups. Folkecological models for each group were derived from consensus analysis of responses to questions on (1) whether people in the respondent’s community help or hurt each item on the plant list, and (2) how each plant helped or hurt each animal and how each animal helped or hurt each plant. The Itzaj had the highest beneficial impact, and identified the most interactions (especially positive interactions) between plants and animals. The Q’eqchi had the least beneficial impact and the identified far fewer interactions. The Ladinos fell between the two Maya groups.
To understand the transmission of knowledge, the authors queried individuals on their social networks and on their consultation of forest experts. They found that Q’eqchi had the densest networks, while the Itzaj networks were diffuse. Itzaj consulted Itzaj, Ladinos consulted Ladinos and Itzja, and Q’eqchi consulted Q’eqchi and Ladinos. While Q’eqchi networks were dense, they did not acquire forest knowledge from their Itzaj neighbors (note that their languages are mutually unintelligible). While Ladinos were also immigrants, their social links with Itzaj explains their greater knowledge of forest resources. The authors conclude that local ecological knowledge contributing to successful commons management can be transferred to newcomers.
Prepared by: Frances Hayashida [FH], Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Missouri, July 2006
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Benz, Bruce F., Judith E. Cevallos, Francisco Santana M., Jesus Rosales A. and S. Graf. M. 2000. Losing Knowledge about Plant Use in the Sierra de Manantlan Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. Economic Botany 54(2):183-191.
Methods Keywords: modernization, diversity indices, analysis of variance, Likert scaling, socioeconomic marginality index, abundance diagram
Methods annotation:
Although it is widely believed that indigenous societies are more knowledgeable about their environments and are less likely to abuse natural resources than are non-indigenous societies, there are numerous cases where indigenous people have abandoned traditional knowledge to pursue economic and social opportunities. In this article the authors ask, “to what extent can traditional knowledge coexist with changing values and modernization?” (184) To answer this they analyze relationships between knowledge of plant use and indicators of culture change and modernization in the Sierra de Manantlan Biosphere Reserve in western Mexico (SMBR).
Previous research in the SMBR that was based on systematic interviews with residents of eight communities has shown considerable variation in plant knowledge both between individuals and between communities. This study tests the prediction that this variation is linked to the process of modernization and that more marginal communities will score higher on measures of plant use and importance. Initially, the authors also predicted that plant knowledge would be higher among native speakers, but so few people still speak the native Nahua language that this could not be tested. They did, however, compare ethnobotanical indices from the SMBR with data previously collected by Alcorn among the Huastec and found that ethnobotanical knowledge was more diverse and more evenly shared for the Huastec. The authors used a variety of indices to measure aspects of ethnobotanical knowledge among the communities in the SMBR, including diversity indices and abundance diagrams, and they also used a socioeconomic marginality index. They then correlate indices of socioeconomic marginality and indicators of ethnobotanical knowledge.
The data indicate that communities that are most marginal report the greatest number of useful plants and the greatest number of reports of use per plant species whereas the least marginal communities register lower scores for the same ethnobotanical indices. Intermediate range communities (for socioeconomic marginality) do not show a clear trend.
The authors conclude that traditional ethnobotanical knowledge is lost with extinction of indigenous language and modernization, although they suggest that continued use and valuation of the forests could lead local people to effectively conserve traditional knowledge even after losing certain indigenous values and practices. Specialized knowledge might help them to participate in global trade as well as enhance efforts to conserve their forests.
Prepared by: Jan Gasco [JG], Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Dominguez Hills, July 2006
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Berkes, Fikret, Carl Folke, and Johan Colding, eds. 1998. Linking Social and Ecological Systems: Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience . Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 459 p with index.
Methods Keywords: sustainability, ecosystem, indigenous knowledge (IK), traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), institution, common-property (common-pool) resources, feedback, resilience, capital (cultural capital, social capital, institutional capital)
Methods annotation:
This book presents 13 case studies on the sustainability of resource management systems from around the world, including studies of fish, mammals, and plants. Both conventional and traditional (or newly emergent locally controlled) systems are examined. Each author addresses two objectives: “how the local social system has developed management practices based on ecological knowledge for dealing with the dynamics of the ecosystem(s) in which it is located; and social mechanisms behind these management practices” (p. 3).
In an introductory chapter, Berkes and Folke define terms and phrases and lay out an analytical framework. As they point out, “the research questions posed by the present study explicitly link ecology, economics and social science. They require an interdisciplinary, international, case-study approach” (p. 15). They propose three hypotheses: maintaining resilience is important for resources and social institutions; successful management systems will allow disturbance to enter at a low-level scale; and social mechanisms for sustainability co-evolve with local ecosystems.
The book is organized into four parts. Part I includes three case studies on local systems. Part II includes four case studies on how some new adaptive systems arose. Part III includes four case studies that situate local experiences within regional concerns. In Part IV, the four chapters (two are case studies) examine designing new approaches to resource management. The emphasis is on combining traditional and conventional resource management systems.
Two of the chapters in Part IV do not concentrate on case studies, but rather provide condensed arguments for thinking about (and changing) resource management. In Chapter 13, C. S. Holling, F. Berkes, and C. Folke (“Science, Sustainability and Resource Management”) explicitly meld together two resource management approaches that so far had been in different literatures. They propose to use a systems approach and adaptive management as the basis of a resource management science. But in addition, they propose to focus on cultural capital and property-rights systems. The human-ecological system is “best seen as a co-evolutionary one, with changing functional controls in the ecosystem, in the economy and in the society” (p. 343). They contextualize their viewpoints by outlining the historical development of thought on science and sustainability
In the final synthesis chapter, Chapter 16, C. Folke, F. Berkes, and J. Colding (“Ecological Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience and Sustainability”) re-examine the three hypotheses proposed in the first chapter. They summarize how management practices and the social mechanisms behind them can contribute to ecosystem resilience. They collate common patterns and principles, upon which they propose some productive ways in which management systems can be made more resilient and sustainable.
Prepared by: Gail E. Wagner [GEW], Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, July 2006.
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Berkes, Fikret, Johan Colding, and Carl Folke. 2000. Rediscovery of Traditional Ecological Knowledge as Adaptive Management. Ecological Applications 10(5):1251-1262.
Methods Keywords: adaptive management, human ecology, resilience, resource management, Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Methods annotation:
This article focuses on how indigenous peoples offer alternative knowledge and perspectives based on their own locally developed practices of resource use. The authors survey the international literature on the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in monitoring, responding to, and managing ecosystem processes and functions, with special attention to ecological resilience. Using a variety of case studies, there is a large 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 change. Social mechanisms behind these traditional practices are also examined in this article and include numerous 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 development of appropriate world views and cultural values. The authors show that some traditional knowledge and management systems were characterized by the use of local ecological knowledge to interpret and respond to feedbacks from the environment in order to guide the direction of resource management. Most importantly, these traditional systems had particular similarities to adaptive management with its emphasis on feedback learning, and its treatment of uncertainty and unpredictability intrinsic to all ecosystems.
Prepared by: Mark A. Calamia [MAC], institutional affiliation?, July 2006
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Berlin, Eloise Ann and Brent Berlin. 2005. Some Field Methods in Medical Ethnobiology. Field Methods. 17 (3):235-268.
Methods Keywords: medical ethnobiology, ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology, field herbarium, inventories, explanatory model questionnaire, pile sort, triad test, ethnoepidemiology survey, clinical data collection form, herbarium, prior informed consent, ethnomedical glossaries
Methods annotation : The Berlins propose that any research agenda for a project in medical ethnobiology must include: ethnomedicine, medical ethnobotany, and ethnopharmacology. Among other things, they state that research in medical ethnobiology must include an inventory of body parts, names, and illnesses as well as ethnomedical formulary, that is how prescriptions are prepared, which is of critical importance for researchers as it affects the chemical composition and absorption of the active ingredients. The researcher must also be careful about recording and storing data as the data collection is not simply for the use of a single researcher or team and should be accessible to future scholars. The scope of data to be collected requires that researchers hire and train assistants. The Berlins note that native assistants work very well for this type of data collection.
A number of methods are mentioned briefly in the context of their research among the Maya. Perhaps more importantly than the methods, this article outlines the scope of information to be collected by medical ethnobotanical researchers by listing the kinds of information to be collected in each area and even suggesting organizational headings for survey research. Their goal is to present non-Western medical knowledge as systematic and integrated. This article would be especially valuable for someone working on an initial research design in this field.
Prepared by: Katherine Metzo [KM], Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, July 2006
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Boster, James. 1984. Inferring Decision Making from Preferences and Behavior: An Analysis of Aguaruna Jívaro Manioc Selection. Human Ecology , Vol. 12, 4: 343 - 358.
Methods keywords: decision making, cognitive models, crop selection, blind (unplanned) variation
Methods annotation:
Cognitive anthropologists argue that decision making is a two-stage process in which one first “unconsciously” eliminates alternatives that do not meet a set of criteria. In stage two, decision makers “consciously and rigorously” consider alternatives through processes that can be represented by a decision tree (or a set of decision rules). In such a model: 1) the number of alternatives is small compared with the constraints affecting the decision, 2) decisions are made infrequently, and 3) the alternatives are usually mutually exclusive. However, many decision making situations do not share these characteristics and decision trees can demand more ethnographic data than it is possible to elicit.
Boster suggests that cognitive models of natural decision making are vulnerable to post hoc rationalization and argues that a ‘simpler’ linear model provides more accurate descriptions of decision situations. Using the case of Aguaruna manioc selection in the Amazon basin of North Central Peru, Boster advocates inferring decision making from actual behaviour. In this case, he suggests inferring Aguaruna selection of various types of manioc plants by comparing the properties people attribute to plants with the actual frequency with which plants appear in Aguaruna gardens. Boster advocates collection of two types of data (in three steps): 1) standard interviews should consider decision makers’ evaluations of alternatives and 2) more elaborate “pilot,” and later refined “final,” interviews should provide comparative data on the actual choices made.
Prepared by: Celeste Ray [CR], Associate Professor & Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of the South
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Byg, A. and H. Balslev. 2001. Diversity and use of palms in Zahamena, eastern Madagascar. Biodiversity and Conservation 10:951-970.
Methods key words: quantifying species importance, knowledge distribution, voucher specimens, oral survey, open ended questions, key informants, stepwise linear regression
Methods annotation:
Byg and Balslev conducted open ended interviews with 54 informants in three ethnically Betsimisaraka villages in eastern Madagascar in order to assess patterns of knowledge about, and use of, different palm species. The study villages are located near the Zahamena protected area and contain some socioeconomic diversity; villages vary in size, proximity to the protected area, and the period of establishment. The authors aim to establish the diversity of species used and the relative contribution of each species to local people, the relative importance of each species compared to local notions of importance, and to correlate knowledge and use of palms with socioeconomic and geographic factors.
Voucher species were collected and deposited in herbaria and the correspondence between folk and scientific species determined; 774 reports of palm uses were recorded for 25 folk species in the interviews. The authors use a number of statistical analyses to assess the importance of particular species, especially the number of uses to which species are put, the relative importance of particular uses, and the agreement between informants about which species and which uses are most important. Stepwise linear regression suggests that knowledge and use of palms is positively correlated with indicators of relative wealth.
Prepared by: David Crawford [DLC], Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Fairfield University, Connecticut, July 2006.
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Danielsen, Finn, Neil Burgess and Andrew Balmford. 2005. Monitoring matters: examining the potential of locally-based approaches. Biodiversity and Conservation 14:11: 2507-2542.
Methods keywords: Monitoring, locally-based; monitoring, professional; transects, species lists, focus groups, photography
Methods annotation:
Monitoring of biodiversity and resource use by professional scientists faces a number of challenges: high costs, unsustainability, logistical and technical difficulties, lack of relevance to resource managers, and inadequate attention to other stakeholders. Given these shortcomings of professional monitoring, the authors review 15 case studies in order to assess the potential of locally-based approaches. They focus on five key issues, corresponding to the challenges faced by professional monitoring: cost, sustainability, ability to detect local or large-scale trends, links to management decisions, and the empowerment of local communities.
The scale of the areas monitored in the case studies ranges from 1,200 ha to 7 million ha, with median costs of US$0.08/ha/yr, a small fraction of the costs of professional monitoring.
Based on the case studies, the authors identify five methods that are particularly suitable for locally-based biodiversity monitoring, offering a discussion of the pros and cons of each, and potential sources of bias. In the interests of sustainability, they favored methods requiring a minimum of specialized equipment. The methods were:
1. patrol records – collection of information on key species, habitats, extent of exploitation etc. during routine patrols;
2. transects – collection of information along dedicated transects;
3. species lists – recording observed species over fixed time periods;
4. on-the-ground fixed point photography
5. village group discussions involving monitors, community members, and conservation authorities.
They also identify six principles that appear important in enhancing the sustainability of locally-based monitoring:
1. address benefit flows to local communities;
2. benefits to people participating in monitoring should exceed costs;
3. ensure that conflicts between govt. managers and communities do not constrain local involvement;
4. build on existing institutions wherever possible;
5. institutionalize monitoring at multiple levels;
6. store and analyze data locally.
Despite their strengths, locally-based monitoring raises concerns about its ability to detect trends, although literature that actually compares local and professional monitoring is very scarce. Results from locally-based monitoring often have higher variance than professional data, sometimes with consistent errors regarding size or abundance of organisms and misidentification of difficult taxa. In the authors’ view, these concerns can probably be addressed through training of local monitors.
Locally-based monitoring appears effective and quick in influencing local decision-making, probably more so than methods without community participation. Unless institutionalized in larger structures (as in several of the case studies), however, local monitoring is unlikely to have impacts beyond the local scale.
Locally-based monitoring also affects communities in ways that the authors view as empowering: it improves collaboration with conservation authorities, changes community members’ attitudes to favor environmental sustainability, increases compliance with environmental laws, and translates local knowledge into biological and/or bureaucratic language.
Finally, the authors offer a step-by-step program for the establishment of locally-based monitoring, and recommend that new programs be accompanied by rigorous validation studies to establish the credibility of local monitoring.
Prepared by: : Derick Fay [DF], S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, July 2006.
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Davis, Anthony and John R. Wagner. 2003. Who Knows? On the Importance of Identifying ‘Experts’ when Researching Local Ecological Knowledge. Human Ecology , 31(3): 463-489.
Methods keywords: local ecological knowledge; research methods; indigenous knowledge; peer referencing
Methods annotation:
Anthony Davis and John Wagner argue that local ecological knowledge, or LEK, is “a socially and culturally rooted knowledge system.” However, defining what is meant by that remains problematic. For example, after a careful review of recent literature, the authors found that the process for reporting methods employed in establishing knowledge about LEK were underreported and far from rigorous. In other words, as important as it may be that researchers and ultimately decision-makers have access to the most carefully acquired data, in fact researchers are not terribly precise in their discussions of how they determined what constituted LEK or even who was a “local expert.” Anthropologists do not have to be reminded that the inclusion of local or indigenous “voices” is important for their research. Yet knowing something is true and implementing it in quantifiable ways are two different points.
The authors, in their study of Nova Scotian fishermen, note that for knowledge to count as LEK, it cannot simply reflect the idiosyncratic experiences of an individual. Rather, LEK possesses a historical and cultural “core” within the community. Having said that, it is not evident always “how widely statements, experiences, and descriptions [are] shared within a community” before these are considered attributes of LEK. One way to begin to address this issue is to determine which members of the community are identified as local knowledge “experts.” In other words, the quality, reliability and validity of the data gathered in the context of LEK research depends in large part on who is identified as “knowledgeable” and how systematically data are gathered.
To resolve this issue, Davis and Wagner propose identifying LEK experts by “systematically gathering peer recommendations .” Fishermen were asked via a structured survey technique, who they thought was the most knowledgeable person with regards to the local fishery. The logic is that members of a given social group will always know who their best rivals are or “livelihood peers.” Face-to-face interviewing would proceed with those individuals who received the most mentions. Identified experts were interviewed until the point of information saturation. The goal was to obtain three independent observations for each local environmental knowledge claim.
The method described by the authors is easy to implement and is time-and-resource efficient for the researchers. Interesting findings in this article include the following:
• Local knowledge experts in the study received “votes” from people outside their own community but with few exceptions, most of these areas were adjacent to each other. Thus responses solicited in fact referenced LEK.
• Elderly retired individuals were underrepresented among those fishermen identified as “most” knowledgeable.
Prepared by: Colleen E. Boyd [CEB], Assistant Professor and Director of Native American Studies, Department of Anthropology, Ball State University
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Eyzaguirre, Pablo B. and Olga F. Linares. 2004. Introduction. In Home Gardens and Agrobiodiversity. Pablo B. Eyzaguirre and Olga F. Linares, eds., pp. 1-28. Washington DC, Smithsonian Books.
Methods Keywords: home gardens, agrobiodiversity, agroforestry systems, biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, sustainability, Shannon-Wiener species diversity index
Methods annotation:
In this introductory chapter to their edited book, Eyzaguirre and Linares review current research on home gardens and introduce the focus of the volume which is “how home gardens contribute to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity within agricultural systems” (1).
The authors begin by summarizing several aspects of previous research on home gardens including variation in home garden structure and composition, the role of home gardens in local ecosystems and their contribution to biodiversity, species variation across home gardens, the social function of home gardens, the economic functions of home gardens, home garden management (specifically gender roles), and factors that can undermine the maintenance of biodiversity in home gardens.
Building on previous work, this volume focuses on features of home gardens that are important for agrobiodiversity: 1) home gardens serve as “refuges for crops and crop varieties that were once more widespread in the larger agroecysystem” (16), 2) home gardens are “sites for experimenting with the introduction of new cultivars resulting from exchange and interaction between cultures and communities” (16), and 3) home gardens are useful for the “study of crop evolution and plant genetic resources because of the complex species diversity and interactions that characterize them” (16).
Other chapters in the book present data from Cuba, Guatemala, Venezuela, Ghana, Nepal, Vietnam, and Ethiopia, and they consider how processes such as urbanization, migration, market forces, and economic policies affect agrobiodiversity in home gardens.
Prepared by: Jan Gasco [JG], Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Dominguez Hills, July 2006
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Godoy, R., V. Reyes-Garcıa, E. Byron, W.R. Leonard and V. Vadez. 2005. The Effect of Market Economies on the Well-Being of Indigenous Peoples and on Their Use of Renewable Natural Resources. Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 121 – 38.
Methods Keywords: Endogeneity, health assessment, intracultural diversity, panel data, cross sectional data, proxies, traditional ecological knowledge
Methods annotation:
Godoy and coauthors explore the methodologies and findings of journal articles in the social sciences (1985 – 2003), investigating the effect of market economies on the subsistence, health, nutritional status, social capital, and traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples and their use of renewable natural resources. The review is based on quantitative studies in developing nations.
The paper discusses the difficulties of quantitatively linking market economies with the wellbeing of indigenous people and suggests that the following issues are contributing to the lack of consistent findings:
a) A lack of agreement on how to measure variables among researchers that makes it difficult to draw comparisons and generalizations
b) A lack of a convincing strategy to identify causality
c) Weak collaboration among researchers of different disciplines, which produces a partial view
d) Absence of long panels, and reliance on cross sectional data or short panels which hinders an understanding of development over time
Interesting points are raised regarding the assessment of health using objective and perceived measures, means of measuring TEK and its intracultural distribution, cross sectional and panel data and endogeneity biases.
Prepared by: Hattie Wells [HW], Regional Coordinator for southern Africa, The Global Diversity Foundation, July 2006
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Holling, C. S. 2001. Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems. Ecosystems 4:390-405.
Methods Keywords: adaptive cycles, connectedness, hierarchy, inherent potential, panarchy, resilience, self-organization, sustainability, sustainable development
Methods annotation:
Panarchy is a theoretical hierarchical structure or nested set of adaptive cycles in which systems of nature, humans, human-nature systems, and social-ecological systems are interlinked in never-ending adaptive cycles of growth, accumulation, restructuring, and renewal (p. 392). Within a panarchy, lower levels of cycles are small and fast; upper levels are slower and larger, and set the conditions within which smaller and faster cycles function.
The theory of panarchy was developed through a five-year collaboration of ecologists, economists, social scientists, and mathematicians under the Resilience Project. Panarchy is an integrative theory simple enough to understand, but complex enough to develop policy for sustainability. The idea of panarchy combines space/time hierarchies with adaptive cycles.
Three properties or dimensions shape the adaptive cycle and system: inherent potential, degree of connectedness, and resilience. The trajectory of an adaptive cycle alternates between long periods of slow accumulation (exploitation, or r) and transformation (conservation, or K) of resources to shorter, faster periods that create opportunities for innovation (release or omega, to reorganization or alpha). Connectedness and stability increase and capital is accumulated during the slow sequence from exploitation to conservation. Release is triggered by disturbance, leading to invention, change, reassortment, and variety during innovation and reorganization. During reorganization, the ecological resilience of a system expands and potential is high, but connectedness is low. During conservation, the ecological resilience is low but potential and connectedness are high. Nested levels of cycles are interconnected: when a level enters its omega phase of creative destruction, change (“revolt”) can affect the K phase of the next larger and slower level. Likewise, the K phase of a slower and larger level provides opportunities for or constraints against (persistence via “remembrance”) change that has originated in the next lower, faster level.
The panarchy is both creative and conserving, a conceptual structure in which both learning and continuity may occur. “Panarchy theory focuses on the critical features that affect or trigger reorganization and transformation in a system” (402). Successful ecosystem management “must build and maintain ecological resilience as well as the social flexibility needed to cope, innovate, and adapt” (404).
Prepared by: Gail E. Wagner [GEW], Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, July 2006.
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Hunn, Eugene. 1982. The Utilitarian Factor in Folk Biological Classification. American Anthropologist. 84(4): 830-847.
Methods Keywords: ethnoscience, taxonomy, folk biology, activity signature
In this article, Hunn argues against a trend within the emerging field of ethnobotany in which scholars label certain folk botanical categories as “culturally insignificant.” Hunn identifies several problematic assumptions of Western researchers including the assumption that useful is the equivalent to adaptive and that people maintain neatly and taxonomically organized categories in their head. He asserts that ethnobotanists need to attend to the activity signatures of plants by asking questions about who gathers, how, when, where and to what end. In fact, not all differences are culturally recognized in the sense of being named, and we should consider the practical consequences of these species in people’s lives. By understanding these pragmatic concerns, Hunn argues, researchers can begin to hypothesize about cross cultural concerns, such as why a particular culture linguistically recognizes greater differentiation within certain taxa or why there are differences cross culturally.
Hunn suggests specifically looking at the ways in which people use plant and animal names in sentences where it appears as an object (p 843). Within this model, not all uses of the term would be weighted equally. Instead, the determination of relative importance requires some understanding of significance within the culture studied. Hunn cites several studies that do this well, explaining that they illustrate “how culture works” (p 843), specifically how ideas affect action and how action affects environment.
This article is predominantly a review article, but uses ethnographic examples from Hunn’s work among the John Day Sahaptins from the northwest US and Brent Berlin’s work among the Tzeltal-Tzotzil of Mexico. The article seems to be written in direct conversation with the Berlin and underscores a concern with expanding the work of ethnoscience to incorporate a broader understanding of culture and human behavior back into folk biological classification.
Prepared by: Katherine Metzo [KM], Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, July 2006
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Hunn, E. S. 2002. Evidence for the Precocious Acquisition of Plant Knowledge by Zapotec Children. In Ethnobiology and Biocultural Diversity , J. R. Stepp, F. S. Wyndham, and R. K. Zarger, eds. Athens, Georgia: International Society of Ethnobiology, pp. 604-613.
Keywords : taxa, domain, modularity of mind, folk taxonomic rank, lexeme, voucher specimen, folk taxonomy, loanword
Methods annotation:
Hunn reports preliminary findings from the Zapotec Ethnobiology project, focusing on Mixtepec Zapotec speakers from San Juan Mixtepec in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, Mexico. Hunn compares number of plant taxa by folk taxonomic rank that two females (ages 7-12) and one male (age 70, but blind since age 18) can name to an “omniscient informant” or total inventory of identified vouchers for the community and to three adult informants. Naming responses were collected by (1) naming voucher specimens when they were collected, pressed, or dried; (2) naming plants collected but not preserved as vouchers; (3) naming plants in situ in their habitats; and (4) during review and discussion of vocabulary lists. The young children had already learned much of the flora. He illustrates how knowledge extended also to habitat and use by detailing one 90-minute interview with a 9-year-old female. She used plant names similarly to community adults, including adapting Spanish loanwords. Hunn compares Zapotec childhood acquisition of botanical terminology to American children and to other Mexican children. He hypothesizes that the Zapotec children learn their botanical knowledge by example, application, and through play in the context of everyday exposure rather than in the public school. He argues that understanding when and how children learn empirical knowledge about their local natural environment is important because (1) if knowledge is not learned by a critical age, adults may lack sufficient in-depth knowledge to sustainably manage natural resources; and (2) how such knowledge is learned naturally provides a model for success in teaching science to American children. He believes his data support the view that humans share an innate predisposition to acquire names for and associated information about plants and animals.
Prepared by: Gail E. Wagner [GEW], Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, July 2006
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Lewis, Herbert S. 2001. Boas, Darwin, Science, and Anthropology. Current Anthropology 42(3):381-406.
Methods keywords: particularism, positivism, quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, pragmatism, evolution, hypothetico-deductive method, postmodernism
Methods annotation:
In this article Lewis argues for a view of Boas not as opposed to the scientific model exemplified by Darwin and Ernst Mayr, but as applying the principles of evolutionary analysis to the related, if distinct, field of anthropology. In rejecting the search for positive rules characteristic of his own early training in physics, Boas is in fact following Darwin’s lead, in emphasizing the individual and historical, as well as the qualitative, aspects of humanity as a distinct phenomenon requiring its own methodology. The naïve outsider’s view of science, characteristic of Leslie White, Marvin Harris, et al., overvalues the methodology of physics, regardless of the object of analysis.
The convergence of Boasian method with pragmatism is especially notable. Boas was a close colleague of John Dewey and George Herbert Mead, and shared with them a common philosophical and political agenda. The central tenets of pragmatism—the characteristically American school of philosophy—are antifoundationalism, pluralism and diversity, contingency and chance, and an emphasis on the individual. This follows from key aspects of Darwin’s methodology, while opposing the rationalism and teleology often conflated with “science” (Spencer, Marx, White). In several important ways the advent of postmodern theories represents a revival of these pragmatic principles.
Boas, far from a collector of random facts, used carefully gathered data to shed light on general phenomena, such as the role of artistic creativity within a defined tradition, and the roles of environment and heredity in cranial development. Although cast in negative terms by Boas himself, in the context of arguments against popular notions derived from racist and “social Darwinist” thought, in fact such results contribute to positive knowledge and affirm the utility of hypothetico-deductive analysis to cultural, linguistic, and physical anthropological data. Similarly, the collection of individual case studies may shed light on larger processes of historical change, which ultimately may result in the discovery of historical laws and psychological process. However, our degree of confidence in these regularities never can rise to the level we expect in physics; this is the result of the complexity of the human condition. Anthropology, along with biology, but unlike physics, cannot be a predictive science. That limitation, however, does not mean that it is no science at all. Indeed, the “rediscovery” of Boas by a younger generation of mainly Chicago-trained anthropologists bodes well for the development of a “post-postmodernist” synthesis in anthropology.
Prepared by: Michael Harkin [MH], Professor of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, July 2006
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Mather, Richard. 2000. Using Photomaps to Support Participatory Processes of Community Forestry in the Middle Hills of Nepal. Mountain Research and Development 20(2):154-161. Available online at http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1659%2F0276-4741(2000)020%5B0154%3AUPTSPP%5D2.0.CO%3B2#toclink8
Methods Keywords: Community forestry, orthorectified photomaps, GIS, participatory mapping
Methods annotation:
In 1990, the Nepalese government created the Community and Private Forestry Program, which handed over hill forest management to local communities. Legal recognition was given to Forest User Groups (FUGs). Mather (who worked on a collaboration between communities of the Parbat district, the District Forest Office, and the Nepal-UK Community Forestry Project) reports on the process of defining the boundaries of these groups through participatory mapping. The maps also serve to encourage local participation in forest management, facilitate communication between users and between local groups and the government, and aid land use and conservation planning.
To create the maps, Forestry Office representatives arranged meetings with local groups. They presented them with large scale (1:1250 or 1:2500) photo enlargements. Transparent plastic overlays were laid over the photos, and participants drew in user group boundaries and other information (e.g., on different forest use areas).
Mather notes that:
• The photos were “ice-breakers” and generated a lot of interest and discussion.
• Women and poorer people who were sometimes reluctant to speak publicly readily contributed their comments when presented with the photos.
• Interpretations usually began with people recognizing linear features (rivers, roads, trails). Once oriented, participants had few problems interpreting the birds-eye view provided by the photos. (In another article, Mather notes that children were also good at understanding the photos.)
• Conventional participatory maps (e.g., drawn on paper and based on the perspective of the mapmaker) can be difficult to understand by those who were not present when the map was made. The photomaps were readily understood by all.
The completed photomaps were added to a GIS maintained by the District Forest Office. It is not clear if copies of the maps were also kept by the user groups.
Prepared by: Frances Hayashida [FH], Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Missouri, July 2006
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Miller, Marc and John Kaneko, Paul Bartram, Joe Marks and Deven Brewer.
2004. Cultural Consensus Analysis and Environmental Anthropology: Yellowfin Tuna Fishery Management in Hawaii. Cross-Cultural Research , 38(3): 289-314.
Methods keywords: natural resource anthropology; quantitative research methods; cross-cultural research; postmodern critique; applied anthropology; natural resource management systems; expert knowledge; traditional environmental knowledge; cultural consensus analysis
Methods annotation:
How can researchers and policy makers make fair and reasonable decisions on issues that affect different cultural groups and best utilize the “expert” knowledge provided by distinct users of a resource? Miller et al. evaluate data gathered from hand-line yellowfin tuna fishermen and marine scientists in Hawaii to demonstrate how cultural consensus methods enable researchers and policy makers to consider the usefulness of both forms of “expert” knowledge: traditional and scientific. Their rational for this approach is the fact that fishermen are generally not asked for feedback about allocation of the resource, even though they have an investment in conservation and knowledge about fish behavior and habitat. Therefore, their knowledge should be considered alongside that of marine scientists. The authors note fundamental differences between the way the two user groups approach the problem – scientists rely on the scientific method, sampling and quantitative analysis while fishermen base their knowledge of conditions on personal experience on the water. Their point is well-taken, even if they must slay a few postmodernists along their way to the conclusion.
Miller et al. begin the article with a strongly argued position statement about the current state of affairs in cultural anthropology departments. The problem, as they see it is simple – cultural anthropology students are phobic about numbers and due to the anti-establishment culture of many senior anthropologists, are likely to stay that way, unless cultural anthropologists wake up to need for quantification in contemporary research, particularly environmental studies. Having made a fairly strong general appeal for the future of quantification in anthropology, the authors go on to demonstrate the appeal of cultural consensus methods as a specific means for quantifying important data for fisheries resource management.
Specific points of interest include:
• The discussion of the natural resource management systems and its four interlocking elements: 1. natural resources 2. management bureaucracies 3. profit-seeking industries and 4. diverse publics.
• The clear discussion of cultural consensus methods.
• The findings pertaining to the different ways fishermen and scientists understand the condition of the yellowfin tuna industry in Hawaii. It is significant that while both groups share a single cultural code, they responded differently with regards to certain questions regarding fish location and sustaining the resource.
• The incorporation of local knowledge about fish behavior and ecology and the inclusion of fishermen in fishery management.
Prepared by: Colleen E. Boyd [CEB], Assistant Professor and Director of Native American Studies, Department of Anthropology, Ball State University
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Moerman, D.E. 1996. An analysis of the food plants and drug plants of North America. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 52:1-22.
Methods Keywords: Ethnobotanical Theory, Food and Drug, Food Plants, Medicinal Plants, Modern Medicine, Native Americans, Regression Analysis
Methods annotation:
-compares medicinal and food floras of native peoples of North America
-overlap in floras in family and taxon
-differences in flora in food and medicinal use involving different plant parts, habitat and character
-291 different tribes represented
-paper included corrections/additions/explanation of differences between this and his 1991 and 1994 papers
-chose to use a census for analysis of data rather than sample to prevent the need to show significance?? (p. 4)
-explained interesting reasons for separating plants used as foods and those used as medicine, but also discussed the overlap of these categories (e.g. Solanaceae)
-are we eating or taking medicine?
-interesting way to show similarity in plant use across cultures/geographic regions
-discusses differences in development of knowledge as far back as our primate kin
-ends paper with the very interesting question, “How did people learn of appropriate foods and medicines?”
Prepared by: Linda M. Lyon, Department of Biology, Frostburg State University, July 2006
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Ohmagari, Kayo and Fikret Berkes. 1997. Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge and Bush Skills among the Western James Bay Cree Women of Subarctic Canada. Human Ecology 25(2):197-222.
Methods keywords: skill transmission, comparison, structured and unstructured interviews, participant observation, sampling, key informants
Methods annotation:
The authors examine the transmission of cultural knowledge related to bush skills. They found that about half of these skills were being completely transmitted, while half were being incompletely transmitted or not at all. They argue that these skills constitute an indigenous toolkit associated with a successful, sustainable adaptation to the environment, and that the alternatives would entail definite financial and social costs.
The harsh, swampy environment of western James Bay is unsuited to agriculture. Settlement patterns have changed, becoming more urbanized following the establishment of Moose Factory as a regional center, and the institution of government schools. By contrast, many Cree remain in communities such as Peawanuck, a quasi-traditional village in the northern range of Cree territory. These two communities provide the basis for comparative research on skill transmission.
Methods used include structured and unstructured interviews, and participant observation. Older informants were selected from among those who actively engaged in bush activities. A schedule of 93 items was constructed using data from key informants. Certain types of knowledge—including ethnomedicine and place-specific traditions—were excluded or condensed in order to keep the list manageable. For each list item, a sampling of younger informants was asked if they learned the skill, who taught them, and at what age they learned it. Older informants were subjected to unstructured interviews, to obtain similar information. This established a baseline for comparison with younger informants. Participant observation was used to refine questions and to analyze the process of learning skills, which is viewed as an eight-part sequence. This sequence was simplified in the interview process to avoid “informant fatigue.”
The results showed that a higher proportion of the Moose Factory group (56%) than the Peawanuck group (45%) learned skills by hands-on experience. This discrepancy is due to sampling: in Moose Factory, a larger, nontraditional community, the sample was largely self-selected, whereas in Peawanuck it represented a cross-section of the community. In both samples, a sharp drop-off in fur-preparation skills was noticed, reflecting the collapse of the fur market. However, skills for preparing highly-valued species, such as marten, were retained. Similarly, for food preparation, the retention of cultural knowledge closely tracked the contemporary diet, with an emphasis on fish, goose, and moose, and a loss of knowledge with respect to grease-making and pemmican. The bimodalism pertained as well to handcraft skills, where commercially important skills such as beadworking were retained, while skills related to making items largely replaced by commercial items were not.
Skills that were transmitted tended to be transmitted later in life and less completely than in the past, and were more often transmitted by non-relatives. This reflects the fact that women need not have mastered the full spectrum of bush skills in order to be marriageable. Sedenterization, formal education, and the increasing masculinization of bush life have contributed to the decline in bush skill levels among women. These factors contribute to a gap between the “expert generation” and the younger one, reinforced by language loss and mutual mistrust. Larger shifts in values between generations may be linked to television, with its creation of unrealistic material expectations. At the same time, a cultural revival has arisen in Moose Factory, with a renewed emphasis on bush living. The authors suggest that the retention and revival of traditional culture are a cause for optimism. The Canadian government may play a role in this process, by instituting a hunter’s income security program and more culturally sensitive training programs.
Prepared by: Michael Harkin [MH], Professor of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, July 2006
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Oudwater, Nicoliene and Adrienne Martin. 2003. Methods and issues in exploring local knowledge of soils. Geoderma 111: 387-401.
Methods keywords: local knowledge, participatory appraisal, transect walks, free listing
Methods annotation:
Drawing on research in Tanzania and Uganda, Oudwater and Martin seek to develop methods for comparing and integrating scientific and indigenous knowledge of soils using GIS. The focus of this article is on methods and issues in soliciting local knowledge.
Beginning with a broad participatory appraisal, the authors employed a variety of methodological “tools.” Consultants identified soils through individual interviews, focus group discussion, free listing (the most abstract exercise), pile sorting, ranking, photo elicitation and mapping exercises. The design of the exercises was to permit “cumulative learning and continuous cross-checking of information” and to generate an indigenous soil classification based on group consensus. Field visits for transect walks elicited greatest detail and linked visual observations to actual practices. Research labor divided between those examining local knowledge and those conducting scientific soil survey in an attempt to avoid having scientific categories dominate farmers’ expressions of their resource knowledge. Local categories and classifications can prove inconsistent or overlapping, but their very complexity and contradictions are remarkable and worthy of study.
Prepared by: Celeste Ray [CR], Associate Professor & Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of the South
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Pfeiffer, Jeanine M. and Ramona J. Butz. 2005. Assessing Cultural and Ecological Variation in Ethnobiological Research: The Importance of Gender. Journal of Ethnobiology 25(2):240-278.
Methods key words: gender balance, research design, sampling design, informant choice
Methods annotation:
Pfeiffer and Butz undertake a literature search of 296 articles in the Journal of Ethnobiology and 424 articles in Economic Botany. The authors focus only on field studies and “defined ‘gendered’ analyses as those studies explicitly including both female and male respondents, accompanied by some form of qualitative or quantitative analysis differentiating between the two genders” (26). The search reveals that only 4% of articles in The Journal of Ethnobiology and 2.8% of those in Economic Botany substantively engage gender based variation in ethnobiological knowledge and practice. The authors then contrast this predominant, gender blind analysis with 220 interdisciplinary articles that include gender in their analyses. In summarizing the variety of ways that gender is important to the constitution of ethnobiological knowledge the authors make several methodological suggestions. These include the need for gender balanced research teams and attention to the gendered dynamics of research topics and design, particularly regarding sampling, informant choice, and translation.
Prepared by: David Crawford [DLC], Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Fairfield University, Connecticut, July 2006.
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Platt, John R. 1964. Strong Inference. Science 146(3642):347-353.
Methods keywords: hypothesis, induction, strong inference, multiple hypotheses method
Methods annotation:
In this early Science article, J.R. Platt emphasizes that the primary reason for scientific advancement has to do with intellectual contributions. Specifically, he identifies fast moving fields as ones in which scientific research is systematically used and taught, an accumulative method involving inductive inferences. He considers this method so effective that he calls it “strong inference.” In this article, Platt examines its use, history, and rationale and whether other groups might learn to adopt it profitably. He draws on examples from molecular biology and high-energy physics but not social science. He points out that the new molecular biology is a field where this systematic method of inference has become widespread and effective, and uses logic trees to show how hypotheses testing and elimination should work following the contributions of Francis Bacon and T.C. Chamberlin’s “method of multiple hypotheses. For Platt, the evident effectiveness in the systematic use of strong inference provides us with a yardstick for thinking about the effectiveness of scientific methods in general.
As Platt states: “The method of most rapid progress to deal with the really hard problems ahead, including some social ones, is to set down explicitly at each step just what the question is and what all the alternatives are and then to set up crucial experiments to try to disprove some. Problems of this complexity can be solved only by scientists generating and excluding possibilities with maximum effectiveness to obtain a high degree of information per unit time—scientists willing to work a little bit at thinking.”
Prepared by: Mark A. Calamia [MAC], institutional affiliation?, July 2006
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Poulson, M. K. and Luanglath, K. 2005. Projects come, projects go: Lessons from participatory monitoring in southern Laos. Biodiversity and Conservation 14:2591-2610.
Methods Keywords: participatory rural appraisal, rapid biodiversity assessment, joint monitoring teams, patrolling, village discussion, joint monitoring team logbook, fishery monitoring, photo points, wildlife trade monitoring, camera traps.
Methods annotation: Poulson and Luanglath examine the establishment of a biodiversity monitoring system based on data collected by protected area staff and local communities in Xe Pian national protected area (Laos) between 1998 and 2001. Protected areas in Laos are termed National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (NBCAs). Funding to develop the monitoring system was provided by the GEF/World Bank Forest Management and Conservation Program (FONACOM). Results presented in this article are based on monitoring forms and summary reports filed at the Xe Pian Management Unit’s office and correspondence between the authors. In addition, the authors accompanied Xe Pian staff during monitoring field activities.
The authors discuss the main methods used to set up the monitoring system. These methods included participatory rural appraisals in 27 villages and Rapid Biodiversity Assessment activities (November 1996-July 1997). Based on findings from these methods, members of the project identified seven focal villages for the development of co-managed monitoring systems in Xe Pian. The main monitoring methods used in these villages were: 1) patrolling (standardized data collection while walking through specific paths, focusing on priority indicators), 2) village discussion (short informal semi-structured interviews in any of the 90 Xe Pian villages); 3) joint monitoring team logbook (group of villagers with special interest in wildlife who join the protected area staff on patrols and keep a logbook with monitoring data). Other methods used less frequently included: 4) monitoring of ecologically sensitive sites; 5) fishery monitoring; 6) photo points; 7) wildlife trade monitoring; and 8) camera traps.
The results reported by Poulson and Luanglath indicate that patrolling was both the most time-consuming and effective monitoring method in Xe Pian. If carried out correctly—that is, if included in the regular activities of protected area staff and if conducted systematically—this method is both highly effective and very inexpensive. Village discussions also proved effective in collecting information on wildlife species and human activities within Xe Pian, as well as on fostering discussion on conservation issues among villagers. The use of joint monitoring team logbooks in the focal villages was less successful. Although all seven villages made use of the logbooks, some monitoring teams did not write information on them for several months. In addition, the authors argue that there was a marked tendency to record only the rarest species in the logbooks.
The authors also discuss the outcome of this system once donor support ended. They note that patrols and village discussion “came to a virtual standstill when external funding terminated” in 2002, while monitoring teams continued to note records of key species in their logbooks (2600). Poulson and Luanglath argue that this happened because there was insufficient capacity at the local level, and “particularly weak national policies supporting monitoring” as part of the job description of protected areas staff (2603). There was also a lack of understanding of the reasons why NBCAs have been established in the first place, and their importance for Laotians. In this regard, the authors point to the need to ensure sustainability of locally based monitoring systems at the local and national level.
Prepared by: Carla Guerrón Montero (CGM), Assistant Professor Department of Anthropology, University of Delaware, July 2006
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Reyes-García, V., E. Byron, V. Vadez, R. Godoy, L. Apaza, E. Pérez Limache, W.R. Leonard, D. Wilkie. 2004. Measuring Culture as Shared Knowledge: Do Data Collection Formats Matter? Cultural Knowledge of Plant Uses Among Tsimane’ Amerindians, Bolivia Field Methods 16(2):135–156.
Method keywords : consensus analysis, panel data, multiple choice questionnaires, paired comparison questionnaires, triadic questionnaires
Methods annotation:
In this article Reyes Garcia et al. explore whether different methods of data collection for studying shared knowledge produce similar or markedly different results. Using ethnobotanical data collected over a period of 18 months from 149 adult Tsimane Amerindians in Bolivia, they assess the reliability of various multiple choice questionnaires given as one task, and the variability of cultural competence scores across different tasks.
For this study, informants were given five different questionnaires representing three different tasks. These included three separate multiple choice questionnaires (dichotomous task), a paired comparison questionnaire (ordering task) and a triadic questionnaire (similarity task). The questionnaires were developed following free listing tasks, which produced a list of 92 plants given for various uses (house building, firewood, food, medicine, canoe, or tools). Questionnaire reliability was tested using a cultural consensus model to calculate individual scores of cultural knowledge (competence) for each of the three multiple choice questionnaires. Individual scores were correlated within both pooled samples and various subsamples (based on age, sex and other independent variables) and results showed high reliability.
To test the variability of cultural competence across tasks and highlight the relationship between data collection formats and results, competency scores were compared for each of the three tasks. Competence using the paired comparison task correlated positively and significantly with the multiple choice task, but the triad task didn’t correlate with either and didn’t fit the consensus model.
Relying entirely on consensus analysis, the evidence presented in this paper suggests that the various methodological tasks used for data collection of shared cultural knowledge may produce different findings. Cultural competence may be consistent across questionnaires of the same task but not necessarily across different tasks in the same domain.
Prepared by: Hattie Wells [HW], Regional Coordinator for southern Africa, The Global Diversity Foundation, July 2006
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Reyes-García, V., V. Vadez, E. Byron, L. Apaza, W. R. Leonard, E. Pérez and D. Wilkie. 2005. Market Economy and the Loss of Folk Knowledge of Plant Uses: Estimates from the Tsimane’ of the Bolivian Amazon. Current Anthropology 46:651-656.
Methods key words: Free lists, multiple choice questionnaires, proxies, panel survey data, cross-sectional survey data, endogeneity, cultural consensus, cultural competence, least squares regression
Methods annotation:
Viki Reyes and her co-authors measure agreement among informants – as a proxy for knowledge – through multiple choice questionnaires on plant uses. Their goal is to overcome earlier studies by ‘including a large number of observations and using many covariates’ to assess the impact of market integration. Based on free lists given by 50 Tsimane participants, they selected 92 plant species and asked informants about their use in building, firewood, food, medicine, canoes and tools. The study incorporated an intensive panel survey with 108 adults in two villages and a comparative cross-sectional survey of 497 households in 59 villages. The analysis uses ordinary least squares regression to elucidate patterns of cultural consensus and competence using demographic, market integration and habitat variables. There are interesting explorations of (1) the advantages and limitations of this approach, (2) the use of proxies; and (3) the concept of endogeneity (biases in estimations).
Prepared by: Gary Martin [GJM], Director, The Global Diversity Foundation and Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Kent, July 2006
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Sheil, Douglas and Anna Lawrence 2004. Tropical biologists, local people, and conservation: new opportunities for collaboration. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution 19:634-638.
Methods Keywords: parataxonomist, parabiologist, phenology
Methods annotation:
In this opinion piece, Sheil and Lawrence suggest that training members of the local population where tropical biologists work to become parataxonomists and/or parabiologists is an effective and economic way to document and assess tropical biodiversity. In addition to lowering costs, natural resource management and conservation efforts can be improved by involving local populations. The authors note that biologists have been slow in appreciating the benefits of local consultation in scientific projects. One reason for this, the authors assert, is that the successes of ethnobiology in this area are more readily known among anthropologists than among biologists (as ethnobiology is a subdiscipline of anthropology).
The authors provide examples of cases where parabiologist-based approaches have been successful (Malaysia, Costa Rica, New Guinea, Brazil, Laos) by increasing number of species known, data quality, conservation efforts, and advocacy. Mutual collaboration among biologists and parabiologists can assist biologists in shifting their emphasis from theory toward reality, and in embracing different ways to understand ‘conservation.’
Among the challenges to working with local people, Sheil and Lawrence cite the difficulty of finding flexible and long-term grants to conduct collaborative research; the day-to-day management related to working with local staff; intellectual property rights; and data quality. The authors note that prejudices held by biologists against local inputs are particularly testing. These prejudices need to be considered to avoid conservation projects that only pay lip service to local collaboration and participation. In addition, disciplinary obstacles play a role in the reticence observed among biologists to engage in truly collaborative and interdisciplinary work. The authors conclude by encouraging conservation researchers to explore, discuss and assess the quality, validity and ethics of collaborative approaches.
Prepared by: Carla Guerrón Montero (CGM), Assistant Professor Department of Anthropology, University of Delaware, July 2006
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Sheil, Douglas, and Sven Wunder. 2002. The Value of Tropical Forest to Local Communities: Complications, Caveats, and Cautions. Conservation Ecology 6:2: 9. http://www.consecol.org/vol6/iss2/art9
Methods keywords : valuation, doorstep accounting, plot survey
Methods annotation :
The authors discuss methods for valuing tropical forests and the relation of forest valuations to policy-making. They focus on two studies: Peters et al.’s widely cited paper (1989) on Peru, and Godoy et al.’s paper on Honduras (2000), which presented findings at odds with Peters’ study.
According to the authors, Peters et al.’s paper “changed the world’s perceptions of [non-timber forest products (NTFPs)],” by claiming that the gross annual per hectare value of NTFPs in Mishana, Peru, was $6330/ha more than 10 times the site’s timber potential, and more than twice the value for converted land uses in other Amazon studies. Sheil and Wunder, however, critique the research methods underlying the paper, surveys of a 1 ha plot and prices in a nearby (30 km) market. Some key criticisms are that a) the paper had a spatial bias as the site selected had exceptionally low transport costs; b) the paper scaled up values inappropriately: the authors ignored the elasticity of prices (i.e. the prospect that prices would decline if NTFPs were marketed on a larger scale); and c) the paper calculated values based on the potential extractable NTFPs in the plot, whereas the actual extracted value is likely many times lower. Despite these problems, the Peters et al. study found a wide audience in policy circles, and continues to be cited widely. In the authors’ view, the article’s influence led to an undue and unrealistic focus on NTFPs in conservation and development policy.
The paper by Godoy and his colleagues focused on actual forest use instead of potential use, over a larger forest area and a longer time period, using a “doorstep accounting” approach that quantified the products brought into 32 Indian households in two villages in Honduras over 2.5 years. In contrast to Peters et al., this study valued forests around US $18-24. The authors suggest that this low figure may omit a range of values including a) goods consumed away from home, b) materials used for construction of homes and structures outside the home, c) the insurance value of forest products, and d) hydrologic benefits of forests. They also argue that the spatial and temporal samples in Godoy et al.’s study may be inadequate, and express concern that the paper’s conclusions may lead to the neglect of NTFPs in policy.
Finally, the authors suggest aspects of context that may have been ignored in both studies. As they argue, per hectare values implicitly assume that land is scarce, when the main constraint on utilization may actually be labor. Likewise, neither study addresses non-economic aspects of forest value. In conclusion, they argue that valuation studies need more participatory components to understand “what actually determines local behavior and decision making” and warn against a focus on “quantifying the per hectare economic value of forest extraction without questioning its relevance.”
Prepared by: : Derick Fay [DF], S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, July 2006.
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Straede, Steffen, Gustav Nebel and Arun Rijal. 2002. Structure and floristic composition of community forests and their compatibility with villagers’ traditional needs for forest products. Biodiversity and Conservation 11: 487-508.
Methods keywords: forest structure, floristic composition, buffer zones, plot surveys
Methods annotation: The authors consider whether buffer zones can replace neighboring communities’ extraction of resources from Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) in Nepal. As they write, “buffer zone community forestry has been seen as a panacea for solving park-people conflicts by providing sufficient products to replace villagers’ depndency on and extaction from protected areas” (488). Despite these hopes, there are two lacunae which the study aims to address: the structure and floristic composition of community forests established through regeneration on degraded forest lands has not been studied, nor has villagers’ annual dependency on forest products from protected areas.
The study utilized plot surveys of forest structure and floristic composition in 53 plots in six different natural regenerated community forests (in degraded forest land and in open riverine areas), and a 12-month study of nine households’ daily extraction of timber, fuelwood, fodder and non-timber forest products (NTFPs).
The study found that timber species in the community forests included 75% of the total quantity collected from the park; fuelwood species included 10-59% of the quantity collected. Nine of the ten most common fodder species were found in community forests, but only three of the ten most common NTFPs were.
The authors conclude that natural regeneration does lead to diverse mixed stands, but that community forests on degraded forest land are more likely to meet community needs than community forests on open riverine land. Where there is potential for buffer zone forests to meet community needs, the authors argue for increased restriction on harvesting from protected areas.
While the paper is a localized case study, the issues raised regarding the degree of similarity between protected areas and alternatives, and the nature of local demand for products from protected areas, have broad applicability to the study of community-protected area relations.
Prepared by: : Derick Fay [DF], S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, July 2006.
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Vogl, Christian R., Brigitte Vogl-Lukasser, and Rajindra K. Puri. 2004. Tools and Methods for Data Collection in Ethnobotanical Studies of Homegardens. Field Methods Vol. 16, No. 3, 285-306.
Methods Keywords: home gardens, sampling strategies, free-listing, structured interviews, voucher specimens
Methods annotation:
Research over the past twenty-five years on homegardens in the tropical developing world has investigated the composition, management, and importance of homegardens for subsistence and cash income as well as their role in the conservation of agrobiodiversity and how they reflect traditional ecological knowledge. The authors of this article summarize tools and methods for conducting homegarden research by reviewing the strategies they have used among Ch’ol and Tzeltal migrants in lowland Chiapas, in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and in the eastern Tyrolean region of Austria. The authors note that until now most research on homegardens has been conducted in the topics, but they argue that more work should also be done in temperate climates.
The authors review typical research questions and hypotheses in homegarden studies, they discuss sampling strategies, and they provide a list of equipment needed to conduct fieldwork. They then review specific research strategies including identifying and contacting gardeners, scheduling field activities, free-listing, carrying out structured interviews, recording abundance data, collecting voucher specimens, and exploring historical antecedents (oral histories and archival work). Finally, they discuss strategies for managing data. They recommend the Microsoft-Access software package. Access allows you to create input forms identical to data collection sheets and questionnaires used in the field and stores data in separate but linked tables, so you can manipulate data by creating new tables that combine fields from original data tables such as a species list for each garden or area.
Prepared by: Jan Gasco [JG], Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Dominguez Hills, July 2006
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Wolff, Phillip and Douglas L. Medin. 2001. Measuring the Evolution and Devolution of Folk-Biological Knowledge. In On Biocultural Diversity: Linking Language, Knowledge, and the Environment, Luisa Maffi, ed., pp. 212-227. Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution Press.
Methods Keywords: Folk-biological knowledge, devolution, cultural support
Methods annotation:
The authors note that evidence suggests that knowledge about living kinds, or folk-biological knowledge, is decreasing both in traditional societies, where language loss and a decline in knowledge about the natural world have been documented, and in more technologically oriented societies. The notion of devolution refers to a decline in knowledge about living kinds. Devolution can occur when people move from rural to urban settings because their contact with the natural world decreases. However, if there is cultural support, by which they mean continued exposure to nature through media, conversation, and values, even an urban society can promote knowledge about the natural world. A decline in cultural support can also lead to devolution. The study described here examines the devolution hypothesis by examining changes in knowledge about trees. Trees were selected as the focus because even people in urban settings have contact with trees.
To test the devolution hypothesis, this study uses an online version of the Oxford English Dictionary that includes both definitions and quotations from each century (going back to 1150) that illustrate any changes in use. Quotations are taken from literary and scientific works as well as travel literature, letters of foreign correspondents, magazines, and diaries. Support for the devolution hypothesis would include a decline in the number of quotes referring to trees (relative to total number of quotes in a given time period) and a decline in the number of sources that refer to trees (again, relative to total number of sources in a time period). The study also explores hypotheses regarding the relative use of tree terms at different levels of taxonomic organization.
After applying a number of filtering processes, a total of 6,548 quotations were analyzed and were grouped chronologically to represent 16 th , 17 th , 18 th , 19 th , or 20 th centuries. The analysis showed that the number of quotes and sources referring to trees remained relatively constant through 16 th , 17 th , and 18 th centuries followed by increases in both measures during the 19 th century (evolution). In the 20 th century there was a steep decline in both the number of quotes and number of sources about trees, confirming the authors’ predictions about devolution in knowledge about trees..
Prepared by: Jan Gasco [JG], Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Dominguez Hills, July 2006
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Zarger, Rebecca K. and John R. Stepp. 2004. Persistence of Botanical Knowledge among Tzeltal Maya Children. Current Anthropology 45(3):413-418.
Keywords: Traditional Environmental Knowledge, cultural transmission, genus, species, t-test, Mann-Whitney test, overextension and underextension of categories.
Methods annotation:
In 1968, Stross asked 25 children and 10 adults to name 209 marked plants along a path through the Tzeltal Maya village of Mahosik’ in Chiapas, Mexico. In 1999, Zarger and Stepp re-created the plant trail, asking 29 children and 8 adults to name 85 of the same plants used by Stross. They found that despite sociopolitical, economic, and environmental change, including a five-fold increase in population, the results between the two studies were significantly similar. Children’s day-to-day experiences in the local landscape appear relatively unchanged, with time spent collecting plant resources, playing, or working alongside family members. By age 9, children can identify at least 50%, and by age 12 they can identify 95% of the plants on the trail. Culturally significant plants (which include cultivated, protected, and significant species) were correctly identified the most frequently. The ability to name plants is significantly correlated with age. According to the authors, these results suggest how difficult it is to generalize about the loss of indigenous knowledge even when massive change has occurred.
Prepared by: Gail E. Wagner [GEW], Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, July 2006
Fields
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| Date | 7/29/06 |
| Institution | Global Diversity Foundation |
| MetaKeys | Ethnoecology Bibliography |
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