Landscape Ethnoecology: Concepts of Biotic and Physical Space

by Leslie Main Johnson (Editor), Eugene S. Hunn (Editor)

Overview

Although anthropologists and cultural geographers have explored “place” in various senses, little cross-cultural examination of “kinds of place,” or ecotopes, has been presented from an ethno-ecological perspective. In this volume, indigenous and local understandings of landscape are investigated in order to better understand how human communities relate to their terrestrial and aquatic resources. The contributors go beyond the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) literature and offer valuable insights on ecology and on land and resources management, emphasizing the perception of landscape above the level of species and their folk classification. Focusing on the ways traditional people perceive and manage land and biotic resources within diverse regional and cultural settings, the contributors address theoretical issues and present case studies from North America, Mexico, Amazonia, tropical Asia, Africa and Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857456328
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	03/01/2012
Series:	Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology , #9
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Leslie Main Johnson is Associate Professor in the Centre for Social Science, Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada. Her publications include Trails of Story, Traveller's Path: Reflections on Ethnoecology and Landscape (Athabasca University Press, 2010), chapters on landscape in Landscape and Language, Benjamins 2011 and Ethnobiology, Wiley 2011," and articles in Human Ecology, Journal of Ethnobiology, Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, and Botany.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables

Chapter 1. Introduction
Leslie Main Johnson and Eugene S. Hunn

PART I: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Chapter 2. Towards a Theory of Landscape Ethnoecological Classification
Eugene S. Hunn and Brien A. Meilleur

Chapter 3. Ethnophysiography of Arid Lands: Categories for Landscape Features
David M. Mark, Andrew G. Turk and David Stea

PART II: LANDSCAPE CLASSIFICATION - OF ECOTYPES, BIOTYPES, LANDSCAPE ELEMENTS AND FOREST TYPES

Chapter 4. Landscape perception, classification and use among Sahelian Fulani in Burkina Faso (West-Africa)
Julia Krohmer

Chapter 5. Baniwa Habitat Classification in the White-Sand Campinarana Forests of the Northwest Amazon
Marcia Barbosa Abraão, João Cláudio Baniwa, Bruce W. Nelson, Geraldo Andrello, Douglas W. Yu and Glenn H. Shepard Jr.

Chapter 6. Why aren’t the Nuaulu like the Matsigenka? Knowledge and categorization of forest diversity on Seram, eastern Indonesia
Roy Ellen

Chapter 7. The cultural significance of the habitat mañaco taco to the Maijuna of the Peruvian Amazon
Michael P. Gilmore, Sebastián Ríos Ochoa and Samuel Ríos Flores

Chapter 8. The structure and role of folk ecological knowledge in Les Allues, Savoie (France)
Brien Meilleur

Chapter 9. Life on the Ice: Understanding the Codes of a Changing Environment
Claudio Aporta

PART III: LINKAGES AND MEANINGS - OF LANDSCAPES AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Chapter 10. Visions of the Land - Kaska Ethnoecology, “Kinds of Place” and “Cultural Landscape”
Leslie Main Johnson

Chapter 11. Journeying and Remembering: Anishinaabe Landscape Ethnoecology from Northwestern Ontario
Iain Davidson-Hunt and Fikret Berkes

Chapter 12. What's In a Word? Southern Paiute Place Names as Keys to Environmental Perception
Catherine S. Fowler

Chapter 13. Managing Maya Landscapes: Quintana Roo, Mexico
E. N. Anderson

PART IV: CONCLUSIONS

Chapter 14. Landscape Ethnoecology - Reflections
Leslie Main Johnson and Eugene S. Hunn

Notes on Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Despite the diversity of approaches, the various papers are well structured, with numerous cross-references that make it possible to appreciate the general development of the subject... I found this book very interesting, although very specialised. It is particularly suited to an academic audience; in particular, ethnobotanists, anthropologists, and geographers. But, the book can be also appreciated by all those interested in the interaction between man and the environment." - International Journal of Environmental Studies

"This edited collection gives an important and thought provoking overview of recent debates and work united under the rubric of cultural landscape research. The eleven substantive case studies, taken primarily from indigenous societies across North and South America, each provide a strong argument for questioning or better specifying definitions on the meaning of place for various societies...a suggestive collection that I would recommend highly." - Anthropos

"[The editors] have brought together many of the most innovative thinkers and field workers to ponder how local communities make sense of the landscapes in which they live, and upon which they depend. This volume is rich with insights about how cultures perceive the spaces, landforms and habitats which nourish them." - Gary Paul Nabhan, PhD., author, Singing the Turtles to Sea and Cultures of Habitat

"This landmark volume is bound to become a theoretical touchstone and wellspring for assessing the unity and diversity of human conceptualizations of landscape. It deftly combines a rigorous review of cross-cultural theories of landscape perception and classification with richly-detailed ethnographic examples of landscape ethnoecology." - Thomas F. Thornton, School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford

From the Publisher