Pub Date : 2023-12-25DOI: 10.1177/02780771231221644
Megan Maurer
In cities nature is taking on a new role as infrastructure, providing essential services in terms of temperature regulation and water management, as well as the provision of habitat for biodiversity conservation. With this turn to green infrastructure have come new challenges to maintenance. Plants are lively things and if they are to perform their infrastructural roles they must be routinely tended to in particular ways. In the context of neoliberal governance, much of this labor falls to volunteer humans. Framed as stewardship, this volunteerism for plant-city thriving is posited as a way to meet maintenance needs while promoting human health and well-being and creating support for nature-based solutions through a sense of ownership and responsibility. While it is thus possible to read stewardship as an enrollment of people and plants into the reproduction of neoliberal urban political ecologies, in this paper I argue that such an analysis overlooks the involution of plants and people that occurs during acts of stewardship. Drawing on ethnographic research with street tree stewards in New York City I explore how vegetal agency draws people into affective, embodied relations. During acts of stewardship, trees act on people and reconfigure their relations in ways that potentially exceed the strictures of stewardship. Rather than allowing stewardship discourses and critiques thereof to be our sole frame for understanding these people-plant relations, we should also consider them from the perspective of vegetal agency and what human-tree involutions do within, around, and to human practices of stewardship.
{"title":"Vegetal Agency in Street Tree Stewardship Practices: People-Plant Involutions Within Urban Green Infrastructure in New York City","authors":"Megan Maurer","doi":"10.1177/02780771231221644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231221644","url":null,"abstract":"In cities nature is taking on a new role as infrastructure, providing essential services in terms of temperature regulation and water management, as well as the provision of habitat for biodiversity conservation. With this turn to green infrastructure have come new challenges to maintenance. Plants are lively things and if they are to perform their infrastructural roles they must be routinely tended to in particular ways. In the context of neoliberal governance, much of this labor falls to volunteer humans. Framed as stewardship, this volunteerism for plant-city thriving is posited as a way to meet maintenance needs while promoting human health and well-being and creating support for nature-based solutions through a sense of ownership and responsibility. While it is thus possible to read stewardship as an enrollment of people and plants into the reproduction of neoliberal urban political ecologies, in this paper I argue that such an analysis overlooks the involution of plants and people that occurs during acts of stewardship. Drawing on ethnographic research with street tree stewards in New York City I explore how vegetal agency draws people into affective, embodied relations. During acts of stewardship, trees act on people and reconfigure their relations in ways that potentially exceed the strictures of stewardship. Rather than allowing stewardship discourses and critiques thereof to be our sole frame for understanding these people-plant relations, we should also consider them from the perspective of vegetal agency and what human-tree involutions do within, around, and to human practices of stewardship.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"5 1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139159605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-19DOI: 10.1177/02780771231221645
Andrew Flachs
Five hundred years of desire for cotton has reshaped landscapes, built global economic commodity chains, and devalued human life in the name of producing cheap clothing. Since 2001, cotton monocultures in South India have also reorganized genetic codes, continuing centuries of work to maintain the socioecological possibility of extractive agricultural production. This paper combines ethnographic and ethnobiological research in Telangana, India, to center cotton's role in organizing socioecological life for an agrarian world including farmers, farmworkers, plants, soils, buyers, weeds, and animals. Mutually exclusive systems of genetically modified Bt and organic cotton production offer a range of possible organizations of labor, aspiration, reciprocity, and labor. While historically situated in plantation inequalities, cotton production can also make unexpected room for socioecological relationships outside extractive monoculture.
{"title":"Cotton Monocultures and Reorganizing Socioecological Life in Telangana, India","authors":"Andrew Flachs","doi":"10.1177/02780771231221645","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231221645","url":null,"abstract":"Five hundred years of desire for cotton has reshaped landscapes, built global economic commodity chains, and devalued human life in the name of producing cheap clothing. Since 2001, cotton monocultures in South India have also reorganized genetic codes, continuing centuries of work to maintain the socioecological possibility of extractive agricultural production. This paper combines ethnographic and ethnobiological research in Telangana, India, to center cotton's role in organizing socioecological life for an agrarian world including farmers, farmworkers, plants, soils, buyers, weeds, and animals. Mutually exclusive systems of genetically modified Bt and organic cotton production offer a range of possible organizations of labor, aspiration, reciprocity, and labor. While historically situated in plantation inequalities, cotton production can also make unexpected room for socioecological relationships outside extractive monoculture.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":" 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138962568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-01DOI: 10.1177/02780771231209606
Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa
Cycads play a central role in Lobedu cultural mythology, with widespread acknowledgment of their cultural and spiritual values, as well as their instrumental use in rainmaking and coronation ceremonies. They are also widely prized as collectors’ items, both nationally and internationally, commanding high prices and placing them in the unenviable position of being among the world's most frequently trafficked plants. South African cycad species, most of which are endangered and all of which are protected, are heavily regulated, with the ownership, trade, and use of cycads requiring a permit. This article explores how regulations are understood by different stakeholders in cycad conservation. Traditional authorities, state institutions, and communities may collaborate in conservation, but also interpret and enact policies divergently. Processes of regulating cycad trade and propagation both reinforce and challenge certain aspects of community identity.
{"title":"Cycad Regulation and Community Creation: South African Stakeholder Perspectives on Conservation","authors":"Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa","doi":"10.1177/02780771231209606","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231209606","url":null,"abstract":"Cycads play a central role in Lobedu cultural mythology, with widespread acknowledgment of their cultural and spiritual values, as well as their instrumental use in rainmaking and coronation ceremonies. They are also widely prized as collectors’ items, both nationally and internationally, commanding high prices and placing them in the unenviable position of being among the world's most frequently trafficked plants. South African cycad species, most of which are endangered and all of which are protected, are heavily regulated, with the ownership, trade, and use of cycads requiring a permit. This article explores how regulations are understood by different stakeholders in cycad conservation. Traditional authorities, state institutions, and communities may collaborate in conservation, but also interpret and enact policies divergently. Processes of regulating cycad trade and propagation both reinforce and challenge certain aspects of community identity.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"103 8","pages":"308 - 316"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139021671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-20DOI: 10.1177/02780771231209134
Angela Pattison, Kieran McGee, Jacob Birch, Kerrie Saunders, Rhonda Ashby, Rosanne Quinnell, Kim Bell-Anderson, Amy Way
This article reviews ethnographic descriptions of Australia's First Nations people's grain threshing to inform future grain research and revival of practice in south-eastern Australia. The processing of grain requires many steps, and while harvesting, winnowing and grinding are comparatively well-documented, the threshing stage, which involves the removal of the husk and other nonedible parts of the seed head before the seed is winnowed and ground, remains poorly understood. In south-eastern Australia much of the threshing knowledge has been lost through the impacts of colonization; whereas communities in Central Australia have retained this knowledge in relation to their traditional grains. However, these species are not common in all areas. As different species require different threshing processes, only some of this knowledge can be directly applied in south-eastern Australia. Ethnographic descriptions have the potential to contribute additional First Nations knowledge to the revitalization of this practice. This article brings together ethnographic descriptions of traditional threshing to facilitate the revival of practice and further native grains research.
{"title":"What Do We Know About Threshing Traditional Grains in Australia?","authors":"Angela Pattison, Kieran McGee, Jacob Birch, Kerrie Saunders, Rhonda Ashby, Rosanne Quinnell, Kim Bell-Anderson, Amy Way","doi":"10.1177/02780771231209134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231209134","url":null,"abstract":"This article reviews ethnographic descriptions of Australia's First Nations people's grain threshing to inform future grain research and revival of practice in south-eastern Australia. The processing of grain requires many steps, and while harvesting, winnowing and grinding are comparatively well-documented, the threshing stage, which involves the removal of the husk and other nonedible parts of the seed head before the seed is winnowed and ground, remains poorly understood. In south-eastern Australia much of the threshing knowledge has been lost through the impacts of colonization; whereas communities in Central Australia have retained this knowledge in relation to their traditional grains. However, these species are not common in all areas. As different species require different threshing processes, only some of this knowledge can be directly applied in south-eastern Australia. Ethnographic descriptions have the potential to contribute additional First Nations knowledge to the revitalization of this practice. This article brings together ethnographic descriptions of traditional threshing to facilitate the revival of practice and further native grains research.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"16 1","pages":"339 - 350"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139258062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wild edible mushrooms (WEM) constitute a relevant component of indigenous cultures worldwide; their use is part of forest management practices that promote conservation by local communities. However, global biocultural diversity is threatened by socioeconomic, political, and cultural changes. Through participatory research, this study analyzes the cultural significance of selected mushroom species, local traditional knowledge about conditions and processes affecting WEM communities, and traditional practices employed in their extraction in an indigenous community in Central Mexico. We carried out ethnomycological hikes and participatory mapping to characterize collection sites and conducted semi-structured interviews with people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds about the importance of WEM, extraction and conservation sustainable practices, and anthropogenic and environmental factors affecting them. Fifty species of WEM were registered. We developed an index of the cultural importance of WEM that led us to establish the species of the highest cultural relevance. Vegetation type, rainfall, soil composition, selected logging by outsiders, fires, and the use of traditional harvesting techniques were recognized as factors affecting mushroom production. Traditional harvesting techniques locally perceived as adequate include leaving part of the stipe in place, collecting only mushrooms of large size while leaving those of smaller size, and cleaning and shaking them at the place of collection. Results suggest that the prevalence of biocultural knowledge about WEM is influenced by age, main economic activity, and household's distance to the forest. Integrating traditional knowledge and the community context by combining ethnographic and quantitative methods, resulted in a complementary approach to spatial, temporal, and environmental characterization of mushroom collection sites; it also allowed understanding factors influencing WEM cultural significance, and traditional local knowledge of WEM communities and their management.
{"title":"Indigenous Traditional Knowledge on Wild Edible Mushrooms: Cultural Significance, Extraction Practices, and Factors Leading to Changes in Their Abundance in Central Mexico","authors":"Bello-Cervantes Eribel, Trejo Irma, Figueroa Fernanda, Cifuentes Blanco Joaquín","doi":"10.1177/02780771231211984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231211984","url":null,"abstract":"Wild edible mushrooms (WEM) constitute a relevant component of indigenous cultures worldwide; their use is part of forest management practices that promote conservation by local communities. However, global biocultural diversity is threatened by socioeconomic, political, and cultural changes. Through participatory research, this study analyzes the cultural significance of selected mushroom species, local traditional knowledge about conditions and processes affecting WEM communities, and traditional practices employed in their extraction in an indigenous community in Central Mexico. We carried out ethnomycological hikes and participatory mapping to characterize collection sites and conducted semi-structured interviews with people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds about the importance of WEM, extraction and conservation sustainable practices, and anthropogenic and environmental factors affecting them. Fifty species of WEM were registered. We developed an index of the cultural importance of WEM that led us to establish the species of the highest cultural relevance. Vegetation type, rainfall, soil composition, selected logging by outsiders, fires, and the use of traditional harvesting techniques were recognized as factors affecting mushroom production. Traditional harvesting techniques locally perceived as adequate include leaving part of the stipe in place, collecting only mushrooms of large size while leaving those of smaller size, and cleaning and shaking them at the place of collection. Results suggest that the prevalence of biocultural knowledge about WEM is influenced by age, main economic activity, and household's distance to the forest. Integrating traditional knowledge and the community context by combining ethnographic and quantitative methods, resulted in a complementary approach to spatial, temporal, and environmental characterization of mushroom collection sites; it also allowed understanding factors influencing WEM cultural significance, and traditional local knowledge of WEM communities and their management.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"1 1","pages":"351 - 372"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139259661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-13DOI: 10.1177/02780771231213190
Yevhenii Osiievskyi, Mark Bonta
The paper reviews nondietary uses and symbolic connotations of cycads ( Cycas seemannii) in Vanuatu, relying on data from ethnographic studies, anthropological literature, and local media reports. The authors focus on the uses of cycads in magical practices, in grade-taking ceremonies and traditional land tenure, in reconciliation and peace-making, in tabooing and emblematization of chiefly authority, and in the symbolism of political movements and state institutions. The article suggests two potential genealogies of cycad prominence in the archipelago, one stemming from the role of the plant as an emblem of pacificatory influence of graded societies and the other centered on the use of cycad leaves as tallies for recalling debts in traditional ni-Vanuatu culture.
{"title":"From Black Magic to Black Flags: Social Uses and Symbolic Lexicons of Cycads in Vanuatu","authors":"Yevhenii Osiievskyi, Mark Bonta","doi":"10.1177/02780771231213190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231213190","url":null,"abstract":"The paper reviews nondietary uses and symbolic connotations of cycads ( Cycas seemannii) in Vanuatu, relying on data from ethnographic studies, anthropological literature, and local media reports. The authors focus on the uses of cycads in magical practices, in grade-taking ceremonies and traditional land tenure, in reconciliation and peace-making, in tabooing and emblematization of chiefly authority, and in the symbolism of political movements and state institutions. The article suggests two potential genealogies of cycad prominence in the archipelago, one stemming from the role of the plant as an emblem of pacificatory influence of graded societies and the other centered on the use of cycad leaves as tallies for recalling debts in traditional ni-Vanuatu culture.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"136 42","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136351951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-07DOI: 10.1177/02780771231209131
Ignacio M. Barberis, Rodrigo M. Freire, Guillermo A. Montero
The Bromeliaceae are known for providing numerous ecosystem services. Tank bromeliads that collect water in the bases of their leaves have been an important source of water for people in semiarid regions such as the Gran Chaco. In this large area characterized by xerophytic vegetation grows Aechmea distichantha, the only Chaquenian terrestrial tank bromeliad. We carried out a literature review on water consumption from this tank bromeliad by people in this region. Then, we analyzed the variations in the amount of water stored in the tanks of plants from observational studies as well as the effects of the amount and frequency of water addition on the hydrology of water retained in the tank from an irrigation experiment study. We found 85 reports on the consumption of water from A. distichantha plants by people, including several Indigenous Groups, Criollos, and Soldiers. According to these reports, the tank accumulates about a liter of relatively fresh and clear water that lasts for several weeks. Our observational study showed a large variation in the amount of water held in the tank among years and sites, and our irrigation experiment showed that even plants receiving low and unevenly distributed rainfall conserved some water in their tanks. All these results support the importance of this tank bromeliad for surviving when moving in Eastern Chaco during dry periods until the beginning of the twentieth century. At present, it seems that people living in sedentarism no longer frequently use it for water provision, highlighting that the relative importance of a plant species for providing ecosystem services depends on the historical context.
{"title":"Tank Bromeliads as a Water Reservoir Used by Humans: An Important Overlooked Ecosystem Service in Xerophytic Forests","authors":"Ignacio M. Barberis, Rodrigo M. Freire, Guillermo A. Montero","doi":"10.1177/02780771231209131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231209131","url":null,"abstract":"The Bromeliaceae are known for providing numerous ecosystem services. Tank bromeliads that collect water in the bases of their leaves have been an important source of water for people in semiarid regions such as the Gran Chaco. In this large area characterized by xerophytic vegetation grows Aechmea distichantha, the only Chaquenian terrestrial tank bromeliad. We carried out a literature review on water consumption from this tank bromeliad by people in this region. Then, we analyzed the variations in the amount of water stored in the tanks of plants from observational studies as well as the effects of the amount and frequency of water addition on the hydrology of water retained in the tank from an irrigation experiment study. We found 85 reports on the consumption of water from A. distichantha plants by people, including several Indigenous Groups, Criollos, and Soldiers. According to these reports, the tank accumulates about a liter of relatively fresh and clear water that lasts for several weeks. Our observational study showed a large variation in the amount of water held in the tank among years and sites, and our irrigation experiment showed that even plants receiving low and unevenly distributed rainfall conserved some water in their tanks. All these results support the importance of this tank bromeliad for surviving when moving in Eastern Chaco during dry periods until the beginning of the twentieth century. At present, it seems that people living in sedentarism no longer frequently use it for water provision, highlighting that the relative importance of a plant species for providing ecosystem services depends on the historical context.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"106 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135476423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-05DOI: 10.1177/02780771231211386
Tania Escobar Fuentes, Citlalli López Binnqüist, Francisco Basurto Peña, Noé Velázquez-Rosas, Fernando Nicolalde-Morejón, Lilí Martínez-Domínguez, José Blancas
This study focused on the use and management of Ceratozamia totonacorum leaves during the Day of the Dead in Santiago Ecatlán, an Indigenous Totonaca community located in the Sierra Norte of Puebla, Mexico. Ethnographical, ethnobotanical, and ecological methods were utilized to document the ritual use and traditional management practices of C. totonacorum. Additionally, this information was used to evaluate the impact and effect of leaf extraction on a C. totonacorum population. C. totonacorum plants grow on limestone cliffs and in adjacent agricultural fields. Experienced harvesters remove the leaves without damaging the plants, and when C. totonacorum leaves become scarce they are substituted by Chamaedorea spp. Our results show that these practices do not have a negative impact on the studied population. We conclude that community management practices have contributed to maintaining a stable population of C. totonacorum. We therefore consider the need to study the relationship between the permanence of ritual ceremonies and associated sustainable plant practices and the importance of projects based on a better understanding of ritual plant uses, which could contribute to sustainable resource and ecosystem conservation. This research demonstrates the relevance of co-designing comprehensive conservation strategies that vindicate the value and promote local expressions of traditional knowledge.
{"title":"Ritual Use of <i>Ceratozamia totonacorum</i> (Zamiaceae) Leaves in Santiago Ecatlán, Puebla, Mexico: Perspectives on Conservation","authors":"Tania Escobar Fuentes, Citlalli López Binnqüist, Francisco Basurto Peña, Noé Velázquez-Rosas, Fernando Nicolalde-Morejón, Lilí Martínez-Domínguez, José Blancas","doi":"10.1177/02780771231211386","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231211386","url":null,"abstract":"This study focused on the use and management of Ceratozamia totonacorum leaves during the Day of the Dead in Santiago Ecatlán, an Indigenous Totonaca community located in the Sierra Norte of Puebla, Mexico. Ethnographical, ethnobotanical, and ecological methods were utilized to document the ritual use and traditional management practices of C. totonacorum. Additionally, this information was used to evaluate the impact and effect of leaf extraction on a C. totonacorum population. C. totonacorum plants grow on limestone cliffs and in adjacent agricultural fields. Experienced harvesters remove the leaves without damaging the plants, and when C. totonacorum leaves become scarce they are substituted by Chamaedorea spp. Our results show that these practices do not have a negative impact on the studied population. We conclude that community management practices have contributed to maintaining a stable population of C. totonacorum. We therefore consider the need to study the relationship between the permanence of ritual ceremonies and associated sustainable plant practices and the importance of projects based on a better understanding of ritual plant uses, which could contribute to sustainable resource and ecosystem conservation. This research demonstrates the relevance of co-designing comprehensive conservation strategies that vindicate the value and promote local expressions of traditional knowledge.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"53 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135725717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-05DOI: 10.1177/02780771231211381
Thangliemang Haokip, Ambika Aiyadurai
Emerging human ecological discussions bring forth literature and studies from marginalised groups and indigenous communities whose knowledge about nature and subsistence livelihood practices have long been seen as ‘non-scientific’ and, therefore, unworthy of serious research. As a result, perceptions of swidden cultivation as ‘destructive’ to ecosystems are changing, and studies now focus on the interlinkages of swidden farmers with land, animals, identity, and livelihoods. In this paper, we argue that swidden should be considered as a farming practice that goes beyond subsistence and overlaps with people's belief systems and social and eco-cultural lifeways. Using the notion of thinglhang lou, the swidden practice of Manipur's Kuki, we show the interlinkages between land, humans, and spirits and the important role they play in their socio-cultural worlds. Through ethnographic exploration involving participant observation, interviews, and focus group discussions among the Kuki, this study shows how and in what ways swidden farming helps in understanding cultural linkages with ecological sustainability. With modern developments radically altering the habitat and eroding cultural heritage, we argue that Kuki's notion of thinglhang lou can be a powerful contribution to our understanding of the environment and knowledge systems.
{"title":"<i>Thinglhang Lou:</i> Linkages Between Swidden, Culture, and Ecology in Manipur, Northeast India","authors":"Thangliemang Haokip, Ambika Aiyadurai","doi":"10.1177/02780771231211381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231211381","url":null,"abstract":"Emerging human ecological discussions bring forth literature and studies from marginalised groups and indigenous communities whose knowledge about nature and subsistence livelihood practices have long been seen as ‘non-scientific’ and, therefore, unworthy of serious research. As a result, perceptions of swidden cultivation as ‘destructive’ to ecosystems are changing, and studies now focus on the interlinkages of swidden farmers with land, animals, identity, and livelihoods. In this paper, we argue that swidden should be considered as a farming practice that goes beyond subsistence and overlaps with people's belief systems and social and eco-cultural lifeways. Using the notion of thinglhang lou, the swidden practice of Manipur's Kuki, we show the interlinkages between land, humans, and spirits and the important role they play in their socio-cultural worlds. Through ethnographic exploration involving participant observation, interviews, and focus group discussions among the Kuki, this study shows how and in what ways swidden farming helps in understanding cultural linkages with ecological sustainability. With modern developments radically altering the habitat and eroding cultural heritage, we argue that Kuki's notion of thinglhang lou can be a powerful contribution to our understanding of the environment and knowledge systems.","PeriodicalId":54838,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnobiology","volume":"53 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135725716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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