#ethnoecology

[elbiotipo]

ethnobotany.png

[turntopage394please]

First study session of the last semester of my undergraduate degree! I’m so beyond excited to be graduating but also nervous because I don’t know what I’ll be doing for work while I struggle to get into med school. :(

Anywho this is me taking pre-class notes for statistics while @frommotivationtosuccess chips away at her ethnoecology readings. ❤

[oaresearchpaper]

The people of Gunung Malang Village, Tenjolaya Subdistrict are traditional communities that have lived and spread for hundreds of years at the foot of Mount Salak, a buffer zone for MHSNP. Their livelihoods depend on farming and gathering forest products. The topography of Mount Halimun makes the area relatively low in biological resources. Likewise, the study of data or literature information related to research results is very rare. In fact, the MHSNP area has tremendous potential for research activities in various disciplines. The aim of this research is to reveal the traditional ecological knowledge and the use of plants by the community of Kampung Pasir Gaok, Gunung Malang Village in interacting with the environment around where they live in order to fulfill their daily needs. This research uses an exploratory method which is based on the emic and ethical approach. Ethnoecological and ethnobotany data collection was obtained through the Pebble Distribution Methods (PDM) method by scoring in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Analysis of the importance of each plant species related to local culture is carried out through the Index of Cultural Significance (ICS). The results showed that people’s mindsets, perceptions, and conceptions in interacting with their environment resulted in five landscape units which were then grouped into two categories, namely natural and artificial landscape units. As for the use of plants in their daily life, they classify them into 12 (twelve) useful plants. The people of Kampung Pasir Gaok carry out traditional conservation to protect and care for the biological resources in the MHSNP area based on the protection of the ecosystem as a whole.

[earthsapien]

Despite such diversity within and between North American cultures, it is quite common to read statements implying a uniform 'American Indian view of nature' -as if all the diverse cultural relations with particular habitats on the continent can be swept under an all-encompassing rug. Whether one is prejudiced toward the notion of Native Americans as extirpators of species or assumes that most have been negligible or respectful harvesters, there is a shared assumption that all Native Americans have used the flora and fauna in the same ways. This assumption is both erroneous and counterproductive in that it undermines any respect for cultural diversity. It does not grant cultures-indigenous or otherwise-the capacity to evolve, to diverge from one another, to learn about their local environments through time.

Gary Nabhan, "Cultural Parallax in Viewing North American Habitats"

[earthsapien]

Flowers in Namie

Last night, I watched NHK's special on the rebuilding of Tohoku after the 3.11 disaster. A segment of significant length was dedicated to a man local to Fukushima who has become a flower farmer. His stated motivation was that current and former residents returning face graves and traumatic memories in their hometown. Rather than a wasteland, he wanted them to see flowers.

"When people returned to the town to clean up their homes and visit graves, I thought it would be better for them to see beautiful flowers rather than just desolation," Kawamura said.

He didn't keep this effort to cultivate a symbol of hope and rebirth in the landscape to himself. He's trained others who moved to Namie, and now the local area has something like six or seven flower farms.

This has stuck with me for close to 24 hours now. I find it interesting that there are so many publicized stories of people who are not local to Tohoku finding themselves compelled to move there. Many of them make this decision after their experiences volunteering in the cleanup efforts. A key theme, at least in publicized stories, are that people want to participate not just in the economic and social reconstruction of the area but specifically want to create something new in the landscape through agriculture.

I can't speculate on the effects of these flower farms on the community of Namie. But I do wonder what, if any, impact that disaster recover efforts has on the cultural memory of the landscape in general. Just eleven years ago, structures that housed families and businesses stood on that land. How do changes in post-disaster land use effect the experience of "returning" home? Does it feel like moving forward, of healing, of denial? What kind of power dynamic exists among the locals, government officials promoting recovery, and people moving from other parts of Japan?

NHK also has an article about Kawamura Hiroshi

[babynaturalist]

16 Jan 2017. I had an eventful day during which nothing got accomplished except stress, but it was nice to look down from my hammock at the start of the evening and see a little bit of Oxalis starting to sprout. #oxalis #stress #botany #spring #flora #ethnoecology

[babynaturalist]

12 Jan 2017. It's 78° and sunny, with beautiful clear skies. I bet it'll be 30° next week, because that's the South for you. For those on my tumblr: I'll be posting here daily as a nature journal for a class I am taking. #ethnobiology #naturejournal #ethnoecology

[ethnoscientist]

Ethnoecology

The term ethnoecology is increasingly used to encompass all studies which describe local people's interaction with the natural environment, including subdisciplines such as ethnobiology, ethnobotany, ethnoentomology and ethnozoology. Ethnobotany is that part of ethnoecology which concerns plants. (GARY ]. MARTIN)

Photography:

016 Lacandon, Hach Winik, Chiapas, 1999