Ancient pathways, ancestral knowledge Turner, Nancy J
Ancient pathways, ancestral knowledge,
2014., 20140601, 2014, c2014-, 2014-07-20, 2014-06-01, Volume:
74
eBook
Volume 1: The History and Practice of Indigenous Plant Knowledge Volume 2: The Place and Meaning of Plants in Indigenous Cultures and Worldviews Nancy Turner has studied Indigenous peoples' knowledge ...of plants and environments in northwestern North America for over forty years. In Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge, she integrates her research into a two-volume ethnobotanical tour-de-force. Drawing on information shared by Indigenous botanical experts and collaborators, the ethnographic and historical record, and from linguistics, palaeobotany, archaeology, phytogeography, and other fields, Turner weaves together a complex understanding of the traditions of use and management of plant resources in this vast region. She follows Indigenous inhabitants over time and through space, showing how they actively participated in their environments, managed and cultivated valued plant resources, and maintained key habitats that supported their dynamic cultures for thousands of years, as well as how knowledge was passed on from generation to generation and from one community to another. To understand the values and perspectives that have guided Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge and practices, Turner looks beyond the details of individual plant species and their uses to determine the overall patterns and processes of their development, application, and adaptation. Volume 1 presents a historical overview of ethnobotonical knowledge in the region before and after European contact. The ways in which Indigenous peoples used and interacted with plants - for nutrition, technologies, and medicine - are examined. Drawing connections between similarities across languages, Turner compares the names of over 250 plant species in more than fifty Indigenous languages and dialects to demonstrate the prominence of certain plants in various cultures and the sharing of goods and ideas between peoples. She also examines the effects that introduced species and colonialism had on the region's Indigenous peoples and their ecologies. Volume 2 provides a sweeping account of how Indigenous organizational systems developed to facilitate the harvesting, use, and cultivation of plants, to establish economic connections across linguistic and cultural borders, and to preserve and manage resources and habitats. Turner describes the worldviews and philosophies that emerged from the interactions between peoples and plants, and how these understandings are expressed through cultures’ stories and narratives. Finally, she explores the ways in which botanical and ecological knowledge can be and are being maintained as living, adaptive systems that promote healthy cultures, environments, and indigenous plant populations. Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge both challenges and contributes to existing knowledge of Indigenous peoples' land stewardship while preserving information that might otherwise have been lost. Providing new and captivating insights into the anthropogenic systems of northwestern North America, it will stand as an authoritative reference work and contribute to a fuller understanding of the interactions between cultures and ecological systems.
Abstract
Indigenous peoples have occupied the northwestern North American coast for at least 15 000 years—a time when much of the land was covered by a kilometre or more of ice and only patches of ...land were glacier free. Over the millennia, through difficult times and seasons of plenty, they have built up an immense body of local knowledge, practice, and belief—Indigenous, or Traditional Ecological Knowledge—enabling them to live well, learning about the plants and animals of terrestrial, aquatic, and marine environments on which they have depended, and how to harvest and process them into nutritious foods, healing medicines, and useful materials. Although it has been commonly assumed that these people, as so-called “hunter-gatherers”, were simply helping themselves to nature’s provisions, over decades of learning from Indigenous plant specialists and other knowledge holders as an ethnobotanist, I have come to see First Peoples as resource tenders and managers over countless generations. Their traditional land and resource management systems provide many lessons on how we humans can work with natural processes to ensure the well-being not only of ourselves but also of the species and habitats on which we rely.
Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heritable disorder that ranges in severity from death in the perinatal period to an increased lifetime risk of fracture. Mutations in COL1A1 and COL1A2, which encode ...the chains of type I procollagen, result in dominant forms of OI, and mutations in several other genes result in recessive forms of OI. Here, we describe four recessive-OI-affected families in which we identified causative mutations in wingless-type MMTV integration site family 1 (WNT1). In family 1, we identified a homozygous missense mutation by exome sequencing. In family 2, we identified a homozygous nonsense mutation predicted to produce truncated WNT1. In family 3, we found a nonsense mutation and a single-nucleotide duplication on different alleles, and in family 4, we found a homozygous 14 bp deletion. The mutations in families 3 and 4 are predicted to result in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay and the absence of WNT1. WNT1 is a secreted signaling protein that binds the frizzled receptor (FZD) and the coreceptor low-density lipoprotein-receptor-related protein 5 (LRP5). Biallelic loss-of-function mutations in LRP5 result in recessive osteoporosis-pseudoglioma syndrome with low bone mass, whereas heterozygous gain-of-function mutations result in van Buchem disease with elevated bone density. Biallelic loss-of-function mutations in WNT1 result in a recessive clinical picture that includes bone fragility with a moderately severe and progressive presentation that is not easily distinguished from dominant OI type III.
The biological knowledge and associated values and beliefs of Indigenous and other long‐resident Peoples are often overlooked and underrepresented in governance, planning and decision‐making at ...local, regional, national and international levels. Ethnobiology—the study of the dynamic relationships among peoples, biota and environments—is a field that places Indigenous Peoples' ecological knowledge and ways of knowing at the forefront of research interests, particularly in relation to the importance of biocultural diversity in sustaining the Earth's Ecosystems.
In this paper, we examine the nature and significance of Indigenous Peoples' knowledge systems concerning environmental sustainability, as documented in collaborative ethnobiological research. We emphasize the diverse aspects of Indigenous knowledge in conservation, and the role played by ethnobiologists in respectfully highlighting this knowledge, and link these to the Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global Assessment's key levers and leverage points for enabling the transformative change required for achieving more sustainable lifeways. Drawing on diverse ways of knowing—respectfully, collaboratively, ethically and reciprocally—can help provide more detailed knowledge of local ecosystems, and guide all humans towards greater sustainability.
From environmental monitoring, to building relationships with plants and the land, to ecological restoration, there are many lessons and ways in which the intersections between Indigenous knowledge and ethnobiology can inform and contribute to the future of humanity and other life on earth.
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Résumé
Le savoir biologique ainsi que les valeurs et croyances des autochtones et autres communautés locales sont souvent ignorés et peu représentés dans le domaine de la gouvernance, de la planification et dans la prise de décision sur le plan local, régional, national et international. L'ethnobiologie, soit l'étude des liens dynamiques entre peuples, biotes et environnements, est un champ d'expertise qui inscrit le savoir écologique et l'approche à la connaissance des Peuples premiers au cœur des intérêts de la recherche, notamment en lien avec la diversité bioculturelle, qui importe pour ce qui a trait à la sauvegarde des écosystèmes de la Terre.
Dans cet article, nous illustrons la nature et l'importance du savoir des Peuples autochtones dans le cadre de la durabilité environnementale tel qu'il est documenté par la recherche collaborative en ethnobiologie. Nous mettons l'emphase sur les divers aspects du savoir traditionnel autochtone en conservation ainsi que le rôle joué par les ethnobiologistes afin de les souligner tout en établissant des liens avec les leviers‐clés de la Plateforme intergouvernementale scientifique et politique sur la biodiversité et les services écosystémiques dans le but de permettre un changement transformatif requis pour un mode de vie plus durable. Prendre en compte ces savoirs de façon respectueuse, collaborative, éthique et réciproque peut aider à fournir une meilleure connaissance des écosystèmes locaux et guider tout être humain vers une plus grande durabilité environnementale.
Partant des suivis environnementaux jusqu'à la création de relations avec les plantes et la terre tout en passant par la restauration écologique, il y a plusieurs leçons à tirer et plusieurs approches à découvrir au croisement du savoirs autochtones et de l'ethnobiologie qui peuvent contribuer à l'avenir de l'humanité et des autres formes de vie.
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Plants have always been important for the Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America. Collectively, these peoples named and used hundreds of different native plant species, along with diverse ...animal species. When traders and settlers from Europe and other parts of the world arrived in the region, they brought many new species of plants with them. Some (e.g., turnips (Brassica rapa) and onions (Allium cepa)), were from Europe, and some (e.g., potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)) were from South America or elsewhere. Other plants, like dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, probably arrived unintentionally, as weeds. Examining the ways in which the Indigenous Peoples have incorporated these new species into their lexicons and lifestyles provides insight into processes of acquiring and embracing new products and expanding the cultural knowledge base for human societies in general.
Ecosystem services research has been focused on the ways that humans directly benefit from goods and services, and economic valuation techniques have been used to measure those benefits. We argue ...that, although it is appropriate in some cases, this focus on direct use and economic quantification is often limiting and can detract from environmental research and effective management, in part by crowding out other understandings of human—environment relationships. Instead, we make the case that the systematic consideration of multiple metaphors of such relationships in assessing social—ecological systems will foster better understanding of the many ways in which humans relate to, care for, and value ecosystems. Where it is possible, we encourage a deliberative approach to ecosystem management whereby ecosystem researchers actively engage conservationists and local resource users to make explicit, through open deliberation, the types of metaphors salient to their conservation problem.
Indigenous Peoples of British Columbia have always had to accommodate and respond to environmental change. Oral histories, recollections of contemporary elders, and terms in indigenous languages all ...reflect peoples’ responses to such change, especially since the coming of Europeans. Very recently, however, many people have noted signs of greater environmental change and challenges to their resilience than they have faced in the past: species declines and new appearances; anomalies in weather patterns; and declining health of forests and grasslands. These observations and perspectives are important to include in discussions and considerations of global climate change.
Plants, people, and places Turner, Nancy J
Plants, people, and places,
2020, 20200820, 2020, 2020-08-20, Volume:
96., 96
eBook
"For millennia, plants and their habitats have been fundamental to the lives of Indigenous Peoples--as sources of food and nutrition, medicines, and technological materials--and central to ceremonial ...traditions, spiritual beliefs, narratives, and language. While the First Peoples of Canada and other parts of the world have developed deep cultural understandings of plants and their environments, this knowledge is often underrecognized in debates about land rights and title, reconciliation, treaty negotiations, and traditional territories. Plants, People, and Places argues that the time is long past due to recognize and accommodate Indigenous Peoples' relationships with plants and their ecosystems. Essays in this volume, by leading voices in philosophy, Indigenous law, and environmental sustainability, consider the critical importance of botanical and ecological knowledge to land rights and related legal and government policy, planning, and decision making in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and New Zealand. Analyzing specific cases in which Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights to the environment have been denied or restricted, this collection promotes future prosperity through more effective and just recognition of the historical use of and care for plants in Indigenous cultures. A timely book featuring Indigenous perspectives on reconciliation, environmental sustainability, and pathways toward ethnoecological restoration, Plants, People, and Places reveals how much there is to learn from the history of human relationships with nature."--
Despite rapid advancements in the development of non-monetary techniques for the assessment of social values for ecosystem services, little research attention has been devoted to the evaluation of ...their underpinning paradigms. This study evaluates two contrasting paradigms for the assessment of social values in non-monetary terms: an instrumental paradigm involving an objective assessment of the distribution, type and/or intensity of values that individuals assign to the current state of ecosystems and a deliberative paradigm involving the exploration of desired end states through group discussion. We present and then justify through case examples two approaches for assessing social values for ecosystem services using the instrumental paradigm and two approaches using the deliberative paradigm. Each approach makes different assumptions about: the underlying rationale for values assessment; the process through which values are elicited; the type of representativeness sought, and; the degree of involvement of decision-makers. However, case examples demonstrate that the boundaries between instrumental and deliberative paradigms are often not concrete. To accommodate this fluidity, we offer a third, pragmatic paradigm that integrates some of the qualities of both. This paradigm has implications for engaging multiple community groups and decision-makers in the articulation and mapping of social values for cultural ecosystem services.
Adaptive capacity Whitney, Charlotte K.; Bennett, Nathan J.; Ban, Natalie C. ...
Ecology and society,
06/2017, Volume:
22, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Because of the complexity and speed of environmental, climatic, and socio-political change in coastal marine social-ecological systems, there is significant academic and applied interest in assessing ...and fostering the adaptive capacity of coastal communities. Adaptive capacity refers to the latent ability of a system to respond proactively and positively to stressors or opportunities. A variety of qualitative, quantitative, and participatory approaches have been developed and applied to understand and assess adaptive capacity, each with different benefits, drawbacks, insights, and implications. Drawing on case studies of coastal communities from around the globe, we describe and compare 11 approaches that are often used to study adaptive capacity of social and ecological systems in the face of social, environmental, and climatic change. We synthesize lessons from a series of case studies to present important considerations to frame research and to choose an assessment approach, key challenges to analyze adaptive capacity in linked social-ecological systems, and good practices to link results to action to foster adaptive capacity. We suggest that more attention be given to integrated social-ecological assessments and that greater effort be placed on evaluation and monitoring of adaptive capacity over time and across scales. Overall, although sustainability science holds a promise of providing solutions to real world problems, we found that too few assessments seem to lead to tangible outcomes or actions to foster adaptive capacity in social-ecological systems.
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