Suchergebnisse

For those who have conducted research on the fauna and flora of China and who have been curious about the "Reeves" in Muntiacus reevesi (the Chinese muntjac) or the "Cunningham" in Cunninghamia lanceolata (the Chinese fir), this book is a great revelation. Many wild plants and animals from China bear scientific names honouring Western naturalists, and this book is the first historical analysis of how Westerners conducted natural history research in China from the mid-18th to the early 20th century. By focusing on British naturalists during a period of dramatic change in the relationship between China and the West, the author has developed a richly textured account of the encounter between vastly different systems of knowledge and representation of the natural world. As such, this work is sure to be of great interest for scholars of the social sciences, cultural studies and the social construction of nature.Drawing on a vast and diverse array of scientific journals, personal correspondence, memoirs and administrative records from the period, the author convincingly ties British natural history research to larger imperial demands for useful information on natural resources in a vast area that was scarcely known by outsiders before the Opium War (1839–1842). The connection between commerce and natural history is exemplified by the English East India Company's interest in botanical, biogeographic and horticultural information on tea trees. Of greater significance still, according to the author, was the way in which knowledge of the natural world was produced through an elaborate network of relationships between British naturalists and Chinese people of all walks of life. The latter included not only the bureaucrats who monitored the already highly circumscribed lives of British expatriates in Canton [Guangzhou] at the beginning of the 19th century, but also collectors, who often made long trips into the interior in search of specimens, and painters, who had to learn an entirely new repertoire in order to provide scientific drawings to British patrons from the factories of Guangzhou to Kew Gardens. Indeed, one of the primary goals of the book is to "explain the formation of scientific practice and knowledge in cultural borderlands during a critical period of Sino-Western relations." The author sets himself a difficult task: to reconstruct the economic and cultural lineaments of "scientific imperialism" without ignoring "the indigenous people, their motivations, and their actions." Not only does the book succeed in this effort, it avoids facile demonization of the main Western actors in this drama. Instead, we see a compelling set of portraits of British men of widely differing backgrounds and interests who often made great sacrifices in their quests for scientific knowledge. Generally, these men were keenly aware of the degree to which they relied on local Chinese experts and indigenous knowledge for the success of their own endeavours.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Introduction: Forests, Rivers, and Civilizations-The Oikos, Polis, and Cosmos of Asia's Sacred Groves -- Part 1 South Asia -- South Asia-Sacred Forests and Human-Environment Relations -- 1 The Politics and Poetics of Forested Sacred Natural Sites in East-Central India -- 2 "Come Let Us All Play": Sacred Groves, Sarna, and "Green" Politics in Jharkhand, India -- 3 Forest Gods and Forest Conservation: Local Perceptions of Village Sacred Forests in the Bhimashankar Region, Western India -- 4 Daikhos-Sacred Groves, Clan Rituals, and Gender Exclusion Among the Dimasas of Assam -- 5 Muslim Graveyard Groves: Plant Diversity, Ecosystem Services, and Species Conservation in Northwest Pakistan -- 6 Sacred Forests as Sites of Bio-Cultural Resistance and Resilience in Bhutan -- Can Tamil Sacred Groves Survive Neoliberalism? -- Part 2 East Asia -- East Asia-Sacred Forests and Human-Environment Relations -- 7 China's Fengshui Forests: The Fate of Lineage Wind-Water Polities Under Ecological Civilization -- 8 Korea's Sacred Groves-The Maeulsoop: Forest Types, Ecosystem Services, and Current Distribution -- 9 Utaki and Ashagi Sacred Forests in the Ryukyu Islands: Vegetation Structure and Conservation Management Challenges -- 10 Nostalgia, Restoration, and Reinventions of Sacred Groves in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China -- Shrine Forests in Honshu, Japan -- Part 3 Southeast Asia -- Southeast Asia-Sacred Forests and Human-Environment Relations -- 11 Stories of the Trees: Understanding Traditions and Transitions in the Katu Peoples' Perceptions of Forests in Central Vietnam -- 12 The Katu Spirit Landscape: Forests, Ecology, and Cosmology in the Central Annamites.

Chinese lineage villages are social-ecological systems (SESs) designed according to principles of fengshui ("wind-water"). Fengshui is a composite of cosmological beliefs and landscape management strategies, including the protection of sacred groves, aimed at optimizing the collective, long-term wellbeing of lineage groups by enhancing long-term natural and social resilience. Along with other adaptive management features, village fengshui forests promote social-ecological vigor by conserving plant, soil, and water resources, enhancing social memory, and serving as living models of resilience in the face of social, economic, and political changes. Modern programs to transform rural communities through state-led agricultural production systems included bans on fengshui practice and the destruction of forests. Many communities protected their fengshui forests, providing contemporary opportunities for local, regional, national, and international conservation initiatives incorporating locally preserved forests.

"In 2001 the Chinese government announced that the precise location of Shangrila--a place that previously had existed only in fiction--had been identified in Zhongdian County, Yunnan. Since then, Sino-Tibetan borderlands in Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, and the Tibet Autonomous Region have been the sites of numerous state projects of tourism development and nature conservation, which have in turn attracted throngs of backpackers, environmentalists, and entrepreneurs who seek to experience, protect, and profit from the region's landscapes. Mapping Shangrila advances a view of landscapes as media of governance, representation, and resistance, examining how they are reshaping cultural economies, political ecologies of resource use, subjectivities, and interethnic relations. Chapters illuminate topics such as the role of Han and Tibetan literary representations of border landscapes in the formation of ethnic identities; the remaking of Chinese national geographic imaginaries through tourism in the Yading Nature Reserve; the role of The Nature Conservancy and other transnational environmental organizations in struggles over culture and environmental governance; the way in which matsutake mushroom and caterpillar fungus commodity chains are reshaping montane landscapes; and contestations over the changing roles of mountain deities and their mediums as both interact with increasingly intensive nature conservation and state-sponsored capitalism. Emily T. Yeh is associate professor of geography at the University of Colorado Boulder and the author of Taming Tibet; Chris Coggins is professor of geography and Asian studies at Bard College at Simon's Rock and the author of The Tiger and the Pangolin : Nature, Culture, and Conservation in China; contributors include Michael Hathaway, Travis Klingberg, Charlene E. Makley, Bob Moseley, Rene Mullen, Michelle Olsgard Stewart, Chris Vasantkumar, Li-hua Ying, John Aloysius Zinda, and Gesang Zeren"--

Fengshui forests, also known as fengshui woods or fengshui woodlands, are culturally preserved remnant groves of natural forest or small plantations that are common in southern China. Similar forests known by other names are prevalent in many parts of East Asia, including Korea and Japan, where they have long helped sustain rural livelihoods and ecosystems. However, as is the case with research on the origins of fengshui philosophy, research on the origin, diffusion, present-day distribution, and conservation status of fengshui forests remains relatively sparse. Much of the research into fengshui forests has been published in Chinese, and is not accessible to a global scientific audience because the manuscripts are not easily discoverable or because of language barriers. This paper provides a quantitative review of 57 original papers on fengshui woods written in Chinese since the 1990s. Content analysis of Chinese-language papers on fengshui forests demonstrates a geographic bias towards case studies from southern China, and a predominance of methodologies representing vegetation surveys conducted by forestry specialists. Published field results and previously published research on fengshui forests report very high floristic diversity. Our own field research in 57 villages in five provinces shows that these locally protected woodlands are components of common property regimes (CPRs) that have been better preserved than the other forests in southern China and usually represent the only forest remnants adjacent to villages and other settle- ments. However, fengshui forests face threats from industrial pollution, urbanization, and other forms of eco- nomic development. We briefly report on our own preliminary field results and suggest that more research is required to develop interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives on the historical and cultural factors that support the persistence of fengshui forests across China and East Asia as a whole, and to integrate these wood- lands within sustainable rural development strategies. These remnants of southern China's subtropical broadleaf evergreen forests are especially important in light of current efforts by the national government to promote urban forestry, ecosystem conservation, cultural heritage protection, and ecotourism, and to increase the ca- pacity of natural carbon sinks within the country's borders.

Large old trees are keystone ecological entities and cultural heritages that provide vital services to humans in settlements. We investigated the abundance, species diversity, distribution patterns, and environmental and anthropogenic determinants of large old trees in Wuchuan Gelao and Miao (minority ethnic groups) Autonomous County in southwest China. We examined the role of large old trees in the local culture systems and their management and protection practices through in-depth sociological interviews of local villagers. The 5105 large old trees from 80 species originated either from natural forests (28.1 %) or cultivation (71.9 %). Species distribution differed by elevation and topography units. Cultivated trees (e.g. Cupressus funebris and Phoebe zhennan) were mainly distributed at low-elevation valleys and slopes. Wild trees (e.g. Ginkgo biloba and Liquidambar formosana) mainly distributed in valleys at medium elevation. Most large old trees dwelt in artificial habitats such as house-side (25.0 %), farmland (10.4 %), graveyard (9.9 %) and roadside (8.5 %). Villages located at medium elevation, close to city and with medium human population proportion had higher tree density. Elevation and distance to city had positive effect whereas population density negative effect on wild tree proportion. Villages at medium elevation had higher species diversity, whereas distance to city and farmland-area proportion had negative effect. Local people protected large old trees mainly for cultural reasons. Cultural large old trees accounted for 71.9 % of the trees, of which 65.5 % were fengshui tree and 6.4 % sacred tree. Proportion of culturally protected large old trees was positively correlated with population density, but negatively with Han population. Protection of sacred trees depended on traditional taboos, and of fengshui trees on local customary laws and family regulations. These effective traditional beliefs and practices contributed to persistence of large old trees in artificial habitats around villages despite a long period marked by rapid cultural, political, and economic changes. Wuchuan can serve as exemplary of protecting large old trees based on local culture and regulation at the community and family levels. The findings informed that large old trees need dedicated protection measures that stress their main values and threats. In addition, local customary laws, traditional culture and ecological compensation should be integrated into conservation policies and practices.