How are biological diversity, protected areas, indigenous knowledge and religious worldviews related? From an anthropological perspective, this book provides an introduction into the complex subject of conservation policies that cannot be addressed without recognising the encompassing relationship between discursive, political, economic, social and ecological facets. By facing these interdependencies across global, national and local dynamics, it draws on an ethnographic case study among Maya-Q'eqchi' communities living in the margins of protected areas in Guatemala. In documenting the cultural aspects of landscape, the study explores the coherence of diverse expressions of indigenous knowledge. It intends to remind of cultural values and beliefs closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define local perceptions of the natural environment. The basic idea is to illustrate that there are different ways of knowing and reasoning, seeing and endowing the world with meaning, which include visible material and invisible interpretative understandings. These tend to be underestimated issues in international debates and may provide an alternative approach upon which conservation initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on.
How are biological diversity, protected areas, indigenous knowledge and religious worldviews related? From an anthropological perspective, this book provides an introduction into the complex subject of conservation policies that cannot be addressed without recognising the encompassing relationship between discursive, political, economic, social and ecological facets. By facing these interdependencies across global, national and local dynamics, it draws on an ethnographic case study among Maya-Q'eqchi' communities living in the margins of protected areas in Guatemala. In documenting the cultural aspects of landscape, the study explores the coherence of diverse expressions of indigenous knowledge. It intends to remind of cultural values and beliefs closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define local perceptions of the natural environment. The basic idea is to illustrate that there are different ways of knowing and reasoning, seeing and endowing the world with meaning, which include visible material and invisible interpretative understandings. These tend to be underestimated issues in international debates and may provide an alternative approach upon which conservation initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on. - How are biological diversity, protected areas, indigenous knowledge and religious worldviews related? From an anthropological perspective, this book provides an introduction into the complex subject of conservation policies that cannot be addressed without recognising the encompassing relationship between discursive, political, economic, social and ecological facets. By facing these interdependencies across global, national and local dynamics, it draws on an ethnographic case study among Maya-Q'eqchi' communities living in the margins of protected areas in Guatemala. In documenting the cultural aspects of landscape, the study explores the coherence of diverse expressions of indigenous knowledge. It intends to remind of cultural values and beliefs closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define local perceptions of the natural environment. The basic idea is to illustrate that there are different ways of knowing and reasoning, seeing and endowing the world with meaning, which include visible material and invisible interpretative understandings. These tend to be underestimated issues in international debates and may provide an alternative approach upon which conservation initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on.
How are biological diversity, protected areas, indigenous knowledge and religious worldviews related? From an anthropological perspective, this book provides an introduction into the complex subject of conservation policies that cannot be addressed without recognising the encompassing relationship between discursive, political, economic, social and ecological facets. By facing these interdependencies across global, national and local dynamics, it draws on an ethnographic case study among Maya-Q'eqchi' communities living in the margins of protected areas in Guatemala. In documenting the cultural aspects of landscape, the study explores the coherence of diverse expressions of indigenous knowledge. It intends to remind of cultural values and beliefs closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define local perceptions of the natural environment. The basic idea is to illustrate that there are different ways of knowing and reasoning, seeing and endowing the world with meaning, which include visible material and invisible interpretative understandings. These tend to be underestimated issues in international debates and may provide an alternative approach upon which conservation initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on.
How are biological diversity, protected areas, indigenous knowledge and religious worldviews related? From an anthropological perspective, this book provides an introduction into the complex subject of conservation policies that cannot be addressed without recognising the encompassing relationship between discursive, political, economic, social and ecological facets. By facing these interdependencies across global, national and local dynamics, it draws on an ethnographic case study among Maya-Q'eqchi' communities living in the margins of protected areas in Guatemala. In documenting the cultural aspects of landscape, the study explores the coherence of diverse expressions of indigenous knowledge. It intends to remind of cultural values and beliefs closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define local perceptions of the natural environment. The basic idea is to illustrate that there are different ways of knowing and reasoning, seeing and endowing the world with meaning, which include visible material and invisible interpretative understandings. These tend to be underestimated issues in international debates and may provide an alternative approach upon which conservation initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on. ; peerReviewed
Entsprechend der Erkenntnis, dass weltweit Regionen von hoher Schutzpriorität zumeist auch soziale Lebensräume indigener und lokaler Gemeinschaften sind, wird im internationalen Übereinkommen über die Biologische Vielfalt (CBD) explizit gefordert, deren Wissen, das für den Schutz und die nachhaltige Nutzung der Biodiversität von Bedeutung ist, anzuerkennen, zu bewahren und seine breitere Anwendung zu fördern. Ausgehend von dieser Inwertsetzung fokussiert die umweltethnologische Arbeit die lokale Umsetzung der Konvention durch die Ausweisung von Schutzgebieten und untersucht Möglichkeiten adaptiver Konzepte, die kulturspezifische Wissensformen als Bestandteil indigenen Ressourcenmanagements mit globalen Schutzinteressen zu integrieren versuchen. Basierend auf der Annahme, dass geschützte Landschaften auch immer kulturelle Landschaften sind, in die Spuren menschlichen Handelns und Denkens eingeschrieben sind, untersucht die Studie exemplarisch indigenes Wissen von Maya-Q'eqchi' Gemeinschaften im Umfeld von Schutzgebieten in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Im Mittelpunkt stehen verschiedene Dimensionen indigenen Wissens, die für den Schutz und die Bewahrung natürlicher Ressourcen von Relevanz sind. Über die materielle Ebene von sichtbaren Wissensinhalten hinaus geht es um symbolische Bedeutungsebenen von Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehungen, die - weil zumeist unsichtbar - im akademischen und umweltpolitischen Diskurs weitgehend unberücksichtigt bleiben. Beide Wissensdimensionen in einer Analyse zu integrieren und sie in einen Kontext historischer, sozio-ökonomischer und machtpolitischer Strukturen auf lokaler, nationaler und globaler Ebene zu stellen, ist das zentrale Anliegen der Arbeit. Sie zeigt, dass Umweltkenntnisse an spezifische Naturkonzeptionen und Interpretationen von Raum und Zeit, von Identität und Kausalität gebunden sind, die Menschen Orientierung in ihren wesentlichen Lebensbeziehungen geben. Wie Menschen Natur wahrnehmen und was Natur für sie bedeutet, ist an diese kulturspezifischen Wertvorstellungen gebunden. Diese sind eingewoben in ein Weltbild, verstanden als ein meist nicht bewusst reflektiertes philosophisches Konzept mit Deutungsmustern, das nicht nur welterschließend, sondern auch handlungsorientierend ist und als Sinn gebende Instanz das Mensch-Natur-Verhältnis definiert. Schutzgebiete sind nicht nur Schauplätze divergierender Nutzungsinteressen, sondern auch Orte, wo verschiedene Naturkonzeptionen und Weltbilder aufeinander treffen. Davon muss man ausgehen, wenn indigenes Wissen im Sinne der Biodiversitätskonvention bewahrt werden soll. Die interkulturelle Verständigung über verschiedene Naturkonzeptionen ist eine Voraussetzung, globale Schutzinteressen mit Nutzungsbedürfnissen der Bevölkerung auf lokaler Ebene in Einklang zu bringen. Im Gegensatz zum ›westlich‹-wissenschaftlichen Weltbild trennt die indigene Kosmovision nicht zwischen objektiver Naturerkenntnis und subjektiver Naturwahrnehmung und ist insofern wegweisend für eine neue ganzheitliche Umweltethik. ; Due to the recognition that many areas of the world that contain high levels of biodiversity are cultural landscapes inhabited by indigenous and local communities, the significant role such communities play in preserving natural resources has been underlined in the International Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In particular, the agreement calls for the acknowledgement and wider application of local knowledge systems being embedded in traditional lifestyles as they can contribute to the in situ conservation of biodiversity. The purpose of this study is to analyse the role of indigenous communities and local knowledge systems in the global environmental debate. It draws on an ethnographic case study of Maya-Q"eqchi" communities living adjacent to protected areas in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The operative paradigm, that underlies the anthropological perspective, indicates that a comprehensive understanding of the cultural context is essential to the success of any initiative designed for the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity. Accordingly, the applied approach assumes that indigenous environmental knowledge has to be encountered as a social product integral to the respective cultural system it has been generated in. Equally, human cognitive understandings of nature are culturally embedded, bound to locality and intertwined with the broader context. This implies a multidimensional reality in which diverse economic, social, political and historical aspects intersect. The field-based research is concerned with these contextual dimensions, whereas the particular purpose intends to document that indigenous knowledge depends not only on the relationship between humans and nature, but also on the relationship between the visible material and theinvisible spiritual worlds. Especially, it aims to explore the significance of the internal dynamics of cultural values related to local landscapes and beliefs in the intimate attachment of humans to nature, which are closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define indigenous perceptions of the environment. Although the determining role of worldviews in indigenous cultures has been highlighted for a long time, their relevance for issues related to biodiversity conservation has only recently emerged. In the quest for a global solution to the protection of biodiversity, local knowledge, customary practices, social values and religious beliefs provide a foundation upon which effective initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on. The relatedness of culture and nature through which the Q"eqchi" conceptualise their world might serve as a better basis for a meaningful consideration of alternative conservation measures. Thus, strategies in protected area management need to be modified to realise the implications of a multicultural definition of environment. The implementation of such a more broadly based and holistically conceived bio-cultural conservation approach demands an entirely different epistemology for cultural affirmation, which may be derived from environmental ethics and principles rooted in the indigenous cosmovision.
How are biological diversity, protected areas, indigenous knowledge and religious worldviews related? From an anthropological perspective, this book provides an introduction into the complex subject of conservation policies that cannot be addressed without recognising the encompassing relationship between discursive, political, economic, social and ecological facets. By facing these interdependencies across global, national and local dynamics, it draws on an ethnographic case study among Maya-Q'eqchi' communities living in the margins of protected areas in Guatemala. In documenting the cultural aspects of landscape, the study explores the coherence of diverse expressions of indigenous knowledge. It intends to remind of cultural values and beliefs closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define local perceptions of the natural environment. The basic idea is to illustrate that there are different ways of knowing and reasoning, seeing and endowing the world with meaning, which include visible material and invisible interpretative understandings. These tend to be underestimated issues in international debates and may provide an alternative approach upon which conservation initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on.
