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Ethnoecology: Knowledge, Resources, and Rights, edited by Ted L. Gragson and Ben G. Blount. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999. 163 pp. $55.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-8203-2067-6. $25.00 paper. ISBN: 0-82032128-1
Ethnoecological research has helped to shift radically the way locally situated ecological knowledge is regarded. No longer are native systems of perception and cognition understood as naive and rudimentary. Indigenous awareness of the natural environment is now seen for what it is: logical, complex, and sophisticated. Local cultures know their plant, animal, and physical resources intimately and appear highly adept at juggling opportunities for meeting daily demands and long-term needs. This awareness has important implications for understanding human environmental transformation and mitigating some of the most egregious effects. Rather than designing (and imposing) ecological "development" policies based solely on culturally narrow and socially naive assumptions, approaches employing Local knowledge of landscapes and ecological cycles may be more pragmatic and effective.
Despite growing awareness of the value and accuracy of local knowledge, there is clearly much still to be done. Gragson and Blount point out that our understanding of "the causality of environmental transformation" remains sketchy (p. xii). Ethnoecologists are in a prime position to enhance our understanding of the human dimensions of environmental change. Ethnoecology: Knowledge, Resources, and Rights collects papers that attempt to take this step. The authors identify how the knowledge system of local groups corresponds to the...