Ethnoecology studies how people in different societies understand, perceive, experience, and relate with the natural environment around them. Ethnoecology aims to understand how we, as humans, interact with the environment and how these intricate relations modify both nature and culture. Ethnoecology bridges ecological understandings of nature with the anthropological focus on the acquisition and expression of environmentally-based cultural information and, therefore, approaches in ethnoecology include a diversity of ecological and anthropological methods, always focusing on the connections between social and ecological systems. The focus in this introductory workshop will be on local ecological knowledge (LEK), as systems of knowledge, practices, and beliefs about human relations with the environment.
After an introductory overview of the discipline, the workshop will present a set of tools for 1) measuring individual levels of LEK and assessing intra-cultural variation, 2) assessing the relation between LEK and ecological indicators, and 3) predicting ecological impacts of inter- and intra-generational changes in LEK. Using data from published case studies, participants will learn to adapt standard anthropological techniques (e.g., cultural consensus analysis, cultural domain analysis, social network analysis) to the study of LEK. The workshop will also explore the importance of 1) stablishing adequate protocols to negotiate community research agreements and obtaining prior informed consent for ethnoecological studies; and 2) ethical approaches to making ethnoecological data public. This introductory workshop is for scholars new to ethnoecology and will combine lecture and hands-on exercises.
Instructor: Dr. Victoria Reyes-Garcia
Victoria Reyes-García (PhD in Anthropology, 2001, University of Florida) is ICREA Research Professor at the Institut of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Spain. Her research focuses on the benefits, drivers of change, and potential contributions to environmental management and adaptation of Indigenous and local knowledge systems. From 1999 to 2004 she lived among Tsimane’ Amazonian Indigenous peoples, where she has long-term research. Since 2006, she coordinates the Laboratory for the Analysis of Socio-Ecological Systems in a Global World (LASEG), which catalyses research on the dynamic relations between people and environments (www.laseg.cat). She has co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and co-edited three books. Her research to study Indigenous and local knowledge systems has been is funded by the European Research Council, first with a Starting Grant to study the adaptive nature of culture using a cross-cultural approach (2010-2015), and currently with a Consolidator Grant to study the potential contribution of indigenous and local knowledge to research on climate change impacts (www.laseg.cat).
Date: October 12th & 13th, 2021
Time: 9:00am - 12:00pm each day
Format: Live Zoom Meeting
Workshop Fee: $50
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