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While it is widely acknowledged that climate change is among the
greatest global challenges of our times, it has local implications
too. This volume forefronts these local issues, giving
anthropology a voice in this great debate, which is otherwise
dominated by natural scientists and policy makers. It shows
what an ethnographic focus can offer in furthering our
understanding of the lived realities of climate debates.
Contributors from communities around the world discuss local
knowledge of, and responses to, environmental changes that need to
feature in scientifically framed policies regarding mitigation and
adaptation measures if they are to be effective.
While science has achieved a remarkable understanding of nature,
affording humans an astonishing technological capability, it has
led, through Euro-American global domination, to the muting of
other cultural views and values, even threatening their continued
existence. There is a growing realization that the diversity of
knowledge systems demand respect, some refer to them in a
conservation idiom as alternative information banks. The scientific
perspective is only one. We now have many examples of the soundness
of local science and practices, some previously considered
"primitive" and in need of change, but this book goes beyond
demonstrating the soundness of local science and arguing for the
incorporation of others' knowledge in development, to argue that we
need to look quizzically at the foundations of science itself and
further challenge its hegemony, not only over local communities in
Africa, Asia, the Pacific or wherever, but also the global
community. The issues are large and the challenges are exciting, as
addressed in this book, in a range of ethnographic and
institutional contexts.
While science has achieved a remarkable understanding of nature,
affording humans an astonishing technological capability, it has
led, through Euro-American global domination, to the muting of
other cultural views and values, even threatening their continued
existence. There is a growing realization that the diversity of
knowledge systems demand respect, some refer to them in a
conservation idiom as alternative information banks. The scientific
perspective is only one. We now have many examples of the soundness
of local science and practices, some previously considered
"primitive" and in need of change, but this book goes beyond
demonstrating the soundness of local science and arguing for the
incorporation of others' knowledge in development, to argue that we
need to look quizzically at the foundations of science itself and
further challenge its hegemony, not only over local communities in
Africa, Asia, the Pacific or wherever, but also the global
community. The issues are large and the challenges are exciting, as
addressed in this book, in a range of ethnographic and
institutional contexts.
With growing evidence of unsustainable use of the world's
resources, such as hydrocarbon reserves, and related environmental
pollution, as in alarming climate change predictions, sustainable
development is arguably the prominent issue of the 21st century.
This volume gives a wide ranging introduction focusing on the arid
Gulf region, where the challenges of sustainable development are
starkly evident. The Gulf relies on non-renewable oil and gas
exports to supply the world's insatiable CO2 emitting energy
demands, and has built unsustainable conurbations with water
supplies dependent on energy hungry desalination plants and deep
aquifers pumped beyond natural replenishment rates. Sustainable
Development has an interdisciplinary focus, bringing together
university faculty and government personnel from the Gulf, Europe,
and North America -- including social and natural scientists,
environmentalists and economists, architects and planners -- to
discuss topics such as sustainable natural resource use and
urbanization, industrial and technological development, economy and
politics, history and geography.
While it is widely acknowledged that climate change is among the
greatest global challenges of our times, it has local implications
too. This volume forefronts these local issues, giving anthropology
a voice in this great debate, which is otherwise dominated by
natural scientists and policy makers. It shows what an ethnographic
focus can offer in furthering our understanding of the lived
realities of climate debates. Contributors from communities around
the world discuss local knowledge of, and responses to,
environmental changes that need to feature in scientifically framed
policies regarding mitigation and adaptation measures if they are
to be effective.
Originally published in 2004. Local knowledge reflects many
generations of experience and problem solving by people around the
world, increasingly affected by globalizing forces. Such knowledge
is far more sophisticated than development professionals previously
assumed and, as such, represents an immensely valuable resource. A
growing number of governments and international development
agencies are recognizing that local-level knowledge and
organizations offer the foundation for new participatory models of
development that are both cost-effective and sustainable, and
ecologically and socially sound. This book provides a timely
overview of new directions and new approaches to investigating the
role of rural communities in generating knowledge founded on their
sophisticated understandings of their environments, devising
mechanisms to conserve and sustain their natural resources, and
establishing community-based organizations that serve as forums for
identifying problems and dealing with them through local-level
experimentation, innovation, and exchange of information with other
societies. These studies show that development activities that work
with and through local knowledge and organizations have several
important advantages over projects that operate outside them. Local
knowledge informs grassroots decision-making, much of which takes
place through indigenous organizations and associations at the
community level as people seek to identify and determine solutions
to their problems.
With growing evidence of unsustainable use of the world's
resources, such as hydrocarbon reserves, and related environmental
pollution, as in alarming climate change predictions, sustainable
development is arguably the prominent issue of the 21st century.
This volume gives a wide ranging introduction focusing on the arid
Gulf region, where the challenges of sustainable development are
starkly evident. The Gulf relies on non-renewable oil and gas
exports to supply the world's insatiable CO2 emitting energy
demands, and has built unsustainable conurbations with water
supplies dependent on energy hungry desalination plants and deep
aquifers pumped beyond natural replenishment rates. Sustainable
Development has an interdisciplinary focus, bringing together
university faculty and government personnel from the Gulf, Europe,
and North America -- including social and natural scientists,
environmentalists and economists, architects and planners -- to
discuss topics such as sustainable natural resource use and
urbanization, industrial and technological development, economy and
politics, history and geography.
This Introduction to the Anthropology of Melanesia is intended for
undergraduate anthropology students with some grounding in the
issues and ideas that inform the discipline, and for courses in
Pacific Studies. Each chapter focuses on a topic common to many
cultures in the region, such as the role of so-called Big Men,
ancestors, male initiation, and exchange, and these ideas are
fleshed out with apt ethnographic examples. Melanesia is a
fascinating culture area, and has always been a popular fieldwork
site for anthropologists, including W. H. R. Rivers, Bronislaw
Malinowski, Margaret Mead, and Gregory Bateson. Some of the most
important theoretical contributions to the subject were also first
formulated with reference to Melanesian studies, and students today
still learn much of their basic anthropology from Melanesian
examples.
Managing Animals in New Guinea analyzes the place of animals in the
lives of New Guinea Highlanders. Looking at issues of zoological
classification, hunting of wild animals and management of
domesticated ones, notably pigs, it asks how natural parameters
affect people's livelihood strategies and their relations with
animals and the wider environment.
There is a revolution happening in the practice of anthropology. A
new field of 'indigenous knowledge' is emerging, which aims to make
local voices hear and ensure that development initiatives meet the
needs of indigenous people. Development and Local Knowledge focuses
on two major challenges that arise in the discussion of indigenous
knowledge - its proper definition and the methodologies appropriate
to the exploitation of local knowledge. These concerns are
addressed in a range of ethnographic contexts.
Advancing the rising field of engaged or participatory anthropology
that is emerging at the same time as increased opposition from
Indigenous peoples to research, this book offers critical
reflections on research approaches to-date. The engaged approach
seeks to change the researcher-researched relationship
fundamentally, to make methods more appropriate and beneficial to
communities by involving them as participants in the entire process
from choice of research topic onwards. The aim is not only to
change power relationships, but also engage with non-academic
audiences. The advancement of such an egalitarian and inclusive
approach to research can provoke strong opposition. Some argue that
it threatens academic rigour and worry about the undermining of
disciplinary authority. Others point to the difficulties of
establishing an appropriately non-ethnocentric moral stance and
navigating the complex problems communities face. Drawing on the
experiences of Indigenous scholars, anthropologists and development
professionals acquainted with a range of cultures, this book
furthers our understanding of pressing issues such as
interpretation, transmission and ownership of Indigenous knowledge,
and appropriate ways to represent and communicate it. All the
contributors recognise the plurality of knowledge and incorporate
perspectives that derive, at least in part, from other ways of
being in the world.
Originally published in 2004. Local knowledge reflects many
generations of experience and problem solving by people around the
world, increasingly affected by globalizing forces. Such knowledge
is far more sophisticated than development professionals previously
assumed and, as such, represents an immensely valuable resource. A
growing number of governments and international development
agencies are recognizing that local-level knowledge and
organizations offer the foundation for new participatory models of
development that are both cost-effective and sustainable, and
ecologically and socially sound. This book provides a timely
overview of new directions and new approaches to investigating the
role of rural communities in generating knowledge founded on their
sophisticated understandings of their environments, devising
mechanisms to conserve and sustain their natural resources, and
establishing community-based organizations that serve as forums for
identifying problems and dealing with them through local-level
experimentation, innovation, and exchange of information with other
societies. These studies show that development activities that work
with and through local knowledge and organizations have several
important advantages over projects that operate outside them. Local
knowledge informs grassroots decision-making, much of which takes
place through indigenous organizations and associations at the
community level as people seek to identify and determine solutions
to their problems.
Development agencies have for years been seeking a successful
universal response to deprivation. Sparked by controversy and
debate, the most recent trend is to look for solutions among
'local' or 'indigenous' populations. Nevertheless, resources
continue to be wasted in ill-conceived, centrally-imposed schemes
that have not only failed to improve matters in lesser-developed
countries but have often made them worse. In such instances it is
not local knowledge that is problematic, but development agencies'
total misinterpretation of it as just one more 'approach' that can
be applied universally. Local knowledge can never be that panacea,
because it is not in any sense generic. by illustrating that the
potential of local knowledge, in development or elsewhere, can only
be achieved through recognition of its essential plurality.
Perspectives from leading ethnographers and development
professionals on issues such as conservation, agriculture and
resource management illustrate that the complexity and cultural
specificity of local knowledges can only be accessed via equally
diverse theories and methodological approaches. offers ways of
advancing the relationship between local knowledge and development,
and of furthering anthropology's role in development processes. As
a rare example of serious study of local knowledge strategy and its
applications, this book illustrates the growing need for real
understanding of the issue and its power to assist in positive
change.
Managing Animals in New Guinea analyses the place of animals in the lives of New Guinea Highlanders. Looking at issues of zoological classification, hunting of wild animals and management of domesticated ones, notably pigs, it asks how natural parameters affect people's livelihood strategies and their relations with animals and the wider environment.
Related link: www.anthropologyarena.com
Development has too often failed to deliver on its promises to poor nations. The policies imposed from above by international agencies and state bodies have frequently not met the needs of ordinary people. Development agencies have therefore been searching for some time for alternative approaches. One of those being pioneered is 'indigenous knowledge', which aims to make local voices heard more effectively. This thought-provoking and challenging collection focuses on how anthropologists can define and use indigenous knowledge in situations where it must meet the demands of development while not compromising anthropological expectations.
Related link: www.anthropologyarena.com
This book offers a clear and absorbing account of social change in Melanesia since the arrival of Europeans, covering the colonial period and the history of the new postcolonial states. It discusses economic and technological change, urbanization, the development of the modern state--and the often violent reactions to these dramatic transformations. The book also considers the dilemmas of development that threaten the environment.
A Place Against Time is an ethnographically focused environmental
study of Montane, New Guinea, where people were among the world's
first to cultivate crops some ten millennia ago, and where today an
enduring agricultural condition continues. It arranges its account
of climate, vegetation topography and geology according to their
relationship with the soils of the region occupied by Wola speakers
in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, in the
Western Pacific. This book breaks new intellectual ground as an
ethno-environmental investigation with a soils perspective,
ethno-pedology being a little researched topic to date.
Advancing the rising field of engaged or participatory anthropology
that is emerging at the same time as increased opposition from
Indigenous peoples to research, this book offers critical
reflections on research approaches to-date. The engaged approach
seeks to change the researcher-researched relationship
fundamentally, to make methods more appropriate and beneficial to
communities by involving them as participants in the entire process
from choice of research topic onwards. The aim is not only to
change power relationships, but also engage with non-academic
audiences. The advancement of such an egalitarian and inclusive
approach to research can provoke strong opposition. Some argue that
it threatens academic rigour and worry about the undermining of
disciplinary authority. Others point to the difficulties of
establishing an appropriately non-ethnocentric moral stance and
navigating the complex problems communities face. Drawing on the
experiences of Indigenous scholars, anthropologists and development
professionals acquainted with a range of cultures, this book
furthers our understanding of pressing issues such as
interpretation, transmission and ownership of Indigenous knowledge,
and appropriate ways to represent and communicate it. All the
contributors recognise the plurality of knowledge and incorporate
perspectives that derive, at least in part, from other ways of
being in the world.
Popular support for Green causes evidences current widespread
concern over environmental degradation, unsustainable agricultural
practices, forest destruction and so on. While land management
inevitably implies some modification of nature's arrangements to
meet human food needs, a crucial question is whether these
interventions are sustainable in the long-term or simply deplete
her productive capacity. This is an ethnographically-focused
environmental study of Montane, New Guinea, where people were among
the world's first to cultivate crops some ten millennia ago, and
where today an enduring agricultural tradition continues. It
arranges its account of climate, vegetation topography and geology
according to their relationship with the soils of the region
occupied by Wola speakers in the Southern Highlands Province of
Papua New Guinea, in the Western Pacific.
This thought- provoking and challenging collection focuses on how anthropologists can define and use indigenous knowledge without compromising anthropological expectations.
Indigenous Knowledge (IK) reviews cutting-edge research and links
theory with practice to further our understanding of this important
approach's contribution to natural resource management. It
addresses IK's potential in solving issues such as coping with
change, ensuring global food supply for a growing population,
reversing environmental degradation and promoting sustainable
practices. It is increasingly recognised that IK, which has
featured centrally in resource management for millennia, should
play a significant part in today's programmes that seek to increase
land productivity and food security while ensuring environmental
conservation. By drawing together strands of biocultural diversity
research into natural resources management, this book: - Provides
an overview of conceptual issues around IK and its contributions to
sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation; - Addresses
key themes via case studies from bioculturally diverse regions of
the world; - Displays a wide range of methodologies and outlines a
possible agenda to guide future work. An invaluable resource for
researchers and postgraduate students in environmental science and
natural resources management, this book is also an informative read
for development practitioners and undergraduates in agriculture,
forestry, geography, anthropology and environmental studies.
The sequel to the acclaimed Made in Niugini, which explored in
unparalleled depth the material world of the Wola comprising
moveable artefacts, Built in Niugini continues Paul Sillitoe's
project in exemplary fashion, documenting the built environment,
architecture and construction techniques in a tour de force of
ethnography. But this is more than a book about building houses.
Sillitoe also shows how material constructions can serve to further
our understandings of intellectual constructions. Allowing his
ethnography to take the lead, and paying close attention to the
role of tacit understandings and know-how in both skilled work and
everyday dwelling, his close experiential analyses inform a
phenomenologically inflected discussion of profound philosophical
questions - such as what can we know of being-in-the-world - from
startlingly different cultural directions. The book also forms part
of a long-term project to understand a radically different
'economy', which is set in an acephalous order that extends
individual freedom and equality in a manner difficult to imagine
from the perspective of a nation-state - an intriguing way of
being-in-the-world that is entwined with tacit aspects of knowing
via personal and emotional experience. This brings us back to the
explanatory power of a focus on technology, which Sillitoe argues
for in the context of 'materiality' approaches that feature
prominently in current debates about the sociology of knowledge.
Archaeology has long been to the fore in considering technology and
buildings, along with vernacular architecture, and Sillitoe
contributes to a much-needed dialogue between anthropology and
these disciplines, assessing the potential and obstacles for a
fruitful rapprochement. Built in Niugini represents the culmination
of Sillitoe's luminous scholarship as an anthropologist who
dialogues fluidly with the literature and ideas of numerous
disciplines. The arguments throughout engage with key concepts and
theories from anthropology, archaeology, architecture, material
culture studies, cognitive science, neuroscience and philosophy.
The result is a significant work that contributes to not only our
regional knowledge of the New Guinea Highlands but also to studies
of tacit knowledge and the anthropology of architecture and
building practices. Trevor Marchand, Emeritus Professor of Social
Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies
This impressive and inspiring volume has as its modest origins the
documentation of a contemporary collecting project for the British
Museum. Informed by curators' critiques of uneven collections
accompanied by highly variable information, Sillitoe set out with
the ambition of recording the totality of the material culture of
the Wola of the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea, at a time
when the study of artefacts was neglected in university
anthropology departments. His achievements, presented in this
second edition of Made in Nuigini with a new contextualizing
preface and foreword, brought a new standard of ethnography to the
incipient revival of material culture studies, and opened up the
importance of close attention to technology and material
assemblages for anthropology. The `economy' fundamentally concerns
the material aspects of life, and as Sillitoe makes clear, Wola
attitudes and behaviour in this regard are radically different to
those of the West, with emphasis on `maker users' and egalitarian
access to resources going hand in hand with their stateless and
libertarian principles. The project begun in Made in Niugini, which
necessarily restricted itself to moveable artefacts, is continued
and extended by the newly published companion volume Built in
Niugini, which deals with immoveable structures and buildings. It
argues that the study of material constructions offers an
unparalleled opportunity to address fundamental philosophical
questions about tacit knowledge and the human condition.
This book offers a clear and absorbing account of social change in Melanesia since the arrival of Europeans, covering the colonial period and the history of the new postcolonial states. It discusses economic and technological change, urbanization, the development of the modern state--and the often violent reactions to these dramatic transformations. The book also considers the dilemmas of development that threaten the environment.
This Introduction to the Anthropology of Melanesia is intended for
undergraduate anthropology students with some grounding in the
issues and ideas that inform the discipline, and for courses in
Pacific Studies. Each chapter focuses on a topic common to many
cultures in the region, such as the role of so-called Big Men,
ancestors, male initiation, and exchange, and these ideas are
fleshed out with apt ethnographic examples. Melanesia is a
fascinating culture area, and has always been a popular fieldwork
site for anthropologists, including W. H. R. Rivers, Bronislaw
Malinowski, Margaret Mead, and Gregory Bateson. Some of the most
important theoretical contributions to the subject were also first
formulated with reference to Melanesian studies, and students today
still learn much of their basic anthropology from Melanesian
examples.
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