1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996198558303316

Autore

Maass Petra

Titolo

The cultural context of biodiversity conservation : seen and unseen dimensions of Indigenous knowledge among Q'eqchi' communities in Guatemala / / Petra Maass

Pubbl/distr/stampa

[Göttingen], Germany : , : Universitätsverlag Göttingen, , 2008

©2008

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (283 pages) : illustrations ; digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Göttinger Beiträge zur Ethnologie, , 1866-0711 ; ; volume 2

Disciplina

333.9516097281

Soggetti

Biodiversity conservation - Guatemala

Biodiversity conservation - Social aspects - Guatemala

Kekchi Indians - Science

Ethnoscience - Guatemala

Earth & Environmental Sciences

Ecology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Universität Göttingen, 2007).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 258-280).

Nota di contenuto

Acknowledgements --Prologue --Abbreviations --Introduction-from global to local --The global context- international policies and local environments --The discursive context- conceptual approaches from anthropology --The local context-national policies and indigenous communities --Local expressions of indigenous knowledge --Concluding remarks- from local to global --Epilogue.

Sommario/riassunto

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.