On Biocultural Diversity

by Maffi, Luisa

• ISBN13: 9781560989301
• ISBN10: 1560989300
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: Smithsonian Inst Pr

Summary

Biodiversity loss is a well-known phenomenon. Over the next thirty years, according to most projections, 20 percent of the world's species may cease to exist. Less widely known, though attracting increasing attention, is the diversity loss that is affecting the world's languages and cultures. Up to 11 percent of an estimated 6,000 spoken languages in the world today are "nearly extinct", and as many as 90 percent of those languages may vanish during the course of this century.

On Biocultural Diversity brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars from the social and natural sciences as well as cultural advocates, human rights specialists, and indigenous experts to discuss the ways in which the losses of biological, linguistic, and cultural diversity are linked. Combining research with advocacy, this book outlines the threats to the world's diversity, explores the connections among its various forms, and recommends measures to help preserve and perpetuate the variety of life on Earth. Presenting case studies from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the America

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xii
List of Tables	xiv
Foreword	xvi
Acknowledgments	xix
Introduction: on the Interdependence of Biological and Cultural Diversity	1	(52)
Luisa Maffi
PART 1: LANGUAGE, KNOWLEDGE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Interdisciplinary Framework
On the Meaning and Moral Imperative of Diversity	53	(18)
David Harmon
Biodiversity and the Loss of Lineages	71	(11)
Brent D. Mishler
Why Linguists Need Languages	82	(13)
Greville G. Corbett
On the Coevolution of Cultural, Linguistic, and Biological Diversity	95	(23)
Eric A. Smith
Prospects for the Persistence of ``Endemic'' Cultural Systems of Traditional Environmental Knowledge: a Zapotec Example	118	(15)
Eugene S. Hunn
Ecolinguistics, Linguistic Diversity, Ecological Diversity	133	(12)
Peter Muhlhausler
Cultural Perceptions of Ecological Interactions: an ``Endangered People's'' Contribution to the Conservation of Biological and Linguistic Diversity	145	(12)
Gary P. Nabhan
The Vanishing Landscape of the Peten Maya Lowlands: People, Plants, Animals, Places, Words, and Spirits	157	(18)
Scott Atran
Dimensions of Attrition in Language Death	175	(15)
Jane H. Hill
Acculturation and Ethnobotanical Knowledge Loss Among the Piaroa of Venezuela: Demonstration of a Quantitative Method for the Empirical Study of Traditional Ecological Knowledge Change	190	(22)
Stanford Zent
Measuring the Evolution and Devolution of Folk-Biological Knowledge	212	(16)
Phillip Wolff
Douglas L. Medin
Some Problems of Describing Linguistic and Ecological Knowledge	228	(20)
Andrew Pawley
Linguistic Diversity and Biodiversity: Some Implications for the Language Sciences	248	(17)
Jeffrey Wollock
PART 2: BIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY PERSISTENCE AND LOSS
Case Studies
Biodiversity and Loss of Indigenous Languages and Knowledge in South America	265	(17)
Manuel Lizarralde
Aspects and Implications of Ecological Diversity in Forest Societies of the Brazilian Amazon	282	(16)
Katharine Milton
Environment, Culture, and Siriono Plant Names	298	(13)
William L. Balee
The Endangered Languages of Africa: A Case Study From Botswana	311	(14)
Herman M. Batibo
Threats to Indigenous Knowledge: A Case Study From Eastern Indonesia	325	(18)
Margaret Florey
On the Value of Ecological Knowledge to the Kalam of Papua New Guinea: an Insider's View	343	(15)
Ian Saem Majnep with
Andrew Pawley
Wa Huya Ania Ama Vutti Yo`Oriwa --- the Wilderness World is Respected Greatly: Truth From the Yoeme Communities of the Sonoran Desert	358	(6)
Felipe S. Molina
Resource Management in Amazonia: Caboclo and Ribereno Traditions	364	(15)
Christine Padoch
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
PART 3: PERPETUATING THE WORLD'S BIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY
Agenda for Action
Biological and Cultural Diversity: the Inextricable, Linked by Language and Politics	379	(18)
Darrell A. Posey
Linguistic Human Rights in Education for Language Maintenance	397	(15)
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
Language, Knowledge, and Indigenous Heritage Rights	412	(21)
Luisa Maffi
A Tape Documentation Project for Native Brazilian Languages	433	(13)
Denny Moore
The Role of the Global Network of Indigenous Knowledge Resource Centers in the Conservation of Cultural and Biological Diversity	446	(16)
D. Michael Warren
Indigenous Peoples and Conservation: Misguided Myths in the Maya Tropical Forest	462	(10)
James D. Nations
Biocultural Diversity and Local Power in Mexico: Challenging Globalization	472	(17)
Victor M. Toledo
Language, Ethnobotanical Knowledge, and Tropical Public Health	489	(14)
Thomas J. Carlson
Indigenous Peoples and the Uses and Abuses of Ecotourism	503	(14)
Ben G. Blount
Protectors, Prospectors, and Pirates of Biological Resources	517	(16)
Stephen B. Brush
PART 4: A VISION FOR THE FUTURE, AND A PLEA
Possibilities After Progress	533	(7)
Richard B. Norgaard
Silent no More: California Indians Reclaim their Culture --- and they Invite you to Listen	540	(7)
L. Frank Manriquez
Appendix 1. Code of Ethics of the International Society of Ethnobiology (1998)	547	(6)
Appendix 2. Statement of Mission---Terralingua: Partnerships for Linguistic and Biological Diversity	553	(2)
Contributors	555	(4)
Index	559