Suchergebnisse

The knowledge systems and practices of Indigenous Peoples and local communities play critical roles in safeguarding the biological and cultural diversity of our planet. Globalization, government policies, capitalism, colonialism, and other rapid social-ecological changes threaten the relationships between Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their environments, thereby challenging the continuity and dynamism of Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK). In this article, we contribute to the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity," issued by the Alliance of World Scientists, by exploring opportunities for sustaining ILK systems on behalf of the future stewardship of our planet. Our warning raises the alarm about the pervasive and ubiquitous erosion of knowledge and practice and the social and ecological consequences of this erosion. While ILK systems can be adaptable and resilient, the foundations of these knowledge systems are compromised by ongoing suppression, misrepresentation, appropriation, assimilation, disconnection, and destruction of biocultural heritage. Three case studies illustrate these processes and how protecting ILK is central to biocultural conservation. We conclude with 15 recommendations that call for the recognition and support of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their knowledge systems. Enacting these recommendations will entail a transformative and sustained shift in how ILK systems, their knowledge holders, and their multiple expressions in lands and waters are recognized, affirmed, and valued. We appeal for urgent action to support the efforts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities around the world to maintain their knowledge systems, languages, stewardship rights, ties to lands and waters, and the biocultural integrity of their territories—on which we all depend. ; Peer reviewed

This article explores how changing environmental conditions and practices connect with shifting forms and valuations of sociality in a Ngaju Dayak village in the radically transformed peatlands of southern Borneo. It proposes that the production of values and social relations is indivisible from the production of a livelihood through material means and dwelling in the local environment. The article describes how changing Ngaju orientations to social life and the riverscape have been interlinked with fluctuations in the local valuescape. The focus is on two distinct but overlapping forms of organising sociality and labour in the riverine environment, and how they have influenced and been influenced by the dialectically conjoined Ngaju values of solidarity and autonomy, and, more recently, by emerging economic value. It is argued that the valuation of sociality crucially reflects the changing valuation of land and nature and related politics of value within the local riverscape. Finally, the article shows that the radically transformed riverine environment sets limits on (imagining) environmental practices, forms of sociality, and how they are valued. ; Peer reviewed

"The Concise Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology is an accessible, hands-on guide to the hundreds of terms the student of anthropology and the general reader will encounter in dealing with anthropological and ethnographic literature. It includes related terminology from allied fields such as sociology, economics, and geography. The focus is on key concepts in anthropology, with a number of biographies included to identify influential figures who have formulated central theories and conducted the most famous field research within cultures around the world. Extensive bibliographical references provide pointers for further research. Anthropology is a relatively young discipline with a complex history. Anthropological research encompasses hundreds of cultures and provides a valuable perspective on an increasingly globalized world. Written by a researcher and librarian expert in the fields of social and cultural anthropology, this Concise Dictionary offers an invaluable reference to the terminology and accomplishments of this far-reaching and diverse field."--Page 4 of cover

This chapter is part of a large ERC Advanced Grant called Crosslocations. ; When governments have to decide what to do about the threat of infection or contagion, their political concerns and, in particular, their understanding of the relationship between territory and people, are bound to inform their decisions. Drawing on accounts of how different political regimes responded to outbreaks of infectious disease in the Mediterranean region in the past, this chapter focuses on how different regimes understand the spread of the disease: its movement across space. The rapid spread of COVID-19 during 2020 and the highly diverse political responses to it have demonstrated the importance of this point. Close the borders or not? Quarantine the population or not? The issue here is how people understand, organize and structure spatial relations and separations, as well as how they understand the disease in itself. Given that the spread of a disease involves movement across space, including the crossing of political borders, the way that location is understood and organized is important to how diverse peoples and regimes respond to the spread of disease. The question the chapter deals with is how diseases are located – in the Mediterranean region, in this case. ; Peer reviewed

On the basis of a case study of informal residents' claims over land, housing and basic amenities in Windhoek, Namibia, this chapter seeks to contribute to debates on the broad sociopolitical implications of claim-making dynamics between residents and public authorities. In contrast with antagonistic readings of such situations that focus on resistance, autonomy and rights, the chapter finds that both residents' strategies and policies outline incremental paths of betterment and intersect in multiple ways. It ponders whether and how such incrementality produces institutionalised forms of relations between citizens and authorities, and calls attention to the principle of mutual dependencies as a key aspect in them. ; On the basis of a case study of informal residents' claims over land, housing and basic amenities in Windhoek, Namibia, this chapter seeks to contribute to debates on the broad sociopolitical implications of claim-making dynamics between residents and public authorities. In contrast with antagonistic readings of such situations that focus on resistance, autonomy and rights, the chapter finds that both residents' strategies and policies outline incremental paths of betterment and intersect in multiple ways. It ponders whether and how such incrementality produces institutionalised forms of relations between citizens and authorities, and calls attention to the principle of mutual dependencies as a key aspect in them. ; Peer reviewed

Book reviewed in this article:Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California. James Diego VigilChicano Ethnicity. Susan E. Keefe and Amado M. Padilla

Changing labels; the social context of social and cultural anthropology: a comparison of West and
East.

This article applies Dumont's view of ideology to an Eastern Indonesian society with intense trade connections to other ethnic groups and the larger political economy. In spite of their commercial importance, these connections are framed as long-distance kinship. My question is whether this encompassment of economic by social values is part of a totalizing ideological order. I discuss the values of personhood and exchange to show that long-distance commerce is the source of social differentiation expressed in them. Ultimately, however, the test of Dumont's methodology is not whether it helps explain the resilience of local social orders, but whether it can deal with historical complexity and change. I argue that Dumont's answer – hybrid ideology – is a good description for the encompassment of both kin-based totalities and political-economic stratification ; Peer reviewed