Objective
The main objective is to carry out a systematic investigation of the mechanisms of transmission, adaptation and change in ethnic knowledge on the environment and its management.
Expected Outcome
According to the information provided by the anthropologists, botanists and zoologists will evaluate the anthropogenic effects on the culturally most important animal and plant resources and analyze the sustainability of their management.
Subsequently, interpretation will be the responsibility of anthropologists. Through the contextualization of all information they will analyze the variation they have observed and elaborate systemic patterns, first at a local level then at the intercommunity level. The purpose being to identify significant systemic indicators in order to make predictions about dynamism and the evolution of the underlying structure.
The research is being conducted among two groups of Panoan Indians and one of "caboclos" rubbertappers and is concerned with the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil and Peru.
In each country an interdisciplinary team has being created, including anthropologists, (ethno)botanists and zoologists; in Brazil, a remote sensing team which will be active in both regions has been formed.
Their work is complementary : the remote sensing team is responsible for the preliminary evaluation of biodiversity using GIS, systemic contextualisation and verification in situ (in collaboration with the biologists) in order to identify the basis of the human effects, and to prepare the evaluation of the anthropogenic activities.
With the help of (ethno)biologists, the anthropologists will identify the ecological knowledge of the different community members in order to clarify their logical and symbolic structures, especially the variability between individuals and situations.
In the present context of increasing cultural, economic and demographic pressures, changes are increasing rapidly and in a not precisely identified way. The activities are thus threefold :
1) to clarify the global knowledge system;
2) to evaluate the sustainability and adaptability of its content and articulations;
3) to check the pertinence of the methodological tools (systemic analysis).
Fields of science
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
1050 Bruxelles
Belgium