Oral History Reveals Landscape Ecology in Ecuadorian Amazonia: Time Categories and Ethnobotany among Waorani People. Waorani oral history in Ecuadorian Amazonia reveals that traditional ecological knowledge contributes to the understanding of the natural environment of this human group. When the Waorani interpret the landscape, they identify certain elements that stand out for their cultural and practical value, as these are products of past and present settlements. The oral history and management practices, by two family clusters settled at the riverbanks of the Nushiño River, contributed to assembling an analytical tool called BWaorani time categories.^These four time categories were analyzed with floristic composition based on a matrix formed by 522 plant species collected at 12 forest patches, which either had or lacked social history. The aim of this research was to examine how Waorani oral history records the ecological dynamics of some Amazonian forest patches. The use of multivariate statistical methods made establishing differences in plant diversity, evenness, and richness between managed and unmanaged forests plots possible, thus revealing human impact at specific places in Amazonia. This research confirms that it is important to intertwine social history and landscape ecology in ethnobotany with quantitative statistical interpretation, because it permits the association of a human group with a particular forest.La historia oral revela la ecología del paisaje en la Amazonía ecuatoriana: categorías de tiempo y etnobotánica Waorani. La historia oral de los Waorani en la Amazonía del Ecuador revela que su conocimiento tradicional ecológico aporta a la comprensión de su entorno natural. Los Waorani cuando leen el paisaje identifican ciertos elementos que sobresalen por su valor cultural y uso, porque son producto de asentamientos de ayer y hoy. La historia oral y las prácticas de manejo de dos grupos de familias indígenas asentadas en el río Nushiño contribuyeron para construir una herramienta analítica denominada Bcategorías de tiempo Waorani^. Las cuatro categorías se evaluaron con un análisis de composición florística a partir de una matriz de 522 especies de plantas recolectadas en 12 parcelas de bosque con y sin historia social. El objetivo de esta investigación fue examinar la manera que la historia oral Waorani registra las dinámicas ecológicas de algunas parcelas del bosque amazónico. La utilización de métodos estadísticos multivariados permitió establecer las diferencias que existen en diversidad, equitabilidad y riqueza vegetal entre bosques manejados y no manejados, evidenciando la influencia del impacto humano en ciertos lugares de la Amazonía. La investigación confirma que en etnobotánica es importante imbricar historia social y ecología del paisaje con estadística cuantitativa, porque permite vincular un grupo humano con un determinado bosque.
Resumen: Las prácticas agrícolas dan información que revelan la relación entre un grupo humano y el bosque. Este estudio describe y analiza el itinerario agrícola considerando que las acciones materializan las principales características socioculturales de los waorani de la Amazonia ecuatoriana: libertad de acción y autonomía personal. La observación participante y la identificación de las plantas cultivadas en dos aldeas waorani durante quince meses de investigación permitieron determinar los aspectos socioculturales y ecológicos del sistema de roza-tumba-pudre. La práctica de este sistema agrícola no es común en otras partes del mundo, siendo relativamente poco conocida y desvalorizada debido a su productividad. El presente artículo presenta un caso de estudio del sistema de roza-tumba-pudre inscrito en la cosmovisión cultural, prácticas agrícolas y representaciones que se mantienen a pesar del contacto con otros tipos de agriculturas. Los waorani continúan realizando estas prácticas agrícolas porque están en concordancia con su propia concepción de las dinámicas de transformación de los recursos naturales.Palabras-clave: Waorani. Amazonia. Prácticas agrícolas. Rasgos socioculturales. Sistema de roza-tumba-pudre.Abstract: Agricultural practices produce information that reveals the relationship between people and the environment. This study describes and analyzes the agricultural itinerary of the Waorani people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, through which major sociocultural characteristics are materialized: individual freedom and personal autonomy. During fifteen months of fieldwork in two Waorani villages, participant observation and field walks were undertaken to identify cultivated plants. With the collected information, socio-cultural and environmental aspects of slash-and-mulch were established. The practice of this agricultural system is not common in other parts of the world, it is relatively unknown and is undervalued because of its yield. This article presents a case study of slash-and-mulch agriculture as part of the Waorani cultural world view, agricultural practices and representations, which persist despite contact with other types of agriculture. The continuation of these agricultural practices can be explained by the very conceptualization the Waorani people have regarding the dynamics of transforming natural resources.
The Napo River basin, which is situated within the Upper Amazon archaeological region, is one of the most speciose forests in Greater Amazonia. Standard thinking in scholarship and science holds that these forests are essentially pristine because any Indigenous impacts in the past would have been minimal, seedbanks would have been nearby, and natural forests would have reappeared after the humans left, died out, or dispersed. Inventory research in 2019 on three ridgetop forests in Waorani territory inside the Curaray basin (which drains to the right margin of the Napo River) and a comparable inventory on one control site forest along the Nushiño River (also in the Curaray basin) show human impacts from about the late nineteenth century to about 1960; they occurred during the period of wartime among Waorani themselves and between Wao people and outsiders. The human impacts resulted in the high basal-area presence of two long-lived species with important Waorani cultural uses: cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) and ungurahua palm (Oenocarpus bataua Mart.). These species have high frequency and dominance values and do not occur in the control site, which is comparable in terms of elevation above the flood zone of the rivers in the sample. These findings mean that alpha diversity in the right margin sector (or south) of the Napo River basin cannot a priori be explained by reference to traditionally, biologically accepted patterns of ecological succession but may require knowledge of historical patterns of Indigenous land use and secondary landscape transformation over time due to human (specifically Waorani) impacts of the past.
Globally, nearly two billion people consume approximately 2,111 species of insects, 92% of which are harvested directly from their natural ecosystems. However, intensifying insect harvesting causes ecological alterations and biodiversity loss. In the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Kichwa people are the primary consumers of insects. Thus, this study characterised the diversity of edible insects, host plants, and cultural significance among two peri-urban Kichwa communities. We used photo-elicitation, free-listing, semi-structured interviews, and in situ walk-in-the-woods to identify relevant edible insects. Then, we used species accumulation curves, the Salience Smith Index (SSI), ecological interaction networks, and extinction models to assess insect-host species interactions and cultural significance. We registered 19 edible insect species from three orders and six families. Furthermore, we reported two new species for the world list of edible insects and one for the Ecuadorian list. Ten insect species were associated with 21 host plant species. The interaction between the Rhynchophorus palmarum beetle and the Bactris gasipaes palm tree had the highest cultural significance (SSI>0.18, P<0.05). Furthermore, we found that 30% of the insect species and 52% of the host plant species (of which 90% were palms) were essential for conserving the interaction network structure. Finally, the extinction models suggested that host plant species knowledge was intrinsically related to edible insect knowledge conservation. Our findings provide basic ecological and cultural information for developing edible insect breeding projects and safeguarding traditional knowledge.
Resumen: El estado de un área protegida (AP) depende de varios factores que deben ser considerados para la conservación del ecosistema. Para asegurar el éxito de la iniciativa de conservación es importante la colaboración entre los pobladores locales y gestores. Además, el manejo y uso de recursos naturales como la fauna, condiciona los patrones comportamentales y distribución de estas especies, que cumplen un papel importante en el hábitat que ocupan. A través del análisis de 57 entrevistas semi-estructuradas y foto-elucidación, se documentaron los conocimientos locales sobre grandes mamíferos en cuatro comunidades aledañas a la Reserva Biológica Colonso-Chalupas; analizadas con el índice de valor de importancia (IVI) y el valor de uso (V.U) y se utilizó una prueba t-test para medir las diferencias entre el conocimiento de hombres y mujeres. Los resultados muestran concordancia entre las predicciones de presencia de grandes mamíferos y los conocidos por los habitantes, principalmente apreciados por su carne y algunas también como mascotas (n=5 V.U=1; n=8, V.U=2). No obstante, los resultados sugieren una disminución de la cacería, también evidenciada a través de las diferencias encontradas entre hombres y mujeres (t-test; t=6.265, df=28, p<0.001), donde las mujeres no reconocieron ciertas especies ni siquiera por consumo de carne. Sin embargo, el aumento de la frontera agropecuaria, la pérdida de hábitat, y la remanencia de los procesos de cacería, al menos de especies cercanas a las chagras, siguen resultando una amenaza para los grandes mamíferos de la reserva, por lo que es indispensable elaborar planes de educación ambiental y conservación en conjunto con las comunidades.
In this issue, we present a wide range of texts about the diversity of maize in Mexico in relation to peasant agricultural practices. The scientific debates on this theme form part of a line of reflection about the conservation of biodiversity that the Revue d'ethnoécologie has been featuring and fostering for some time. The authors of the present issue share the same research object, maize, which they examine on various scales and from a wide variety of observation points (direct experiences, national analyses, local studies): why and for whom should we conserve agricultural biodiversity (Bahuchet et al. 2000, Rodríguez 2011, Swart et al. 2018)? How can an object such as this one, which is in constant evolution, be studied and measured? (Aguirre Salcedo & Ceccon 2020, Nicholls et al. 2020, Iermanó et al. 2020) How can practices and phenomena that conserve this diversity, but at the same time transform it, be analyzed (Dumez 2010, Cunha Ávila et al. 2017)? The importance relevance of certain analytical categories, and the connections between biodiversity and cultural diversity (Virtanen 2019, Roué 2006, are also at the heart of these texts. In Mexico, these questions have aroused interest in the fields of anthropology and ecology. But they have also been studied by agronomists involved in research programs in support of peasant agriculture.Intersecting perspectives on Mexican maize landscapes Revue d'ethnoécologie, Supplément 2 | 2021
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