Defining culture as shared knowledge, values, and practices, we introduce an anthropological concept of culture to the ecosystem-service debate. In doing so, we shift the focus from an analysis of culture as a residual category including recreational and aesthetic experiences to an analysis of processes that underlie the valuation of nature in general. The empirical analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted along the Okavango River in northern Namibia to demonstrate which landscape units local populations value for which service(s). Results show that subjects perceive many places as providing multiple services and that most of their valuations of ecosystem services are culturally shared. We attribute this finding to common experiences and modes of activities within the cultural groups, and to the public nature of the valuation process.
The Okavango Basin encompasses a wide range of ecosystems and, corresponding to its extension across Angola, Botswana and Namibia, a multitude of communities with diverse socio-economic co: Households in the rural and urban Kavango region of Namibia experience the effects of rapid global economic change, mostly indicated by the emergence of new markets for consumer goods, the replacement of traditional barter with cash economies, and the parallel and subsequent incentives of myriad new consumer items. Overall this process of increasing consumerism transforms the aspirations and economic strategies of formerly subsistent famers. Presenting ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative data on household incomes, expenses and assets, we will illustrate this process for the central Kavango. We will especially discuss the implications of clearly visible economic stratification for communities and the natural resource base.Keywords: Commodification; consumerism; household inventories; modernity; Namibia; Okavango; social stratification; socio-economic baseline survey.Abbreviations: NHIES = National Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2009/10; TFO = The Future Okavango; SEBS = Socio-Economic Baseline Survey.As economias domésticas parciamente subsistentes e o consumismo moderno no Kavango namibiano: ativos, renda, despesas e estratificação sócio-econômica.Resumo: As famílias da região rural e urbana de Kavango na Namíbia experimentam os efeitos da rápida mudança econômica global, sobretudo indicada pelo surgimento de novos mercados para os bens de consumo, a substituição da tradicional troca de bens e serviços por economias de dinheiro e pelos incentivos paralelos e subseqüentes de inumeráveis novos itens de consumo. Em geral, este processo de crescente consumismo transforma as aspirações e estratégias econômicas de antigos agricultores de subsistencia. Apresentando dados etnográficos, qualitativos e quantitativos sobre os rendimentos, despesas e ativos familiares, vamos ilustrar esse processo para o Kavango central. Vamos especialmente discutir as implicações da estratificação econômica, claramente visível, para as comunidades e os recursos naturais.
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