Analysis of Local Attitudes Toward the Sacred Groves of Meghalaya and Karnataka, India

Ormsby, Alison

doi:10.4103/0972-4923.115722

Cited by 43 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The researcher observed that it is the presence of the sacred spots in the host communities that have safeguarded their rich biodiversity and have offered the communities timely and stable rainfall patterns, bounteous agricultural harvests and supplied them with the medicine for curing diverse ailments. This realization agrees with the views of [30] and [31] who highlighted that sacred groves offer great services to the people, including boosting their agricultural yield while offering them herbal medicine as a cure for their ailments. This indicates that the deliberate demarcation of certain tracts of land as sacrilege because of their affiliation to iconic figures in local communities who are remembered during particular traditional festivals assists in the conservation of the biodiversity in the host communities.…”

Section: Demarcation Of a Tract Of Land And Its Resources As Sacred Fsupporting

confidence: 80%

Strategic Adaptation of Traditional Festivals for the Sustainable Development of the Biodiversity of Local Communities in Ghana

Adom¹

2017

JSS

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Traditional festivals in Ghana are cultural events that are primarily organized to venerate the ancestors while remembering iconic events in the history of ethnic societies. However, due to the deleterious condition of the environment and its biodiversity resources, there is a great potential of tactically tailoring these traditional festivals to halt this wanton destruction while ensuring the sustainable development of biodiversity. This is especially important in local communities where illegal mining activities and deforestation has soared up recently in Ghana. Three traditional festivals in Ghana, namely, the Opemso festival, Papa Nantwi festival and the Apoo festival of some ethnic societies in Ghana were phenomenologically studied in a qualitative research approach with the aim of directly observing and carefully investigating into how the traditional festivals could be used as platforms for achieving environmental sustainability. Sixty-six purposive sampled respondents, some of whom were personally interviewed, while others were interviewed in a Focus Group Discussion were involved in the study. The research revealed after the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the accrued data that traditional festivals, though earmarked for the exhibitions of the rich culture of ethnic societies, they could be harnessed as avenues for the sustainable development of local communities. The study, therefore tasks environmentalists, foresters, biodiversity conservation planners and environmental development agencies to liaise with local communities in mapping out pragmatic environmental sustainability programs to bring to cessation, the environmental malfeasance in Ghana.

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Section: Demarcation Of a Tract Of Land And Its Resources As Sacred Fsupporting

confidence: 80%

Strategic Adaptation of Traditional Festivals for the Sustainable Development of the Biodiversity of Local Communities in Ghana

Adom¹

2017

JSS

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“…Intergenerational and institutional shifts in ecocultural interests and perspect ives threaten the continuity, sustainability, and regenerativity of agro forestry systems in the Gedeo Zone, and similar shifts are at play in different settings around the world. For example, the different representations of spaces as sacred, home, and ritual by indigenous communities in the US and India, and conversely the designation of the same spaces as nuclear waste zone and tourist centers by federal governments (Endres, 2012;Ormsby, 2013) similarly illustrate ways human regenerative or destructive practices are shaped by ontological orientations (Ingold, 2000). Attending to these overwhelmingly uni-directional global shifts from mutualism to dualism is imperative to all crisis focused disciplines as our very continued existence as a species interwoven with others of this planet depends on retaining and regenerating restorative ways of being, relating, and dwelling.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, competing ontological discourses in the US frame Yucca Mountain as sacred space by First Nations people and as national sacrifice zone for a nuclear waste depository by the US federal government (Endres, 2012). Similarly, discourses in India frame forests in East and West Khasi Hills as sacred groves by followers of traditional beliefs and as dwelling spaces of demonic spirits by Christians (Ormsby, 2013). Closer to the present study's site, the Lower Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia is understood by conservationists as wilderness, by the state as wasteland, and by indigenous communities as home (Turton, 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

“Tree Is Life”: The Rising of Dualism and the Declining of Mutualism among the Gedeo of Southern Ethiopia

et al. 2017

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This study investigates ecocultural discourses and practices among the Gedeo in southern Ethiopia within the contexts of globalizing commodification of nature, successive governmental extractivist and conservationist discourses, and increasingly influential colonial present religious systems. Our analysis illustrates ways in which indigenous Gedeo understandings of reciprocal ecological coexistence are rooted in cultural knowledge, values, and customs. However, competing forms of knowledge introduced in the form of governance, commerce, conservation, and religion have resulted in an in-process shift from traditionally, spiritually maintained mutualist human-environment relations to dualist commodified relations, particularly among youth, and dualist expert-reliant conservationist relations emanating from governmental bodies. By examining a traditional meaning system during an explicit process of erasure, the study points to ways local meanings of, and narratives about, ecocultural interactions are produced and communicated within wider contexts of power, and illustrates tensions among traditional, governmental, capitalist, conservationist, and religious environmental ontologies in everyday and institutional practice.

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“…Those respondents who stated that the tidiness of the garden showed respect for their deity were all from the Christian faith, a faith that teaches human 'dominion' over nature [67]. Other faiths (Hinduism and Buddhism) stress the inter-relationships between humans and the rest of nature, perhaps making for better connectedness between their religious practices and the sacred natural areas [68].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aesthetic and Spiritual Ecosystem Services Provided by Urban Sacred Sites

Lacy¹,

Shackleton

2017

Sustainability

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Abstract:The range and use of ecosystem services provided by urban sacred sites has hardly been considered in studies of urban ecology, sustainability and human wellbeing. This paper examines the perceived ecosystem services supplied by green spaces or gardens associated with places of religious worship and appreciated by worshippers in a mid-sized town in South Africa. A questionnaire with open, closed and Likert scale questions was administered at 30 places of worship (25 with gardens and five without). Respondents identified a wide diversity of ecosystem services provided by gardens, with social ones being more recognized than ecological, and economic services the least. Approximately two-thirds of respondents visited a sacred site garden weekly or more often. The majority of respondents (96%) felt that a garden was necessary because it added to their feelings of connection with God, or helped them relax and so be better able to concentrate, and 54% stated that a garden enhanced their overall spiritual experience. Regression analysis revealed that aesthetic appreciation of a garden was significantly related to woody plant species richness, number and basal area in the garden. On the other hand, spiritual experience was positively related to woody plant basal area, but not species richness nor tree number. Neither size of the garden, nor number of years the respondents had been vising a particular sacred site had any influence on the rated spiritual or aesthetic experiences. These results reveal the widely appreciated ecosystem services provided by urban sacred spaces and their centrality in enhancing spiritual satisfaction for some.

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Analysis of Local Attitudes Toward the Sacred Groves of Meghalaya and Karnataka, India

Cited by 43 publications

References 23 publications

Strategic Adaptation of Traditional Festivals for the Sustainable Development of the Biodiversity of Local Communities in Ghana

Strategic Adaptation of Traditional Festivals for the Sustainable Development of the Biodiversity of Local Communities in Ghana

“Tree Is Life”: The Rising of Dualism and the Declining of Mutualism among the Gedeo of Southern Ethiopia

Aesthetic and Spiritual Ecosystem Services Provided by Urban Sacred Sites

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