Community Conservation and the (Mis)appropriation of Taboo

Abstract

Community conservation initiatives have long struggled to forge productive relationships with the people living in and around protected areas. Currently, there is enthusiasm among conservation researchers and practitioners regarding local cultural taboos, which often appear to conserve species and landscapes of ecological importance. However, in incorporating local taboos into conservation programmes, there is the risk that these culturally sophisticated institutions are used in a highly reductionist manner. Drawing from ethnographic work in Madagascar, this article highlights how the simplification of cultural taboos can exasperate already fraught relationships between communities and conservation organizations, and undermine the very environmental outcomes that groups seek to promote. This reductionist approach can also lead to the harmful appropriation of local meanings and resources. Overall, while working with local taboos may potentially offer an alternative to neoliberal models of conservation, scholars and practitioners should recognize the dynamic and interconnected processes connected with taboos, instead of regarding them as static and interchangeable products.

What is sacred in sacred natural sites? A literature review from a conservation lens

“…First, despite being considered in the literature mostly as a positive force for environmental conservation, our review shows a more nuanced view of the role played by the sacred in SNS, depicting it as both opportunity and threat to conservation. In fact, as Lynn White (1967) famously argued half a century ago, and several scholars have stressed in our review (Notermans et al 2016, Osterhoudt 2018, Zeng 2018, Cladis 2019, religious worldviews, rituals, and practices are a double-edged sword that can either protect or destroy nature. Along these lines, Osterhoudt (2018:3) warns that "not all cultural taboos lead to environmental preservation; indeed, some may actively encourage ecologically damaging behaviours," for example, when the imposition of a taboo on an abundant species ends up encouraging the use of another endangered species (Colding and Folke 2001).…”

“…When dealing with SNS, there is no doubt that this is the dimension of the sacred that has attracted the attention of conservation biologists. Taboos, however, as cultural anthropologists have warned, carry positive moral implications not just prohibitions (Osterhoudt 2018). They are complex cultural constructions that need to be handled carefully (Tiedje 2007).…”

“…Second, although the portrayal of taboos as means of conservation is central in the literature, there is also a critique of the reductionist view of taboos as mere instruments for nature protection (Fernández-Llamazares et al 2018), on what Tiedje (2007) has denounced as the "misappropriation of taboo." The conservationist view often ignores the complex cultural processes underlying the construction and evolution of taboos and other social institutions, which calls for a further study on their broader historical, political, and cultural context (Osterhoudt 2018). A social and relational understanding of the role of taboos will help overcome the instrumental view although acknowledging its intrinsic value (Anderson et al 2022).…”

Working from the Inside Out: Fostering Intrinsic Motivation and Expanding Our Criteria for Conservation Success

“…We should beware of denigrating alternative worldviews or local knowledge about wildlife by ascribing the status of myth to them. Another pitfall is seizing on a particular cultural practice or belief that supports our conservation agenda, but ignoring other locally important values (Keller, 2009 ; Osterhoudt, 2018 ; Rubis, 2020 ). Instead, we should recognise that there are other forms of knowledge that are important and valuable, for example, traditional ecological knowledge, folkloric knowledge, knowledge around hunting and material culture, and experiential knowledge, to name a few (Anderson, 2011 ; Kutz & Tomaselli, 2019 ).…”

Relations of Blood: Hunting Taboos and Wildlife Conservation in the Idu Mishmi of Northeast India

“…In select cases, where taboos have been co-opted to create formal conservation programs, the results have been mixed. Scholars have shown that when motivations and socio-political-historical aspects of taboos were ignored to create top-down taboo-based conservation programs, the outcomes were largely ineffective (Jones et al 2008; Osterhoudt 2018; Sodikoff 2012; but see Johannes 1998).…”