Shades of the Rainbow Serpent? A KhoeSan Animal between Myth and Landscape in Southern Africa—Ethnographic Contextualisations of Rock Art Representations

Sullivan, Sian; Low, Chris

doi:10.3390/arts3020215

Cited by 21 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Belief that ritual potency is signaled by particular animals and plants is widespread in the worldviews, rituals, and religious beliefs of many cultural groups. Best known are the belief systems and symbolism linked to apex predators (lions, eagles, crocodiles), large mammals (elephants, rhinos, hippopotami), and large snakes (pythons, anacondas;Douglas 1957, 1970, Reichel-Dolmatoff 1996, Sullivan and Low 2014.…”

Section: Cultural Symbolismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nontimber forest products as ecological and biocultural keystone species

Shackleton¹,

Ticktin²,

Cunningham³

2018

E&S

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Nontimber forests products (NTFPs) are the mainstay of rural livelihoods and local economies the world over. As such they are of interest to a wide disciplinary range of researchers and development and government agencies seeking to promote livelihoods, incomes, and ecologically sustainable practices. With the attention on the various human uses of NTFPs, their role and networks in the broader biological communities in which they are located are frequently overlooked. Harvesting of many NTFPs has effects not only at the organism and population scales, but also on co-occurring species, some of which may also be NTFPs. Thus, reduction or loss of one NTFP population or species in a specific area may have cascade effects on other NTFP species, including those used for cultural purposes. We illustrate the little appreciated importance of NTFPs in broader ecological and social systems by assessing and illustrating the importance of NTFP species as ecological or biocultural keystones in providing regulating and supporting ecological services to other species and cultural services to people. We present a number of examples where NTFP species act as keystones in ecological and cultural systems, including food, pollination and dispersal, animal health, nutrients, shelter and protection, and cultural symbolism, most of which have not been considered by NTFP researchers and practitioners. From these examples we distill six propositions regarding NTFPs and discuss the value of recognizing some NTFPs as biocultural keystones to acknowledge and highlight their roles at broader scales.

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Section: Cultural Symbolismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nontimber forest products as ecological and biocultural keystone species

Shackleton¹,

Ticktin²,

Cunningham³

2018

E&S

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“…Kohn 2013), and the personified, supernatural force behind the phenomenon of rain -known as |nanus -that asserts agency in selecting those humans who become healers (Low 2008;. Indeed, the affirmation of agency and intentionality in multiple entities and selves beyond-the-human might be considered as key to KhoeSan and other 'animist' perspectives on 'reality', through which agency, shaped by the diverse form, materiality and perceptual capacities of actors, is considered to be present everywhere, requiring constant attention and attunement in choices made by humans (Brightman et al 2013;Descola 2013;Harvey 2005;Kohn 2013;Sullivan 2010Sullivan , 2013aSullivan and Low 2014). This perspective on differentiated agency and intentionality distinguishes 'animism' from the vital materialism privileged in the 'machinic assemblages' of Deleuze andGuattari (1987(1980)), later reformulated as actor network theory (Latour 2007), and latterly expressed as an invigorated awareness of the organisational and ethical imperatives asserted by specific materialities (Bennett 2010;Hecht 2012;Jackson 2013).…”

Section: Journal Of Political Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

What's ontology got to do with it? On nature and knowledge in a political ecology of the 'green economy'

Sullivan

2017

Journal of Political Ecology

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Contemporary market-based (i.e. neoliberal) 'green economy' approaches to environmental degradation emphasise exchanges whereby quantified units of environmental harm are traded or 'offset' for compensating units of environmental health. Also encouraged is a view that economic growth can be 'greened' through 'decoupling' economic value from material ecological realities. Such approaches tend to frame biophysical natures in terms of aggregates, such as an 'aggregate natural capital rule' and 'net zero carbon.' Naturesbeyond-the-human are thereby understood and enacted as calculable, exchangeable, substitutable and commensurable between different spatial and temporal sites, making up an 'aggregate' or 'net' value overall. This article uses a comparative cross-cultural engagement to problematize ontological assumptions regarding the nature of nature underscoring the rationality of these aggregating and offsetting 'solutions.' Drawing on literatures from environmental anthropology and environmental ethics, combined with ethnographic material from long-term field research in north-west Namibia, the article considers elements of alternative cultural ontologies and the ways these may give rise to a different array of practices with value for conceiving and generating 'sustainability.' It adheres to a critical political ecology perspective in understanding the ways that power structures the ontologies that become both privileged and occluded in neoliberal strategies for green economy governance. In doing so, the article argues that sensitivity to the ontological politics through which spaces and entities are defined and known and which thereby shape environmental conflicts, may be key to recognising with more depth the sometimes significantly different 'natures' being struggled over in such conflicts. Key words: ontology; green economy; offsetting; decoupling; sustainability; value; natures-beyond-thehuman; neoliberalism; political ecology Résumé Les approches de la dégradation de l'environnement fondées sur le marché et l'économie verte mettent l'accent sur les échanges, dans le cadre desquels des unités quantifiées de dommages à l'environnement sont échangées ou «compensées» pour compenser des unités de santé environnementale. On encourage également l'idée que la croissance économique peut être «vernie» par le biais du «découplage» de la valeur économique des réalités écologiques matérielles. De telles approches tendent à encadrer les natures biophysiques en termes d'agrégats, tels qu'une «règle du capital naturel agrégé» et un «carbone zéro net». Les natures-au-delà de l'humain sont ainsi comprises et promulguées comme calculables, échangeables, substituables et commensurables entre différents sites spatiaux et temporels, constituant une valeur «agrégée» ou «nette». Cet article utilise un engagement interculturel comparatif pour problématiser les hypothèses ontologiques concernant la nature de la nature, soulignant la rationalité de ces «solutions» d'agrégation et de compensation.

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“…Interestingly, this understanding contains relatively weak connections to humans and their behavior . Unlike in other communities of the region (Sullivan and Low ), humans have only limited ability to influence the rain, and the rain is not an immediate reaction to human good deeds or wrongdoing. While Damara people relate the longer term changes in precipitation to transformations in the social and political world (Sullivan ), the particular rainfall patterns are explained with much less reference to human conduct.…”

Section: Being‐in‐the‐rainmentioning

confidence: 93%

The Life of Winds: Knowing the Namibian Weather from Someplace and from Noplace

Schnegg

2019

American Anthropologist

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This article brings the two questions, how and what we know, into a productive dialog to explain the difference between indigenous and scientific environmental knowledge. In the case I explore, scientists and Damara pastoralists ( ǂnūkhoen) both relate the arrival of the rains in arid Namibia to the interplay between two winds.However, when it comes to explaining those observations, their accounts could hardly be more different. While Indigenous people understand the arrival of the rains as a play between loving and caring winds, scientists recognize them as a consequence of a shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Building on Heidegger's phenomenology, I explore the relationship between the knower and the known. My main theoretical intervention is to show that Damara people and scientists have distinct ways of encountering the world: from someplace and from noplace. In those encounters, the weather is either enmeshed in forms of use in everyday skilled activity for rural pastoralists, or enframed by technology for scientists. By encountering the weather from someplace and from noplace, the world turns into a different place for each. The engagement with these weather worlds shows how ways of knowing the environment can be multiple, but they are not mutually exclusive. [Indigenous knowledge, weather, phenomenology, ontology, Heidegger] RESUMEN Este artículo coloca las dos preguntas, cómo y qué sabemos, en un diálogo productivo para explicar la diferencia entre conocimiento ambiental científico e indígena. En el caso que exploro, científicos y pastoralistas damara ( ǂnūkhoen) ambos relacionan la llegada de las lluvias en laárida Namibia a la interacción entre dos vientos.Sin embargo, cuando se trata de explicar esas observaciones, sus versiones difícilmente podrían ser más diferentes.Mientras los Indígenas entienden la llegada de las lluvias como un juego entre vientos amorosos y cuidadosos, los científicos los reconocen como una consecuencia de un cambio de la Zona de Convergencia Intertropical. Basado en la fenomenología de Heidegger, exploro la relación entre el conocedor y lo conocido. Mi intervención teórica principal es para mostrar que los damara y los científicos tienen distintas formas de encuentro con el mundo: desde algún lugar y desde no lugar. En esos encuentros, las condiciones climáticas están o bien involucradas en formas de uso en la actividad calificada cotidiana para pastoralistas rurales, o enmarcadas por la tecnología para los científicos.Al encontrar condiciones climáticas desde algún lugar y desde no lugar, el mundo se convierte en un lugar diferente para cada uno. El envolvimiento con estos mundos de condiciones climáticas muestra cómo formas de saber sobre el ambiente pueden ser múltiples, pero no exclusivas mutuamente. [conocimiento Indígena, condiciones climáticas, fenomenología, ontología, Heidegger] ǃKHŌǃNAMIS Nē xoaǃâs ge |gam dîra, mâti tsî ǁkhāti tare-e da a ǂan ti hâra,ûitsama ǁgamǁares ǃnâ |khī-ū, tsî ǁnā |gaus ai ǃkharagagusib hîa ǃhaoǃnāsi ǂans tsîôaǃnâ ǂans tsîr...

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Shades of the Rainbow Serpent? A KhoeSan Animal between Myth and Landscape in Southern Africa—Ethnographic Contextualisations of Rock Art Representations

Cited by 21 publications

References 24 publications

Nontimber forest products as ecological and biocultural keystone species

Nontimber forest products as ecological and biocultural keystone species

What's ontology got to do with it? On nature and knowledge in a political ecology of the 'green economy'

The Life of Winds: Knowing the Namibian Weather from Someplace and from Noplace

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