Landscape Ethnoecology: Concepts of Biotic and Physical Space - Paperback

by Leslie Main Johnson (Editor), Eugene S. Hunn (Editor)

Although anthropologists and cultural geographers have explored "place" in various senses, little cross-cultural examination of "kinds of place," or ecotopes, has been presented from an ethno-ecological perspective. In this volume, indigenous and local understandings of landscape are investigated in order to better understand how human communities relate to their terrestrial and aquatic resources. The contributors go beyond the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) literature and offer valuable insights on ecology and on land and resources management, emphasizing the perception of landscape above the level of species and their folk classification. Focusing on the ways traditional people perceive and manage land and biotic resources within diverse regional and cultural settings, the contributors address theoretical issues and present case studies from North America, Mexico, Amazonia, tropical Asia, Africa and Europe.

Author Biography

Leslie Main Johnson is Associate Professor in the Centre for Social Science, Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada. Her publications include Trails of Story, Traveller's Path: Reflections on Ethnoecology and Landscape (Athabasca University Press, 2010), chapters on landscape in Landscape and Language, Benjamins 2011 and Ethnobiology, Wiley 2011," and articles in Human Ecology, Journal of Ethnobiology, Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, and Botany.