Abstract

FRAZAO-MOREIRA, Amélia. Ethnobiological research and ethnographic challenges in the “ecological era”. Etnográfica [online]. 2015, vol.19, n.3, pp.605-624. ISSN 0873-6561.

Local knowledge and the ecological practices have been important matters in the study of the ways that people make places and feel the world. Nowadays, in the “ecological era,” this subject gained new prominence. However, different dynamics emerge that, in some way, can seem epistemologically ambiguous. Ethnobiological studies, heirs of linguistic and cognitive anthropology, are permeable to deductive logics and etic approaches. The ethnoecological paradigm is associated with the rhetoric of “indigenous rights” and is politically situated. The applied ethnobiological surveys are engaged in global nature conservation programs and in intangible cultural heritage safeguarding initiatives, but also in community development projects. Therefore, we can consider the ethical and political dimensions of research relationships and the relevance of ethnographic approaches in contemporary ecological research. Taking data from different contexts and focusing in personal fieldwork experiences, some of these theoretical and methodological challenges are outlined and the ethnobiological construction of how people make the places is discussed.

Keywords : ethnobiology; ethnography; nature; ecological knowledge; colonial and post-colonial.

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