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Sharman, Paul John. "Exmoor dreaming : reflections from a cultural ecology." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.445741.
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Seivertson, Bruce Lynn. "Historical/cultural ecology of the Tohono O'odham nation." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289005.
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The Tohono O'odham and their predecessors have occupied southwestern Arizona and northern Mexico (Pimeria Alta) for thousands of years. During that time the physical environment as well as the occupants' cultural patterns changed. This historical geographic study chronicles that change. It starts 10,000 years ago with a brief description of the early environment and how the people survived, continues with a discussion of agricultural crop introduction from central Mexico, and is followed by the period of Spanish colonization and Mexican occupation. The majority of this study, however, focuses on the post 1824 period when contact between the United States and the O'odharn began. Prior to United States takeover the O'odham lifestyle, owing to their isolated position in the harsh, and Pimeria Alta and utilization of a policy of cultural/ecological opportunism, had changed little. However, during the twentieth century their lifestyle has undergone considerable modification. They have reached a point in time where their economic base has changed from subsistence farming to wage labor and finally to owners of profitable gaming casinos. Now they must decide if they are going to continue as a unique cultural unit or blend further with the dominant society.
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Loftsdóttir, Kristín 1968. "The forbidden flesh: Cultural meanings of humans, animals, and the natural world." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278466.
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Humans have tried to separate themselves from nature and to gain an understanding of what it means to be human, through studies of nature. Ideas of human nature have political and ideological implications, and are thus important in providing information about what it means to be human and what the relation to animals and the environment "ought" to be like. The ideology of human nature makes the world hence meaningful and points out what kind of actions regarding environmental issues are appropriate. The understanding of human nature and the human relationship with nature is culturally and historically produced. Humans' cultural conception thus also influences what kind of relationships are seen as desirable with particular animals. Different animals are seen as having different relations to humans, relations in which all animals are not seen as being equal. Some animals are defined edible, others are defined as companions.
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Kesse, James Robert. "The cultural ecology of NGO development in upper Canar, Ecuador." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187460.
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During the past four decades, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have emerged as important agents of change in Latin America. NGO actions are influencing the cultural-ecological relationships in upper Canar, an indigenous area in the southern highlands of Ecuador. Since the early 1960s, population growth, changing national polices, commercialization of the subsistence economy, migration, and greater contact with the global economy have dramatically affected rural conditions in upper Canar. In a contemporary context, the lands and society of the region are fragile and the traditional agricultural system is not sustainable. The Ecuadorian government has failed to address the needs at the grassroots, leaving an institutional void that is being filled by NGOs. NGOs are promoting sustainable development, and through their actions inevitably contribute to the change process. Sustainable development is difficult to define because of uncertainties related to time and scale. However, six measures of sustainable development specific to upper Canar are economic (production and income), ecological (soil fertility and soil erosion), organizational (community leadership, community cohesion, and indigenous cultural practices), migration, population growth, and the NGO impact on the larger policy environment. An NGO must address each of these measures in order to promote the larger process of sustainable development. Case studies of PLAN International in Sunicorral and CARE-PROMUSTA in Ramos Huray indicate that the NGO impact on sustainable development is mixed; the signs of success are neither clear nor absolute. However, NGOs are contributing to land use changes emphasizing dairying and vegetable production, patterns that have consequences for labor utilization. The implementation of agroecological land use methods and conservation measures remains slow and sporadic. NGOS emphasize strengthening community organization by using the methods of participatory development with implications for leadership changes and conflict. Each NGO in the study addresses different aspects of sustainability and makes incremental steps toward the larger goal. However, despite notable successes at the community level, the NGO impact outside the space of a community is limited. I define a critical role for what I call the "activist NGO" in influencing societal change and sustainable development.
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Winterwood, Fawn Christine Phelps. "Literacy, identity, and digital youth culture understanding the cultural ecology of informal digital literacy practices /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1212410327.
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Stevens, Charles John 1950. "The political ecology of a Tongan village." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290684.
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This dissertation presents a political ecological case study of a Tongan village. Political ecology includes the methodological approaches of cultural ecology, concerned with understanding human/resource relations, and political economy, concerned with the historical examination of the political and social organization of production and power. The ethnography of political ecology is primarily interested in understanding how certain people use specific environmental resources in culturally prescribed and historically derive ways. With this in mind, the research provides an historical and ethnographic account of a diversified, local economic system characterized by a highly productive but depreciating smallholder agriculture once regenerative and sustainable. The smallholders in the Kingdom of Tonga are imperfectly articulated with market systems and rely on agricultural production for a significant proportion of household consumption and ceremonialized obligations to kin, and community. The dissertation presents an historical account of the political economic changes in Tonga beginning in the nineteenth century and culminating in recent alteration of traditional farming techniques and the loss of economic self-sufficiency and agricultural sustainability.
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Higgins, John Erwin 1954. "The political ecology of peasant sugarcane farming in northern Belize." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288803.
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The Belizean export sugar industry is dominated by small family farmers who produce the nation's most important cash crop in terms of area under cultivation, employment, and export earnings. These peasant farmers control both cane cultivation and the harvest transport system and receive the lion' s share of the proceeds from the sale of Belizean sugar. The origins of this anomalous industry can be traced to the regions' long history of peasant resistance to exploitation. Sugarcane was brought to Belize by refugees of the Mayan Caste Wars in the mid-nineteenth century who began producing sugar for the local market using swidden technology. Sugar production was briefly taken over by British plantations; however, the peasants were never fully proletarianized despite attempts to turn them into a plantation labor force. The peasantry's historical resistance to proletarianization is the result of several factors. Colonial officials and capitalists found it difficult to control either the movements or the labor of these independent cultivators. Low rural population density, peasants' refusal to give up subsistence farming, sugarcane's compatibility with swidden farming practices, and the peasantry's politicization all contributed to the dominance of small-farmer cane production during this century. During the 1950s plantation production was resurrected in order to meet the colony's recently acquired Commonwealth Sugar Agreement export quota. Colonial planners assumed that plantations were more efficient and competitive than peasant farmers. Nevertheless, in 1972 the state sponsored plantations were forced to shut down due to competition from independent small cane farmers. Peasant sugarcane farming has proven to be remarkably resilient in the face of crises spawned by chronic fluctuations in the price and demand for cane sugar. Most farmers depend heavily on family labor to minimize their production costs. Because they have minimal capital inputs to production, they can sustain negative profits from cane and still survive by deploying family labor into other income and/or subsistence producing activities. The viability of peasant farming families that allows them to compete successfully with large-scale capitalist sugarcane farmers contradicts the Marxian notion of the inevitability of polarization into capitalist farmers and proletarian workers.
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Österlund, T. (Toni). "Methods for morphogenesis and ecology in architecture:designing the Bothnian Bay cultural center." Master's thesis, Oulun yliopisto, 2010. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789514262579.
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Tiivistelmä opinnäytetyöstä Olen hyödyntänyt diplomityössäni algoritmisia työskentelymenetelmiä uudenlaisessa suunnitteluprosessissa, jossa käytän luonnonilmiöitä sekä niiden taustalla vaikuttavia voimia arkkitehtuurin muotokielen pohjana. Digitaalisen morfogeneesin keinoin simuloin rakennuspaikan ekologiaa ja sen vaikuttavia tekijöitä kolmiulotteiseen kappaleeseen. Tähän prosessiin pohjautuva suunnitelma yhdistää visuaalisesti simuloituja luonnonvoimia sekä perinteisiä, manuaalisia suunnittelumenetelmiä. Käyttämällä algoritmisia työskentelymenetelmiä, on tarkoituksenani ollut löytää uusia tekniikoita ja inspiraation lähteitä arkkitehtisuunnittelun tueksi. Algoritmisten menetelmien käyttö toimii apuna niin inspiraation etsinnässä, kuin myös suunnittelun apuvälineenäkin. Tämä diplomityö jakautuu kahteen osioon; prosessinkuvaukseen sekä prosessiin pohjautuvaan suunnitelmaan. Prosessinkuvaus esittää käyttämäni työskentelymenetelmät sekä niiden taustalla olevan ajatteluprosessin, jossa hyödynnän luonnonvoimien simulointia osana luovaa suunnittelua. Suunnitelmaosio havainnollistaa prosessin avulla tehtyä suunnitelmaa. Lopullisen työn arvioimisen kannalta molemmat osat ovat yhtä tärkeitä; yhdessä ne kuvaavat koko prosessin konseptista suunnitelmaan ja siten täydentyvät kokonaisuudeksi. Tavoitteenani on ollut tutkia nykyaikaisen arkkitehtuurisuunnitteluprosessin kehittämistä algoritmisten työskentelymenetelmien avulla. Tarkoituksenani ei ole ollut saavuttaa suunnitteluratkaisua napin painalluksella, vaan saavuttaa algoritmisten työskentelymetodien sekä perinteisen luonnostelun pehmeämpi integraatio. Algoritmiset suunnittelumenetelmät tarjoavat uusia tapoja älykkään informaation ja motivaation etsimiseen suunnitteluratkaisujemme pohjaksi. Hyödyntäen algoritmisia työskentelymenetelmiä, tein työkalut, joiden avulla simuloin visuaalisesti luonnonvoimien vaikutuksia objekteihin. Niiden toiminta perustuu NURBS-pintojen (Non-uniform rational B-spline) kontrollipistematriisien muokkaukseen, eli pintoja säätelevien kontrollipisteiden siirtämiseen. Testasin ja analysoin erilaisia alkioita (eng. seed) evoluutioprosessin alkuasetelmina ja näiden avulla suunnittelin alkion, jota käytin lopullisessa suunnitelmassa. Evolutiivisten menetelmien sekä vaikuttavien luonnonvoimien avulla päädyin ratkaisuun, jota pystyin hyödyntämään informatiivisena luonnoksena työn jatkosuunnittelussa. Lopullinen suunnitelma on arkkitehtoninen kuvaus digitaalisesti kasvaneesta orgaanisesta muodosta. Olen pyrkinyt välttämään tuttuja maneereita sekä olemassa olevien ratkaisujen suoraa referointia; pyrin inspiroitumaan rakennuspaikan yksilöllisestä ekologiasta sekä suunnittelutehtävästä. Käyttämäni uudet tekniikat mahdollistivat inspiraation etsimisen luonnollisista lähtökohdista, tarjoten luonnosteluun avaramman katsantokannanAbstract of thesis This diploma work employs algorithmic design methods in a design process that uses natural phenomena as the basis of its architectural morphology. It implements digital morphogenesis in reaction to ecology and the infl uential forces of the building environment. The resulting design of this process is a combination of the application of these forces and the use of traditional design methods. With the help of algorithmic design methods, my goal has been to fi nd new techniques and inspiration in the aid of architectural design. The use of computational methods in architecture have the ability, not just to aid in the design, but to aid in the search for inspiration for the design as well. This work is divided into two equally important sections; the description of the process and the case study. The description of the process demonstrates the methods used and the thinking involved in incorporating nature's infl uential elements as part of the creative task, as the case study illustrated the outcome of that process. Both sections are equally important in evaluating this work. Without one, the result of this diploma work would be incomplete and uninformative. Together they describe a fluent process from concept to design and as such, the distinctive parts complete each other. My intention was to study different possibilities in which algorithmic aided design could develop the process of architectural design. My intention was not to reach a final and definitive answer to the design problem just by creating a set of design tools and then pressing a ’start‘ button; the methods used in this diploma work offer a more soft-touch integration of computational methods as an extension of our inspiration and sketching processes. Algorithmic design methods offer new ways of searching for information and motivation to reinforce our design intentions. Using algorithmic design methods, I created tools for simulating nature's environmental and visual forces. These tools create transformations in NURBS-based (Non-uniform rational B-spline) surfaces through the translation of their respective control point matrices. Using these tools, I tested and analysed several different seeds that would work as the starting point for the evolutionary process. Based on that information, I designed a seed to be used in the process of the final design. Through evolutionary methods and the influential environmental forces, I received a final solution that I then used as an informed draft to further refine my design. The final case design is a digital representation of an organic architectural form. I have avoided the use of pre-learned mannerisms and direct references to existing solutions. This offered the possibility to be inspired by the location, its ecology and the design problem itself, rather than just looking into recent architectural publications as source for inspiration. These new techniques offered me a way to break free from the limitations of my own mind, and truly search for alternative solutions through the inspiration of nature
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Baines, Lauren. "Dance, embodiment, and cultural ecology| The reflexive relationship between bodies & space." Thesis, Mills College, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1590230.
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There exists a dynamic, reflexive relationship between bodies and space as humans both respond to and mold the world around them — and vice versa. Bodies and space cannot exist without one another. Through movement, humans not only perceive and engage with the world, but also shape abstract space into the places of their lives as activities affect the characteristics of, perception of, and future interactions with a place. Conversely, the characteristics of a place (whether physical features or societal customs and expectations associated with a place), inform perceptions of and interactions with that place, influencing the behaviors of those who occupy it. Dance, thus, exists not simply as a body moving in space, but as a body in deep, nuanced interaction with space — an interaction that affects both entities. Investigating this body-space relationship as it pertains to site dance, we see more clearly how the body not only occupies space, but also activates it.
Performed outside of traditional performance settings such as theatres and studios, site dance places dance directly in lived space, with specific attention in this paper to dances staged in public spaces. These dances engage not only with the site’s physical characteristics, but also various aspects of the site’s history, its current import to a community, or its potential usages. By situating dance directly in the lived experience, interacting with the places of daily life, site dance possesses the ability to change how people see and experience both dance and place. Removed from the conditioned interaction with performers on a formal stage, site dance allows more inference between spectators and performers as both have the opportunity to recognize, experience, and engage with the same phenomena. And in its honest exchange between dancers and site, the intricate body-space relationship is made tangible to viewers who may see themselves reflected in the actions of the dancers. Through its untraditional, unconventional, and at times transgressive relationship with place, —and its intentional evocation of the history, memory, or function of a specific site,— site dance illuminates the powerful, dynamic relationship we have with our environment and empowers audiences to recognize their role as active agents shaping the non-static entity of space. Through its heightened phenomenological engagement and embodiment within sites for performers and audience alike, site dance affords a new perception of place at a deep experiential level. When dancers occupy, literally or figuratively, the places that humans typically do not, or cannot, physically occupy, and/or engage in behaviors that one might not anticipate in a particular setting, audiences can perceive these sites in new ways which may in turn inform their future interactions with said places. As such, site dance holds potential for affecting change and activation of community and public space which needs further attention in the current trend of creative placemaking and other programs designed to revitalize public spaces, deepen community engagement, or bring attention and/or action to a community concern.
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Morris, Benjamin Alan. "Culture après le déluge : heritage ecology after disaster." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2010. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/226856.
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This PhD dissertation examines the relationships between cultural heritage and the environment, focusing specifically on the devastation and rebuilding of New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Departing from conventional approaches to the natural world (such as documentation- and conservation-based approaches), this thesis adopts a developmental-systems based approach to cultural heritage in order to construct a new way of interpreting it, within the specific context of natural disaster. This new approach, termed 'heritage ecology', reinterprets cultural heritage in two ways: first, as a physical assemblage of sites, materials, traditions, beliefs, and practices that are constructed in significant ways by their natural environments; and second, as a metaphorical ecosystem which impacts back on the assessment and construction of that natural environment in turn. In order to construct this approach, the thesis poses three interrelated questions: how is cultural heritage transformed as a result of disaster, how do societies rebuild their heritage after disaster, and how does heritage contribute to the rebuilding process? Examining a rebuilding process in real-time provides a unique window on these processes; events and developments in New Orleans taken from the first four years of recovery (2005-2009) suggest that prior understandings of how societies rebuild themselves after disaster have neglected crucial aspects of cultural heritage that are integral to that process. The examination of data from the case study - data of diverse forms, such as historiography, the culinary arts, music, the built environment, and memorial sites and landscapes - reveals the limitations of traditional approaches to heritage and prompts a reassessment of a range of issues central to heritage research, issues such as materiality, authenticity, and commodification. This study moreover incorporates into heritage research concepts previously unconsidered, such as infrastructure and policy. In the coming century of global climate change and increased environmental hazards, this last theme will become increasingly central to heritage policy and research; the dissertation concludes accordingly, with a reflection on contingency and future disaster.
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Fox, Diana Joyce 1965. "Deep ecology and the environmental crisis: An anthropological inquiry into the viability of a movement." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291968.
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This thesis explores the contemporary environmental movement termed deep ecology. Deep ecologists attempt to understand root causes of the present environmental crisis by investigating values and beliefs that Western industrial nations hold about human relationships to nature. Deep ecologists envision a future society based on egocentrism rather than an anthropocentric orientation. The lifestyles they endeavor to create and propagate are based on the belief that all living things are intrinsically valuable. Deep ecologists borrow ideas from religious traditions around the world expressing parallel notions about the value of non-human life. This thesis will investigate the contributions of two of these traditions, Taoism and Transcendentalism. The paper will also include ethnographic examples of deep ecology living derived from the field experience of the author. There will be a discussion of deep ecology's relevance to ecological anthropology, to understand the potential impacts that both disciplines can have on each other.
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Scott, Katherine. "Fire, plants and people: exploring environmental relations through local knowledge of postfire ecology at Wemindji, Quebec." Thesis, McGill University, 2009. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32518.
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In the forests of Wemindji Cree Territory on the eastern shores of James Bay, north-western Quebec, forest fires burn frequently, human interventions are rare, and fire is the key agent of forest transformation. This thesis examines Cree perceptions of spatial and temporal post-fire ecosystem processes, more specifically, the interactions of plants, animals, people and the physical landscape. Western scientific studies have focused on the complex actions of fire in shaping these ecosystems. I interviewed Cree forest experts in Wemindji and reviewed the literature on forest fire in this area. The knowledge that both hunters and scientists have acquired is often nearly parallel. I suggest some ways in which the different perspectives of Cree and western scientists might complement each other and contribute to new knowledge of postfire ecology.Sur le territoire des Cris de Wemindji, sur la rive est de la Baie James au Nord-Ouest du Québec, les incendies de forêt surviennent fréquemment, les interventions humaines sont rares et le feu est l'acteur clef des transformations touchant la forêt. Ce mémoire examine les conceptions des Cris face aux processus spatio-temporels affectant l'écosystème après un feu et, plus spécifiquement, les interactions entre plantes, animaux, humains et contexte physique. Les études scientifiques occidentales se focalisent sur les rôles complexes du feu dans le façonnement des écosystèmes. J'ai interrogé à Wemindji des experts cris de la forêt et revu la littérature sur les incendies de la région. Un parallèle net peut être établi à plusieurs égards entre les connaissances des chasseurs et celles des scientifiques. Je suggère des moyens pour rendre les perspectives respectives des Cris et des scientifiques occidentaux complémentaires et contribuer à l'acquisition de nouvelles connaissances concernant l'impact écologique des feux de forêt.
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Sidky, M. Homayun. "Irrigation and state formation in Hunza: the cultural ecology of a hydraulic kingdom /." The Ohio State University, 1994. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487854314871857.
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Brenden, Marcia R. "Work matters: The educational, cultural and economic ecology of two Gulf-Coast communities." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/284146.
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This dissertation explores the connections between the institutions of work, family, and school as revealed through a team ethnography study of two southern Louisiana communities. The study focused on the gathering of first-hand accounts of the cultural, social, and economic continuum of changes that local households and individuals are experiencing in relation to the vicissitudes of employment in the oil and gas industry and the various ways in which household members negotiated, accommodated, and resisted the impacts. This dissertation also reports on a collaborative research methodology that employed a "funds of knowledge" approach that situated public school teacher-researchers as crucial local members of the project team. Their position as insiders within the local schools and households grounded the research process and provided the team with multiple member checks that helped to validate and authenticate the research. As a background to the analyses undertaken here, this study reviews the relevant literature on structure and agency as well as critical educational studies of social reproduction and cultural production. Finally, suggestions are made as to possible directions public schools might take to critically connect schools to work and communities.
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De, Villiers Pierre. "The ecology and culture of the rock catlet Chiloglanis pretoriae (Pisces : mochokidae)." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005111.
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Chiloglanis pretoriae is a rock catlet, indigenous to southern Africa. The aim of the study was to develop a technique to culture C. pretoriae as an alternative to harvesting and selling wild caught fish on the international aquarium trade. As nothing was known about the culture of African rock catlets an investigation into the biology and ecology of the species was necessary to develop the culture protocol. Chiloglanis pretoriae inhabits fast flowing rapids (current speeds over 0.6 metres per second). It is a serial interstitial gravel spawner, that spawns during the summer months. Chiloglanis pretoriae is a carnivorous fish species, feeding on aquatic insects. The natural growth rate is relatively fast in the first two years where after it levels off. Sexual maturity (50%) is attained within the first year (44mm total length). From the four cell stage, embryos took seven days to hatch, 16 days to first feeding and 75 days to reach the juvenile phase. The free embryos were well developed and readily accepted artificial feed at first feeding. The fish spawned readily, without hormone induction, in a continuous raceway. Spawning in the 801 retangular glass aquaria was irregular. The substrate within the raceway consisted of gravel and large rocks. The current was maintained at 0.6m/sec, temperature at 26± 0.6⁰C, dissolved oxygen concentrations at 7.1± 0.3mg/l, pH at 6.9± 0.2 and photoperiod at 16L:8D. Conductivity was monitored and remained within the acceptable range of C. pretoriae (84± 10uS/m).
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Linthwaite, Hayley. "Unmasking workshop ecology in applied performance." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2012. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/60834/1/Hayley_Linthwaite_Thesis.pdf.
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This practice-led research enquiry identifies, develops and illustrates workshop ecology in Applied Performance. It explores how Applied Performance forms are applied in and transformed through action in two distinct community-learning settings. The research is undertaken in two performance sites. The first, involving an executive leadership program addressing complex project management for Australia's Defence Materiel Organisation in Canberra, Australia. The second, a sexual health, HIV and AIDS education program to raise awareness and encourage the prevention of transmission of sexual diseases within Karkar Island, Papua New Guinea. The research strategies draw upon a mixed method approach involving
practice-led research
participant observation.
The findings from each performance site show how the workshop ecology shapes and transforms performance forms as they are applied and influences the degree to which they are effective. It is anticipated that the findings from this research will assist Applied Performance practitioners to more carefully consider workshop ecology in the design and delivery of Applied Performances.
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Ghosal, Samit. "The Lepchas of Darjeeling and Sikkim, a study in cultural ecology and social change." Thesis, University of North Bengal, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/152.
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Hashimoto, Atsuko. "A cross-cultural study of attitudes towards the natural environment and tourism development : Northern Europe and East Asia." Thesis, University of Surrey, 1996. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/842749/.
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This study aims to examine if there is any cross-cultural difference in attitudes towards the natural environment and its resources, especially in the context of tourism development. Mainland China, Taiwan and Japan are chosen as East Asian subjects and Germany and the United Kingdom as Northern European subjects in this study because they show not only distinctive traditions and philosophies, but also various stages of national economic development. The first part of the study provides (1) the current situation of environmental awareness in tourism and hospitality industries and (2) information about the cultural values, religions and the philosophies which shape people's attitudes towards the natural environment. The history of environmental awareness and the protective movement started quite differently in western and eastern societies. While Western societies are more concerned about the conservation of the natural resources, delayed industrialisation in East Asia, in contrast, caused more serious and often irreversible damage to the natural environment. The tourism industry in Western societies has recently shown more environmental concern as its survival depends on the quality of the natural environment, but in the East, tourism and environmental management are considered unrelated. East and West also have different religious views, aesthetic values and risk perceptions which determine their values of the natural environment and its resources. The main survey of this study is twofold: investigation of the construction of attitudes towards the natural environment and tourism impacts and their sense of responsibility as an individual for environmental problems. Over 100 respondents from the tourism and hospitality industry, and environmentalists in each region have been sampled. The Multidimensional Scaling procedures in addition to one-way analysis of variance are applied to elicit the underlying structure of attitudes towards environmental issues and tourism development and the respondents' sense of responsibility towards the environmental issues. The data revealed that there are not only East-West differences but also differences between the tourism industry/environmental expert subjects and the university students in the attitudes construct. The cultural differences are observed within the tourism industry/environmental expert groups but the university students show constant across-culture similarities. Contradictory to the empirical evidence, the perception of nature and natural resources turns out to be universal. However, significant cultural differences in the level of authoritarianism and individualism are found both in tourism industry/environmental expert subjects and the university students. The Chinese groups have a stronger authoritarian tendency than the others but also believe more in individual contribution to the environmental management. Although individuals are expected to take a more active stance in environmental management, when it conies to the respondents' own responsibility, the Northern European groups and Japan showed more interests in the quality of personal life than the Chinese groups. The Northern European minds perceive tourism activity and its impacts as being under the control of people but the East Asians consider nature has more control over them.
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Cermak, Michael J. "Hip Hop Ecology: Investigating the connection between creative cultural movements, education and urban sustainability." Thesis, Boston College, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2887.
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Thesis advisor: Juliet SchorThere is an emerging pairing between the grassroot hip hop movement and urban sustainability initiatives that I call hip hop ecology. The synergy between hip hop and environmentalism defies stereotypes of the whiteness of the environmental movement and the forms of discourse that are used to raise awareness of the ecological crisis. This dissertation builds from my work in the Boston Public Schools, where for four years, I have taught environmental science using environmentally-themed (green) hip hop. In these classes I have asked students to express their learning in their own creative verse. I present three studies that situate the connection between hip hop and environmentalism in social and educational contexts. The first is a comparative content analysis of environmental science textbooks and green hip hop tracks that will help define the sociotextual scene of the urban environmental classrooms where I worked. The second research site is the community, where I interviewed "hip hop ecologists," activists and emcees who work directly on urban sustainability and environmental justice while producing hip hop with green themes. The second study provides an in-depth look at how these young environmental activists of color navigate the racial dynamics of the movement and try to sustain their careers as leaders and artists. The third study is an ethnography where I synthesize four years of classroom teaching and analyze the various cases where constructs of race and nature intersected, deconstructing both the social interactions in the classroom as well as the green hip hop lyrics written by the students. The implications of a hip hop ecology are that we as environmental practitioners actively rethink what counts as an environmental text and what part of our own creativity we tap as educators who endeavor to promote a more racially diverse and powerful movement for sustainability
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Sociology
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Lindquist, Michael. "Collaborating sustainable development in cross-cultural environments /." Title page, table of contents and introduction only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envl747.pdf.
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La, Salle Tamika. "Cultural and Ecological Considerations within the Context of School Climate." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2013. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cps_diss/92.
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School climate has been established as an important construct to measure because of its connections to student psychological, social, and academic outcomes. Existing research has examined school climate in relation to individual (i.e., race and gender) and school level (i.e., teacher characteristics or school size) variables. The current paper presents a cultural-ecological model for research on school climate. The cultural-ecological model of school climate supports future research incorporating a broadened view of culture, extending beyond race and ethnicity, and a more comprehensive examination of ecological contexts such as the family and community in understanding student perceptions of school climate. Within this model, individual, family, school, and community variables that may influence student perceptions of school climate are described and a research agenda is presented for utilizing the cultural-ecological model of school climate in future school climate research and for developing, implementing and evaluating strategies designed to enhance school climate and school performance based on prevention and intervention. The current study examined the relationship between cultural and ecological variables at the individual, school, and community levels and student perceptions of school climate. A multi-level (HLM) model examining the relationships between individual, cultural, and ecological variables and school climate was evaluated. Results of the current study indicated that for the relationship between student and school characteristics and school climate remain relatively consistent for both groups. Specifically, both individual and school variables influenced student perceptions of school climate. However, this data also confirms the need to further examine additional cultural and ecological variables in order to increase our understanding of how such variables are related to perceptions of climate.
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Orr, Barron Joseph. "More users and more uses: Choosing between land and forest in Malawi's protected areas." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/284291.
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Local inhabitants risk the loss of ecological resources when land is cleared for cultivation as population densities and the demand for land resources increase. This dilemma is investigated through an interdisciplinary socioeconomic and ethnoecological assessment of 427 households in communities adjacent to four protected areas in Malawi. This study introduces a multidimensional approach that captures baseline socioeconomic information and resource utilization in a quantitative, integrated manner. Household income was derived from a "sum of the parts" aggregation of income elements including species-level agricultural production and resource utilization data. Regression analysis (R² = 0.84) demonstrated that poorer households are more reliant on protected area-based income than are wealthy households. Lorenz curve analysis demonstrated that income distribution equality improves when proceeds from protected areas are included in household income. Poverty threshold analysis indicates that exploitation of protected area resources is a livelihood strategy that halved the number of households that otherwise would have remained beneath a basic needs poverty threshold. Ecological resources are shown to meet demand for more people and for a longer time frame than converting the same lands to agriculture. However, conversion is more likely because per hectare values are 2 to 3.5 times greater for agriculture than for consumptive ecological resource use. Spatial analysis suggests points of negative land cover change (1984-94) were not associated with the proximity of population but with the agricultural suitability of the land. The results suggest the kinds of decisions people will make under extreme stress, when consideration of potential impacts is overwhelmed by the need to survive. This study demonstrates that protected area resources play a pivotal role in poverty alleviation, and by extension, efforts to make sustainable use and sustainable development compatible.
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Gray, Matthew Adam. "The traditional wilderness conception, postmodern cultural constructionism and the importance of physical environments." [Missoula, Mont.] : The University of Montana, 2008. http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-12312008-135632/unrestricted/Gray_Matthew_Thesis.pdf.pdf.
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Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Montana, 2008.Title from author supplied metadata. Description based on contents viewed on June 20, 2009. ETD number: etd-12312008-135632. Includes bibliographical references.
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Sharief, Mohamed Wali. "Towards an Indigenous Architectural Model Based on Cultural Ecology Case Study : Southern Region of Libya." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.518606.
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Pan, Yuan. "Using an ecosystem services approach to protect freshwater ecosystems : linking ecology, ecotoxicology and cultural values." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/19656/.
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AL-EISA, ABDULAZIZ AHMED. "AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF BEDOUIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL EDUCATION IN HAIL PROVINCE: SAUDI ARABIA (CULTURAL ECOLOGY)." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/188062.
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The purpose of this study was to ascertain the relationship of formal elementary education to the social, cultural, economic and physical environment of the Bedouin in Hail Province, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has modernized rapidly, but the Bedouin have remained isolated from the urban changes. A total of 240 Bedouin elders were interviewed in group meetings in the Bedouin camps. Eight teachers who taught hygiene, history, geography, mathematics, and reading and forty students selected by the use of random tables were interviewed at Al Zahra elementary school in Mawqiq village which was near the Bedouin camps. The researcher designed a set of questions to find cultural characteristics of the tribe as well as attitudes toward education and the value of formal education to the Bedouin either in their nomadic existence or in the village. A cultural ecology approach was used in analyzing the data. Much of the information obtained through fieldwork was not available from other sources at this time. The researcher observed the social environment, analyzed school textbooks, and reviewed current literature on the subject of Bedouin education. The Bedouin environment was found to be a harsh desert setting, but the Bedouin had a long and proud history. Neither local geography nor history of the Bedouin was included in the school curriculum. Textbooks did not include Bedouin culture, and teachers did not encourage discussion or applications of learning to the Bedouin students. It was discovered that the Bedouin had not changed as much as the rest of the country, and were in need of special educational programs in order to enable them to fit into the modern world of Saudi Arabia whether they stayed in the desert or went to find jobs in the city. Using a cultural ecological perspective, it was found that the school was not integrated into other features of Bedouin society. The information developed by this study can be used by other researchers to enable them to plan programs especially for the Bedouin children in school, to write new textbooks, to train teachers to work with Bedouin students, and, in general, to understand and appreciate the Bedouin culture as it exists today and has existed for many centuries.
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Jay, Grace Mairi McIntyre. "Symbolic order and material agency a cultural ecology of native forest remnants on Waikato dairy farms /." Connect to this title online, 2004. http://adt.waikato.ac.nz/public/adt-uow20060125.120921/.
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Jay, Grace Mairi M. "Symbolic order and material agency: A cultural ecology of native forest remnants on Waikato dairy farms." The University of Waikato, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2603.
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Loss of native biological diversity is a world-wide problem of growing international concern. One of the main causes of native biodiversity loss is destruction and degradation of native habitat through land development for agriculture. The Waikato region is an example of the destruction and degradation of native habitat in association with the development and intensification of farming, including dairy farming. This thesis explores cultural reasons for the loss of native forest in the Waikato region, and reasons why fragments of native forest remain. The research involves a participant observation study of 'typical' dairy farm families for 9 months of the dairy year, in-depth interviews of dairy farmers who have protected a significant proportion of their land for conservation of native habitat, a questionnaire of dairy farmers, and an examination of dairy farm magazines and other literature to identify the values and attitudes that motivate dairy farmers in relation to land management and protection of native habitat. The title of the thesis suggests two elements that are important for understanding the loss and persistence of native forest in Waikato's farmed landscapes. Symbolic reason refers to the values, attitudes and perceptions of farmers that derive from socio-political and economic forces which encourage productivist practises that leave little opportunity for native forest to survive. Material agency refers to the local circumstances of particular farms and individual people which enable native forest to persist. The thesis argues that persistence of native forest depends on the idiosyncrasies of material circumstance in the face of relentless pressure to transform the production landscape for economic purposes. The thesis concludes with a suggestion that policies to assist survival of native habitat in farmed landscapes need to include ones that encourage the odds in favour of fortuitous circumstance. In the face of globalised economic pressures, policies for conservation of native biodiversity need to involve a 'portfolio' of measures that apply to individual landowners and the wider rural community by recognising, assisting and rewarding management for non-production values.
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Teherani, Kroenner Parto, and Tung Hoa Dang. "Human ecology and gender: a framework to discover natural and cultural resources with climate change accommodation." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2015. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-190703.
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Based on the human ecological pyramid described by Robert Ezra Park, the founder of Human Ecology at Chicago School of Sociology around 1920 (Park 1952; visualized by Teherani-Krönner 1992), Duncan developed his model for comprehensive research on changes in human societies. He believed that scientific analysis had to include the interplay and interaction of the following components: population (P), organization (O), environment (E) and technology (T). This research frame – POET - became known as the Ecological Complex visualized as a rhombus (Duncan 1959; Teherani-Krönner 1992; Teherani-Krönner 2014). Such an approach needs inter- and transdisciplinary research methodologies. Combining this human ecological model with theoretical and conceptual approaches in gender studies (Boserup 1970, Teherani-Krönner 2014) will open a new perspective to gender sensitive environmental researches. As the UNDP has stated: “human development if not engendered, is endangered”. This simple but far-reaching message of Human Development Report (UNDP 1995) should be taken more seriously into account in theoretical and practical work (gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting). The gender gap (FAO 2011) will be a roadblock to sustainable environmental development (Jacobson 1992) under climate change conditions. Therefore the POET model needs to be engendered. The paper will present a new concept and a methodological framework to discover natural and cultural resources with regard to climate change accommodationTrên cơ sở tháp sinh thái nhân văn có lồng ghép giới được xây dựng bởi Robert Ezra Park, nhà sáng lập ngành học về sinh thái nhân văn tại trường Khoa học xã hội Chicago vào khoảng năm 1920 (Park 1952; do Teherani-Krönner thể hiện năm 1992), Duncan đã phát triển một mô hình nghiên cứu toàn diện về sự thay đổi trong xã hội loài người. Ông cho rằng các phân tích khoa học cần phải bao gồm sự tương tác qua lại giữa các thành tố sau: dân số (P), tổ chức (O), môi trường (E), và công nghệ (T). Khung nghiên cứu này được gọi tắt là POET, được biết tới với tên gọi tổ hợp sinh thái, và được thể hiện bằng hình ảnh của một hình thoi (Duncan 1959; Teherani-Krönner 1992; Teherani-Krönner 2014). Cách tiếp cận này cần phải sử dụng các phương pháp nghiên cứu liên ngành và đa ngành. Kết hợp mô hình sinh thái nhân văn với các cách tiếp cận về lý thuyết và định nghĩa trong các nghiên cứu về giới (Boserup 1970, Teherani-Krönner 2014) sẽ mở ra một hướng nghiên cứu mới đối với các nghiên cứu về môi trường có liên quan tới nhạy cảm giới. Tổ chức Phát triển LHQ (UNDP) đã nêu rõ: “Nếu sự phát triển của con người không tính đến vấn đề giới, sự phát triển đó sẽ gặp trở ngại”. Thông điệp đơn giản nhưng hàm chứa này được nêu trong báo cáo: Phát triển con người của UNDP (1995) cần được xem xét một cách nghiêm túc hơn trong lý thuyết và thực tiễn (lồng ghép giới và lập ngân sách có tính đến vấn đề giới). Khoảng cách về giới (FAO 2011) sẽ là một cản trở trên con đường phát triển môi trường bền vững (Jacobson 1992) trong các điều kiện biến đổi khí hậu hiện tại. Do đó, mô hình POET cần được xem xét cả từ góc độ giới. Bài viết đưa ra một khái niệm mới và một khung phương pháp logic nhằm phát hiện các nguồn lực tự nhiên và văn hóa trong bối cảnh biến đổi khí hậu
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Countryman, James R. "Agricultural terracing and landscape history at Monte Pallano, Abruzzo, Italy." Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1337974268.
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Chan, Yat-man, and 陳逸敏. "Study of "creative ecology" and cultural policy for sustainable urban development in local district of Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2012. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B49884931.
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Urban planning is not only about planning the city for people today but also planning decades of year ahead for next generations. Growing complexity and dynamics of the urban system make planning, decision-making and problem-solving to be more challenging. In order to achieve sustainable development, the notion of creative city is aroused in academic field and also advocated by many policymakers recently. Creative city notion suddenly becomes the panacea for many urban problems such as revitalizing dilapidated old urban area, enhancing the competitiveness of the city in the global economy, and boosting local employment rate, etc. However, among the polemical meditations on the creative cities notion, there is insufficient study on what vital preconditions are for creativity to be emerged in the metropolis, what creative activities are generated and how actors are interrelated with each other and with the environment regarding social, economic and physical dimensions.
This dissertation proposes the “creative ecology” framework for analyzing and contextualizing the interrelationship and dynamics of stakeholders in the “creative ecology” and with the surrounding environments. An empirical study which applies the framework to a local district of Hong Kong, Yau Ma Tei, is conducted. The study tries to trace out the interrelationships of local creativity scene to the environments, and the dynamics within the ecology supported by the comprehensive study on the empirical setting from the perspective of Hong Kong to local district like Yau Ma Tei, and in-depth face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders. The analysis shows, in particular, how the “creative ecology” rooted in a local district operates and how a balanced “creative ecology” can be achieved in relation to the sustainable urban development. The recommendation is concerned passim with cultural policy and urban planning issues. The dissertation is concluded by summarizing the concept of “creative ecology” and highlighting its nature of continuous evolution, as well as addressing the main contemporary challenges while Hong Kong is in the transition process to be a more creative place.published_or_final_version
Urban Planning and Design
Master
Master of Science in Urban Planning
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Elswick, Samuel Taylor. "Predator Management and Colonial Culture, 1600-1741: A Study in Historical Ecology." W&M ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626482.
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Anthony, Kamala. "Malama Loko I'a| Salinity and Primary Productivity Relationships at Honokea Loko, Hale O Lono, and Waiahole/Kapalaho on Hawai'i Island, Hawai'i." Thesis, University of Hawai'i at Hilo, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10928184.
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Along the coastlines of the Hawaiian Islands, there is a valuable and critical resource known for its brackish water habitat – loko i‘a (Hawaiian fishponds). They are dynamic systems dependent on the balance between fresh groundwater inputs from uka (uplands) and landward flow of kai (seawater), which all vary depending on the behavior of our climate, including rainfall, tides, and storms. Nutrient-rich groundwater mixing with the seawater at the coast allows for an abundant growth of limu or primary productivity attracting many of Hawaii’s favorable native brackish water and herbivorous species. Having an intimate relationship with this natural coastal nursery, Hawaiians effectively modified these coastal habitats into loko i’a to provide a sustainable food source for the communities in which they reside. In support of these invaluable resources and practices, this study seeks to understand primary productivity and salinity relationships along the same coastline at Honokea Loko of Waiuli, and Hale o Lono and Waiāhole/Kapalaho of Honohononui, Hawaii. Weekly water quality monitoring by kiai' loko (fishpond steward) and biweekly water column sampling, salinity in the three loko i’a ranged from 3.1 to 18.8 and was significantly different throughout different areas of each pond. Benthic primary productivity experiments, found significantly more growth at higher salinity locations across all sites. Due to these strong correlations, loko i'a communities would greatly benefit from these methodologies to quantify the variability of environmental changes through time and specific impacts of climate phenomena, changes in rainfall and sea level. These factors have the potential to interfere with primary productivity and alter loko i'a systems interactions entirely.
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Piper, Jessie Celeste 1950. "Anthropology, sustainability and the case of Mexico's sea turtles." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278137.
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Mexico was formerly an important breeding ground for six marine turtle species. Over the last several decades, overexploitation of turtles for their meat, eggs, and hides, as well as habitat destruction, has led to alarming rates of decline in all species. The problem of sea turtle conservation is a promising area for questions of anthropology and sustainable human systems because decline of these species is related to unsustainable development and subsistence practices that have disenfranchised small coastal fishing cooperatives. Common property resource theory aids the analysis of the context in which overexploitation takes place. Conserving sea turtles will depend on the development of localized institutions for managing natural resources in perpetuity and for negotiating the array of regional, national, and global factors relevant to sea turtle endangerment and preservation. Anthropology can play a vital role in this process of developing sustainable interactions between human subsistence needs and natural resource conservation.
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Menrisky, Alexander F. "WILD ABANDON: POSTWAR LITERATURE BETWEEN ECOLOGY AND AUTHENTICITY." UKnowledge, 2018. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/66.
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Wild Abandon traces a literary and cultural history of late twentieth-century appeals to dissolution, the moment at which a text seems to erase its subject’s sense of selfhood in natural environs. I argue that such appeals arose in response to a prominent yet overlooked interaction between discourses of ecology and authenticity following the rise and fall of the American New Left in the 1960s and 70s. This conjunction inspired certain intellectuals and activists to celebrate the ecological concept of interconnectivity as the most authentic basis of subjectivity in political, philosophical, spiritual, and literary writings. As I argue, dissolution represents a universalist and essentialist impulse to reject self-identity in favor of an identification with the ecosystem writ large, a claim to authenticity that flattens distinctions among individuals and communities. But even as the self appears to disintegrate, an “I” always remains to testify to its disintegration. For this reason, dissolution performs a primarily critical function by foregrounding an unsurpassable representational tension between sense of self and ecosystem. Each chapter explores a different perspective on this tension as it conflicts with matters of gender and race in works by Edward Abbey, Peter Matthiessen, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Jon Krakauer. Assuming an anti-essentialist stance, all the texts I study acknowledge ecological interconnectivity as a universal condition but maintain the necessity of culturally mediated and individually constructed identity positions from which to recognize that condition.
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Smith, Imogen J. "Materiality and media: Australian literary journals in the post-digital publishing ecology." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2017. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/107725/4/Imogen_Smith_Thesis.pdf.
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Literary journals have always held a shifting and uncertain place in Australian cultural life, and in recent years, technological developments have both destabilised and provided new possibilities for literary journal publishing. While literary journals have a long history of adapting to challenges, material changes in publication media brought about by the introduction of digital publishing technologies have struck deeper than ever before, and prompted questions about journals' survival and relevance. These questions have, as yet, been the subject of little academic inquiry. This project aims to fill this gap in the knowledge of literary publishing in the 'messy', 'post-digital' publishing ecology, which is characterised by change and negotiations between media and their materialities. The research examines the role materiality plays in the literary journal field within this landscape, and asks how literary journal editors exploit the languages of different media to achieve their goals. In responding to these questions, the research employs methodology that combines interviews with Australian literary journal editors and textual analysis, complemented by a contextual review and underpinned by a theoretical framework based on the sociology of literature. The research argues that a combination of economic, technological, and cultural factors has given rise to a 'hierarchy of media' favouring print in the literary journal field. Within this hierarchy, editors' opinions and activities, funding constraints, and changing markets position print as a site of literary and symbolic value. This hierarchy can, however, be called into question when editors' perspectives are mitigated by those of readers and writers. Here, digital and print textualities and literacies are defined by difference, rather than their capacity to communicate literary or symbolic value. This thesis presents findings on the economics and culture of the Australian literary journal field, and the ways literary journal editors communicate through media and their materialities in the 'post-digital' publishing ecology.
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Saborse, Jacob A. "Cultural Breakdown of Learned Avian Alarm Calls: Implications to Management and Conservation." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1321976985.
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McIntyre, C. M. "The poetics of sensory-spatial experience in varieties of leisure consumption and the diversity of cultural ecology." Thesis, Bournemouth University, 2011. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/21000/.
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This thesis attempts to 'map' the dimensions of selected sensory-spatial leisure consumption varieties in support of humanistic drives, or will, towards inner self-development and societal well-being. The investigative focus is primarily upon leisure domains of a liminal or transitional nature, between cultural and commercial consumption; these being of presumed importance in the promotion of increased leisure activities of a cultural and artistic nature as a social 'good' or utopian ideal. Such an orientation, prevalent in post-industrial cultures, confers worth to understanding the dimensions of cultural diversity required, and benefits being sought from variously extant leisure realms. The contribution of the work is reviewed in a 'synthesis' that forms the full 'thesis' in conjunction with the published works themselves. Within the synthesis a poetics methodology is proposed to have emerged towards enhancing meaningful exploration across four broad varieties of culturalcommercial leisure consumption spaces - tourist domains, museum/gallery visits, indulgent/leisure food 'dreamscapes' and music/mobile consumption zones. The findings can be encapsulated within three broad headings, namely that:- (i) Leisure spaces create heightened, personally and/or socially selfenhancing forms of dreamscape consumption than more everyday spaces - as exemplified by differential consumption processes within 'limited risk' environments, artistic-subjective consumer orientations and co-creative consumption spaces that are further related to the concept of 'flow' in human experience; (ii) The attributes of physical varieties of leisure spaces feature qualitatively 'sensed' differences, relative to supporting an effective immersion process within them - having variable mixes of specific, defined contributory characteristics in 'active' or out-in-the-world realms, associated with models derived primarily from the field of environmental geography; and, (iii) There is a threat of a reduced variety of potentially beneficial outin- the-world leisure spaces due to technological substitution by virtual ('passive') alternatives - raising questions of consumer consent over a reduced diversity of cultural ecology in terms of losses in retail and social capital, particularly within localised environments.
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Birchler, Susan. "Ecological Art: Ruth Wallen and Cultural Activism." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2007. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0001969.
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Taylor, Carylanna Kathryn. "Shaping Topographies of Home: A Political Ecology of Migration." Scholar Commons, 2011. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3742.
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Even from afar, transnational migrants influence how their households and communities of origin use natural resources. This study depicts the circulation of people, funds, and ideas within transnational families that extend from a Honduran village to the United States. Developing a "political ecology of migration" approach, I show how these circulations can reshape resource use practices and the socio-economic and bio-physical topographies of emigrants' former homes. The project advances anthropological thought by linking rich literatures on political ecology and transnationalism through a multi-method ethnography of transnational families. The study is also relevant to emigrants, community members, and practitioners interested in incorporating emigrants and remittances into development and conservation projects.
The multi-sited project is anchored in a 380-household Honduran village, located in Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park, and encompasses the movement and practices of its residents and emigrants, including two secondary study sites in the United States. Research began with four focus groups. These formed the basis for 51 household village-wide structured interviews on experiences, practices, and beliefs related to remitting, migration, communication, farming, and natural resource use. I worked closely with four of these families in Honduras and at their emigrant family members' homes in south Florida and Long Island, New York. Through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and diaries tracking remittances and discourse through phone conversations, the multi-sited project traces transnational flows of funds, people, and ideas within the families. The ethnography highlights factors that shape, encourage, or impede emigrants' participation in natural resource management and development activities, as well as unintended socio-economic and environmental consequences of their actions.
Study participants spend remittances not only on more commonly documented health, education, housing, and food, but also on a number of areas that directly impact the socio-natural landscape: farm inputs, cattle-ranching, land, labor, firewood collection, and a village-wide potable water project. How money is earned, sent, and spent is affected by emigrants' perceptions of home - perceptions shaped by phone calls, visits, nostalgia, precarious economic and immigration status, plans to return, and dreams of a better future for themselves and their children. Some environmental impacts are directly related to spending decisions, such as the decision to buy agrochemicals. In other cases, impacts arise from nonmonetary relationships, such as lending land.
The study's political ecology of migration approach shows how emigrants' remitting and communication practices within transnational family networks translate into material, landscape impacting practices in their households and village of origin.
The study contributes to a more nuanced treatment of material practices and places in migration research and provides political ecology with a network based approach to capturing transnational dynamics impacting local livelihoods and landscapes. Ethnographic understanding of these dynamics has the potential to assist researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to take migrants into account in development of interventions and as well as to understand how their practices and beliefs shape and reshape the topographies of their current and original homes.
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Hooper, David Alan. "Cultural and ecological relationships between the Nisqually Indian Tribe and plants of Mount Rainier National Park." Thesis, University of Montana, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3728557.
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Throughout the history of the National Park Service, the question of whether Native American’s still have rights to traditionally used natural resources found within park lands has been debated. This debate is largely held in political, legal, and philosophical arenas, but there are ethnographic and ecological questions that need to be addressed in order for policy makers to make informed decisions. Addressing these questions also provides insight into how cultures develop sustainable harvesting practices. One of the parks that has been addressing traditional plant harvesting is Mount Rainier National Park, which has been working with the Nisqually Indian Tribe to develop a collecting agreement that would allow members of the Tribe to harvest twelve species of plants. In this dissertation, I ask two questions: first, how do members of the Nisqually Tribe traditionally harvest these plants? My other question is: what are the biological effects of harvesting beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax (Pursh) Nutt.) and pipsissewa ( Chimaphila umbellata (R. BR.) Spreng,), and peeling bark of western redcedar (Thuja plicata Donn. Ex D. Don)? I used a combination of ethnographic and ecological methods to answer these questions. Based on the metrics I used, the Nisqually practices do not decrease the abundance of beargrass and pipsissewa. The traditional harvest of cedar bark does not change the tree’s secondary growth rate. The lack of measureable change in these three species is a product of limiting the amount of biomass harvested to within the plants’ range of tolerance to damage. Results suggest that the Nisqually’s methods of harvesting are based upon traditional ecological knowledge. The results of this research will help Mount Rainier managers and the Nisqually Tribe to develop policy that allows the Tribe to utilize these plants while not interfering with the park’s mission.
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Horvath, Wilson Agnaldo. "Um retrato da trajetória de vida de professores egressos das camadas populares à luz do pensamento complexo." Universidade Nove de Julho, 2017. http://bibliotecatede.uninove.br/handle/tede/1661.
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This research presents an analysis of the trajectory of four professors with a Master´s degree from the Brazilian popular strata that teach at two private universities in the city of São Paulo. The objective of the study was to understand how these subjects managed to re-significate the oppressive elements present in their life histories, especially in childhood and youth, and transcend a cruel and merciless reality, becoming university professors. The methodological procedure used in the interviews was the oral history and narratives were assessed by two main concepts present in the Complex Thought written by Edgar Morin, the Cultural Imprinting and Action Ecology. The results confirm culture as constitutive and intrinsic part of human nature. The individual is marked by the social and cultural context in which he lives. The subjects of research were crossed by modernity, capitalism and its ills, by the slave-like and violent past of Brazilian historiography and patriarchalism. Nonetheless, they have managed, nevertheless, to advance and grow personally and professionally. It is concluded that, although there is a strong conditioning of the cultural elements, over determination can be subverted, since there is always the opening for chance, for the imponderable, for the new, allowing the subjects to resize their lives and transpose situations from disrepute, dishonor and debasement towards success and achievement of goals and purposes.
Esta pesquisa presenta un análisis de la trayectoria de cuatro profesores con título de Maestría, venidos de las capas populares brasileñas que imparten clases en dos universidades privadas en la ciudad de São Paulo. El objetivo del trabajo fue comprender cómo estos sujetos lograron dar nuevo significado a los elementos tiranos presentes en sus historias de vida, principalmente en la niñez y juventud, y transcender una realidad cruel e implacable, volviéndose profesores universitarios. El procedimiento metodológico utilizado en las entrevistas fue la historia oral y las narrativas fueron apreciadas por dos conceptos principales presentes en el Pensamiento Complejo elaborado por Edgar Morin, lo de Imprinting Cultural y de Ecología de la Acción. Los resultados confirman la cultura como parte constituyente e intrínseca a la naturaleza humana. El individuo es aplastado por el contexto social y cultural donde vive. Los sujetos de esa pesquisa fueron atravesados por la modernidad, por el capitalismo y sus males, por el pasado de esclavitud y violento de la historiografía brasileña y por el patriarcalismo. Sin embargo, lograron, a pesar de esto, avanzar y crecer personal y profesionalmente. Se concluye que, aunque haya un fuerte condicionamiento de los elementos culturales, el determinismo histórico puede ser subvertido, pues siempre hay apertura hacia el acaso, el improbable, en dirección de lo novedoso, posibilitando a los sujetos la reorganización de sus vidas y la superación de situaciones de desconfianza, deshonra y humillación rumbo al éxito y a la conquista de metas y propósitos.
Esta pesquisa apresenta uma análise da trajetória de quatro professores com título de Mestre, oriundos das camadas populares brasileira que lecionam em duas universidades particulares da cidade de São Paulo. O objetivo do trabalho foi entender como estes sujeitos conseguiram ressignificar os elementos opressores presentes em suas histórias de vida, principalmente na infância e juventude, e transcender uma realidade cruel e impiedosa, tornando-se professores universitários. O procedimento metodológico utilizado nas entrevistas foi a história oral e as narrativas foram apreciadas por dois conceitos principais presentes no Pensamento Complexo elaborado por Edgar Morin, o de Imprinting Cultural e de Ecologia da Ação. Os resultados confirmam a cultura como parte constitutiva e intrínseca da natureza humana. O indivíduo é marcado pelo contexto social e cultural em que vive. Os sujeitos de pesquisa foram atravessados pela modernidade, pelo capitalismo e suas mazelas, pelo passado escravocrata e violento da historiografia brasileira e pelo patriarcalismo. Todavia, conseguiram, apesar disto, avançar e crescer pessoal e profissionalmente. Conclui-se que, embora haja um forte condicionamento dos elementos culturais, a sobredeterminação pode ser subvertida, pois há sempre a abertura para o acaso, para o imponderável, para o novo, possibilitando aos sujeitos o redimensionamento de suas vidas e a transposição de situações de descrédito, desonra e aviltamento rumo ao sucesso e à conquista de metas e propósitos.
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Teherani, Kroenner Parto, and Tung Hoa Dang. "Human ecology and gender: a framework to discover natural and cultural resources with climate change accommodation: Research article." Technische Universität Dresden, 2014. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A29100.
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Based on the human ecological pyramid described by Robert Ezra Park, the founder of Human Ecology at Chicago School of Sociology around 1920 (Park 1952; visualized by Teherani-Krönner 1992), Duncan developed his model for comprehensive research on changes in human societies. He believed that scientific analysis had to include the interplay and interaction of the following components: population (P), organization (O), environment (E) and technology (T). This research frame – POET - became known as the Ecological Complex visualized as a rhombus (Duncan 1959; Teherani-Krönner 1992; Teherani-Krönner 2014). Such an approach needs inter- and transdisciplinary research methodologies. Combining this human ecological model with theoretical and conceptual approaches in gender studies (Boserup 1970, Teherani-Krönner 2014) will open a new perspective to gender sensitive environmental researches. As the UNDP has stated: “human development if not engendered, is endangered”. This simple but far-reaching message of Human Development Report (UNDP 1995) should be taken more seriously into account in theoretical and practical work (gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting). The gender gap (FAO 2011) will be a roadblock to sustainable environmental development (Jacobson 1992) under climate change conditions. Therefore the POET model needs to be engendered. The paper will present a new concept and a methodological framework to discover natural and cultural resources with regard to climate change accommodation.Trên cơ sở tháp sinh thái nhân văn có lồng ghép giới được xây dựng bởi Robert Ezra Park, nhà sáng lập ngành học về sinh thái nhân văn tại trường Khoa học xã hội Chicago vào khoảng năm 1920 (Park 1952; do Teherani-Krönner thể hiện năm 1992), Duncan đã phát triển một mô hình nghiên cứu toàn diện về sự thay đổi trong xã hội loài người. Ông cho rằng các phân tích khoa học cần phải bao gồm sự tương tác qua lại giữa các thành tố sau: dân số (P), tổ chức (O), môi trường (E), và công nghệ (T). Khung nghiên cứu này được gọi tắt là POET, được biết tới với tên gọi tổ hợp sinh thái, và được thể hiện bằng hình ảnh của một hình thoi (Duncan 1959; Teherani-Krönner 1992; Teherani-Krönner 2014). Cách tiếp cận này cần phải sử dụng các phương pháp nghiên cứu liên ngành và đa ngành. Kết hợp mô hình sinh thái nhân văn với các cách tiếp cận về lý thuyết và định nghĩa trong các nghiên cứu về giới (Boserup 1970, Teherani-Krönner 2014) sẽ mở ra một hướng nghiên cứu mới đối với các nghiên cứu về môi trường có liên quan tới nhạy cảm giới. Tổ chức Phát triển LHQ (UNDP) đã nêu rõ: “Nếu sự phát triển của con người không tính đến vấn đề giới, sự phát triển đó sẽ gặp trở ngại”. Thông điệp đơn giản nhưng hàm chứa này được nêu trong báo cáo: Phát triển con người của UNDP (1995) cần được xem xét một cách nghiêm túc hơn trong lý thuyết và thực tiễn (lồng ghép giới và lập ngân sách có tính đến vấn đề giới). Khoảng cách về giới (FAO 2011) sẽ là một cản trở trên con đường phát triển môi trường bền vững (Jacobson 1992) trong các điều kiện biến đổi khí hậu hiện tại. Do đó, mô hình POET cần được xem xét cả từ góc độ giới. Bài viết đưa ra một khái niệm mới và một khung phương pháp logic nhằm phát hiện các nguồn lực tự nhiên và văn hóa trong bối cảnh biến đổi khí hậu.
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Nilsson, Maurice Seiji Tomioka. "Mobilidade Yanomami e interculturalidade: ecologia histórica, alteridade e resistência cultural." Universidade de São Paulo, 2018. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8161/tde-01102018-164453/.
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A mobilidade dos Yanomami tem papel decisivo na construção da paisagem amazônica ao produzir clareiras a serem regeneradas após cada mudança de residência. Esse processo não deve ser reduzido apenas ao seu aspecto de ecologia histórica, pois está intimamente ligado à organização social horizontalizada, orientada pelas alianças intercomunitárias. Nesse estudo é proposto um mapeamento das trajetórias de alguns grupos Yanomami, no Toototopi, Homoxi, Marauiá e os resistentes ao contato, Moxihatetemapë. Nos três primeiros, onde o posto de contato exerce uma atração pelo diferencial de potencialidades de troca, recuperei em minha experiência de quase uma década nesses lugares, para investigar a intencionalidade dessa mobilidade e de sua continuidade perante a novidade representada pelo posto. Os Yanomami souberam manter uma relação pendular de aproximação e afastamento dos postos de contato permanente, utilizando-se de segundas residências, próximas e longe do posto, do rio, aproveitando o que lhes interessava na relação de contato e recusando os elementos que pudessem levar a um sistema colonial ou a uma perversão das relações sociais com a criação de algum mecanismo coercitivo; isso se fez mediante a uma atualização sobre a alteridade, uma antropologia reversa, enquanto os estrangeiros ainda eram minoritários. Percebendo a intencionalidade estratégica desse ato, cuja recusa radical é a resistência ao contato dos Moxihatetemapë. Há uma relação prioritária com a construção (e defesa) da paisagem amazônica, expressa na cosmopolítica de Davi Kopenawa.The mobility of the Yanomami plays a decisive role in the construction of the Amazon landscape by producing clearings to be regenerated after their moving among residences. This process should not be reduced only to its historical ecology, since it is closely linked to the social organization horizontality, regulated by inter-community alliances. In this study I mapped the trajectories of some Yanomami groups in Toototopi, Homoxi, Marauiá and Moxihatetemapë, the latter resistant to contact. In the other three, the \"attraction post\" established by the government causes both an attraction and a resistance given its exchange potential. My experience of almost a decade in these posts investigating the intentionality of indigeneous mobility and its continuity is reviewed. The Yanomami have invented intelligent ways to maintain a pendular relation to be near and distant from these permanent contact sites, using second residences, near and far from health services, by the river or taking advantage of what interested them in their contact while refusing the elements that could lead to a colonial system or a perversion of social relations due to the creation of some coercive mechanism; this was done through an update on alterity, a reverse anthropology, until foreigners were still in minority. The strategic intentionality of this processes of radical refusal mirrors the resistance to contact of the Moxihatetemapë. I therefore advocate a relation between this and the construction (and defense) of the Amazonian landscape, expressed in the cosmopolitics of Davi Kopenawa.
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Sunderland, Sophie Monica May. "Representations of the secular : neutrality, spirituality and mourning in Australia and Canadian cultural politics." University of Western Australia. English and Cultural Studies Discipline Group, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0177.
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[Truncated abstract] This thesis explores the ways in which 'the secular' is represented in contemporary Australian participatory art, screen, and print cultures. Secularisms are currently the subject of analysis in a broad range of disciplines within the humanities, and this thesis intervenes upon the field by focusing on the cultural politics of representations of embodied, spatialized secularisms. The secular is commonly defined in opposition to the 'religious,' and can also be extrapolated to the division of public and private spaces. Thus, by considering the occlusions and violences inherent in the ways bodies negotiate and are constructed through space, this thesis argues for the fluidity and porosity of these oppositions. By drawing from Janet Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini's notion of secularisms, understood as specific, situated narratives of the secular, as well as Talal Asad's and William E. Connolly's conceptions of the secular, this thesis identifies 'neutrality' and 'spirituality' as two key narratives of the secular around which questions of language, embodiment, affect, and subjectivity are set in motion. Here, a regime of representation that constructs 'religious' subjects as outsiders to an imagined Australian national identity is critiqued and reconsidered in terms of anxieties about remembering and living with difference and loss. Rather than defining 'the secular,' this thesis seeks to maintain focus on the context and contingencies of enunciation. Thus, firstly the conflation of secularism with 'neutrality' and 'objectivity' is explored through a discussion of 'defining' secularisms, alongside critique of representations of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). By identifying the ways in which this 'everyday' text signals exclusions through the privileging of British Protestant Christianity in its contents, colonial history and usage, I consider how 'neutrality' is made contextually and contingently. ... . Here, secular mourning is a suggestive concept that foregrounds 'affective economies' of loss, grief, and mourning alongside openness to the ways in which identity is made and lived relationally, and differently. Given that the representations of Australian secularisms I identify are made by locating 'the religious' elsewhere, this thesis reflects upon this process by including a contingent comparative study of representations of Canadian secularisms. Participatory art including the Secular Confession Booth (2007) in Toronto and The Booth (2008) in Perth, news media debates about secularism in Ontario and
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Tucker, Catherine May 1961. "The political ecology of a Lenca Indian community in Honduras: Communal forests, state policy, and processes of transformation." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290609.
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The dissertation investigates communal forest use and management in the municipio (county) of La Campa, Honduras, and the multi-leveled interrelationships that influence ongoing transformations in the forests. The work takes a political ecology perspective, thus it evaluates the interrelationships between local, national and international processes that have shaped historical and current forest and land use patterns in the municipio. State policies have constituted an important factor in encouraging forms of forest management; the communitarian tradition imposed on Lenca Indian communities by the Spaniards following the Conquest provided a context which the people adapted to their own situation and propagated into recent years. Low population density, a relatively homogeneous populace, the pattern of subsistence agriculture, limited state interference and minimal interaction with national markets apparently contributed to the viability of common property management and the survival of forests into the present. The local context has changed in recent decades with a growing population, increased market involvement, socioeconomic differentiation, and state policies that undermine communal forms of forest management. Domination by the state forestry development institution (COHDEFOR) during the 1970s and 1980s led to logging, forest degradation, and disruption of traditional forms of forest management. A majority of the population eventually organized to oust COHDEFOR and prohibit market-oriented timber exploitation within the municipio, but communal forest management has suffered a number of shortcomings in the aftermath of COHDEFOR's departure. At present, the situation indicates an unsustainable level of forest exploitation and a gradual transformation of communal forests into private holdings. New national legislation regarding agriculture and forestry encourages the privatization of communal lands, while international market forces and economic development initiatives favor the production of agricultural export crops, such as coffee. The analysis considers the factors and interrelationships that inhibit sustainable use of communal forests in La Campa; it also recognizes the benefits and difficulties that relate to common property forest management within the current context.
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Berndt, Andreas. "Der Kult der Drachenkönige (longwang) im China der späten Kaiserzeit." Doctoral thesis, Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, 2016. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-209154.
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Die Dissertation hat zu ihrem Gegenstand den Kult der Drachenkönige, longwang, im China der späten Kaiserzeit, namentlich der Dynastien der Ming und vor allem der Qing, genommen. Bei den Drachenkönigen handelt es sich um funktionale Gottheiten, welche nahezu im gesamten chinesischen Kaiserreich verehrt wurden und deren wesentliche Aufgabe in der Gewährung und Kontrolle von Niederschlägen verstanden wurde. Darüber hinaus konnten und haben sie in regionalen Variationen noch über weitere Funktion verfügt, welche jedoch alle mit dem Element Wasser in Verbindung standen.
Das Ziel dieser Studie war es, für den genannten Zeitraum darzulegen, welche prägenden Einflussfaktoren auf die Vorstellung von den Drachenkönigen und den mit diesen verbundenem Kult einwirkten. Es wurden die Faktoren herausgearbeitet, welche maßgeblich dazu beitrugen, den Kult der Drachenkönige zu verbreiten und welche für die konkrete Ausgestaltung der Inhalte, Glaubensvorstellungen und Praktiken dieses Kults besonders auf lokaler Ebene als ursächlich angenommen werden können.
Da man die Drachenkönige aufgrund ihrer Hauptfunktion, nämlich der Kontrolle der Niederschläge, treffend als Naturgottheit charakterisieren kann, war die Arbeit, inspiriert von den Überlegungen der sogenannten cultural ecology, von der These ausgegangen, dass der Kult der Drachenkönige in seinen regionalen und lokalen Ausprägungen hauptsächlich durch die jeweils vorherrschenden geographischen und hier besonders die klimatischen (und meteorologischen) sowie topographischen Umweltbedingungen geprägt wurde.
Zur umfassenden Beantwortung der oben genannten Fragestellung beruht die Arbeit auf einer Kombination mehrerer Quellen und der zur jeweiligen Auswertung geeigneten Methoden. Dabei zieht sich durch die gesamte Arbeit ein Vergleich zweier Regionen des spätkaiserzeitlichen Chinas. Es handelt sich dabei um die Regionen von Jinzhong im Zentrum der nordchinesischen Binnenprovinz Shanxi und von Jiangnan südlich des Unterlaufs des Flusses Changjiang, das zum Teil die im südlicheren China gelegene Küstenprovinz Jiangsu umfasste. Beide Regionen unterscheiden sich in Bezug auf ihre topograpischen und klimatischen Gegebenheiten deutlich voneinander. Die Quellengrundlage, auf welche sich dieser Vergleich im Wesentlichen stützt, sind zum einen Lokalbeschreibungen, fangzhi oder difangzhi, sowie Quellen der spätkaiserzeitlichen xiaoshuo-Literatur (vor allem zhiguai und biji) und moderner Volkserzählungen, minjian gushi. Die methodische Vorgehensweise spiegelt sich auch im Aufbau der Arbeit gemäß ihren Hauptkapiteln wider. Darüber hinaus gibt sie einen Überblick über die historische Entwicklung des Kults der Drachenkönige sowie die bestimmenden geographischen Grundlagen des spätkaiserzeitlichen Chinas. Ein ausführlicher Anhang ist der Arbeit beigefügt.
Die grundlegenden Ergebnisse lassen sich überblicksartig folgendermaßen zusammenfassen:
- Die Drachenkönige sind keine originären chinesischen Gottheiten. Vielmehr entstand die Vorstellung über sie und damit ihr Kult aus einer Vermischung des indisch-buddhistischen Glaubens an nāgarāja genannte Schlangengottheiten sowie der chinesischen Vorstellung von Drachen, long, ohne dabei letztere zu verdrängen oder zu ersetzen.
- Darüber hinaus konnte festgestellt werden, dass die Drachenkönige als funktionale Gottheiten zu verstehen sind. Das soll heißen, dass ihr Kult und dessen Inhalte ebenso wie ihre Bedeutung für die Gesellschaft der späten Kaiserzeit und die Ursachen dafür, dass sie als Gottheiten und daher als heilige Wesen betrachtet und verehrt wurden, darin begründet waren, dass sie eine wichtige Funktion erfüllten, welche eng mit den Lebensbedürfnissen der Menschen dieser Zeit verbunden war.
- Der hauptsächliche Inhalt des Kults der Drachenkönig, wie er vor allem in der Region Jinzhong hervortrat, lag in ihrer Funktion als Bringer und Kontolleure der Niederschläge begründet. Jedoch erfuhren sie darüber hinaus eine funktionale Erweiterung und Ausdifferenzierung, welche sich vor allem in der Region Jiangnan zeigte und auf die Anpassung des Kultes an die vorherrschenden lokalen Gegebenheiten in Hinblick auf Topographie und Klima zurückzuführen war.
- Gleichwohl in der Arbeit geographische Einflussfaktoren für die Untersuchung des Kults der Drachenkönige von besonderem Interesse waren, zeigte sich doch deutlich, dass diese allein nicht genügten, um die Inhalte dieses Kults und die damit verbundenen Glaubensvorstellungen und Praktiken zu erklären. Dies betraf sowohl die Betrachtung einer allgemeinen, gesamtchinesischen Ebene als auch die hier angestrebte lokale Perspektive. Statt daher den Blick durch unzulässige monokausale Erklärungsansätze zu verengen, muss die Vielzahl der natürlichen wie auch anthropogenen Einflussfaktoren auf die Ausprägung des Kults der Drachenkönige betont werden. Natürliche beziehungsweise geographische Faktoren, wozu in diesem Falle vor allem Topographie und Klima zu zählen sind, waren jedoch in Hinblick auf den Kult der Drachenkönige von besonders prägender Bedeutung.
- Schließlich konnte noch festgestellt werden, dass den Drachenkönigen ein sehr ambivalenter Charakter innewohnte, da diese sowohl als segensreich als auch als schädlich erachtet werden konnten. Auch hierin spiegelt sich die natürliche Umwelt der Menschen des spätkaiserzeitlichen Chinas wider, welche einerseits reiche Ernten liefern konnte, andererseits auch von schweren Dürren und Überschwemmungen geprägt war. Die Drachenkönige brachten gemäß der verbreiteten Vorstellungen den notwendigen und rechtzeitigen Regen für eine erfolgreiche Landwirtschaft, doch waren sie gemäß den herrschenden Vorstellungen gleichzeitig für Dürren und Überschwemmungen sowie die daraus resultierenden Ernteausfälle und Hungersnöte verantwortlich.
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Faye, Jean. "Farming and Meaning at the Desert's Edge: Can Serer Indigenous Agricultural and Cultural Systems Coevolve Towards Sustainability?" Thesis, University of Oregon, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/23762.
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Indigenous agroforestry systems, or the intentional use of trees and livestock in croplands, have a long history in the West African Sahel. In many locations, they have long contributed to food security and climate change resilience. But a century or more of cash cropping and use of modern agricultural inputs and tools has meant that no such agroforestry systems remain intact, and many are extinct, including in west-central Senegal, where the Serer historic mixed farming and pastoral strategies previously provided resilience to cyclical droughts and colonial-era agricultural and economic change but are now neither intact nor extinct. This study examines the current state of Serer agroecosystems, considering who uses what elements of the old systems, who has introduced what elements of nonindigenous farming systems, and whether this combination of local and imported farming systems is a coherent and sustainable fusion, or an incoherent pastiche leading toward agrarian collapse. I argue that, depending on how farmers integrate new models with the technical and cultural elements of the old system, a coherent fusion may result, with positive implications for sustainability, climate change adaptation, soil replenishment, crop yield, and livelihood resilience.
This mixed-methods study draws upon literature from cultural ecology, agroecology, socioecological resilience, and history to interpret farmers’ accounts of changing agrarian practices. The study links ethnographic findings to empirical analysis of soil conditions and land use change. With these tools, my research sheds new light on the evolving role of local techniques and knowledge in the struggle to maintain agricultural productivity, as Sahelian communities confront soil fertility depletion, food insecurity, and climate change. The study finds that farming communities in this region can strengthen their livelihood resilience and enhance crop yields if they update elements of the well-adapted historic farming system, employ new techniques and tools, and in the process, forge coherent farming systems that still make cultural sense to farmers.10000-01-01
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Bourette, Cari. "Using Archetypal Metaphor to Analyze Cultural Landscape: A Chlilean Case Study." TopSCHOLAR®, 2009. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/56.
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In our increasingly complex and interactive world, it becomes ever more difficult to isolate and map the cultural identity of any given region, as bounded and contained cultural places have become a rare occurrence. To further complicate the matter, perspectives, loyalties, and identities shift with time, and appear to shift with circumstance. While cultural conflict per se was not the subject of this study, the ability to quantify differing cultural profiles in one location relative to another may be the beginning of the development of a tool for assessing degrees of difference in neighboring regions, and thus diagnosing the potential for conflict escalation. The Compass System, a holistic model that uses eight archetypal categories to observe and evaluate complex systems, was used for this study. In this exploratory study, 33 restaurants in 5 cities in Chile were rated in these eight categories as perceived by a team of outsider observers. The predominant qualities of each city sampled, determined solely from the sampling of its restaurants, did match, in a general sense, qualities of the city that were otherwise observable. This matching indicates that a tool such as the Compass System can be used to gather a collective regional profile from small sampling, such as an area’s restaurants. Potential uses for further research and development could include conflict management and assessing risk for social instability or escalation of violence.
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Tisdale, Shelby Jo-Anne 1950. "Cocopah identity and cultural survival: Indian gaming and the political ecology of the lower Colorado River delta, 1850-1996." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282348.
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This study examines how the Cocopah maintain and express a sense of continuity with their past and how, in today's world, they use their understanding of the past to maintain their cultural identity in the present. An ethnohistorical reconstruction of Cocopah identity from the early period of contact explores the ways in which the political ecology of the Colorado River have influenced Cocopah identity. In approaching Cocopah identity from a political ecology perspective, it is argued that the federal bureaucracy's criteria for tribal status and the recognition of individuals as belonging to particular tribes are based on the commonly held notion of Indian tribes as being clearly distinguished, unchanging cultural entities occupying exclusively bounded tribal territories in stable ecosystems. Political ecology, in contrast, provides anthropology with a dynamic analytical framework in which to understand culture as adaptive systems. Political ecology provides a practical approach in which the interface between history and the dynamic complexities of diverse cultures within a local-global economic context can be examined. I add ethnicity theory to this political ecology framework in order to examine how these historical processes operate at the local level and how they affect Cocopah identity and cultural survival. The coping strategies that the Cocopahs applied to the ecological transformations of the lower Colorado River delta throughout the past 150 years have played a significant role in shaping present-day Cocopah identity. Recent economic development, provided by Indian gaming, has given the Cocopahs the opportunity to revitalize, redefine and perpetuate their cultural identity through the process of planning and developing a tribal museum and cultural center complex on the West Cocopah Reservation in southwestern Arizona.