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Ethnobiology and applied anthropology: rapprochement of the academic with the practical
Author(s) -
Sillitoe Paul
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00276.x
Subject(s) - ethnobiology , traditional knowledge , indigenous , sociology , ecological anthropology , engineering ethics , environmental ethics , epistemology , ecology , anthropology , history , engineering , philosophy , contemporary art , anthropology of art , performance art , biology , art history
Ethnobiology has long featured both academic and practical aspects, with its component disciplines tending to favour one or the other, such that anthropology focuses on classificatory and cognitive issues whereas botany concentrates on issues of resource use. Current trends within development, notably interest in indigenous knowledge that has emerged with participatory approaches, to which ethnobiology has contributed significantly, promise a new synthesis of the academic and practical. This paper describes five ways in which we can think of applied ethnobiology in this context, and illustrates each with examples drawn from natural resources management. The first application is assistance in the introduction of exogenous technology, facilitating technical interventions that are central to many development programmes, enabling a better match to cultural tradition, and promoting meaningful participation. The second application is the facilitating of local solutions to development, advocating the use of local knowledge to further development, asking what insider knowledge may have to recommend in advancing development in the face of outside influences. The third application is the furthering of cultural diffusion, seeking to establish if knowledge and practices in one place have relevance elsewhere, offering an innovative approach to development by drawing upon anthropology's cross‐cultural comparative tradition in new ways. The fourth application is the advancing of the commercial use of knowledge, conducting research to find intelligence that may be marketable, even new to science, such bio‐prospecting relating to the contentious issue of protecting intellectual property rights. Finally, ethnobiology may be used to support alternative development, promote the formulation of alternative views, and critique development as a capitalist imposition; indigenous activism with respect to international conventions indicates the shape of alternative agendas.