Poster Session

As climates change, environmental resources for subsistence are altered. Human responses include social changes that feedback into desert vegetation. Anthropogenic activity alters the vegetation present in the plant assemblages. This study tests the hypothesizes that there are vegetation changes within the Dhofar, Oman over the past 3,500 BP and that the assemblages can capture anthropogenic indicators.

From 45 hyrax middens samples, I extracted identifiable macrofossils. I used incident light microscopy and a digital camera to compare specimens with modern reference. By identifying the fragmented macrobotanical and comparing them to known anthropogenic plant indicators, I will assess the past vegetation and assembles’ ability to identify anthropogenic effects. 

My analysis finds there is no large structural change with the vegetation but change within the composition of taxa. The comparisons between proxy records suggest that the vegetation developed for stable arid climates, showing the presence of human activity. 

An important component of biocultural conservation is ensuring the voices of Indigenous Peoples are heard by those with the power to influence change. Here we present community position statements as tools for amplifying the perspectives of Indigenous communities. We highlight a community-based project conducted with the Maijuna and Kichwa of the Peruvian Amazon, from which a multilingual position statement was developed. The statement leverages Indigenous and Western knowledge systems and speaks out against a proposed road project threatening Maijuna and Kichwa ancestral lands and lifeways. Through this case study, we explore the power of position statements to achieve contextually-rooted, socially just outcomes in biocultural conservation processes and products. Given the potential for community position statements to empower communities, bridge knowledge systems, inspire collective action, and defend Indigenous cultures and lifeways, we feel they should play an important role in biocultural conservation and ethnobiological research and advocacy.

The story of Homo sapiens and the genus Canis constitute some of the most evolutionarily unique and fascinating polyspecific relationships in the animal kingdom. The most discussed is that of Homo and some now extinct species of Old World wolves, who cheated extinction (~40-20,000 YBP) by becoming dogs. In an entirely different way, the destiny of a resilient New World canid, Canis latrans, the coyote, seems to have also been irrevocably bound to that of humans for at least ~15 Kya. Despite over a century of human persecution and the “lethal control” of millions of coyotes implemented by federal and state bodies, their populations continue to expand, and they are now found in every major N. American city. This situation provides researchers with the unique opportunity to study a wild canid that not only defied extermination but thrives in fragmented anthropogenic settings and may improve urban biodiversity.

Hunting is a key subsistence strategy and source of income and food security for rural communities throughout the world. Hunters often gift game meat to their friends or family in return for reciprocation, or other social benefits. We used interviews to assess how hunters in an Amazonian Indigenous community navigate the economic, subsistence, and social aspects of hunting. We found that hunters typically sell the most valuable and preferred species whole except for the head, gift better cuts of less-preferred species and consume the lowest quality portions of non-preferred species. We conclude that hunters use species and portions of carcasses differentially to maximize profit and food security and fit the social norms of the community. Understanding the social systems surrounding wild game use in rural Amazonian communities provides insight into how the loss of wild mammals could influence food security and social relationships.

In this poster, we present the results of analysis of the paleobotanical collection from Nim li Punit (AD 150/250 to 830+), Toledo District, Belize. These samples were collected from Structure 50, a Late Classic (AD 700 to 830+) elite domestic context. The eighth century is a time of growth and prosperity at Nim li Punit, seeing major construction efforts and seven carved monuments. What were elite diet and lifeways like during this time? Preliminary results indicate that the diet of the inhabitants of Structure 50 was similar to that of contemporary elite Maya, with an emphasis on local resources. The sample also contains presence of nightshades used as luxury condiments, purgatives, and/or hallucinogens. Future excavations at Nim li Punit will expand our dataset, showing how diets varied from the Early Classic to the Late Classic, and within the site itself.

The present study was initiated with an aim to identify traditional healers who are using medicinal plants as medicine among the Maldharies in Barda Sanctuary, Gujarat, India  The collected data was analysed through use value (UV), informant consensus factor (F_ic) and fidelity level (FL).  A total of 51 species of ethnomedicinal plants distributes in 47 genera belonging to 31 families were identified as commonly used ethnomedicinal plants by Maldhari traditional healers in Barda Sanctuary for the treatment of 39 types of ailments. The ailments were categorized into 12 ailment categories. As a result of the present study we can recommend the plants Maytenus emarginata, Mitragyna parvifolia, Alstonia scholaris, Phyllanthus emblica, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Pterocarpus marsupium and Mimusops elengi (with high UV), Zizyphus nummularia, Acacia chundra, Carissa congesta, Syzygium cumini and Tamarindus indica (with high FL) for further ethnopharmacological studies for the discovery of potential new drugs.

Indigenous eco-cultural revitalization is increasingly recognized as integral to producing sustainable outcomes in restoration ecology and climate adaptation. However, Indigenous lifeways are rarely incorporated into restoration ecology research. Using reciprocity and critical physical geography as a foundation, researchers from the University of Washington are co-developing a research framework with partners from the Karuk Tribe that centers Indigenous worldviews and environmental justice into river restoration ecology. We are applying this framework to a pressing conservation issue--dam removal and riparian vegetation restoration in the Klamath River basin. My part in this larger effort is to investigate the impacts of community stewardship on vegetation change over time at a key cultural site. Here, I will report on the initial phases of this project, including collaborative research development with Karuk cultural practitioners as well as spatial analysis and experimental methods that focus on cultural use, knowledge co-generation, and Karuk self-determination.

Wood smoke contains many pollutants (e.g., particulate matter, formaldehyde, benzene, acrolein, and hydrocarbons) that can damage health when inhaled. With wood as the primary fuel source, smoke from indoor cooking over traditional open fires is a leading contributor to health problems in the developing world. To address these effects, vented stoves were introduced as a means of improving indoor air quality to therefore improve the health of rural Guatemalans. Although studies show positive health improvements with vented stove usage, not all demonstrate statistically significant results when compared to controls. Given this, why is it that stove intervention studies have not demonstrated more pronounced effects for reducing health problems when indoor air pollutants are cut to a fraction of the levels measured for cooking over traditional open fires? This paper addresses the literature, explores potential reasons that stove interventions may not do enough, and recommends a holistic approach for further action.

Archaeobotanical and ethnobotanical information can be used in a variety of ways to strengthen cultural identity, improve human health and well-being, identify and re-learn traditional ecological knowledge, and inform modern restoration ecology and land management decisions. In the northwest region of North America, however, the carbonized remains in paleobotanical assemblages are difficult to identify. Here we share an online website and database designed to document and share ethnobotanical knowledge and paleobotanical identification criteria. The website is designed using the Murkurtu platform, which is specifically built around sharing and protecting traditional knowledge across social groups and preserving multivocal epistemologies. Users can add protocols which grant various levels of access to digital materials and adapted to local communities’ needs. The ethnobotanical information in this digital “work in progress” has the potential to contribute to future archaeological and interdisciplinary investigations as well as human-plant relationships in the past and in the future.

The Bodo tribe of Assam uses unique knowledge that contributes value to wildlife conservation. Hunting is also existing in their culture but it is in a modest way. It describes the perspective of Bodo people in wildlife management and wildlife conservation at south-western habitats of Manas National Park. This study finds the question of how and why the community protects wildlife. The Bodos are habitat surrounding Manas national park and taking care of wildlife indigenously. As a result, the community cultural belief system indirectly contributes value to the broader objectives of biodiversity and wildlife conservation. Their belief, indigenous knowledge, taboos and rituals do not have front line conservationists’ characteristics or scientific methodologies. But the community indicates the softer mechanism of wildlife conservation and management within their understanding. It is an ethnography study to understand the relation of the Bodo community, their practices and wildlife.

Globally, archaeological sites tend to be associated with plant communities that reflect past land use practices. On the Northwest Coast of North America, forest gardens, anthropogenic legacy ecosystems, are characterized by high concentrations of perennial fruit and nut trees and shrubs, herbaceous root food crops, and medicines. For the Sts’ailes Nation in southern British Columbia, such ecosystem legacies are evident around ancient settlements nestled between sloughs along the Harrison River. In collaboration with a Sts’ailes eco-cultural restoration project, we explore the historical ecology of one such area by using a variety of methods including vegetation surveys, soil charcoal, GPS mapping, historical air photos, tree coring, and interviews with Sts'ailes knowledge-holders. Our results show that culturally important tree species are at least 130 years old, while archaeological evidence indicates that people have occupied this spot for at least 2500 years. Interviews demonstrate connections to place, and management which continues today.

Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island have sustained themselves since time immemorial through thriving local place-based food systems. There is an emerging movement of Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) initiatives taking place in Grand River Territory, located in present-day southwestern Ontario, Canada. Indigenous participants engaged in local IFS initiatives were interviewed (n=7) to explore how the urban environment impacts local IFS efforts and discussed opportunities to strengthen this work. Thematic analysis revealed IFS initiatives centered around Land-based knowledge and relationships. The urban environment impacts access to land, which can pose as a challenge for IFS initiatives to flourish. Despite this, land and food-based practices are being implemented in the city to grow, harvest, process and distribute food in community through acts of reciprocity that honour relationships and responsibility to the land.  These efforts demonstrate a pathway towards Indigenous self-determination and resurgence in colonized spaces.