Philosophy of Ethnobiology

I will explore the partial overlaps framework between traditional and academic knowledge in a fishing community in northeast Brazil. Through a mixed-methods study involving triad tasks and ethnobiological models, I analyze local categories and knowledge about salient ethnospecies of fish. Overlaps between traditional and academic knowledge provide common ground for transdisciplinary collaboration, while their partiality requires reflection about epistemological and ontological differences. Partialities also demand a reflective political positioning of a researcher with regard to the self-determination of the community. By distinguishing between different forms of partiality, we show how knowledge of artisanal fishers can complement academic researchers’ knowledge, but can also bring about tensions that need to be addressed through intercultural dialogue. By integrating a general philosophical framework of partial overlaps with a mixed-methods study on fishers’ knowledge, we show how ethnobiology can contribute to theoretically-reflective and empirically-grounded transdisciplinary practices.

Ethnobiology is a multidisciplinary science which includes fields such as ecology, evolution, political ecology, traditional medicine, and indigenous rights, to mention a few. At the core lies the study of those complex relations and dynamics of social-ecological systems in which local knowledges is central. However, this intrinsic multidisciplinary nature of ethnobiology has resulted in the fragmentation of the field. Recently, a new integrative conceptual framework, drawing on evolutionary theory, has been introduced to address and resolve this fragmentation. In this paper we discuss this model and evaluate its potential contribution to unify ethnobiology. We argue that the adoption of an adaptationist framework does not suffice to account for the complexity and range of ethnobiological phenomena. We present a model for transdisciplinary work inspired by the work of Rolando García. In this model, the open dialogue of epistemic and non-epistemic values is central for defining a transdisciplinary research question.  

Proposals for knowledge integration between traditional (TEK) and academic ecological knowledge (AEK) became common in theory and practice, especially in relation to conservation and sustainable management. One cannot avoid complex philosophical questions related to such proposals, which lie, according to Ludwig and El-Hani, at the core of a philosophy of ethnobiology and involve epistemological, ontological, ethical, and political challenges. These challenges can be addressed from a “framework of partial overlaps”, avoiding both over-optimistic and pessimistic attitudes towards knowledge integration in order to find a space for mutual learning between knowledge systems through analyzing both overlaps and divergences in ontological, epistemological and axiological domains. I will discuss how learning can be conceived in the contact zone between knowledge systems, i.e., how we can learn from each other in such intercultural situations both in the case of overlaps or when we are faced with radical alterity in ontological, epistemological and/or axiological terms.

Philosophy of science is increadingly recognizing ethnobiology as a transdisciplinary field that raises complex methodological questions about the negotiation of epistemologies, ontologies, and values. This talk focuses on the question what ethnobiologists can learn from this emergence of a "New Philosophy of Ethnobiology". Ethnobiological research commonly remains descriptive without clearly communicating its methodological relevance to wider communities in fields such as cultural anthropology, sustainability studies, or biological systematics. Looking at issues of (a) transdisciplinary design, (b) intercultural communication, and (c) taxonomy, this talk introduces the overall session and the relevance of philosophy in positioning ethnobiological insights in debates about socio-ecological change.

The language of the Sàmi of Northern Finnmark reflects specialized knowledge of the environment and of their relationship with the animals that they herd. The Sàmi have specialized names for the lands on which they graze their reindeer as well as for the various lichen species that can be found within these lands. These names allow them to differentiate between lichens that grow at different times during the season and between those that the reindeer eat, which they prefer, which they avoid, and which they are willing to eat in times of scarcity. I suggest these ethnolichenological naming practices can be understood as different ways of reaching out into the world to linguistically grasp that which is of interest for a particular purpose. Linguistically grasping implies an ecologically extended kind-making interaction where interactionism involves both the object of interest as well as the ontological commitments of kind-makers, namers and kind-users.

The presentation aims at describing some ways ethnobiologists correlate the concepts of “ethno” and “biology” in the production and sharing of their knowledge practices, having as a starting point ethnographic cases from a research conducted in Conde, Northeast of Brazil. I will describe how a variety of relations produced between the two concepts flows in the field, in the academy, and in the middle of these two inseparable limits. The focus on ethnographically grounded knowledge-practices lets a panorama of epistemological, pragmatical and ethical possibilities to emerge. The thesis is that the “and”, at multiplying the possible interfaces between the “ethno” and the “biological”, as experimented multiple dimensions can share lights on the interrelational web connecting knowledge, people, practices, politics,other-than-human beings, etc. Finally, I will appoint at some possible consequences of the diverse ways “ethno” and “biology” can be related toward symmetrical and collaborative dialogues.