Scale and Social Complexity: Knowledge Systems and Effective Conservation

Allegedly “primitive” societies are simpler in both size and environmental impact, i.e. they have a less complex network of social and economic interactions within humans. Such societies deal with economic and ecological reality in more “hands-on” fashion. They make the interaction among species and other factors more personal, and discuss their world and their scientific knowledge in terms of relationships rather than in the context of models and theoretical constructs that generalize about nature. Lacking complex infrastructure renders smaller societies more functional at an ecological level, because knowledge is based upon personal experience. As ecologists, we attempt to construct theories emerging from knowledge traditions that have no need for formal theory, because they are locally based the entities involved interact regularly.  To generalize these findings strips them of this personal meaning. Attempts to draw place-based societies into “global economies” destroy connections and relationships, damaging effective conservation efforts.