Skills For Anthropology & Conservation November 2010
An Essay Plan
Topic: Attitudes To The Natural World
Critically discuss the statement, ‘Indigenous peoples live in harmony with the environment’
Charlotte Rush
Biological Anthropology BSc
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Skills For Anthropology & Conservation November 2010
Introduction
Interpret the question
When trying to critically discuss such a statement, its easy to believe that there is one answer. Obviously, this is not true.
Before beginning to interpret this question, and trying to explain arguments, the terms ‘indigenous peoples’, ‘harmony’
and ‘the environment’ need to understood, for they are slightly vague and need to be understood in context.
Define terms
‘Indigenous peoples’
Dictionary definition
- adjective
1. originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native (often fol. by to) : the plants indigenous to
Canada; the indigenous peoples of southern Africa
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/indigenous Accessed 7th November 2010
UN definition
“Considering the diversity of indigenous peoples, an official definition of ‘indigenous’ has not been adopted by any
UN-system body”
“…system has developed a modern understanding of this term…”
Some examples of the ‘modern understanding’ of this term are as follows:
“Distinct social, economic or political systems”
“Strong links to territories and surrounding natural resources”
“Resolved to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities
Downloadable PDF Files ‘United Nations Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues’ Fact sheet
Subtitle “ Understanding the term ‘indigenous’ ”
http://www.wipce2008.com/enews/pdf/wipce_fact_sheet_21-10-07.pdf
Accessed 7th November 2010
BMJ definition
“tend to define indigenous by the experiences shared by a group of people who have inhabited a country for thousands of
years, which often contract with those of other groups of people who reside in the same country for a few hundred years”
British Medical Journal, Published 21st August 2003, Authors Chris Cunningham & Fiona Stanley, ‘Indigenous by
definition, experience, or world view’ Accessed 7th November 2010
http://www.bmj.com/content/327/7412/403.full
SYNONYMS - tribal people, native people
‘Harmony’
Dictionary definition
- noun
1. Agreement in feeling or opinion; accord: live in harmony
2. A pleasing combination of elements in a whole: colour harmony; the order and harmony of the universe
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/harmony Accessed 7th November
Environment
Dictionary definition
- noun
1. Environment (the totality of surrounding condition) “he longed the comfortable environment of his living room”
2. Environment, environs, surroundings, surround (the area in which something exists or lives) “the country - the flat
agricultural surround’
Princeton University, WordNet 3.0 http://wordnet.princeton.edu/ Accessed 7th November
Outlines main ideas
Impacts of indigenous people on their environment - the positive, the negative
Management of indigenous land
Conservation of land
Possible impacts of western society
Paragraph One
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Skills For Anthropology & Conservation November 2010
Background information
Where, how many indigenous people there are, examples of peoples:
Around “370 million indigenous people spread across 70 countries worldwide”
Downloadable PDF Files ‘United Nations Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues’ Fact sheet
Subtitle “Who are indigenous people?”
http://www.wipce2008.com/enews/pdf/wipce_fact_sheet_21-10-07.pdf
Accessed 7th November
“Indigenous peoples makes up a third of the world’s poorest”; “overwhelming majority of the world’s estimated 7000
languages”
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Social Policy, ‘State of the World’s Indigenous
Peoples’, New York, 2009
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/SOWIP_web.pdf
Accessed 7th November
Indigenous people live across the globe. “Among them are the [Native Americans] of the Americas, the Inuit and
Aleutians of the circumpolar region, the Saami of northern Europe, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of
Australia and the Maori of New Zealand.”
United Nations, Department of Public Information, The International Year for the World’s Indigenous People, 1992. ‘Who
are the world’s indigenous peoples?’
http://www.ciesin.org/docs/010-000a/Year_Worlds_Indig.html
Accessed 7th November
Paragraph Two
- How do indigenous people live?
“Indigenous populations throughout the Americas all depend to some degree on the gathering of wild plants, animals and
inorganic materials” …“estimates that Kayapo Indians alone gather some 250 species of plants for their fruits and
hundreds of others for their nuts, tubers and leaves” … “materials that are used by indigenous groups in their villages -
building materials, waxes, oils and ointments, ornaments, perfumes, pigments, dyes, gums and resins” Page 5
Indigenous and Traditional Peoples and Protected Areas: Principles, Guidelines and Case Studies
J. Beltran, A. Phillips
Printed By: Page Bros
2000
Rainforests. “Although some indigenous people live much as we do, others still live much as did their ancestors
thousands of years before them. These communities organize their daily lives differently than our culture. Their food,
medicines and clothing come primarily from the forest.”
… “Besides hunting, gathering wild fruits and nuts and fishing. Indigenous people also plant small gardens for other
sources of food, using a sustainable farming method called shifting cultivation. First they first clear a small area of land
and burn it. Then they plant many types of plants, to be used for food and medicines. After a few years, the soil has
become too poor to allow for more crops to grow and weeds start to take over. They then move to a nearby uncleared
area. This land is traditionally allowed to re-grow for 10-50 years before it is farmed again.”
… “Indigenous people revere the forest that, until the present, has protected them from outsiders and given them
everything they need. They live what is called a sustainable existence, meaning they use the land without doing harm to
the plants and animals that also call the rainforest their home.”
Rainforest Action Network, Accessed 7th November
Paragraph Three
Case Study: Indigenous people in the rainforest
+ Positive Impacts
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Skills For Anthropology & Conservation November 2010
- Negative Impacts
Paragraph Four
Case Study: Indigenous people in the Arctic
+ Positive Impacts
Sustainable, do no live beyond means
Population not increasing
- Negative Impacts
“The Arctic is inhabited by several different groups of indigenous people, and also by relatively recent immigrants of
mostly European background.”
“Most indigenous people live along the coast or on river banks. Diet is based on foods that can be taken from the natural
environment (fish, seals, whales, caribou, berries, plants), since agriculture is impossible. Until recently, indigenous
people often migrated seasonally, or established "camps" to be near food sources. The harsh climate limited European
immigration in many Arctic areas, and the indigenous people have continued a non-market, subsistence economy even
today. However, conditions are changing. Recent discoveries of oil, minerals, and diamonds in Arctic areas, and a
growing interest in Arctic tourism are bringing many non-indigenous people to the Arctic to live or visit. Simultaneously,
the indigenous people are blending many parts of western civilization into their lifestyle (e.g., city water and sewerage,
food markets, the internet).”
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/faq.html NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration), United States Department
of Commerce, April 2010
Accessed 7th November
Conclusion
Overall explanation and opinion backed up with evidence [evidence can be found in paragraphs above].
Would initally not say they live in harmony with the environment though that they certainly live sustainably.
They may live sustainably but not necessarily as a benefit for the environment, but for themselves. They can
not reap more resources than the environment can support them with as this would negatively consequent
them in the future i.e. hunting too much, having too much meat, would reduce their prey populations etc.
Conclusively though, can easily argue that they do live in harmony, particularly compared to non-indigenous
people: western society of western Europe and North America: who are threatening indigenous cultures by
economic globalisation - the hunt for oil, fossil fuels, agricultural land etc.
References
Websites. Accessed 7th November 2010.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/indigenous
Downloadable PDF Files ‘United Nations Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues’ Fact sheet
http://www.wipce2008.com/enews/pdf/wipce_fact_sheet_21-10-07.pdf
British Medical Journal, Published 21st August 2003, Authors Chris Cunningham & Fiona Stanley, ‘Indigenous by
definition, experience, or world view’
http://www.bmj.com/content/327/7412/403.full
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/harmony
Princeton University, WordNet 3.0 http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Social Policy, ‘State of the World’s
Indigenous Peoples’, New York, 2009
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/SOWIP_web.pdf
United Nations, Department of Public Information, The International Year for the World’s Indigenous People, 1992.
‘Who are the world’s indigenous peoples?’
http://www.ciesin.org/docs/010-000a/Year_Worlds_Indig.html
Rainforest Action Network
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/faq.html NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration), United States
Department of Commerce, April 2010
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Skills For Anthropology & Conservation November 2010
Books.
> Conservation and Mobile Indigenous Peoples: Displacement, Forced Settlement and Sustainable Development
Studies in Forced Migration - Volume 10
D. Chatty & M. Colchester
2002
> Indigenous Peoples, Wildlife and Ecotourism: Emerging Issues and Trends
K T Suresh, S. Liyakhat, S. Roy
2002
> Indigenous Peoples and Sustainability: Cases and Actions
IUCN Inter-Commission Task Force on Indigenous Peoples
Printed By: Utrecht International Books
1997
> Indigenous Peoples and Tropical Forests: Models of Land Use and Management from Latin America
J. W. Clay
Printed By: Cultural Survival, Inc
1988
> Indigenous and Traditional Peoples and Protected Areas: Principles, Guidelines and Case Studies
J. Beltran, A. Phillips
Printed By: Page Bros
2000
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