Oral Presentation Session

Reviewed by: Anthropology and Environment Society

Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists

Primary Theme: Resilience

Secondary Theme: Anthropocene

(5-1105) Resilient Ethnobiologies: Re-defining Conservation in the Anthropocene

The concept of socio-ecological resilience is gaining ground in anthropology, as anthropologists reckon with the realities of the Anthropocene and develop a framework that incorporates and takes seriously multispecies communities and their adaptive capacities over time. Yet resilience as a concept is variable , complex and not easily operationalized, especially when examined alongside the similarly sticky concept of conservation. This panel addresses the complexities of resilience and conservation from ethnobiological perspectives, taking into account the diverse epistemologies and ontologies of human-environment engagements that inform socio-ecological resilience and bio-cultural conservation worldwide. Panelists tackle issues including the connections and disjunctions between resilience and conservation in the Anthropocene; the significance of multispecies communities to resilience and/or conservation; and the ways that ethnobiology offers new ways forward in understanding human and nonhuman adaptation and resilience in the wake of environmental change and destruction. Moreover, the panel explores how ethnobiology – or the multitude of ethnobiologies that are emerging through innovative scholarship globally – is itself a resilient discipline centered on understanding integrated human-environment realities over time even as both humans and the environment continue to change.

Organizer(s)

• Rick Stepp

  University of Florida

Chair(s)

• Rick Stepp

  University of Florida

Organizer(s)

• Theresa Miller

  Environmental Social Scientist
  The Field Museum

Chair(s)

• Theresa Miller

  Environmental Social Scientist
  The Field Museum

Presenter(s)

• Theresa Miller

  Environmental Social Scientist
  The Field Museum

• Stanford Zent

  Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas

• Elizabeth Olson

  Assistant Professor
  Southern Utah University

• Benedict Colombi

  University of Arizona

Presentations:

• 4:15 PM - 4:30 PM

  Indigenous Multispecies Socio-Ecological Resilience: Biodiversity Management, Adaptation, and Revitalization in Brazil
  Theresa L. Miller – The Field Museum
• 4:30 PM - 4:45 PM

  Multispecies Interdependency and Resource Sustainability from an Eñepa Worldview
  Stanford R. Zent – Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas
• 4:45 PM - 5:00 PM

  Global Changes and Ethnobiological Resilience in the Region of Autlán, Jalisco, Mexico
  Elizabeth A. Olson – Southern Utah University
• 5:00 PM - 5:15 PM

  The Inverse Relationship(s) Between Salmon Biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples’ Political Standing Directionally across the North Pacific
  Benedict J. Colombi – University of Arizona