94 research outputs found
Behind the Scene : the enactments of human sexuality in Tehuantepec, Mexico
No full textThis work deals with human sexuality in Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, based on the practices performed by the actors in their everyday lives. Here sexuality is not conceived of as a spontaneous or autonomous phenomenon, nor as something that is pre-existing or established, but as the result of complex practices that go beyond the human and the sexual, which are assembled by a set of actors; that is to say, by networks. The argument is based on the construction of case studies which account for the production of complexities in human sexuality in Tehuantepec. This community was selected because of the notoriety of its women, That belong to the Zapotec ethnic group, often considered to be dominant in the Isthmus. The purpose of the research was to look beyond the superficial appearance of the Isthmus and its people and to explore in depth the critical moments, achievements and concerns of those who contribute to the enactment of a distinct region and its society. No claim is made, then, to deprive generalizations of their veracity. Instead of focusing on particularities the work concentrates on specificities, or rather, the possible connections that are produced in the interactions between humans and the various elements by which they are surrounded. The study considers five themes commonly associated with human sexuality: beauty, gendered spatiality, sexual life, motherhood and intimate violence in Tehuantepec had been chosen as axis which articulate the practices and discourses of local actors. Through them, it is argued that sexuality does not form part of something abstract but something that is produced by the interactions that take place on daily life. Methodologically and conceptually, feminism (above all in its post-structuralism guise), the Actor Oriented Approach, and Actor Network Theory all supported this task. On certain occasions, these schools of thought allowed the identification of deterministic statements and on others the recognition of the binary oppositions or dualisms upon which many of the general perspectives, stereotypes and common positions related to the Isthmus are erected. However, it was Actor Network Theory which led me to non-conventional forms of approaching and understanding the complexity of the human and the social’. The introduction, or chapter one, presents the historical, economic and cultural processes, which often characterize the region. It becomes clear just how easy it is to fall prey to stereotyped images, as well as the importance of being able to see behind the foreground in order to observe the details, or the specific nature of these traditional landscapes. The second chapter provides the theoretical and methodological reflection which supports the recognition of the importance of the diverse, the voice of the actors and their connectivity with their surroundings. The chapter arrives at the assembly of associations and the production of complexities in which concepts such as networks, bodies and enactments become keys to the recognition of the assemblages related to human sexuality. The third chapter introduces the notion of ‘enacting beauty’ in order to suggest that the different Isthmus beauties are produced through a series of dynamic, heterogeneous, multiple and hybrid associations. It also proposes the consideration of Isthmus beauty as something that is malleable and transformable. The fourth chapter covers the polemical association of spatiality and gender. Here if a link between spatiality and gender is recognized, it is nonetheless considered unstable, impure and fluid, in correspondence with the dynamics that the actors themselves succeed in assembling in their daily lives. Hence, it is suggested that both categories repeatedly crosscut, interweave and overlap; something which is captured by the term ‘entangled boundaries’. The fifth chapter focuses on some of the possible connections between the Isthmus customs and the practices of the local actors with respect to sexual life. ‘Sexual bodies’ captures these multiple and dynamic connections where the biological, ethnic, cultural and social are neither omnipresent nor exclusive when human sexual life is enacted and re-enacted in Tehuantepec. The sixth chapter questions the tendency to associate motherhood with the woman, alongside another series of diverse determinisms. The cases explored illustrate how motherhood is a battlefield, in the sense that the actors must remain in constant action, often facing struggles in order to assemble, provide continuity or disconnect from maternal networks. It also touches on additional connections in which motherhood forms part of wider and complex networks. The seventh chapter considers another of the practices associated with human sexuality that actors confront in their everyday life in Tehuantepec: intimate violence. Here the notion of ‘counteracting intimate violence’ argues for a broader conception of this topic as a complex network. It also highlights actors’ actions in order to make clear that they are not passive victims but dynamic actors who enact other networks which counteract chains of intimate violence. The eighth chapter, or conclusion, covers the trajectory followed throughout the course of this research in order to make the production of complexities associated with human sexuality visible. It recognizes the necessary shift in reference points in order to move away from a focus on commonplaces. It also identifies human sexuality as a set of practices which can, in turn, be related to different themes and links, or, in other words, as the result of associations. <br/
Forest-People Interfaces: from local creativity to global concerns
No full textThis book takes the reader on a journey through four major themes that have dominated research on the people-forest interface since the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published its Forestry for Rural Development paper and launched its Programme on Forestry for Local Community Development in 1976. This was the prelude to the FAO VIIIth Forestry Congress entitled 'Forestry for People', organised two years later, which drew attention to the role of forests in meeting people's livelihood needs. These events marked the emergence of social forestry as a new approach to forest management that aimed to increase community participation in the development and management of forest resources (Arnold, 1991; FAO, 1976; Wiersum, 1999). In the 1980s social forestry marked a shift away from an exclusive focus on industrial, timber-oriented forestry to participatory and cooperative management schemes (Colchester et al., 2003). In the same period, the Canadian forester John Bene (Bene et al., 1977) coined the term 'agroforestry' for the practice of integrating trees, food crops and/or animals in a combined production system compatible with the cultural practices of the local population. Bene played an important role in the establishment of the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi in 1997 (King, 1987). This is now known as the World Agroforestry Centre and has regional offices in India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi and Mali
Collective Efficiency: Mezcal Production and the Clustering of Small Firms
No full textNeoliberalism, industrial reconstruction and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) increasingly dictate the character and the agenda of Mexico's economic policy in the 1990s. Recognizing the importance and potential of the small firm sector within this framework, the Salinas and Zedillo Administrations have strongly supported economic activities once labelled as 'informal' or belonging to the 'black market'. Despite strong support, however, there is a great dearth in studies that address the phenomenon of accelerated expansion of the small-scale enterprise sector. The present article examines this problematic from a flexible specialization perspective. Against an historical background, the author offers an account of the expansion of mezcal production by small-scale enterprises clustered in a micro region of the State of Jalisco. The central argument is that the relative success of the mezcal sector can be understood through the concepts of 'clustering' and 'collective efficiency'. Through these concepts, the author throws some light on a form of production organization in which a gradual increase in the division of labour has brought about a flexible type of manufacture. This flexible and otherwise viable production form is characterized by a fragmentation of the labour process into a multiplicity of individual producers, input suppliers, etc. This has enabled rapid changes along the web of vertical and horizontal relationships of mezcal producers and, in turn, allowed for quick changes in production levels. The article concludes by stating that the emergence of flexible forms of artisanal production - like in the case of mezcal - is relevant at a macro-economic level for three reasons. First, because of its relative independence from complex, sophisticated and expensive technology. Second, because of the creation of new forward and backward linkages. Finally, because networks of small, flexible firms are less prone to be affected by the disruptive economic conditions that characterize this era of globalization
Regimes of justification: competing arguments and the construction of legitimacy in Dutch nature conservation practices
No full textIrma Arts, Arjen E. Buijs, & Gerard Verschoor (2018) Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 61 (5-6), pp. 1070-1084 Abstract. Legitimacy of environmental management and policies is an important topic in environmental research. Based on the notion of "regimes of justification", we aim to analyse the dynamics in argumentations used to legitimize and de-legitimize Dutch nature conservation practices. Contrary to prior studies, we demonstrate how actors in two locations where environm..
Analysis of two genomic variants of orang-utan hepadnavirus and their relationship to other primate hepatitis B-like viruses
No full textWe recently described orang-utan hepadnavirus (OuHV) (Warren et al., Journal of Virology, 73, 7860–7865, 1999). Phylogenetic analyses indicated that the various isolates of OuHV can be divided into two genomic variants. Two representatives from each genomic cluster were analysed both molecularly and phylogenetically. Their genome organization was highly similar to other hepadnaviruses of apes and humans. The complete genome sequences of the two OuHV types had an overall 5% sequence difference. Research on 25 seropositive Bornean orang-utans showed that, of the 19 animals infected with one variant, 12 originated from East Kalimantan. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using the full-length genomes of various primate hepadnaviruses. The tree topology revealed one cluster of Old World hepadnaviruses that is divided into two subclusters, one consisting of the ape viruses, and the other comprising the human genotypes A–E. These data suggest that the great apes and gibbons have been infected with a common ancestor hepadnavirus
People, soil and manioc interactions in the upper Amazon region
No full textAbstract Clara Patricia Peña Venegas (2015). People, soil and manioc interactions in the upper Amazon region. PhD thesis, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, with summaries in English and Dutch, 210 pp. The presence of anthropogenic soils, or Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE), fuels the debate about how pristine the Amazon ecosystem actually is, and about the degree to which humans affected Amazonian diversity in the past. Most upland soils of the Amazon region are very acid, highly weathered, and have a limited nutrient holding capacity; together, these characteristics limit permanent or intensive agriculture. Várzeas or floodplains that are periodically enriched with Andean sediments carried and deposited by rivers that cross the Amazon Basin, are moderately fertile but experience periodic floods that limit agriculture to crops able to produce in a short time. ADE patches in uplands usually are more fertile than non-anthropogenic uplands, providing a better environment for agriculture. Most studies about how people manage a broad portfolio of natural and anthropogenic soils come from non-indigenous farmers of Brazil. There is limited information about how indigenous people use a broad soil portfolio, and how this affects the diversity of their staple crop, manioc. With the aim to contribute to the understanding of the role of ADE in indigenous food production, as compared with other soils, and in order to provide information about how indigenous people use and create diversity in Amazonia, research was carried out among five different ethnic groups living in two locations of the Colombian Amazon. Several social and natural science methods were used during the study. These included ethnography, participant observation, structured and un-structured interviews, sampling of soil and manioc landraces, standardized protocols for the quantification of soil physical and chemical variables, and molecular techniques to assess genetic diversity of manioc and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Results indicate that ADE patches from the Middle Caquetá region of Colombia are not contrastingly more fertile than surrounding, non-anthropogenic upland soils, except for higher levels of available phosphorus in ADE. Indigenous farmers from the Middle Caquetá region do not use ADE more frequently or more intensively than non-ADE uplands. The swidden agriculture practiced on ADE and on non-ADE uplands is similar. Although ADE patches were not specifically important for swiddens and therefore relatively unimportant for the production of manioc. They were important as sites for indigenous settlements and for maintaining agroforestry systems with native and exotic species that do not grow in soils with low available phosphorus. Várzeas were also used for agriculture, whether farmers had access to ADE or not. Differences occurred between locations in the type of floodplains selected and the way they were cultivated. Those differences were not related to differences in soil conditions but were associated with the cultural traditions of the different ethnic groups who cultivate low floodplains, as well as labor availability when organizing collective work (mingas) to harvest floodplains. Manioc diversity among indigenous communities was not predominantly related with differences in soil types. Complete manioc stocks were cultivated equally on ADE, non-ADE uplands or várzeas. One issue that could be related with this non-specificity in manioc-soil combinations was the similar arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity of soils and the high number of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbionts associated to manioc roots; these were shown to be independent from the physicochemical composition of the soil or the manioc landrace. Differences in the diversity of manioc stocks among ethnic groups were predominantly related to cultural values attached to different manioc landraces. This study of indigenous agriculture in environments with natural and anthropogenic soils indicates that people have had an important role in transforming the Amazonian ecosystem through agriculture, with consequences on forest composition and forest dynamics. Pre-Columbian people contributed to this by creating an additional soil- the Amazonian Dark Earths. Although ADE are not presently considered to play a major role in indigenous food production, indigenous people believe that ADE have had an important role in the management of the first maniocs cultivated by their ancestors. The domestication of manioc and the creation and maintenance of hundreds of different landraces by indigenous people contributed, and still contributes, to the region’s plant diversity.</p
Amphibious anthropology : engaging with maritime worlds in Indonesia
No full textThis thesis explores how people live amphibiously in dynamic land-sea environments. It is based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork (2011 – 2013) in the Makassar Strait maritime region in Indonesia: a complex and amphibious land-sea interface. In Western science little attention is given to how people live at sea. There is a general land bias, by which people are seen as primarily belonging to the land. Yet people do live at sea, or rather: in these dynamic land-sea environments. Engaging with these mobile and sea-based ways of life of maritime people provides not only a fuller understanding of how people relate to their environment, but , essentially, it also enables a critical reflection of land-biased assumptions in science and society. Anthropology, with its qualitative research methods is particularly suitable to do such in-depth and long-term engagement with other worlds. The research on which the thesis is based was carried out as a mobile ethnography, following people seawards, travelling with them for days to visit close family on faraway islands or joining them on their fishing and diving trips, including illegal fishers using bombs and cyanide poison on coral reefs. Also followed were the practices of marine conservation staff, as they organised field trips to fishing communities. These travels – described in the thesis – show how islands and marine spaces that are remote from the land, turn out to be regional hubs of oversees trade and family relations. From a sea-based perspective the Makassar Strait is a continuity of relations and movements flanked by land masses. This inverts the land-based perspective of the sea as an extension of the land by putting the sea centre stage. The Makassar Strait figures in this thesis as an active and moving world – or worlds – of human-marine relations to learn from and theorise about the notion of ontological flow: fluidity of being and moving in relation. Flow is both movement as a pattern of activity – the flowing – and that what flows; elements, matter and meaning in motion. The notion of worlds in flow has infused recent ontological debates in anthropological theory in which reality is assumed contingent, fluid and multiple – thereby revitalising the philosophical work of earlier thinkers, among whom Michel Serres and Gilles Deleuze. This way of thinking complexity and ontological fluidity is central to literature that has emerged out of the cross-fertilisation of Science and Technology Studies (STS), anthropology and philosophy. Despite differences, these studies share the objective to follow, engage with and translate how, in practice, material and semiotic realities come to be and matter – instead of developing a way to ‘access reality better’. The concept of ‘amphibiousness’ is mobilised to refer to living in and moving between different worlds that can intermingle but that cannot be reduced to each other. The concept is used to describe the human capacity to live in different worlds at the same time. This amphibious capacity is further elaborated 1) in terms of living in a hybrid land-water interface, 2) in terms of being able to move along with different understandings of the world, of reality, and 3) It refers to the methodology of the anthropologist who also needs to move in these worlds bodily and cognitively, to develop a sensitivity to and understanding of these different worlds. Amphibiousness captures the anthropological engagement with flow, multiplicity and otherness by way of moving between worlds in order to explore the moving interface between worlds, realities or ways of life that partly interact. The research question: How to grasp flow – the fluctuations of and between bodies, things or worlds in the making - conceptually and methodologically without reducing its vital mobility and fluidity? is elaborated in a methodological Chapter 2, and three research chapters (Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and Chapter 5) that each focus from a different angle on human-marine relations. The research exposes fundamentally different, and sometimes conflicting, ways in which people understand and experience their relation to the sea. These were not just different perspectives on one maritime reality, or world. These were inherently different understandings of reality, and different ways in which this reality is put into practice, in which worlds – plural – are being created and sustained. In anthropology we speak of ontological difference, because it concerns with (radically) different notions of wat exists, what is real, what matters and what entities participate in the reproduction of the world. Although these worlds are different – they cannot be reduced to each another - they are also not separated in any clear-cut way. They do flow into each other, as people, objects and ideas can amphibiously move in between. It is argued in this thesis that such amphibious translation is essential for more effective and equal collaboration in marine conservation. International environmental organisations insufficiently acknowledge (radically) different ways of doing and thinking human-marine relations. Disregarding these undermines the viability of conservation programs as it repeatedly leads to clashes between different ways in which maritime worlds are understood and organised in practice. To be effective, marine conservation needs to become amphibious; attentive to fundamentally different ways of understanding and experiencing the relationship between people and the sea, as well as the mobile practices of trade, fishing, travel and family affiliations through which these worlds are shaped beyond the borders of marine reserves. Chapter 2 intends to answer the question how to grasp environmental otherness – radically different ways of understanding and experiencing human-marine relations – in and through ethnography. Chapter 3 serves to provide some empirical grounding to show the relevancy and urgency of a paradigmatic shift in conservation thinking, finding ways to engaging mobile maritime people like the Bajau. The solution to the ‘participation problem’ in conservation will not lie in developing ways to make local people participate more in Western conservation schemes. What is needed is an ontological shift in conservation thinking itself. Chapter 4 describes a conservation outreach project that attempts to educate and convert local people into coral protectors. Both coral and the sea-dwelling Bajau people appear to be amphibious beings, moving between a changeable land-water interface, and between different, fluidly interwoven ontological constellations. Failure of conservation organisations to recognise the ontologically ambiguous nature of ‘coral’ and ‘people’ translates to a breakdown of outreach goals. Chapter 5 provides a case study of a dangerous and destructive fishing practice (cyanide fishing) by which fishers dive beyond the limits of what their body can take – and spirits allow, a practice that generates feeling of both fear and enjoyment as they experience a process of becoming permeable to fluids, spirits and currents penetrating or leaking out of their bodies. This chapter exposes how cyanide fishing sustains as a way of life, involving and producing affective relations. In Chapter 6 it is concluded how ontological multiplicity is of a heuristic and political relevance to social science, and anthropology in particular because it allows us to engage with radical difference – or the real on different terms – instead of explaining it away in our own terms. Engaging with such radical different is important because it allows to see the realities that systematically escape (scholarly) attention, yet affect the world nonetheless. This requires translation – the practice of relating different worlds, reals, repertoires or ways of life and bringing them into interaction – which is a process of, and a condition for, dialogue. The notion of amphibiousness has practical and political value, in particular for reconsidering conservation and development outreach and how it may be reframed as a process involving ontological dialogue. Providing room for ambiguity, thinking with amphibiousness furthermore encourages suspension of the (Western) tendency to explain the Other, to fix what does not add up
Color green for dollars: constraints and limitations for establising Chamaedorea palm firms in Veracruz, Mexico
No full textInterest in Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) has grown with increasing awareness of tropical forest deforestation and amplified recognition for the need to add value to forest resources. However, NTFPs continue to be regarded by many as marginal goods incapable of competing with timber as a viable economic alternative use of tropical and subtropical forests. In Mexico, several NTFPs are exploited in various ecosystems helping conserve forested areas, providing “the poor” access to cash in moments of uncertainty and relieving pressure on timber resources. Nonetheless, the benefit for conservation is highly debated and remains undecided as yet. NTFP proponents suggest that the development of commercial enterprises can be of significant benefit for forest users by providing a direct link between producers and markets, organizing markets as well as the development of infrastructure. This thesis explores actors’ practices to understand the different forms of organization, processes of interaction and negotiation between actors involved in the use and commercialization of NTFPs. The analysis of these practices seen through observation and accounts of the actors’ life-histories, everyday practices, the arrangement of individual actions within different production and commercial activities, serve to elucidate the multiple facets/aspects of different actors in the market for NTFPs in diverse commercial, social, economic and political arenas. By doing so, this thesis captures the experiences of actors in the Chamaedorea market; an important NTFP product marketed worldwide. These experiences are fundamental in answering the main research question: How are Chamaedorea palm commercial initiatives built in Veracruz, Mexico, and what are the main limitations for their consolidation and access to the markets? Focusing primarily on the analysis of key actors in the Mexican market, from production up until the export market, this thesis offers a detailed account of how diverse efforts to access markets are constructed and argues that it is important to focus on organizing practices and problem-solving capabilities of actors, needed to circumvent bottle-necks in the design and development of NTFP firms, a point often ignored or taken for granted in the literature on NTFPs. Taking on an actor-oriented perspective, detailed ethnographies and actor’s life-stories introduce actors’ struggles and various arrangements/strategies in establishing firms, yielding an interesting insight that would be unnoticeable if these processes developed smoothly. The contribution of this thesis to the debate on how NTFPs firms are constructed and maintained, proposes a reconsideration of NTFPs policy initiatives in developing markets and enhancing benefits to forest users, a major nuisance of current NTFPs policies worldwide
Answering the "Call of the Mountain" : co-creating sustainability through networks of change in Colombia
No full textIn response to the age of the ‘anthropocene,’ as some authors are calling this epoch in which one single species is disrupting major natural systems (Steffen et al 2011), there are calls for more radical, learning-based sustainability that generates deep transformations in individuals and communities so as to transition towards a more reflexive and process-oriented society (Wals 2009, Sterling 2009). The principal contention of this thesis is that new social movements (NSM) of the network society (Castells 2012, Buechler 2016), based on integrated visions of sustainability, can provide platforms for bringing about transformative learning. This thesis is based on empirical research (2012-2016) into a fraction of such NSM named the Council of Sustainable Settlements of Latin America (C.A.S.A.). Comprising a diversity of members from Indigenous pueblos, afro-colombian communities, neo-rural settlements (ecovillages), Hare Krishna communities, campesino farmers, NGOs and urban peoples and initiatives, the C.A.S.A. network organizes intercultural exchanges where transformative learning can be traced. Through new forms of collective action centered on a plurality of ideas and practices, and with a strong focus on reflection and personal development, in such encounters through ‘ontological politics’, ‘optimal dissonance’ and ‘deep reflexivity and flexibility’ members are articulating new paradigms of alternative development and creating spaces for transformation. Yet, such learning processes are incredibly complex, and the value-action gap remains substantial in many cases. What this thesis has shown, however, is that by putting into practice principles of buen vivir and the pluriverse such as reconnecting to ancestral wisdom, acknowledging the other, questioning values of competition and consumerism, and forming new relations to place and territory, one begins to question one's own set of norms, and those of society. Ultimately, the C.A.S.A. network’s struggles, negotiations and learning processes remind us that global sustainability entails more than 'menus' of good practices but a plurality of solutions which include humans and non-humans, different ontologies, and even a multiplicity of worlds, in what is a tough but rewarding aula. </p
'Acompañarnos contentos con la familia' : unidad, diferencia y conflicto entre los Nükak (Amazonia colombiana)
No full textThe Nükak are a people of hunters and gatherers in the Colombian Amazon who call themselves Nükak baka', which can be translated as ‘the true people’. More than a name, this denomination designates a shared moral and political project that enables this people to reproduce themselves materially and socially, to guide their individual conduct, to perpetuate and fertilize the cosmos and to steer their relationships with the other peoples of the universe. In this sense this project constitutes a biopolitics, or to put it differently, it is a politics oriented toward the creation and defense of life. This thesis, therefore, is an ethnographic research about what it means for the Nükak to live as a ‘true people’. It shows that such a common project constitutes above all a set of practices that is continuously being actualized, both in terms of individual conduct as well as in terms of collective interactions and activities. These become materialized in aspects such as the preservation of the environment and the construction, and care, of the body. For that reason living as ‘true people’ is neither a given condition nor a status that once attained can be maintained until death. Being an incomplete process, for the Nükak the constitution of ‘true people’ is continuously under threat. This means that their reproduction and the continuity of the universe is always at risk. These threats originate in actions, emotions and amoral attitudes of the Nükak themselves, or of other beings in the cosmos, which express themselves in situations such as illness or inter-personal conflicts. As a result the everyday life of this group unfolds within a continuous tension between the actualization of the project of constituting ‘true people’ and the threat of biological and social extinction, even the destruction of the cosmos. From a different perspective, this thesis is concerned with practices of ‘living together’, of accompanying each other, of sharing, of establishing kin relations in order to strengthen the common, and of finding out what they have in common. It is also about how to deal with possible sources of division. Finally, the thesis sets out to show how this group actualizes a sense of unity and diversity that enables them to create Nükak baka, i.e. ‘true people’, thus articulating differences without denying them. In order to develop these topics, the thesis explores the major features of the project of creating, and living as, ‘true people’, as well as a number of strategies and mechanisms (or social dispositifs) that the Nükak have generated for its actualization. It also examines the ontological and mythical bearings, going back to the times of the creation of the cosmos, which enables us to understand, from the perspective of the Nükak, with what peoples and beings they are interacting. In this sense the thesis contributes to the actualization of basic ethnographic information and elaborates on Nükak’s theories and practices concerning social life, the body, notions of the person, relations between kin, relations with other peoples and beings in the cosmos, shamanism, and narratives about the experiences of the ancestors who form part of their historical memory. This thesis also contributes to the documentation of the impact of the armed conflict in Colombia on the Nükak, clarifying the heterogeneity and complexity of the circumstances that have led to the forced displacement of different groups of Nükak, as well as the institutional and media attention that these groups have received. 
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