Nazarea

Entry 25: “A View from A Point:  Ethnoecology as Situated Knowledge”

This work addresses the interpretation of cultural knowledge. When it comes to science, often the “Western” point of view is given more validation than perspectives from the rest of the world. Virginia Nazarea discusses the role ethnoecology has played in the past and the role she hopes it will play in the future. The discipline focusses on the local perspective and emphasizes that this perspective is just as if not more valuable than the West’s. Rather than just documenting local knowledge, Nazarea would like to see ethnoecologists implement local knowledge into action. Ethnoecology gives validation to the native’s point of view as legitimate for their given environment. The point of view with which one looks at environmental matters changes the narrative that is told or knowledge that is spread. Similarly, Nazarea emphasizes that a point of view is “fixed.” Even if two peoples are looking at an image or an environment, there will be different interpretations or constructed landscapes.

This can have implications towards any centralized or non-local implemented structures of environmental management. Ferguson and Lohmann’s “Anti-Politics Machine” underscores that the point of view instituted by international development agencies in Lesotho are coming from the agencies. Their point of view is a shared image of the country as “underdeveloped” and needing aid in order to “develop.” Nazarea’s work is important because local knowledge should not be undermined as ignorant in human environment relations. People have access to shared histories, observations, and interactions with their environment that provide unique insight into the world around them.