Ethno-ornithology Birds, Indigenous Peoples, Culture and Society

Indigenous knowledge that embraces ornithology takes in whole social dimensions that are inter-linked with environmental ethos, conservation and management for sustainability. In contrast, western approaches have tended to reduce knowledge to elemental and material references. This book looks at the significance of indigenous knowledge of birds and their cultural significance, and how these can assist in framing research methods of western scientists working in related areas. As well as its knowledge base, this book provides practical advice for professionals in conservation and anthropology by demonstrating the relationship between mutual respect, local participation and the building of partnerships for the resolution of joint problems. It identifies techniques that can be transferred to different regions, environments and collections, as well as practices suitable for investigation, adaptation and improvement of knowledge exchange and collection in ornithology. The authors take anthropologists and biologists who have been trained in, and largely continue to practise from, a western reductionist approach, along another path - one that presents ornithological knowledge from alternative perspectives, which can enrich the more common approaches to ecological and other studies as well as plans of management for conservation.

Part I: Introduction 1. Indigenous Knowledges, Birds that have 'Spoken' and Science 2. Ethno-Ornithology and Conservation 3. The Broader Significance of Ethno-Ornithology Part II: Birds: Hunting and Products 4. The Maori and the Huia 5. Santa Cruz Red Feather Currency And The Scarlet Honeyeater 6. Entrapment Of Wetland Birds: Local Customs And Methods Of Hunting In Central Java 7. Wildlife Hunting and Bird Trade in Northern Papua (Irian Jaya), Indonesia Part III: Birds and Knowledge 8. Transmutation of Human Knowledge about Birds in 16th Century Honduras 9. Sound, Sight, Stories and Science: Avoiding Pitfalls in Ethno-Ornithological Research, with Examples from Kenya 10. What the Locals Know: Comparing Traditional and Scientific Knowledge of Megapodes in Melanesia Part IV: Birds: Story and Language 11. The Birds and Nature in the Stepwells of Gujarat, Western India 12. Aboriginal Stories: The Riches and Colour of Australian Birds 13. Tlingit Birds, an annotated list with a statistical comparative analysis 14. Raven=Heron in Mayan-Language Prehistory: An Ethno-Ornithological/Linguistic Study 15. What's in a Bird Name: Relationships among Ethno-Ornithological Terms in Nage and other Malayo-Polynesian Languages Part V: Birds and Conservation 16. An Alternate Reality: Maori Spiritual Guardianship of New Zealand's Native Birds 17. Everyone Loves Birds: Using Indigenous Knowledge of Birds to Facilitate Conservation in New Guinea 18. Birds, People and Conservation in Kenya 19. Bird Messengers for all Seasons: Landscapes of Knowledge among the BriBri of Costa Rica 20. The Bull of the Bog: Bittern Conservation Practice in a Western Bio-cultural Setting 21. Towards an Indonesian bird conservation ethos: reflections from a study of bird-keeping in the cites of Java and Bali

Sonia Tidemann is an Adjunct Professor at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Australia and has been involved in natural and cultural resource management for more than 25 years. Andrew Gosler is Head of the Institute of Human Sciences, Oxford University, UK, where he lectures in Biological Conservation, and University Research Lecturer in the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Oxford.