‘Land’ and life
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Chris Duvall
Abstract
Understanding how people classify physical geographic features is necessary for identifying cross-cultural geographic concepts necessary for successful communication of landscape knowledge. Identifying cross-cultural geographic concepts will require development of the field of ethnogeography, which employs ethnographic methods to analyze geographic knowledge. This chapter analyzes physical geographic knowledge in the Maninka language of southwestern Mali, and compares Maninka knowledge to that of other culturalgroups. The results suggest that broad physical geographic concepts may be shared pan-environmentally, but that most physical geographic knowledge is contained in culturally specific classifications within a broad cross-cultural framework. Academic geographers should expect only broad correspondence between their categories of physical geographic variation and those of people who classify biophysical features according to local knowledge systems.
Abstract
Understanding how people classify physical geographic features is necessary for identifying cross-cultural geographic concepts necessary for successful communication of landscape knowledge. Identifying cross-cultural geographic concepts will require development of the field of ethnogeography, which employs ethnographic methods to analyze geographic knowledge. This chapter analyzes physical geographic knowledge in the Maninka language of southwestern Mali, and compares Maninka knowledge to that of other culturalgroups. The results suggest that broad physical geographic concepts may be shared pan-environmentally, but that most physical geographic knowledge is contained in culturally specific classifications within a broad cross-cultural framework. Academic geographers should expect only broad correspondence between their categories of physical geographic variation and those of people who classify biophysical features according to local knowledge systems.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword ix
- Preface xi
- Landscape in language 1
- Ethnophysiography 25
- Exploring philosophy of place 47
- Embedded in place 73
- Philosophical issues in ethnophysiography 101
- ‘Land’ and life 121
- Landscape in Western Pantar, a Papuan outlier of southern Indonesia 143
- Hawaiian storied place names 167
- Between the trees and the tides 187
- Differing conceptualizations of the same landscape 225
- A case study in Ahtna Athabascan geographic knowledge 239
- Revitalizing place names through stories and songs 261
- Language and landscape among the Tlingit 275
- Language, landscape and ethnoecology, reflections from northwestern Canada 291
- Landscape embedded in language 327
- Navajo landscape and its contexts 343
- Navigating regional landscapes with Jicarilla personal narrative 353
- Ontology of landscape in language 369
- The role of geospatial technologies for integrating landscape in language 381
- Classifying landscape character 395
- Perspectives on the ethical conduct of landscape in language research 411
- Notes on contributors 435
- Index 443
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword ix
- Preface xi
- Landscape in language 1
- Ethnophysiography 25
- Exploring philosophy of place 47
- Embedded in place 73
- Philosophical issues in ethnophysiography 101
- ‘Land’ and life 121
- Landscape in Western Pantar, a Papuan outlier of southern Indonesia 143
- Hawaiian storied place names 167
- Between the trees and the tides 187
- Differing conceptualizations of the same landscape 225
- A case study in Ahtna Athabascan geographic knowledge 239
- Revitalizing place names through stories and songs 261
- Language and landscape among the Tlingit 275
- Language, landscape and ethnoecology, reflections from northwestern Canada 291
- Landscape embedded in language 327
- Navajo landscape and its contexts 343
- Navigating regional landscapes with Jicarilla personal narrative 353
- Ontology of landscape in language 369
- The role of geospatial technologies for integrating landscape in language 381
- Classifying landscape character 395
- Perspectives on the ethical conduct of landscape in language research 411
- Notes on contributors 435
- Index 443
