Post by Okwes on Jun 6, 2007 15:02:15 GMT -5
Native languages hold the key to saving species
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 19 February 2007
news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2283927.ece
Many animals and plants threatened with extinction could be saved if
scientists spent more time talking with the native people whose knowledge
of local species is dying out as fast as their languages are being lost.
Potentially vital information about many endangered species is locked in
the vocabulary and expressions of local people, yet biologists are failing
to tap into this huge source of knowledge before it is lost for good,
scientists said.
"It seems logical that the biologists should go and talk to the indigenous
people who know more about the local environment than anyone else," said
David Harrison, an assistant professor of linguistics at Swarthmore
College in Pennsylvania.
"Most of what humans know about ecosystems and species is not found in
databases or libraries or written down anywhere. It's in people's heads.
It's in purely oral traditions," Dr Harrison told the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. "About 80 per cent of the
animals and plants visible to the naked eye have not yet been classified
by science. It doesn't mean they are unknown; it just means we have a
knowledge gap.".
An estimated 7,000 languages are spoken in the world but more than half of
them are dying out so fast that they will be lost completely by the end of
the century as children learn more common languages, such as English or
Spanish.
He cited the example of a South American skipper butterfly, Astraptes
fulgerator, which scientists thought was just one species until a DNA
study three years ago revealed that it was in fact 10 different species
whose camouflaged colouration made the adult forms appear identical to one
another.
Yet if the scientists had spoken to the Tzeltal-speaking people of Mexico
- descendants of the Maya - they might have learnt this information much
sooner because Tzeltal has several descriptions of the butterflies based
on the different kinds of caterpillar.
"These people live on the territory of that butterfly habitat and in fact
care very little about the adult butterfly but they have a very-fine
grained classification for the larvae because the caterpillars affect
their crops and their agriculture," Dr Harrison said.
"It's crucial for them to know which larva is eating which crop and at
what time of year. Their survival literally depends on knowing that,
whereas the adult butterfly has no impact on their crops," he said.
"There was a knowledge gap on both sides and if they had been talking to
each other they might have figured out sooner that they were dealing with
a species complex," he said.
"Indigenous people often have classification systems that are often more
fine-grained and more precise than what Western science knows about
species and their territories."
Another example of local knowledge was shown by the Musqueam people of
British Columbia in Canada, who have fished the local rivers for
generations and describe the trout and the salmon as belonging to the same
group.
In 2003 they were vindicated when a genetic study revealed that the
"trout" did in fact belong to the same group as Pacific salmon, Dr
Harrison said. "It seems obvious that knowing more about species and
ecosystems would put us in a better position to sustain those species and
ecosystems," he said.
'That's my argument, that the knowledge gap is vastly to the detriment of
Western science. We know much less than we think we do.
*
The material in this post is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research
and educational purposes.For more information go to:
www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this
email for purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 19 February 2007
news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2283927.ece
Many animals and plants threatened with extinction could be saved if
scientists spent more time talking with the native people whose knowledge
of local species is dying out as fast as their languages are being lost.
Potentially vital information about many endangered species is locked in
the vocabulary and expressions of local people, yet biologists are failing
to tap into this huge source of knowledge before it is lost for good,
scientists said.
"It seems logical that the biologists should go and talk to the indigenous
people who know more about the local environment than anyone else," said
David Harrison, an assistant professor of linguistics at Swarthmore
College in Pennsylvania.
"Most of what humans know about ecosystems and species is not found in
databases or libraries or written down anywhere. It's in people's heads.
It's in purely oral traditions," Dr Harrison told the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. "About 80 per cent of the
animals and plants visible to the naked eye have not yet been classified
by science. It doesn't mean they are unknown; it just means we have a
knowledge gap.".
An estimated 7,000 languages are spoken in the world but more than half of
them are dying out so fast that they will be lost completely by the end of
the century as children learn more common languages, such as English or
Spanish.
He cited the example of a South American skipper butterfly, Astraptes
fulgerator, which scientists thought was just one species until a DNA
study three years ago revealed that it was in fact 10 different species
whose camouflaged colouration made the adult forms appear identical to one
another.
Yet if the scientists had spoken to the Tzeltal-speaking people of Mexico
- descendants of the Maya - they might have learnt this information much
sooner because Tzeltal has several descriptions of the butterflies based
on the different kinds of caterpillar.
"These people live on the territory of that butterfly habitat and in fact
care very little about the adult butterfly but they have a very-fine
grained classification for the larvae because the caterpillars affect
their crops and their agriculture," Dr Harrison said.
"It's crucial for them to know which larva is eating which crop and at
what time of year. Their survival literally depends on knowing that,
whereas the adult butterfly has no impact on their crops," he said.
"There was a knowledge gap on both sides and if they had been talking to
each other they might have figured out sooner that they were dealing with
a species complex," he said.
"Indigenous people often have classification systems that are often more
fine-grained and more precise than what Western science knows about
species and their territories."
Another example of local knowledge was shown by the Musqueam people of
British Columbia in Canada, who have fished the local rivers for
generations and describe the trout and the salmon as belonging to the same
group.
In 2003 they were vindicated when a genetic study revealed that the
"trout" did in fact belong to the same group as Pacific salmon, Dr
Harrison said. "It seems obvious that knowing more about species and
ecosystems would put us in a better position to sustain those species and
ecosystems," he said.
'That's my argument, that the knowledge gap is vastly to the detriment of
Western science. We know much less than we think we do.
*
The material in this post is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research
and educational purposes.For more information go to:
www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this
email for purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner.