 |
| Temperature changes to date have been most pronounced in northern latitudes and over land masses. The image uses longer term averages of at least a decade to smooth out climate variability due to factors such as El Niño. The map is improved from the highest quality rendering that NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio generates, with horizontal and vertical lines removed and with a more legible projection of Kavraiskiy VII. Grey areas in the image have insufficient data for rendering (NASA) |
TOWARDS THE NECESSITY OF A NEW “URGENT ANTHROPOLOGY”: ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE "NEW" (BUT ANCIENT, BECAUSE TRADITIONAL) ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
|
By Franco Pelliccioni, Italian
Geographical Society, Rome [in Proceedings of the Fourth
Ny-Ålesund Seminar (Casacchia, Koutsileos, Morbidoni, Petrelli, Pettersen,
Salvatori, Sparapani, Stoltz Larsen, a cura di), Pisa: NySMAC, 1998, 135-141] "In thinking about what
we are doing to our world's oceans, I contemplate the wisdom of the ancients.
They tell us that nothing can be manifest outside us that is not first manifest
within us." We cannot create something in the "outer world"
without first creating it within each of us. We are trashing our physical world
because we are trashing our "inner world." Long term change cannot
take place until we deal with our trashing within and transform our inner world
into one of peace, tranquillity, and balance. The elders say that the only
thing that transform darkness into light is love". Larry Merculieff, Aleut,
Coordinator of Alaska's Bering Sea Coalition.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ARCTIC AND THE GLOBAL CHANGE The Guidelines for Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) in the Arctic (1996), identify the typical Arctic
characteristics: 1) It is not a uniform region; 2) Physical/Abiotic Systems:
extent of ice-cover on waters; prominence of cryosphere - permafrost,
glaciers/ice sheets - stored greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane; 3) Biotic
Systems: low productivity in general, but some areas are of very high
productivity; short food chains; slow recovery; 4) Sociocultural systems:
high subsistence dependence; extensive vs intensive patterns of land use; low
population densities; 5) Implications for: infrastructure:
roads/pipelines/sea routes; construction/buildings - onshore/offshore -; waste
disposal. Arctic
(but also sub-Arctic) ecosystems, due to their short growing, are, not only
very sensitive to chemical, biological, and physical changes of human origin,
but now they are facing global climate change. Climate change is of immediate
interest to the Arctic. So that the International Geosphere-Biosphere
Program has identified it as the "bellwether of global change and the
zone of early warning for global greenhouse warming". The Arctic plays a
crucial role in global climate change, indeed. It is not only an indicator of
change but its snow and ice features and ocean temperatures and sea ice are
good integrators of change. It stores long-term climatic records in its ice
sheets, such as the Greenland ilandsis. It affects the global climate
directly through interactions between the atmosphere, ice cover and ocean, and
through feedback processes. All climate models predict an amplification of the
global greenhouse effect at high northern latitudes, but models and
observations have produced results not easily interpreted. Global effects on
the Arctic are reflected in regional climate changes. All snow and ice of the
Arctic will be affected. The extent and thickness of the seasonal snow cover,
permafrost, glaciers, rivers, lakes and sea ices are going to decrease 1. These changes will affect also the ecosystems with their fauna and
flora. Cultural and socio-economic consequences to the arctic populations and
their lifestyles will be inevitable. Anyhow not all the changes will be
necessarily negative. Less sea ice may allow, for instance, the opening of
trans-Arctic shipping routes 2, like the mythical
North-East Passage, the Northern Sea Route. But, in general, there is considerable uncertainty in the predicted long-term climate changes, and thus the consequences of these, whether due to natural or anthropogenic influences, remain unknown, as I have already underlined (AMAP, 1997a). A recent AMAP report points out that "the ozone depletion, ultraviolet radiation, climate change and human-caused pollutants pose a more serious threat to the pristine environment of the Arctic than previously believed". There are "serious gaps in our present knowledge, which prevent us from making firm predictions on how the Arctic will respond to future changes (…) the climate of the Arctic can influence the rest of the earth by increasing sea level through glacial melt, and by altering oceanic circulation which is responsible for transporting colder water from the Arctic to lower latitudes. Recent increases in surface UV in winter and spring are adversely affecting ecosystems, and human health in the Arctic (…) Eye damage and weakening of the immune system are of particular concern to people living in the Arctic because of the difficulties and cost associated with obtaining medical care" (AMAP, 1997b) Two
recent studies concerning changes in northern ecosystems are of some interest:
1) an analysis using a simplified climate/biosphere model predicts that all
boreal forest vegetation will shrink and replaced by taiga. Temperate
forest will move northward (Monserud et al. 1993); 2) using palaeoecological
data it is possible to imagine which could be the future change in the boreal
forest/tundra vegetation. We know that during a warm period (4000-5000 years
BC) vegetation changed from tundra to canopy black spruce within a 150 years
period (MacDonald et al. 1993). The past historical warm period had more or
less the same climate conditions then the ones are producing the temperature
changes predicted now for the Arctic. But the final question mark, also in the
case of the two researchers, concerns always the same impossibility to know
which exactly the "change effects" will be. The
U.S. Global Change Research Program recently published a report entitled
Forum on Climatic Modelling (1995) which provides the latest conclusions
on future climate conditions, according three categories: Very Probable,
Probable and Uncertain. For the North they are:
VERY PROBABLE: 1) Global temperatures will
increase by 2050 between 0.5 - 2.0°C; 2) Northern Hemisphere Sea ice will
decrease. However, some areas will have expansion; 3) Arctic land areas will
show increased warming and reduced snow cover; 4) Sea level will rise between 5
- 40 cm 3.
PROBABLE: 1) High latitude precipitation will
increase; 2) The North Atlantic Ocean will warm at a slow rate than the
average.
UNCERTAIN: 1) Changes in climatic variability will occur; 2) Regional scale (100-2000 km) climate change will be different than the global average; 3) Details of climate change over the next 25 years are uncertain; 4) Biosphere-climate feedbacks are expected but whether these feedbacks will amplify or moderate climate change is uncertain. (Lewis e Wool 1996).
KNOWLEDGES: NATURAL VS. SOCIAL, SCIENTIFIC VS. TRADITIONAL
There
is a manifold knowledge confrontation in the Arctic. The first is between
aboriginal Peoples Knowledge and the scientific Eurocentric Knowledge. In a
word, between them and us! The second is wholly euro centripetal, because is
played between natural and social scientists. I will start from this
"second vis-à-vis". The
mistrust and the incomprehension, that especially in the past, and in some
scientifical milieux also today, have negatively marked the contribution
to the understanding of problems of a more and global significance, among
scholars belonging to natural and social sciences, should be overcome. Today's
paper could exactly start from what climatologists Lewis and Wood said about
"the urgency to bring the two together" (II ICASS, International
Congress of Arctic Social Sciences, Rovaniemi, 1995). Kuhn and Phillips in
the '70 already outlined the benefits coming from the cooperation of natural
and social scientists. So, to go " beyond the constraints of the
paradigms of the individual disciplines". Researchers will have to be
willing to accept the validity of multiple paradigms, which appears to go
against the norms of science as we have defined it.
"Global change 4 is occurring at an ever-increasing
rate, and this change is nowhere felt more than in the delicate environmental
systems within both the oceanic and terrestrial regimes for the northern
latitudes. These regions face a myriad of environmental problems that at times
appear to be overwhelming - depleting of fishing stocks and decline in marine
mammal populations; decreased habitat for caribou/reindeer herds; continual
pressures of mineral exploration and its social consequences on native groups;
and the socio-economic impacts of climatic change". (Lewis and Wood, 1996)
 "Generally, the modern scientific knowledge of Arctic ecology is
not as advanced as the ecological understanding in temperate latitudes. There
is lack of extensive modern research and a shortage of qualified Arctic
scientists. The southern experience and intuition cannot readily be transferred
to the Arctic. However, the practical knowledge of the indigenous peoples on
the environment and its sustainable use is extensive. Many indigenous peoples
in the Arctic are repositories of long-term knowledge about local ecosystem
characteristics and variations over time, including recent trends. Often,
they can also identify reliable indicators of stress in valued ecosystem
components [my italic]. " (EIA, 1996).
"While there has been a great deal of ecological information
collected by, or from indigenous peoples of the Arctic, a large amount of this
information has remained unused or unaccessible as reference material 5, only in recent years have researchers seriously examined the potential
of using this knowledge in conjunction with western science to study the
impacts arising from development projects." (Sallenave, 1994)
HOW THE LIFE-STYLE (AND ETHNOSCIENCE) OF THE NORDIC ABORIGINAL PEOPLES
CAN HELP IN UNDERSTANDING AND MONITORING THE DRAMATIC GLOBAL CHANGE PHENOMENON:
LAUNCHING AN ARCTIC URGENT ANTHROPOLOGY PROGRAM? It is
possible to say that in the Northern regions do exist brand new (but, at the
same time, with a very ancient origin) indicators that we may place together
with the others-ones scientists already possess, as excellent theoric and
working tools, to find out the exact and up-to date picture of Arctic (and
"Global") change. They are indicators, it has been said, new and old
at the same time, because strongly connected to traditional life-styles of the
aboriginal peoples that there live. And
they are deeply interrelated with the protection of the original habitat (pastures,
hunting and fishing grounds, seasonal movements, etc.) of the hunters and
pastoral peoples of the Euro-Asiatic and American Great North. Now,
with the Third Millenium almost at the door, we have new motives and reasons to
re-start a "new" Program of Urgent Anthropology, after those
spoken (about) and carried out in the ’60 6 and
’70 7. But those, I should add, had the (not at all
secondary, this is true!), task to take records, among tribes and peoples all
over the world, of traditional cultures and customs: "before it was too
late". As to add them in the Inventary of Humanity. But those Arctic
peoples, those men and women, who since time immemorial live in the circumpolar
areas, know, I should think, exactly, what is going on, since little, or long
time, in their native countries. What is changed already since their father’s
time, or what is – perhaps still now - changing under their own eyes 8. And these findings, their discoveries and know-hows can help them and
us. Can help the world, as a whole, to correct and change single and collective
ecological behaviours. And, at the end, also they will help, at large, the same
Nordic peoples and communities to restore, we hope, better ecological,
economical and living conditions. Because indications and main lines (also of a
compulsory nature, if it is the case) should be given to Governments and
Administrators, below the Polar Circle, so to keep control and/or diminish the
degree of pollution and of the green-house effect. As a matter of fact, the
eight Nordic countries have developed, since 1991, the AEPS 9, that rightly has incorporated knowledges and traditional practices of
the cultures of autochthonous peoples. And CAFF is the Program of AEPS for the
Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna and practically is integrating
indigenous peoples and their knowledge [Nordic Aboriginal Peoples have been
directly involved since its inaugural meeting (1992). The projects that have
been ongoing are the following: "Beluga Whale Mapping Pilot Project"
(Alaska e Chukotka, Russia); "Indigenous Knowledge Data Directory";
"Indigenous Peoples and Co-Management"; "Ethical Principles for
Arctic Research"] "since they represent the repository of
traditional indigenous ecological knowledge and skills of the Arctic".
But
already the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention - ILO - 10 states
that: "The peoples concerned shall have the
right to decide their own priorities for the process of development as it
affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well-being and the
lands they occupy or otherwise use, and to exercise control, to the extent
possible, over their own economic, social and cultural development. In
addition, they shall participate in the formulation, implementation and
evaluation of plans and programmes for national and regional development which
may affect them directly" (art.7,1). The
traditional indicators of Arctic change must not be invented. It is not
necessary to guess them. They are already there. Since the beginning of time.
Since the "Golden Age" or the "Cultural Foundation Myth" of
each Nordic community and they form an integrating part of tradition, of the
orally transmission of know-hows, knowledges, and so on, connected also to the
environment, the habitat, the fauna and vegetation, the climate…11. In the last few years all these last knowledges have been renamed as:
"Traditional Ecological Knowledge" (TEK).
A DIFFERENT LOOK TO GLOBAL CHANGE FROM THE ABORIGINAL CULTURES AND
PEOPLES: TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE (TEK)
It has
been defined as: "a cumulative body of knowledge and beliefs, handed down
through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living
beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment. Further,
TEK is an attribute of societies with historical continuity in resource use
practices; by and large, these are non-industrial or less technologically advanced
societies, many of them indigenous or tribal" (Berkes 1993: 3) 12.
Traditional knowledge is what anthropologist, more formally, use to call
ethnoscience. That is, according the definition of the late Cardona:
"the theoric total of the practical knowledge about the world, owned by a
community; knowledges that have a "learning value", not a
"credence value", coherent and verified by experience"
(1995:36). TEK is day by day adjusted to habitat changes of each community, and
it will be of vital importance, value and validity as far as peoples will turn
themselves on the environment for their subsistence (and survival).
Aboriginal traditional ecological knowledge should be integrated
formally into the process, and aboriginal peoples should be given greater
decision-making powers concerning EIA research and policy. At present, most
environmental assessments and monitoring systems neither involve significantly
aboriginal communities or include northern aboriginal peoples’ knowledge of the
environment, so… most EIAs are ineffective" (Sallenave, 1994). It
should be added, and this is not a "new thing" for Students of Man,
that: "the aboriginal view of the world sees all aspects of the
environment as equally important. In their "holistic" view, the components
(of the biosphere or the human components—the social, cultural, spiritual, and
economic aspects of the environment) cannot be separated each from the
other."(Sallenave, 1994)
Already, almost twenty years ago, Freeman,1979 (and, after him, Howes,1980,
Johnson, 1989, Nakashima, 1990) have pointed out the advantages of involving
aboriginal peoples as environmental researchers, also with greater speed and
less cost compare to the traditional scientific research methods. "As long
as aboriginal communities in the study region are not involved in the research,
it will be difficult—if not impossible—and more costly for researchers to
identify and understand the ecological, social, cultural, economic, and
spiritual value of the various components of the environment"13 (Sallenave, 1994).
"There are numerous knowledge gaps in the ecological information
about northern regions that science alone cannot fill 14. TEK, which encompasses the biophysical, economic, social, cultural,
and spiritual aspects of the environment, is in many instances better suited to
answer scientists’ many questions" (Freeman, 1992). Because, as a matter
of fact, "TEK emphasizes the inter-relationships between components of the
environment and avoids scientific reductionism. It views humans as part of the
environment. (…) Integrating TEK into the EIA process entails more than a
transfer of information from one culture to another: it will require a change
in the mind of policy makers and of scientists." (Sallenave, 1994). In
1996, a Seminary held by the ICC (Inuit Circumpolar Conference) in
Inuvik, Canadian Western Arctic, saw all together elders, researcher, Inuit
hunters (from Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Northern Russia), all of them with
strong backgrounds in traditional ecology. The participants stressed that
"TEK collecting" is urgently needed. In all the represented
circumpolar regions, elders who grew up living on the land and sea are passing
away, and with them their knowledge of the land and of the traditions of the
community. It is essential that it is documented the elders' knowledge and
promoted the transmission of that knowledge to the younger generation. This
must include the protection of the land and the use of its resources, otherwise
traditions and knowledge will be lost, and the people who remain will be left
without the benefit of this heritage. In particular, there is a need to revive
traditional methods of using natural resources for the continued survival of
indigenous peoples of the circumpolar north (ICC, 1996). In the
same paper the first recommendation addressed by the participants, entitled Perpetuating
the Use of TEK at the Community Level, was: that should be encouraged the
promotion of the use of indigenous knowledge in the community, and the documentation
of the knowledge of community elders, making it locally available. "Work
in this area is particularly urgent, since so much knowledge is being lost so
rapidly". Afterwards, in the paragraph Documenting TEK, it is
further pointed out that: "due to the urgency with which TEK documentation
is needed, funding agencies and local organizations should make this work a
high priority". Not only! A recommendation of a purely anthropological
flavour, concerning the globality of the right direction to take, is that:
"TEK interviews should be holistic in their approach. Topics should
include land, animals, people, culture, language, and environment, as
appropriate. All are connected, and the interview should discuss environmental
and cultural processes and influences that relate to the subject being
studied"15. But
there are some overall difficulties in accepting TEK. The first barrier to its
integration is perceptual. Because, as we can imagine, there is a difference
between what aboriginal peoples and foreigners see as
"significant"... This poses an obstacle to the effective monitoring
of impacts. The gap between the two perceptions is due to the fact that
generally it is not possible to fully understand the attitude of a People to
development and change, out of the context of its own cultural history. And we
know very well that there is a continous trend, almost in all the world, to
exclude aboriginal peoples (and their knowledge, too!) from development
processes. A second, not secondary, barrier towards the inclusion of
traditional knowledge in the EIA process is the scepticism within the
scientific community: the more or less reliability of indigenous information
coming through interviews, and/or field participant observations. It could be
anecdotal and no-scientific 16. Urgent
Anthropology looks for several causes, besides those concerned to the world's
processes, more or less deep and extended, of cultural change in progress, and
as to peoples threatened (for several causes), still more vital than ever.
"Urgent Anthropology" University Courses, Fellowships and
Scolarships, concerning Programs and Projects in Urgent Anthropology, are
yearly conferred by the most prestigious scientific organizations 17. Not only… The most important World's Meetings 18 show evidence of
the urgence of ethno-anthropological studies, which have characterized, almost
from birth, modern Ethnology (and Cultural/Social Anthropology), with
researches in all corners of the world 19. It is possible to
say, as a matter of fact, that the adjective "urgent", or the
word "urgency "are tightly connected to these sciences. They
have been a sort of raison d'être of our science, both belonging to the
foundation act of the discipline 20.
Recently Osherenko (INSROP) underlined the "complexity of the human
systems in the Arctic and the need for both detailed and geographically
broad-ranged baseline studies" (1993:122). As a matter of fact, gaps exist
also in the basic knowledge of many Nordic Peoples, first of all Siberians 21. So, to conclude,
I hope the topic of my paper has been of some utility to the general discussion
of this Seminar. And here I suggest the possibility to launch a new Program
of Urgent Anthropology, focalizing it in the circumpolar regions for the
following main reasons: 1) to collect general background data on Arctic
Peoples, when our knowledge of those cultures is insufficient (Northern
Russia), or it is out of date; 2) to collect data on Arctic Peoples cultural
change, in progress; 3) to collect data on ecological matters; 4) to collect data on ecological (and global)
change.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AMAP, 1997a, Arctic Pollution Issues: A
State of the Environment Repport. Short Preface and Executive Summary AMAP, 1997b, Arctic Environment threatened.
Berkes, F 1993. Traditional Ecological
Knowledge in Perspective. In Inglis, J.T. (ed). Traditional Ecological
Knowledge: Concepts and Cases. Ottawa: International Program on Traditional
Ecological Knowledge and International Development Research Centre. CARDONA G.R., 1995 (1985) La foresta di piume. Manuale di etnoscienza, Bari: Laterza EIA, 1996, Guidelines for
Environmental Impact Assessment. FREEDMAN M., 1979 (1976), L'antropologia
culturale, Bari: Laterza Freeman M. 1979. "Traditional Land Users
as a Legitimate Source of Environmental Expertise", in Nelson, G. (ed). The
Canadian National Parks: Today and Tomorrow-Conference 11, Ten Years Later. Waterloo,
Canada: Waterloo University Studies. Freeman M. 1992. "The Nature and Utility
of Traditional Ecological Knowledge", in Northern Perspectives XX:1.
Howes M. 1980. "The Uses of Indigenous
Technical Knowledge: Analysis, Implications and Issues", in Brokensha, D.
et al. (eds). Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Development. Lanham, MD.:
University Press of America. HUXLEY F., 1975 (1973) , "Il problema
della conservazione dell'uomo", in Evans-Pritchard, (ed), I Popoli
della Terra, vol.1, Australia e Nuova Guinea, Verona: Mondadori INGLIS J.T. (ed), 1993, Traditional
Ecological Knowledge: Concepts and Cases, Ottawa: International Development
Research Centre. Johannes R. 1993. "Integrating Traditional
Ecological Knowledge and Management with Environmental Impact Assessment",
in Inglis. J.T. (ed), op. cit. Johnson M. 1989. "The Role of Traditional
Knowledge in Northern Development", in Northern Hydrocarbon Development
in the Nineties: A Global Perspective. Ottawa: Geotechnical Science
Laboratories, Carleton University, pp.29-34. Kuhn T. 1970. The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lalonde A. and LeBlanc P. 1991. Applied
traditional ecological knowledge. A preliminary review of six case-studies
investigating some theoretical and practical integrations of native knowledge
and participation in renewable resources co-management, including aspects of
the environmental/social impact assessment and land-use planning process.
Unpublished. LEWIS J.E. and WOOD E.C., 1996 "A Physical
Scientists' Perspective of the Human Dimension of Global Change", in Unity
and diversity in Arctic Sciences, IASSA MacDonald G. et al. 1993. "Rapid Response
of Treeline Vegetation and Lakes to Past Climate Warming", Nature,
(361), pp 243-246. G. MAGRINI, 1982, "Un modello
ecologico", in TURRI et al. Grande Nord, pp. 25-32. J. MALAURIE, 1991 (1976), Gli ultimi re di
Thule. Vita quotidiana degli Esquimesi, Milano: Mondadori. MERCIER P., 1972 (1966), Storia
dell'antropologia, Bologna: Il Mulino Monserud R.A. et al. 1993. "Global
Vegetation Change Predicted by the Modified Budyko Model", Climatic
Change, (25), pp 59-83. MORAN E., 1995, The Comparative Analysis of
Human Societies: Toward Common Standards of Data Collection and Reporting,
Lynne Reinner Press. Nakashima D. J. 1990. "Application of
Native Knowledge" in EIA: Inuit, Eiders and Hudson Bay Oil. Hull:
C.E.A.R.C. OSHERENKO G., 1993, "Using Peripheral
Vision in Northern Sea Route: Assessing Impacts on Indigenous Peoples", in
SIMONSEN, Proceedings..., pp. 115 -132. Phillips B. 1971. Social Research: Strategy
and Tactics, New York: The Macmillan Co. RAI, 1980, Observers of Man, London,
Royal Anthropological Institute Sallenave J. "Giving Traditional Giving
Traditional Ecological Knowledge Its Rightful Place in Environmental Impact
Assessment", in Northern Perspectives, XXII, 1, Spring, 1994 SIMONSEN H., (ed) 1993, Proceedings from the
Northern Sea Route Expert Meeting, Oslo: Finnish and Norwegian Foreign
Ministries in collaboration with the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, TURNER et al., 1995, Human Dimension of
Global Change: The Scientific Priorities, National Academy of Sciences. TURRI et al., 1982, Grande Nord, Novara:
De Agostini. USGCRP.1995. Forum on Global Modeling, U.S.
Global Change Research Program Report 95-01, Washington, DC. YOUNG O. et al., 1992, Global Change: The Human Dimension,
National Academy Press.
1 I think, for instance, to the
remarkable growing, as in the number of polinyas, as in their total
area. 2 Two areas of particular interest
in the Arctic have been chosen by the IASC, the International Arctic Science
Committee for regional impact assessments: the Barents Sea and the Western
Arctic / Bering Sea region (for their economical importance, weather
generation, and sensitivity to climate, as well as for the presence of native
populations, regional scientific expertise, and… research. Observed climate
-related trends and changes over the last few decades make this region
particularly interesting in assessing the impacts of change (BESIS,
Introduction, Bering Sea Impacts Study, s.d.). 3 "Changes in sea level which
decrease the land available would produce several effects. People would have to
relocate inland producing changes in population distribution, which will
influence the resource base and land use" (Lewis and Wood, 1996). 4 "Global change research
initially focused almost solely on the physical and biological sciences, but in
the last eight to ten years, there has been more recognition of the human
dimensions and the essential role that social science must play in resolving
global environmental problems. As evidence, the three problems that have been
given greatest attention: climate change, ozone depletion and loss of
biodiversity - are all anthropogenic in origin" (Lewis and Wood, 1996). 5 The annotated bibliography of
indigenous knowledge studies/reports that was developed as part of the 1993
report entitled: "The Participation of Indigenous Peoples and the
Application of their Environmental and Ecological Knowledge in the Arctic
Environmental Protection Strategy" is considered a starting point for the
data directory. 6 At the beginning of the '60
Heine-Geldern, the theoretician of "transpacific migrations" started
an Urgent Anthropological Research Bulletin, and began to assess the
populations that were in danger (Huxley, 1975: 12). In 1969 Sol Tax, in the pages
of Current Anthropology declared that: "I think there are three
equally urgent tasks for world's anthropology: 1) the human problem of forced
cultural change or the physical destruction of Peoples, that bar or boycott the
interests of the more powerful Peoples; 2) the problem of the speed of change
of traditional patterns, due to force or as a result of internal demands. This
destroys forever the necessary data to understand the historical variety of
cultures and that could help us to direct our future; 3) the problem to
propagate, especially among other scientists and technicians, the
anthropology's points of view, to make more efficient modernization programs,
as to resist to the negative influences for humanity" (Freedman,
1978:180-181). 7 In 1971 the famous Center for
the Study of Man of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington called
for a meeting in Chicago "to encourage and to coordinate interdisciplinary
researches on a world scale on anthropological matters suggested by the more
pressing problems facing humanity" (Freedman, 1978: 177). 8 For the Sami, the colleague
Ingold (Manchester University), has just ended a field-research (1/94-12/97)
on: "The Perception of Climatic Change and its impact on the Saami of
Fennoscandia". I should say that this People has opposed to the Chernobyl
disaster cultural reactions and strategies. Because the "cloud"
caused very long term damages to lichens (the reindeer favourite food),
creating problems, as to the single breeder, as to administrators and researchers.
So, a good professional and empirical "packet" has been accumulated,
as regards to the long term’s effects. 9 "The Arctic Environmental
Protection Strategy (adopted by Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland,
Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, at Rovaniemi) objectives
specifically identify the necessity to recognise and, to the extent
possible, seek to accommodate the traditional and cultural needs, values and
practises of the indigenous peoples as determined by themselves, related to the
protection of the Arctic environment" ( AEPS includes the Inuit
Circumpolar Conference (ICC), the Nordic Saami Council (NSC) and the
Russian Association of Peoples of the North -RAPON-): " Recognising
the importance of the Arctic to our respective countries, to present and future
generations of all Arctic residents, especially indigenous peoples, and to the
rest of the world; Recognising the special role and important contributions of
indigenous peoples in each of the AEPS programmes; We endorse continuation of
activities for monitoring, data collection, exchange of data on the impacts,
and assessment of the effects of contaminants and their pathways, increased
Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation due to stratospheric ozone depletion, and
climate change on Arctic ecosystems". (Alta Declaration on the Arctic
Environmental Protection Strategy, 1997) 10 "Convention concerning
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in indipendent Countries (ILO No. 169), 72 ILO
Official Bull, 59, entered into force 1991: art. 7) 11 A recent hit film, titled in
Italian: "Il senso di Smilla per la neve", showed to the
public the knowledges, not only of a terminological order, of the Greenlandic
People (Inuit) about the phisical phenomenon of the snow. Also if the
interpreter, Smilla, was only a young girl when she left the great island to go
to Copenaghen. And these knowledges are all an integrating part of the
traditional heritage of Arctic Peoples. For instance, I remind that in Canada
does exists a distinction among the qali (the snow over the trees), the pukak
(the compact snowy and iced cloak that is covering the soil), the api (the
soft snow that is on the top of the pukak) (Magrini, 1982:30). But the
eskimos (Inuit) have rich and diversified shades for the body, kinship, hunting
techniques, and so on (Malaurie, 1991: 219). 12 According Johannes four are the
TEK prospectives: taxonomic-ones (meaning for the inhabitants, of wildlife,
plants and soil); spacial-ones ( fauna seasonal migration patterns and
aggregational places ); temporal; social (perception and use of land by
aboriginal Peoples) (1993). 13 "While there has been a
great deal of ecological information collected by, or from indigenous peoples
of the Arctic, a large amount of this information has remained unused or
unaccessible as reference material. Only in recent years have researchers
seriously examined the potential of using this knowledge in conjunction with
western science to study the impacts arising from development proiects."
(Sallenave, 1994) 14 Cardona, in the rich
bibliography that he wrote for his precious etnoscience handbook, has had the
chance to refer only to few works concerning Arctic Peoples: Lucier, VanStone
and Keats, on the "medical practices" and on the "Inuit Noatak
anatomical knowledge" (p. 93), that of Marsh and Laughlin, on the
"anatomical knowledges among the Aleuts" (p.94), the "Laps
knowledges of the animal world" -reindeers- by Delaporte (p.115); and
Royer: "Montagnais colour terminology" (p.171). 15 This theme should be raised
again in the next future, so to have a frame within which it will be possible
to discuss about the possibility (costs, benefits, opportunity, search for
partherships, relation with the AEPS, ecc.) of launching a future project of
Urgent Anthropology in the Nordic Countries. 16 The Berger Inquiry was the first
environmental social impact assessment that took into consideration views and
knowledge of the aboriginal inhabitants—Inuit, Dene, and Metis— of the proposed
pipeline area in the northwest corner of Canada. (Lalonde & LeBlanc 1991).
"Since the publication of the Berger Inquiry report, the credibility of
native hunters as accurate interpreters of nature has become more widely
accepted." (Freeman, 1979: 353) 17 Since1995 a Fellowship is
granted by the British Royal Anthropological Institute ( in association
with Goldsmiths College, the larger centre for anthropological research
in Great Britain), thanks to an "ad hoc" fund:The Anthropologist's
Fund for Urgent Anthropological Research, so "to support research on
threatened indigenous peoples and their cultures and languages". 18 In 1998 the 14th
International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (ICAES),
and titled: "The 21st Century: The Century of Anthropology", will be
held in the States. Its title doesn't leave any doubts, as it will be there to
assess firmly the up-to-date validity of a discipline that once was mostly
restricted to the sphere of students of the primitive and the exotic "tout
court", and whose members looked like to be interested, almost
exclusively, to rites and myths, strange and peculiar usages and customs: good
only to the advancement of "aspiring wizards". And which better
occasion of this one to make, not only the point on the discipline, of the state-of-art,
in reviewing knowledges and current researches in the different areas of the
Planet. The 1998 ICAES will be also as a moment of critical reflection and of
deepening on the past. To lay a sound bridge to the future, outlining the new
challenges, that is possible to forecast of an extreme interest, that are
waiting the new millenium anthropologists. The next hundred years will be so
interesting that they have been already baptized as "The Anthropology's
Century". And the World Meeting will be held at a distance of exactly
one hundred years from the Torres Strait Expedition (Haddon, Rivers,
Seligman et alia). Which has represented the very first interdisciplinary
scientific research in the field. From here begins modern Anthropology. One of
the most important 1998 ICAES Symposia will be:"Urgent Anthropological
Research" (Chair: Hohenwart-Gerlachstein) 19 For instance the foundation in
London (1927) of the International African Institute (then Institute
of African Languages and Cultures) had an urgent nature. Like ten years
after, in 1937 (but "that building" went on for several decades: it
is still in progress today) had the establishment, by Murdock, of the imposing Human
Relations Area File Program (HRAF) 20 "Plentiful since the XIX
century are the calls to the urgency of the task [the settlement of
"archives of the humanity], and this become a leitmotiv of
anthropological teachings: the elements of some essential "dossiers"
are disgregating under our own eyes" (Mercier, 1972: 16). In 1872, in the
first edition of Notes and Queries on Anthropology (to which, among the
others, contributed one of the Founding Fathers of Anthropology, Tylor
-and Darwin, too-), that has been the very famous note-book-vademecum,
not only for field ethnologist, but especially for amateur-ones (RAI,
1980:4), one of the pillars of the history of our science, it is obviously
underlined "the urgency of the task, as some groups are, or look like to
be, in extinction" (Mercier, 1972:62) 21 As a matter of
fact for many years the "sacred text" ["not only as the very
first general ethnography treatise of the country, but as "summa" and
general overview of scientific research in the sector" (Bravo, in Tokarev:
65)] of Russian Ethnologists has been the Tokarev Handbook, Etnografija
narodov SSR, 1958, in part resulting from personal research (Altai, Saiani,
Yakuts, Buriats, and partially Circassians and oriental Slav Peoples (Tokarev,
1969). At a distance of exactly forty years, the ex-USSR and Northern Russia,
in particular, are still considered as "unknown things". So, the the Arctic
Science Committee has provided an "ad hoc" program, the ISIRA: The
International Science Initiative in the Russian Arctic", which
principally is direct to increase our knowledges. Above all thanks to English
translations and abstracts of disregarded works of Russian scholars caused by
the linguistic blockade and the lack of a tradition of international scientific
cooperation. My Amazon books (E-Books and print versions in color and black and
white, I and II ed.) on the Arctic and the Northwest Passage:  E-Book and paper version in color and black and white I ed.  |
