Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Chandler, Paul Michael

Titel

Ecological knowledge in a traditional agroforest management system among peasants in China

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1990

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Science has been described as a process of reasoning from visible effects to invisible causes and speculating about the intelligible order of the whole. The first part of this description, reasoning from visible effects to invisible causes, is sufficient to justify hypothesis testing, the heart of modern science. This dissertation argues that this form of logic and deductive reasoning is an essential, perhaps definitive characteristic of modern humans. This characteristic is called proto-science. To support this argument numerous tests are made of the following hypothesis: Among the people of a traditional society residing in their home environment, traditionally derived knowledge of specific cases of ecological processes can approximate scientifically derived knowledge of those same cases. After locating three minimally literate peasant family lineages in a portion of Fujian Province not applying science-based systems of forest management, a decision tree model of an indigenous forest management system centered around shamu (Cunninghamia lanceolata), an important timber species in China, was constructed from extensive interviews. From this model additional interviews were conducted to elicit from these peasants their reasons for selecting among decision alternatives. Those reasons that were of an ecological character were discussed in detail with peasants of each of the three lineages to elicit the indigenous interpretations of ecological processes used to test the research hypothesis. Numerous cases are presented that test the hypothesis. Most cases support the hypothesis; however, those cases that contradict the hypothesis fit a set of "information flow pathologies." An estimate is made of the time required to "learn" a forest ecosystem using only traditional means: About three or four centuries is sufficient to develop an ecologically sustainable system of forest management, and an additional three or four centuries is sufficient to develop a system that also tends toward maximization of economic return. An additional finding suggests that language is a supplemental form of knowledge transmission in traditional agroforest management, with observed example being the primary form of transmission.