3/17/2023 0 Comments Andean condor![]() ![]() Recent studies have suggested that “biocultural memory,” defined as the experiences above the individual level that have been accumulated and handed down through generations, function as a mnemonic reservoir that allows human societies to adapt to a complex world that is constantly changing (Nazarea 2006, Toledo and Barrera-Bassols 2008, Barthel et al. This is a process that involves cognitive and affective learning as individuals refine their TEK through accumulated historical, socially shared, and individual experiences. Time is needed for TEK to evolve organically as people find new ways of responding to new challenges and changing socio-environmental circumstances (Maffi and Dilts 2014). Multiple nested and interrelated levels of TEK include (a) empirical situated knowledge of animals, plants, and their habitats, e.g., information on the identification, biology, and distribution of certain species (b) a set of practices, e.g., tools and techniques, for managing species or habitats, together with the social institutions, e.g., rules-in-use, norms, and codes, associated with these practices and (c) the worldviews, e.g., religion and ethics, that shape the lenses through which a species is perceived and that also assign meaning to observations of the species (Orlove and Brush 1996, Berkes 2018). This set of information is referred to as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and is a cumulative body of knowledge ( corpus), practices ( praxis), and beliefs ( kosmos) that is generated, transmitted, and modified in response to socio-environmental changes (Berkes et al. ![]() The maintenance of a biocultural relationship depends on the intergenerational transmission of knowledge. 2012) have led research efforts and conservation management to focus on biocultural diversity (Posey 1999, Oviedo et al. The evidence of a space-time overlap and the close links that exist between biodiversity and cultural diversity (Maffi 2005, Gorenflo et al. Key words: biocultural diversity biocultural memory Chileanization rural-urban migration Pentecostalism traditional ecological knowledge INTRODUCTION Our study highlights that the role of putative biocultural keystone species is dependent on the vagaries of historical and contemporary socio-environmental processes occurring in the Andes and elsewhere. We suggest that, today, the condor can hardly be considered a biocultural keystone species for the Aymara people of northern Chile. Chileanization, migration, and the integration of evangelical religions into the area’s Catholic-Andean setting were identified as three processes that have deeply affected the transmission of TEK and the Aymara-condor relationship, with new generations living in socio-environmental contexts different from those of their ancestors. Our results indicate a nonarticulated set of information that can be identified as knowledge about the Andean Condor but is patchy and resembles relics, rather than an ongoing body of TEK that includes daily practices, social institutions, and a worldview shaped by the putative biocultural keystone species. A three-month ethnographic study was conducted in the Putre municipal district, including semistructured interviews, focus groups, and surveys of the district’s Aymara inhabitants. We evaluate the validity of this assertion in the light of the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of today’s Aymara from the high Andes of northern Chile. The Andean Condor ( Vultur gryphus) has previously been proposed as a biocultural keystone species for traditional Andean societies. The Aymara people of northern Chile have experienced historical and contemporary processes that have modified their culture and relationship with nature. Changing Socio-Environmental Contexts, Changing Biocultural Relationsīiocultural keystone species have been suggested for different societies, but there has been little empirical evaluation of their role in the face of rapid socio-environmental changes.Social importance of the Andean Condor and related institutions.Notions about condor identification, biology, and distribution. ![]() TEK about the Andean Condor: survival of the mallku?. ![]() Proyecto de Conservación del Cóndor Andino, Zoológico Nacional del Parque Metropolitano de Santiago, Chile, 4ECOS (Ecology-Complexity-Society) Laboratory, Center for Local Development (CEDEL), Villarrica Campus, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), 5Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (CIIR), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 6Center for the Socioeconomic Impact of Environmental Policies (CESIEP), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile 1Proyecto de Conservación del Cóndor Andino, Zoológico Nacional de Chile, Chile, 2The Peregrine Fund, Boise, ID, USA, 3Sección Educación para la Conservación. ![]()
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