Cultural Models of Nature ― Primary Food Producers and Climate Change

All primary food producers hold views about nature and the environment, particularly in terms of how they are affected by and must adapt to changes in the latter. Such knowledge structures are typically called Cultural Models. When looking at ways in which to implement environmental strategies that will have a direct impact upon these populations, it is essential that we understand their Cultural Models of Nature. A Cultural Model of Nature must minimally include a number of relationships between fundamental and constitutive categories such as plants, animals, physical environment, weather, people, and the supernatural. Causal relationships may be intra-categorical or cross-categorical. These causal relationships contribute to a large part of what constitute reasoning about Nature.

Drawing on the ethnographic research of the contributors, the chapters in this volume explore the Cultural Models of Nature found in a range of food-producing communities located in climate-change affected areas. These Cultural Models represent specific organizations of the etic, suggesting constitutive categories underlying the concept of Nature (i.e. plants, animals, the physical environment, the weather, humans, and the supernatural). The adoption of a common methodology across the research projects allows Bennardo to draw meaningful cross-cultural comparisons between these communities.

This volume will be of interest to scholars and policy makers actively involved in research and solution-providing in the climate change arena.

Giovanni Bennardo is Presidential Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Cognitive Studies Initiative and Environment, Sustainability, and Energy Institute at Northern Illinois University, USA