The Current Status of Ethnobiology in Ecuador
Abstract
This article gives an account of the current status of ethnobiology in Ecuador. Our goal is a generalized diagnosis of Latin America’s ethnobiological research production, which portrays Ecuadorian ethnobiology as practically non-existent. We perform an updated search of online databases, using a range of keywords, to show that elements of an ethnobiological research program are indeed present in Ecuadorian scholarship. While ethnobotany is the most developed sub-discipline of ethnobiology in Ecuador, there is also research on ethnomedicine, ethnozoology, and, to a lesser extent, ethnomycology. The development of these sub-disciplines promotes further ethnobiological scholarship in Ecuador. Beyond these sub-disciplines, ethnobiology is interwoven with contemporary anthropological accounts that emphasize the relationships between nature and culture and shine a light on the epistemic plurality of ethnobiology. If ethnobiology in Ecuador is distinguished by an epistemic plurality—understood through these different styles of reasoning—then it can be characterized without being confined to sub-disciplines with the ethno- prefix.
References
Acosta, A. and E. Martínez, 2011. La Naturaleza con Derechos: De la Filosofía a la Política. Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador.
Agrawal, A. 1995. Dismantling the Divide Between Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge. Development and Change 26:413–39. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-7660.1995.tb00560.x.
Albuquerque, U., J. Soares, J. Loureiro, R. Silva, C. Silva, and R. Nóbrega. 2013. The Current Status of Ethnobiological Research in Latin America: Gaps and Perspectives. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 9:2–9. DOI:10.1186/1746-4269-9-72.
Anderson, E. N, D. Pearsall, E. Hunn, and N. Turner, eds. 2011. Ethnobiology. Wiley, Blackwell, NJ.
Argueta, A. 2011. Introducción. In Saberes Colectivos y Diálogo de Saberes en México, edited by A. Argueta, E. Corona, and P. Hersch, pp. 11–50. National Autonomous University of México,
Argüello, A. 1991. La Etnobiología en el Ecuador. In Las Plantas y el Hombre. Memorias del Primer Simposio Ecuatoriano de Etnobotánica y Botánica Económica, edited by M. Rios and Pedersen, pp. 383–393. H. Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador.
Barrett, S. A. 1994. Los Indios Cayapas del Ecuador. Collección Biblioteca Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador.
Basalla, G. 1967. The Spread of Western Science. A Three-Stage Model Describes the Introduction of Modern Science into Any Non-European Nation. Science 156:611-622. DOI:10.1126/science.156.3775.611.
Bianchi, C. 1988. El Shuar y el Ambiente. Mundo Shuar, Quito, Ecuador.
Bueno O. 2012. Styles of Reasoning: A Pluralist View. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43:657–665. DOI:10.1016/j.shpsa.2012.07.008
Cartwright N. 1999. The Dappled World. A Study of the Boundaries of Science. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Chisaguano, S. 2006. La Población Indígena del Ecuador. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC) Quito, Ecuador.
Cueto, M. 1989. Excelencia Científica en la Periferia: Actividades Científicas e Investigación Biomédica en el Perú 1890–1950. Grade, Lima, Perú.
De la Cadena, M. 2010. Indigenous Cosmopolitics in the Andes: Conceptual Reflections Beyond “Politics”. Cultural Anthropology 25:334–370.
De la Torre, L., H. Navarrete, M. Muriel, M. Macía, and H. Balslev, eds. 2008. Enciclopedia de las Plantas Útiles del Ecuador. Herbario QCA de la PUCE y Herbario AAU de la Universidad de Aarhus, Quito, Ecuador.
Descola, P. 1988. La Selva Culta. Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador.
Diamond, J. 2002. Evolution, Consequences, and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication. Nature 418:700–707. DOI:10.1038/nature01019.
Ellen, R. 2006. Introduction. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 12:1–22. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00270.x.
Elwick, J. 2007. Styles of Reasoning in the British Life Sciences: Shared Assumptions, 1820–1858. Pickering and Chatto, London.
Fleck, L. 1987. Génesis y Desarrollo de un Hecho Científico: Introducción a la Teoría del Estilo de Pensamiento y del Colectivo de Pensamiento. Alianza Editorial, Madrid, Spain.
Gamboa-Trujillo, J.P. 2009. Introdução à Etnomicologia no Equador. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia de Fungos. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil.
Gorenflo, L., S. Romaine, R. Mittermeier, and K. Walker-Painemilla. 2012. Co-Occurrence of Linguistic and Biological Diversity in Biodiversity Hotspots and High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas. PNAS 109:8032–8037. DOI:10.1073/pnas.1117511109.
Gudynas, E. 2011. Los Derechos de la Naturaleza en Serio. In La Naturaleza con Derechos. de la Filosofía a la Política, edited by A. Acosta and E. Martínez, pp. 239–286. Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador.
Hacking, I. 2009. Scientific Reason. Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Hidayati, S., F. Franco, and W. Bussmann. 2015. Ready for Phase 5—Current Status of Ethnobiology in Southeast Asia. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 11:2–8. DOI:10.1186/s13002-015-0005-7.
Hunn, E. 2007. Ethnobiology in Four Phases. Journal of Ethnobiology 27:1–10. DOI:10.2993/0278-0771(2007)27[1:EIFP]2.0.CO;2.
Jácome-Negrete, I. 2012. Etnoictiología Kichwa de los Bagres del Género Pseudoplatystoma (Siluriformes: Pimelodidae) en la Amazonía Central del Ecuador. Revista Amazónica Ciencia y Tecnología 1:36–50.
Jácome-Negrete, I., V. Tanchima, P. Santi, C. Vargas. 2013. Etnozoología Quichua para la Conservación de los Mamíferos Ungulados en la Amazonía Central del Ecuador Provincia Pastaza. Revista Amazónica Ciencia y Tecnología 2(3):1–14.
Juncosa, J. 1988. Tsachila: Los Clásicos de la Etnografía Sobre los Colorados (1905–1950). Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador.
Karsten, K. 1935. The Head Hunters of Western Amazonas. Societas Scientiarum Fenica. Commentatores Humanarum Litterarum, Helsinki, Finland.
Kohn, E. 2013. How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human. University of California Press, CA.
Pickstone, J. 2001. Ways of Knowing. A New History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Posey, D. 1986. Etnobiologia: Teoria e Prática. In Summa Etnologica Brasileira, edited by P. Ribeiro, pp. 15–25. Vozes/FINEP, Petropolis, Brasil.
Ríos, M. 2007. La Etnobotánica en el Ecuador. Síntesis, Retos, y Perspectivas. In Plantas Útiles del Ecuador. Aplicaciones, Retos, y Perspectivas, edited by M. Rios, M. Koziol, H. Pedersen, and G. Granda, pp. 17–41. Herbario QCA PUCE/Herbario AAU/The Exotic Blends Company/Corporación Sociedad para la Investigación y Monitoreo de la Biodiversidad Ecuatoriana (SIMBIOE), Quito, Ecuador.
Ríos and Pedersen 1991. Las Plantas y el Hombre. Memorias del Primer Simposio Ecuatoriano de Etnobotánica y Botánica Económica. Abya-Yala, Quito, Ecuador.
Rival, L. 1996. Blowpipes and Spears: The Social Significance of Huaorani Technological Choices. In Nature and Society: Anthropological Perspectives, edited by P. Descola and G. Palsson, pp. 145–164. Siglo XXI. Ciudad de México, México.
Vickers, W.T. 1989. Los Sionas y Secoyas. Su Adaptación al Ambiente Amazónico. Colección 500 Años. Abya-Yala, Cayambe, Ecuador.
Wolverton, S. 2013. Ethnobiology 5: Interdisciplinarity in an Era of Rapid Environmental Change. Ethnobiology Letters 4:21–25. DOI:10.14237/ebl.4.2013.11.
Copyright (c) 2018 Tania Ivanova Gonzalez-Rivadeneira, Radamés Villagómez-Resendiz, Alessio Barili
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content and grant Ethnobiology Letters (the “Journal”) and the Society of Ethnobiology right of first publication. Authors and the Journal agree that Ethnobiology Letters will publish the article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits others to use, distribute, and reproduce the work non-commercially, provided the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal are properly cited.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
For any reuse or redistribution of a work, users must make clear the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
In publishing with Ethnobiology Letters corresponding authors certify that they are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements. They warrant, on behalf of themselves and their co-authors, that the content is original, has not been formally published, is not under consideration, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights. They further warrant that the material contains no matter that is scandalous, obscene, libelous, or otherwise contrary to the law.
Corresponding authors will be given an opportunity to read and correct edited proofs, but if they fail to return such corrections by the date set by the editors, production and publication may proceed without the authors’ approval of the edited proofs.