A cross-linguistic investigation of the relationship between language vitality and ethnobiological knowledge transmission
Final Report Abstract
Hundreds of small, indigenous languages around the world are currently in danger of disappearing forever. When they stop being spoken, the communities’ repositories of knowledge about the natural environment (traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK), collected over countless generations, may also cease to exist. Researchers who study this problem are generally in agreement that both language loss and TEK loss go hand-in-hand, but it is unclear if this is always the case. The exact mechanisms by which the loss of one leads to the loss of the other remain unknown, as a range of causes maybe responsible for the breakdown in the transmission of language, TEK, or both, in any given community. This project sought to uncover some of the links between language and TEK loss and some of the factors responsible for TEK loss by carrying out focused investigations on seven target languages spoken in four countries. A simple, standardised methodology was used at all research sites, in order to ensure replicability and comparability. Briefly, native speakers of the target languages were shown colour pictures of plants and animals known to be found in their respective environments, and asked to identify them. At all sites, respondents were divided into older and younger age groups, in order to determine if the names of these plants and animals were being taught to the younger generation. A number of other variables of interest, such as gender, occupation, remoteness and forest cover were also investigated as appropriate. The results show that language communities vary in the level of TEK transmission, and that different variables are responsible for any breakdowns in TEK transmission in different locations. In the Indigenous Kune community of northern Australia, for instance, lifestyle change and individual life histories were the key factors that determined an individual’s level of TEK, and this obscured any effect of age per se. In the Intha fishing community in Myanmar, age was found to be a reliable predictor of fish naming ability, probably because the younger people were no longer exposed to numerous small fish species that were now rare or locally extinct. In another fishing community, namely Rakhine, gender and occupation seemed to effect fish naming ability, but not age; here, the underlying causes seem to be patterns associated with the consumption of fish and differences in involvement with the fish trade. The data collected during this project will provide three major benefits: 1) lists of plant and animal names with scientific identifications have been documented from small, understudied languages, often for the first time, 2) the multi-sited approach will lead to a greater appreciation of inter-community and inter-individual variation in TEK in the context of future studies, and 3) the results from the different investigations can be combined to create a model to explain the links between language endangerment and TEK loss.
Publications
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Patterns in the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge: a case study from Arnhem Land, Australia. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 16(1).
Si, Aung
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Tiger Becomes Termite Hill: Soliga/Solega Perceptions of Wildlife Interactions and Ecological Change. Frontiers in Conservation Science, 2.
Agnihotri, Samira; Madegowda, C. & Si, Aung
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Experiences with remote linguistic-ethnobiological fieldwork on bird names in the Qaqet language of Papua New Guinea. Language Documentation and Conservation, 16: 341-363
Frye, H., Balar, S. & Si, A.
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Patterns in fish naming ability in two fishing communities of Myanmar. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 19(1).
Si, Aung & Kyawphyo, Aung
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Variation in the bird-name lexicon in Qaqet (East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea). Asia-Pacific Language Variation, 9(2), 239-264.
Frye, Henrike & Si, Aung
