Building Theory from Practices Design Principles Underlying Culturally

Building Theory from Practices: Design Principles Underlying Culturally Reflexive Stewardship Robert Winthrop Department of Anthropology – University of Maryland rwinthro@umd. edu Power. Point Show: please click Advances in Socio-Environmental Systems Research to advance slides. SESYNC – Annapolis, Maryland – June 2018

Overview • An example of Culturally Reflexive Stewardship (CRS): Karuk fisheries • Locating stewardship among resource regimes • 3 modes of CRS • The elements of CRS • Factors affecting stewardship • Conclusions Vision “Replace overly simplistic ideologies of protecting ‘naturalness’ and ‘wilderness’ or producing more ecosystem services to benefit humans, with more complex notions of sustaining coevolved, reciprocal relationships between people and their environment. ” – Jonathan Long & Frank Lake, “Escaping Social-Ecological Traps through Tribal Stewardship, ” 2018

Culturally reflexive stewardship (CRS) CRS entails actions to promote the sustainable and appropriate use of nature. . . • that are motivated by socially transmitted understandings and values, • expressed through symbols and practices, • that affirm a social identity, • and transmit cultural knowledge.

Karuk stewardship “For 40 years, Leaf Hillman, a ceremonial leader of California's Karuk Tribe, has danced on the banks of the Klamath River. Following the tradition of his ancestors, he implores the salmon that have long sustained his tribe to return from the sea. . ” [Recent findings on salmon genetics] “have prompted the Karuk Tribe to submit a new ESA petition to designate the Klamath's spring Chinook as threatened or endangered. ” Science vol. 360, 5/11/2018 Both statements manifest culturally reflexive stewardship

Puyallup Tribe Mid-Columbia tribes Sites of tribal fishing examples Karuk Tribe

CRS can be located in a 3 dimensional regime space. Analyzing resource regimes who decides how to choose market transaction environmental regulation what is valued

stewardship tribal members who decides how to choose The z (orange) dimension entails both a move away from instrumental logic and a shift in epistemology. Consider the Karuk fishing example. Karuk traditions ? what is valued common pool fishery

3 modes of CRS living in place • environmental & cultural distinctiveness may not be explicit conservation & recovery environmental stress social opposition polarization & protest • sustaining environment & culture • fighting for environmental justice

Indian dipnet fishing at Celilo Falls “Nineteenth-century treaties expressly affirm[ed] the right of tribes of the Pacific Northwest to fish ‘at all usual and accustomed places. ’” – S. James Anaya living in place

‘Fish-in’ protests of the 1960 s – 1980 s “Each counter move against protesters, each rebuttal in the court room, embedded the expanding and multiple identities as fishermen and fisherwomen into Pacific Northwest Native American consciousness. ” -- Vera Parham polarization and protest

http: //www. critfc. org conservation and recovery

stewardship (1) social persistence A model of CRS includes aspects involving each of these dimensions. (3) place experience (2) livelihood

The social persistence of enclaved groups reflects both shared cultural experience and external stigma. (1) Social persistence • multigenerational experience • identity anchored in an environment • cultural transmission • linguistic continuity • injustice: loss & exclusion political subordination village 1 dominant society village 3 forced enculturation racial exclusion loss of territory village 2 loss of resources

(2) Livelihood • dependence on environmental integrity • subsistence economy / local resources vital • cultural limits to economic integration – – – labor commodities technology information “Salmon was presented to me and my family through our religion as our brother. The same with the deer. And our sisters are the roots and berries. And you would treat them as such. ” – Margaret Saluskin (Yakama Nation)

(3) Place experience • social construction of environmental experience • culturally elaborated knowledge systems • multidimensionality of environmental value “Nature is seen by humans through a screen of beliefs, knowledge, and purposes, and it is in terms of their images of nature, rather than of the actual structure of nature, that they act. ” – Roy Rappaport

Culturally elaborated knowledge systems • Symbols bridge ideological and sensory domains. • Much environmental knowledge is tacit and contextual. • Such knowledge is experiential, gained through a way of life. Meals in mid-Columbia Indian communities still begin with a sip of water, and an exclamation of thanks: čuuš (“water"). The knowledge involved in being a skilled dipnet fisherman cannot be divorced from the social setting of Indian fisheries. If the environmental context is altered, cultural transmission may be impaired. (2 nd order cultural choice)

Multidimensionality of environmental value Environmental value is multidimensional, reflecting – • “relational sustainability” (S. J. Langdon) • “holistic conservation” (Stoffle & Evans) • “coevolved, reciprocal relationships between people and their environment. ” (Long & Lake) X utilitarian -ecosystem services

social persistence The three aspects of CRS are interdependent. As specific characteristics change, CRS may be strengthened or weakened. CRS of local environment livelihood place experience

Stewardship parameters Factors weakening stewardship social persistence livelihood place experience • suppression of political, cultural, or linguistic continuity • loss / absence of work linked to place-specific resources • major change in environmental context Factors enhancing stewardship social persistence • culturally salient place -based actions livelihood • limited integration into dominant economy place experience • retention of placebased cultural knowledge

Outcomes of Indian fishing advocacy • Enforcing treaty rights to fishing Federal court decisions allocate 50% of salmon to tribes, permit traditional fishing methods • Improving fisheries habitat Removal of dams in Washington State blocking fish passage: Elwha dams, Condit dam • Building institutions supporting fisheries management Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission , Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

Conclusions • CRS has motivated many struggles for environmental conservation and social needs. • CRS engages symbols and practices that involve powerful motivations salient for localized social groups. • CRS is based on use framed through a wider cultural purpose, not merely exclusion or avoidance. • Stewardship offers an important complement to regulatory and market-based approaches to conservation. • CRS can effectively integrate traditional praxis with scientific knowledge.

Next challenges References • To what extent is the CRS model applicable beyond small-scale indigenous groups? • Can the processes shaping CRS inform policy efforts aimed at better conserving energy, resources, and biodiversity? Winthrop, R. H. 2002. “Defining a Right to Culture, and Some Alternatives. ” Cultural Dynamics 14 (2): 161– 83. Winthrop, R. H. 2014. “The Strange Case of Cultural Services: Limits of the Ecosystem Services Paradigm. ” Ecological Economics 108 (December): 208– 14. Winthrop, R. H. 2018. “Culturally Reflexive Stewardship: Conserving Ways of Life. ” In The Oxford Handbook of Public Heritage Theory and Practice, Angela M. Labrador and Neil Asher Silberman, eds. , online. Oxford University Press.

THANK YOU! Robert Winthrop Department of Anthropology – University of Maryland rwinthro@umd. edu Winthrop - Culturally reflexive stewardship 1. 9 s SESYNC June 2018. ppsx