Abstract
A decision-tree model of an indigenous forest management system centered around shamu (Cunninghamia lanceolata),an important timber species in China, was constructed from extensive interviews with peasants in two villages in Fujian Province, China. From this model additional interviews were conducted to elicit from these peasants their reasons for selecting among decision alternatives. Those reasons that were of an ecological nature were discussed in detail with the peasants to elicit indigenous interpretations of ecological processes in order to test an hypothesis that a strong analogy exists between traditional indigenous and scientific knowledge of ecological processes.
Three cases are presented that test this hypothesis. These three cases concern the effect of intercrops on the growth of shamu,the relative merits of seedlings and root collar sprout cuttings for forest regeneration, and the effects of repeated plantings of shamuon soil chemistry. All three cases provide strong support for the research hypothesis and suggest that, even in the absence of a formalized scientific method, humans exercise mental processes typical of scientific thinking. This phenomenon is called proto-science.
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Additional information
Paul Chandler grew up in the tobacco farming country of rural North Carolina. He received his undergraduate education from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he studied the history of U.S. relations with the Far East. He also has received degrees in Forest Economics from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, and Forest Management from the University of Washington, Seattle. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps where he taught Forest Management at the Federal University of Vicosa in Minas Gerais, Brazil. He also worked as timber cruiser and timberlands appraiser for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and as a free-lance photographer and writer. His primary focus of research is the ethnoecology of silviculture and shifting cultivation. Dr. Chandler is currently Assistant Professor of International Resource Management at Ball State University, Indiana.
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Chandler, P.M. The indigenous knowledge of ecological processes among peasants in the People's Republic of China. Agric Hum Values 8, 59–66 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01579657
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01579657