Paper short abstract:

I consider conceptual,empirical,theoretical and purpose-related changes of my long-term fieldwork by tracking the points of arrival at different conceptual nodes and empirical opportunities.Pursuing this reveals gaps that have pushed my research in new directions and opened new horizons in its aims.

Paper long abstract:

My research in the Seto region in the South Eastern corner of Estonia since 2003 has considerably transformed over the years, from the starting point in the anthropology of development, through empirical and theoretical focus on heritage, hegemony, migration and eventually environmental anthropology. There, in relation to recently changed logging laws and their effects on the local dispossessed groups all those dimensions have become combined.

Whilst anthropology has provided the insights that have led to the transformation of my research attention, tracking this process of transformation and arrival at each new conceptual node and empirical opportunity reveals the gaps where the need for insight from other disciplines becomes highly valuable, mixing methods inevitable, and an applied approach instrumental. To reveal how such a process of transformation has helped advance both the conceptual framework of "social dispossession", and its links to heritage and environmental degradation, I will offer a case study from the region that has pushed me into the subdiscipline I had avoided out of fear for subdisciplinary purity and a lack of knowledge. Without willingness to enter unknown fields not only empirically but also theoretically and methodologically, there is little hope for interdisciplinarity. Further, interdisciplinarity flourishes in particular when its raison d'être is applied. And through such avenues, as a final stop (for now), the researchers realise what anthropology gains from other disciplines and what it can offer both in academia and beyond.

Paper short abstract:

The way the field turns a research project upside down is not new. However, how do we, as anthropologists, deal with the fact that our main research topic is not a priority in the lives of our interlocutors? How prepared are we to listen to the field and cope with changes?

Paper long abstract:

As a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology interested in 'people-nature conservation' dynamics, I focused my research proposal on a turtle protection project established in Goa (India) with the aim of understanding the relations established between the local fishermen and the turtle project. Even knowing that a research project had to be done and that, certainly, it would be changed by the field, I never imagined the challenges.

Although anthropological research distances itself from other sciences, mainly due to the study duration and involvement with the interlocutors, anthropologists are subject to the same research detailed planning: delimitate research object, elaborate questions, outline hypotheses, define an array of gather-data tools to collect information and, finally, inserted all the future fieldwork 'movements' in a timetable. The point, whatsoever, is that we are also trying to put in boxes the lives, understanding, and expectations of people that we don't know yet. My fieldwork experience is an example where a constructed object is reformulated by the field itself (read context and interlocutors). This field turn is not new. However, it is pertinent to reflect on it. How do we, as anthropologists, deal with the fact that our main research topic is not a priority in the lives of our interlocutors? How prepared are we to listen to the field and cope with changes? In this paper, I intend to reflect on the way I manage to cope with the above mention questions and the role of fieldwork in the process of knowledge production in anthropology.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation will discuss particular revelations during fieldwork about how embodied knowledge transformed me as a researcher, my theoretical perspectives, and the difficulties with translating embodied knowledge to field material for observation and analysis.

Paper long abstract:

Doing fieldwork in a seal rehabilitation center in the Netherlands, which focuses on seal rehabilitation as well as on heritagization of the Wadden Sea, challenges methods of participant observation and its translation into text. Getting more experienced in seal care taught me how to read the behavior of seals and how to behave around them. This has provided me with the embodied knowledge of how relations are built on the basis of abstract feelings towards seals, and the insight that these relations depend on the chemistry between particular seals and staff or volunteers. Furthermore, by creating memories with particular seals, for example by the act of naming, humans form special relations with them. Embodied knowledge gained through interspecies interaction extends to changing perceptions on the environment, the Wadden Sea. Knowing that plastic pollution will end up in the stomach of these same seals, influenced my perception of the Wadden Sea as an environment to be seriously cared for as well. This leads to an open-ended discussion of how embodied knowledge, that has deep effects on the researcher and theoretical insights, can be observed and what kind of field material would be satisfactory for analysis. What language can we use to describe these complex interspecies relationships? What other means are available to communicate this embodied knowledge? And to what extend can the researcher be used not only as an instrument, but also as source of field material to be analyzed?

Paper short abstract:

The ethnographic survey related to the transformation of the territory resulting from the building of a dam on the Vouga river forced the questioning of the expected ethnographic categories, confronted with a subjective construction of this relation by the inhabitants of the affected community.

Paper long abstract:

The building of a dam on the river Vouga (at center of Portugal) provided the approach of the relationship between a riverside community and their changing territory. The ethnographic survey of this relationship unexpectedly gave rise to the classic division of emic and etic categories, as the search for ways of heritagisation of the natural environment foreseen by the ethnographer was confronted with particular and subjective ways of assigning meaning to the relation with the river, by local inhabitants. This relation moves from the objective natural factors to the personal representation of the relation with this natural heritage.

Thus, the most awaited categories of the ethnographic survey are questioned by the indistiction of the public / private, ancient / modern, individual / community, shared / exclusive, everyday / exceptional fields, based above all on the construction of particular senses of the relationship with the river and with the territory it defines. This produce stories, memories, positions, value attributions, based on individual feelings and paths, which are materialized in spontaneous and fragmentary guarding of photographs, instruments of work, personal objects and others.

It then happens the making of a sort of a virtual museum, dispersed by homes, appropriated individually, evaluated subjectively, in a process constructed from within, which confronts the great socio-economic frameworks and the recognizable and expected social structures, and leads to questioning whether what prevails is the elements of nature or our particular relationship toward them.

Paper short abstract:

Traditional ecological knowledge and extensive grassland management stands in the focus of a continuously developing research project studying impact of nature conservation regulations on these practices involving local farmers and other stakeholders to gain a better understanding in Central Europe.

Paper long abstract:

Studying traditional and local ecological knowledge (TEK) and extensive, small-scale management of natural resources in Central European cultural landscapes requires interdisciplinary methodology (cultural anthropological and biological (e.g. botanical) methods). There are many new scientific approaches examining the aforementioned issues including participatory and community-based methods, knowledge co-production. These approaches involve local communities into the planning and performance of studies about fragmented social-ecological systems interwoven with subsidy systems (e.g. CAP), conflicts caused by nature conservation legislation, stakeholder groups' interests changed by drastic political, social and economic processes. These complex social-ecological systems need a complex overview, regardless the scientific or social (humanities) background of the researcher, which however can significantly influence the emphasis and main focus of the results.

The history of a long-lasting research project aimed to reveal traditional ecological knowledge related to grassland management will be reviewed in a nature conservation point of view. The project started to investigate a local community in the Eastern Carpathians famous about TEK and traditional hay meadow management, continued on the western border of the basin in a typical Central European situation, where knowledge transmission ceased, traditional farming is abandoned, majority of the farmers moved here from elsewhere.

The aim is to outline the development and evolution of a project from a really easy, unique situation in a traditional community to the typical Central European situation - using newer and newer methods to involving more and more local experts into the design and performance of the studies.

Paper short abstract:

As an ecologist working in Oaxaca, I realized that as a team, we needed a different approach to study biodiversity. We are moving from a purely biological study to include the social part. To clarify if biodiversity loss can lead to the loss of indigenous words, legends, and traditional knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

A biogeographical study with an evaluation of biodiversity in two communities of Oaxaca, Mexico started in 2017. The first approach for this project was based on bioindicator beetles. While doing this research, we involved the community and started a close relationship with some musicians. It is then that we came across the name of the female band "Ka'ux", which means green macaw, and is an unknown word for many of the young members of the community. Although we do not have anthropological training, we use an ethnographic approach with loosely structured interviews among key members of the community. We analysed the theory that biodiversity loss is linked to indigenous languages and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) loss. We found that certain words in Mixe are used to refer to animals that are no longer observed in the community, are not known by young people, as is the case of Ka'ux. Although my team has a biological background, now we are getting into anthropological and linguistic problems, that we consider as fundamental to carry out the conservation measures, we hope to achieve. We have realized that more importantly than an evaluation, as we pretended, we must first work with the community, learn how they see nature and known about their TEKs, in order to be able to continue with our research. In order to achieve integral sustainable development, we need to adopt a multidisciplinary approach. Therefore, we include in our team anthropologists and linguists who can address research questions from various perspectives.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the relation between environment and tourism within a World Heritage property of Japan. While considering the geographical division between coastal and offshore villages within the property, we show the various ways in which tourism narratives connect nature with the history of the place in the two settings.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the relationship between environment and tourism within “Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region” - the latest cultural property inscribed by Japan on the World Heritage List. On a first level, we address the representations of the environment surrounding the components of the property within its nomination file. On a second level, we examine the reflections of these representations at local level in the tourism plans designed within the property. How is the relationship between nature and the history of the place represented in tourism forms? What nature parts do these tourism forms privilege?

The cultural property “Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region” consists of ten villages, a castle and a cathedral “reflecting the era of prohibition of the Christian faith as well as the revitalization of Christian communities after the official lifting of the prohibition” (World Heritage Center description). The study will consider the division of villages between two historical stages, which correspond to two geographical settings: coastal (villages in which various modes of faith developed) and offshore (villages in which religious communities continued practicing their faith by moving to remote islands). Within these villages, we examine the inclusion of the components (churches, former churches, graveyards etc.) and their surrounding environment (coast, mountains and other natural sacred locations etc.) in tourism plans. By doing so, we reveal the articulation between nature and the histories of the place (in terms of secrecy, worship or living patterns) in tourism narratives within the two geographical settings.