The traditional land-use and occupancy of the Waterhen
First Nation in Manitoba
This is the first comprehensive study of the traditional
land-use
of the Waterhen First Nation. Its objective is to define the
character of traditional land-use in the Waterhen Resource
Area
in Manitoba's interlake region, 320 kilometres northwest of
Winnipeg (Canada). The people of the Waterhen First Nation use
the transitional zone between the Aspen Parkland and the
Boreal
Forest for a significant part of their livelihood. This
complex
ecosystem and the traditional, integrated land-use make this
area
unique.
Land-use data were collected and map biographies representing
hunting, fishing, trapping and plant gathering activities were
produced. The data were digitized into the Map II Map
Processor--
a raster-based Geographic Information System (GIS) for
Macintosh
computers. Thematic maps illustrate seasonal activities and a
combined overlay-map summarizes the data.
Proposed large-scale forestry developments are a threat to the
traditional land-use patterns. Overlay maps illustrate the
impending conflict between the proposed Forest Management Plan
and the traditional land-use. This area is also the habitat of
the Chitek Lake wood-bison herd. If the proposed Forest
Management Plan is implemented, the future of the wild
wood-bison
herd will be in peril. The interests of the wood bison project
are critically juxtaposed to the present Forest Management
Plan.
A legal evaluation is being conducted to establish the
hunting,
fishing and trapping rights of the Waterhen First Nation vis-
à-vis the government of Manitoba.
For more information, please contact:
Karen Stock, University of Manitoba, Geography Department,
3411
Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba 3R3 0K8 Canada.
Plants used by the Maasai of Kajiado
The Maasai of Kenya are a people in transition from
pastoralism
to sedentary farming. They mainly occupy two adjacent
districts
in southwest Kenya: Kajiado and Narok. A project to identify
the
plants that are valued and used by the Maasai is being carried
out by the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI). It is
sponsored by the International Development Research Centre
(IDRC)
of Canada. KEFRI is documenting the indigenous knowledge
associated with plants used in medicine, as food and in other
ways. The plants are conserved in collaboration with
traditional
medical practitioners (TMPs) and other interested parties.
Research activities started in the Kajiado district but plans
are
underway to cover Narok as well. This is in compliance with
the
'one-community-at-a-time' approach (ACATA). Even though this
approach might be slow, it is systematic and is likely to
yield
scientific data that is more reliable and more exhaustive.
Up to now some 25 plant species have been identified and
categorized according to their use: medicinal
(human/livestock),
nutritional (tubers, fruits, and vegetables), religious or
miscellaneous (for building houses and making traditional
furniture and implements). Among the identifying factors are
salinity tolerance, and requirements in terms of soil
fertility
and water supply.
For more information please contact:
M.T.E. Mbuvi (for
the KEFRI director), P.O. Box 20412, Nairobi, Kenya.
Development initiatives in Salta Province, Argentina:
analysis of the period 1969-1992
The specific objectives of the study were:
Transmission of indigenous knowledge among the Cree
Indian women of Northern Canada
The Omushkegowuk Cree live along Western James Bay in
Northern Ontario, where they still derive their living from
the
land--hunting, fishing and trapping. The Cree traditionally
consider the land as their 'store' because most of their
protein
comes from this source. 'Bush skills' are needed to harvest
and
process the food from the land. Between 1990 and 1994 a study
was
made of how Omushkegowuk Cree women traditionally acquire bush
skills, and how this process of knowledge transmission is
affected by modernization.
Two communities, Moose Factory and Peawanuck, were selected
for
this comparative study. Field work took seven months.
Quantitative data was obtained through structured interviews.
Unstructured interviews were used to collect qualitative
information on native learning from the older generation,
since
this generation did not respond well to the survey technique.
Participant observation was used to document techniques for
hunting moose and geese, trapping small animals and
fishing.
The Cree learn mainly through observation and practice, and
great
value is placed on trial and error. Many elders reported that
they had acquired their skills by watching others and through
apprenticeship. Parents are primarily responsible for their
children's education; other members of extended families are
readily available to take over these responsibilities whenever
needed. The age of 14 is the key age at which the Cree become
competent in most of the bush skills.
Of 93 traditional bush skills, some 65% are still being
transmitted in Moose Factory and 56% in Peawanuck. More and
more
often, however, transmission is incomplete. This is because
the
traditional method for transmitting knowledge--through
observation, practice and apprenticeship--is incompatible with
rapid social change. Modern schools compete for time with
traditional apprenticeship, and the schools' influence causes
a
loss of interest in 'primitive' Indian ways of life. The more
sedentary lives of contemporary Cree mark a major change in
the
educational environment, and the adoption of new technologies
has
raised the costs of transport.
Given the social changes which have occurred in the last half
century, it is perhaps surprising that about two-thirds of the
bush skills are still being transmitted among Cree women. Some
of this knowledge remains at the level of elementary learning,
however, and knowledge transmission is incomplete. Thus, there
is an urgent need to turn this incomplete transmission into
complete transmission. The transmission of bush skills to
future
generations will be in jeopardy unless the women who currently
possess these skills choose to practice them and pass them on
to
their children.
Cree culture is founded on the land-based activities of
hunting,
trapping and fishing. Transmission of bush skills and
knowledge
requires an educational environment in which people
participate
in harvesting activities. As more people realize the
importance
of harvesting activities for the maintenance of their cultural
identity, more Cree women will find reason for learning the
bush
skills themselves and then transmitting them to the young.
Contact: Kayo Ohmagari, Natural Resources Institute,
University of Manitoba, 430 Dysart Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3T
2N2, Canada.
Gender research at the IDA
A project entitled 'Gender relations of pastoral and
agropastoral
production' is going on at the Institute for Development
Anthropology (IDA). Under the title 'Gender and
participation in the conception, planning, and implementation
of
development projects in the drylands', some of this
work
was presented to the United Nations Environment Programme at a
December 1993 workshop in Nairobi. The title of the workshop
was
'Listening to the people: social aspects of dryland
management'.
The work was based on field research conducted among
pastoralists
in Iran (by Jowkar) and in Niger (by Horowitz), on the work of
Peter Little ('The dairy commodity system of the Kismayo
region,
Somalia: rural and urban dimensions, IDA Working Paper no. 52,
1989), and on a review of more than 1000 published and
unpublished works dealing with women in pastoral societies.
This
literature review was published as 'Gender relations of
pastoral
and agropastoral production: a bibliography with annotations'
by
Forouz Jowkar, et al.
The principal findings and recommendations were published in:
Michael M. Horowitz and Forouz Jowkar, 'Pastoral women and
change
in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia' (IDA Working
Paper
no. 91, 1992).
The study concluded that pastoral women are too important to
remain neglected by development planners, or worse, to have
poorly informed development planning exacerbate their
victimization. The great contribution of pastoralists to the
economic lives of their countries is that their animals
convert
the otherwise unpalatable vegetation of semi-arid and arid
rangelands into useful products (meat, milk and milk products,
blood, wool, hair, skin and hides, transport, traction, and
manure). Pastoralists have managed to make some 50 million
square
kilometres of land sustainably productive around the
world--land
that would otherwise have little other productive use without
tremendously costly and often environmentally disastrous
interventions. In spite of this, pastoralists are increasingly
among the poorest and least empowered of Third World
populations.
By highlighting the importance of women's knowledge and labour
in pastoral and agropastoral production systems, and by
demonstrating women's frequent disenfranchisement from
cultural
and economic sources of autonomy, the researchers hope that
they
will alert planners to the flawed assumptions that lead either
to the total neglect of women or to undertakings that
discriminate against them. The goal of their work is to
facilitate the planning of gender-sensitive development
activities that result in enduring improvements in pastoral
and
agropastoral well-being.
Another area of gender research at the institute has emerged
from
IDA work entitled 'Settlement, irrigation and river
basin
development', which explores the impact on women's
labour of the shift from flood-recession agriculture to
capital-
intensive irrigation. Drawing on a long-term study of the
impact
of the Manantali (Mali) Dam on downstream production systems
and
social organization, the authors published their principal
findings in: Muneera Salem-Murdock and Madiodio Niasse,
'Landuse,
labour dynamics, and household production strategies: the
Senegal
River Valley' (IDA Working Paper no. 1993).
Some of the findings were presented at the UN conference on
environment and development, in the symposium entitled 'Women
and
children first'. These were also published in: M. Horowitz and
M. Salem-Murdock, 'River basin development policy, women and
children: a case study from the Senegal River Valley', in F.C.
Steady (ed) 1993 Women and children first: environment,
poverty,
and sustainable development.
IDA has carried out and published several other gender
studies.
For more information, please contact:
Michael M. Horowitz, Institute for Development Anthropology,
99
Collier Street, P.O. Box 2207, Binghamton, NY 13902-2207, USA.
Tel: +1-607-772 6244. Fax: +1-607-773 8993.