Abstract
In this chapter we present our main ideas about evolutionary ethnobiology, which is the branch of ethnobiology that studies the evolutionary histories of human behavioral patterns and human understanding about biological resources, considering the historical and contemporary aspects that influence these behaviors at both the individual and societal levels. Ethnobiology aggregates different theoretical, epistemological, and methodological perspectives. On one hand, some of these perspectives ignore the ecological and evolutionary nature of ethnobiology. On the other hand, the conventional ecological science insufficiently considers human aspects as topics of theoretical interest. We thus explain why it is important to include ecological and evolutionary perspectives to the study of the relations between humans and natural resources.
This text is a modified version of Albuquerque and Medeiros (2013).
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Notes
- 1.
More specifically, the authors discuss a biocultural ecology to account for the human dimension in the traditional ecological approach.
- 2.
This perspective makes sense in light of Niche Construction Theory, which is still neglected and not well known. All living beings (including humans), through their activities and decisions, modify their own niches and those of other organisms. In altering niches, organisms would also be altering natural selective pressures (see Odling-Smee et al. 2003).
- 3.
These premises are inspired by the fundamental ideas of behavioral ecology (see Jeanne 1998). However, in behavioral ecology, a behavior is considered adaptive when it generates a positive impact on the fitness of its descendants. It is difficult, but not impossible, to measure such an impact when we work through the issues of interest in ethnobiology.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by funding from the Pernambuco State Foundation for Science and Technology (FACEPE—APQ—1264-2.05/10) and the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq—Proc. 471989/2012-6).
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Albuquerque, U.P., de Medeiros, P.M., Casas, A. (2015). Evolutionary Ethnobiology. In: Albuquerque, U., De Medeiros, P., Casas, A. (eds) Evolutionary Ethnobiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19917-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19917-7_1
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