Ethnozoology in the mountains. What does the cognitive salience of wild animals tell us?

In recent times, ethnobiology has revived interest in cognitive aspects of humans' communities. A concept commonly used in this area is cognitive salience. In this paper we assess the wild animal salience meaning for the rural people from an area of the mountain range of the Cordoba province (Argentina). We also analyzed the relationship of cultural and ecological factors over wild animal domain salience. The values of cognitive salience, perception and cultural value were obtained by means of free lists to 16 collaborators, while semistructured interviews were used to inquire about local ecological knowledge and ease of observation about wild animals. The interdependence between the five variables elaborated was analyzed through a Principal Components Regression. The results show a qualitative relationship between Cognitive Salience and Cultural Value and a significant correlation between Cognitive Salience and Local Ecological Knowledge. Ease of Observation did not correlate with Cognitive Salience, but show a significant relationship with the Perceived Abundance. The results suggest a complex network of factors that are modeling the cognitive salience and local perceptions over wild animals. In our findings, highlight the Cultural Value given to harmful animals which reflects an increasing pattern in the region, the conflict between rural people and wild animals. In turn a mutual influences and causal feedback loops between cognitive salience and an ecological factor, the Perceived abundance, is proposed. Investigations over cognition and about how people perceived nature can give us an idea of how they act in it, a compelling factor when it comes to cultural and biological conservation issues.Fil: Wajner, Matias. No especifíca;Fil: Tamburini, Daniela Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Zamudio, Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentin

Commoning social-ecological networks through the lens of relational ontologies and other economies: how ecologists can diversify their notions of human-non-human relationships

The study of social-ecological networks (SENs) has mainly approached nature through a modern and functional to capitalism conception, i.e. a matrix over which human societies develop. Such a conception neglects interdependencies among human and non-human entities and therefore between “culture” and “nature” reproduction, assumes the existence of many cultures but only one nature, understands nature as a pool of resources, goods or services that can be exploited, appropriated or enclosed, and has been pointed out as one of the main causes of the current biodiversity crisis. Based on the work of sociologists and communitarian feminist scholars, here, we propose to conceive social-ecological systems (SES) as the common, i.e. systems that need to be produced through communal political practices that consider human-non-human interdependencies. In this vein, we introduce two frameworks related with the production of the common, relational ontologies and other economies, and present two examples applying them. One example helps rethinking the so-called “humans-wildlife conflicts”, by illustrating the emerging relational role of the “cabrero” (a livestock guardian dog) as a “mediator” of such conflicts, through the lens of ethnobiology.. The other example analyzes human and non-human co production of SESs that produce (and are produced by) honey, honeybees and beekeepers’ Social and Solidarity economies. We think such perspectives may diversify ecologists’ understanding on human-human and human-non-human relationships and thus ecologists’ ideas about the representation of SENs and the reproduction of SESs as the common.EEA San JuanFil: Astegiano, Julia. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Grupo de Interacciones Ecológicas y Conservación; ArgentinaFil: Astegiano, Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Andrieu, Jimena. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Juan; Argentina.Fil: Andrieu, Jimena. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; Argentina.Fil: Wajner, Matias. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Departamento División Biológica y Ecología; ArgentinaFil: Wajner, Matias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Marquez, Victoria. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Grupo de Interacciones Ecológicas y Conservación; ArgentinaFil: Marquez, Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Saur Palmieri, Valentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Departamento División Biológica y Ecología; ArgentinaFil: Saur Palmieri, Valentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Torrico Chalabe, Julieta Karina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Grupo de Interacciones Ecológicas y Conservación; ArgentinaFil: Torrico Chalabe, Julieta Karina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Torrico Chalabe, Julieta Karina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Cátedra de Ecología Agrícola; Argentina.Fil: Massol, François. Université de Lille. Institut Pasteur de Lille. Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille; Francia.Fil: Calviño, Ana. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Grupo de Interacciones Ecológicas y Conservación; ArgentinaFil: Calviño, Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil. Zamudio, Fernando. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Grupo de Interacciones Ecológicas y Conservación; ArgentinaFil: Zamudio, Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin