Measuring perceptions of climate change in northern Alaska: pairing ethnography with cultural consensus analysis
Measuring perceptions of climate change in northern Alaska: pairing ethnography with cultural consensus analysis
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DOI：
10.5751/es-06913-190427
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发表时间：
2014-01-01
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Retherford, Brittany
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Carothers, Courtney;Brown, Caroline;Retherford, Brittany
鉴于北极目前和预计的变暖趋势以及自给性狩猎和捕鱼在北方农村社区生活中发挥的重要作用，越来越需要记录当地对气候变化及其对生计做法的影响的观察结果。我们描述了民族志研究，探索当地的气候变化和相关的影响，在阿拉斯加西北部的三个因纽特人社区和六个阿萨巴斯卡社区在育空地区河流域的生计渔业观测。我们发现一致的协议的看法，广泛的环境变化影响这些社区的生存方式。这些对环境变化的观察并不是孤立地经历的，而是在伴随的社会变化的背景下经历的，这些社会变化正在不断重塑阿拉斯加农村社区和生计经济。在本文中，我们反映了我们的研究方法结合多种调查方法。参与者的观察和半定向访谈提供了一个概念框架，将我们的重点从气候和环境变化扩大到社区居民在其整体人类环境世界观背景下对气候变化的理解。文化共识分析使我们能够评估村庄和地区内部和之间的猎人和渔民对变化的看法的共享程度，并识别在较小规模上发生或经历的现象。反思这种多方法的方法，我们强调已经出现的重要问题，我们如何理解，综合和代表当地的知识，特别是当它被用于监管或管理领域。
Given current and projected warming trends in the Arctic and the important role played by subsistence hunting and fishing in the life of northern rural communities, it is increasingly important to document local observations of climate change and its impacts on livelihood practices. We describe ethnographic research exploring local observations of climate changes and related impacts on subsistence fisheries in three Inupiat communities in northwest Alaska and six Athabascan communities in the Yukon River drainage. We found consistent agreement among perceptions concerning a broad range of environmental changes affecting subsistence practices in these communities. These observations of environmental changes are not experienced in isolation but within the context of accompanying social changes that are continually reshaping rural Alaskan communities and subsistence economies. In this paper we reflect on our research approach combining multiple methods of inquiry. Participant observation and semidirected interviews provided the conceptual framework for broadening our focus from climate and environmental change to community residents' understanding of climate change in the context of their holistic human-environment worldview. Cultural consensus analysis allowed us to assess the extent to which perceptions of change are shared among hunters and fishers within and between villages and regions and to identify those phenomena occurring or experienced at smaller scales. Reflecting on this multimethods approach, we highlight important questions that have emerged about how we understand, synthesize, and represent local knowledge, especially as it is used in regulatory or management arenas.