Commensurability of scientific and indigneous ecological knowledge in coastal Melanesia: implications for contempory marine resource management strategies: WORKING PAPER

本记录描述了位于堪培拉的澳大利亚国立大学亚太地区资源管理（RMAP）项目的工作文件，并提供了相关链接。<br /> *****<br /> 美拉尼西亚沿海地区的科学和土著生态知识体系之间存在着根本的本体论差异，导致从类似的观察结果中得出了非常不同的结论。同样的归纳逻辑可能会导致科学家和非科学训练的渔民得出结论，比如说，方尾鳟鱼在月亮的某个相位聚集在某个珊瑚礁通道中，但是来自不同本体论的不同假设（在这种情况下，“传统”美拉尼西亚与科学）可能会导致关于鱼为什么在那里的非常不同的结论。在某些情况下，这些差异对海洋资源的开发和管理（或不开发）方式产生重大影响。这里提供了非科学本体论的例子，这些本体论支撑了当地对捕捞生物生物学或生态学的信念，导致这些物种的种群管理不善。鉴于有些人声称科学和传统知识体系是不可分割的，讨论了科学教育在“填补”土著知识体系的空白（反之亦然）从而改进管理方面的潜力。的启发式价值，没有一个（笛卡尔）的二元分离的自然和文化在传统的美拉尼西亚宇宙论（相对于那些工业化的西方文化）的探索与土著人的概念，人类机构的资源丰富，这对管理和保护的相关性。我还推测最近的农村美拉尼西亚本体论框架的转变，通过西方/科学的影响，以及相关的差异，在知识体系之间的年轻人和老年人的社会成员，再次关于这些对该地区的资源管理和生物多样性保护的支持者的工作的影响。

This record describes, and links to a working paper produced through the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific (RMAP) Program based at The Australian National University in Canberra.<br /> *****<br /> Fundamental ontological differences between scientific and indigenous ecological knowledge systems in coastal Melanesia have resulted in very different conclusions being drawn from similar sets of observations. The same inductive logic may lead both scientists and non-science-trained fishers to conclude that, say, square-tail trout aggregate at a certain phase of the moon in a certain reef passage, but different assumptions derived from disparate ontologies (in this case 'traditional' Melanesian versus scientific) may lead to very different conclusions about why the fish are there. In some cases these differences have significant implications for the way marine resources are exploited, and managed (or not). Examples are presented here of non-scientific ontologies that underpin local beliefs about the biology or ecology of fished organisms that have led to poor management of stocks of these species. The potential for scientific education to 'fill gaps' in indigenous knowledge systems (and vice versa) and thus lead to improved management is discussed in the light of some claims that scientific and traditional knowledge systems are incommensurable. The heuristic value of the purported absence of a (Cartesian) dualistic separation of nature and culture in traditional Melanesian cosmologies (relative to those of industrialised Western cultures) is explored with regard to indigenous conceptions of human agency over resource abundance, and the relevance this has for management and conservation. I also speculate about recent transformations of rural Melanesian ontological frameworks through Western/scientific influences, and the associated differences in knowledge systems between young and old members of society, again with respect to the implications these have for the work of proponents of resource management and biodiversity conservation in the region.