A Comparative Study of Two Mediterranean Transhumant Systems and the Biocultural Diversity Associated with Them

Abstract

The alliance between the natural and social sciences has proven to be a successful analytical approach to understand and conserve ecosystems worldwide, while seeing humans as key agents within these (1971 Man and the Biosphere Programme, 1972 Stockholm Declaration, 1992 Rio Conference). In this context, authors from various areas of expertise have stressed the importance of recognizing the inextricable link between biological and cultural diversity and the need to raise awareness of these interactions for global sustainability. Despite scientific research repeatedly insisting on the importance of such a link, there remains a gap calling to highlight the concrete ways in which this diversity of long-held biocultural relations manifests and is generated. In fact, many of the works demonstrating the aforementioned bond are focused on the bioecological consequences of human diversity. At the same time, when they introduce a more sociocultural focus, they most often make linguistic indexes, their main measure for culture and/or use quantitative and macro-geographical approaches. In this sense, the general trend of this type of works, although always valuable, seems somewhat reductionist or incomplete. A less hard science and more detailed ethnographic-humanist analysis of this diversity and its groundings are still lacking. In order to address the exposed problem, I will present my preliminary works comparing agro-pastoral transhumant systems of the High Atlas of Marrakech and the Central Spanish Pyrenees. The ultimate goal is to push for an increasingly holistic approach to biocultural analysis including the humanities to a greater extent, and a broader spectrum of the social sciences.