Ethnoecology in perspective: The origins, interfaces and current trends of a growing field

Abstract

Ethnoecology has approached local ecological knowledge (LEK) based on its cognitive and historical aspects, and regarding its interfaces with science. However, a comprehensive understanding of the potential in LEK studies also relies entirely on the awareness of the academic background that have formed the ethnosciences and, particularly, the ethnobiology throughout the 20th century. Focusing on it, this paper brings a synthesis of the central debates in ethnobiology history, and discusses its influences on current and incipient research venues, especially in Brazil. Topics about inter-generational changes in LEK repertory and the comparisons between LEK and science are also discussed herein. This article highlights mainly that the divergences between LEK and science can be more informative for a comprehensive understanding of LEK than the convergences. I addition, it is argued that bringing to the light the singular repertory of LEK can better support new anthropological insights about its acquisition.