Indigeneity and the Sacred Indigenous Revival and the Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites in the Americas

About this book

This book presents current research in the political ecology of indigenous revival and its role in nature conservation in critical areas in the Americas. An important contribution to evolving studies on conservation of sacred natural sites (SNS), Indigeneity and the Sacred elucidates the complexity of development scenarios within cultural landscapes related to the appropriation of rurality, environmental change in indigenous territories, and new conservation management schemes. Indigenous Revival and Sacred Sites explores how these struggles for land, rights, and political power are embedded within physical landscapes, and how indigenous identity is reformed as globalizing forces simultaneously threaten and promote the notion of indigeneity.

Contents

Dedication
List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes
Acknowledgements

Prologue: Whose Sacred Sites? Indigenous Political Use of Sacred Sites, Mythology, and Religion
      Randall Borman

PART I: GEOGRAPHIES OF INDIGENOUS REVIVAL AND CONSERVATION
Introduction
      Fausto Sarmiento and Sarah Hitchner
Chapter 1. Sacred Natural Sites in a Conservation Management and Policy Perspective
      Bas Verschuuren, Robert Wild, and Gerard Verschoor
Chapter 2. Structural Changes in Latin American Spirituality: An Essay on the Geography of Religions
      Axel Borsdorf

PART II: FRAMING SACRED SITES IN INDIGENOUS MINDSCAPES
Introduction to Part II: Framing Sacred Sites in Indigenous Mindscapes
      Fausto Sarmiento and Sarah Hitchner
Chapter 3. El Buen Vivir and “The Good Life”: A South-North Binary Perspective on the Indigenous, the Sacred, and their Conservation
      Esmeralda Guevara and Larry M. Frolich
Chapter 4. Sacred Mountains: Sources of Indigenous Revival and Sustenance
      Edwin Bernbaum
Chapter 5. Frozen Mummies and the Archaeology of High Mountains in the Construction of Andean Identity
      Constanza Ceruti
Chapter 6. Changing Images and Dimensions of Andean Indigenous Identities in Space and Time
      Christoph Stadel
Chapter 7. National Park Service Approaches to Connecting Indigenous Cultural and Spiritual Values to Protected Places
      David E. Ruppert and Charles W. Smythe

PART III: CASE STUDIES
Introduction to Part III: Case Studies
      Fausto Sarmiento and Sarah Hitchner
Chapter 8. Collaborative Archaeology as a Tool for Preserving Sacred Sites in the Cherokee Heartland
      Benjamin A. Steere
Chapter 9. Biocultural Sacred Sites in Mexico
      Mindah Crescencio Bastida Muñoz and Geraldine Patrick Encina
Chapter 10. New Dimensions in the Territorial Conservation Management in Ecuador: A Brief Political View of Sacred Sites in Ecuador
      Xavier Viteri O.
Chapter 11. Traditional Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Sustainable Development in the Peruvian Amazon
      Fernando Roca Alcazar

PART IV: CONCLUSION
Conclusion
      Sarah Hitchner, Fausto Sarmiento, and John Schelhas

Bibliography
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Fausto O. Sarmiento is full professor in Geography, adjunct in International Affairs and courtesy faculty in Ecology at the University of Georgia, where he also served as co-Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Director, Office of International Education.

Sarah Hitchner is Assistant Research Scientist at the Center for Integrative Conservation Research, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, U.S.A., and a cultural anthropologist and expert in sacred sites and cultural landscapes of Southeast Asia.