Karim-Aly S. Kassam: Biocultural Diversity and Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Human Ecology in the Arctic

Human ecology has been broadly defined as the interdis-ciplinary study of the complex and varied systems of interaction between humans and their environment (Editors, Human Ecology 1972). In Biocultural Diversity and Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Karim-Aly Kassam provides a meaningful conceptual framework of human ecology integrating biological and cultural diversity with specific reference to the Circumpolar Arctic. Building on years of community-based research carried out in the Arctic region, he makes fine theoretical and empirical contributions to the further development of human ecological science. The contents of this book can be organized into two sections. The first part presents a reconceptualization of human ecological relations within the context of indigenous Arctic communities. Kassam first introduces the intellectual origins of human ecology and critically examines its principal propositions based on an overview of recent research on the relationship between biological and cultural diversity. For him the fundamental flaw of the overall human ecological approach is the divide between nature and culture. However, refreshingly Kassam does not seek to offer a grand theory for unifying diverse human ecological research into a single discipline. Rather, he uses human ecology as a conceptual and analytic lens to bridge the schism between man and nature in the context of the Arctic and sub-Arctic. The circumpolar north is perceived as a homeland rather than simply a frontier for exploiting valuable natural resources. As reflected in the title of this volume, there are two core elements in Kassam's human ecological framework for the Arctic: biocultural diversity and indigenous ecological knowledge. Diversity is the basis of sensory perception that forms a context for understanding relationships among human beings and between human and non-human organisms. Indigenous people's knowledge of their local environment is embedded in the contextual relationship between cultural and biological diversity, and constitutes the essence of human ecology for the circum-polar area. The second part of the book includes three case studies which illustrate the interconnections between biological and cultural diversity and the continuance of indigenous ecological knowledge in specific Arctic community contexts. The first study describes the unique culture of the Arctic Inuit community of Ulukhaktok in Canada and provides details of local subsistence hunting and gathering. While this chapter provides an excellent narrative of local dependence on marine and terrestrial wildlife and plants, a more thorough description and discussion of community socio-ecological organization (e.g., community sharing of the fruits of the harvest and collective natural …