Cultural Memory and Biodiversity - Hardcover

Nazarea, Virginia D.

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9780816516810: Cultural Memory and Biodiversity

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0816516812 ISBN 13: 9780816516810

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 1998

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Seed and gene banks have made great strides in preserving the biological diversity of traditional agricultural plant species, but they have tended to ignore a serious component: the knowledge about those crops and methods of farming held by the people who have long raised them. Virginia Nazarea now makes a case for preserving cultural memory along with biodiversity. By exploring how indigenous people farm sweet potatoes in Bukidnon, Philippines, she discovers specific ways in which the conservation of genetic resources and the conservation of culture can support each other. Interweaving a wealth of ecological and cognitive data with oral history, Nazarea details a "memory banking" protocol for collecting and conserving cultural information to complement the genetic, agronomic, and biochemical characterization of important crops. She shows that memory banking offers significant benefits for local populations—not only the preservation of traditional knowledge but also the mai

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About the Author:

Virginia D. Nazarea is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia.

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