As a musician and naturalist, open access journals are a whole new network of pathways to explore. I spent most of my time this week reading. Two journals that stood out to me were Ecology & Society and Ethnobiology Letters. I compared a research study from each of these journals that highlighted the food systems of indigenous communities: Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems (2016 Julia Jackley, Lindsay Gardner, Audrey F. Djunaedi and Anne K. Salomon) in Ecology & Society and Food Yields and Nutrient Analyses of the Three Sisters: A Haudenosaunee Cropping System (2016 Jane Mt.Pleasant) in Ethnobiology Letters.
The initial comparison I found between these papers was the methods in which they were measuring the value of the respective food systems and the similarities within the outcomes of their findings. What emerged was the contrasting perspectives of the authors on how to address the use of traditional knowledge within their papers that were published in the same year. Jackley, Gardener, Djunaedi and Solomon strive to illustrate “a portfolio of diverse technologies and management strategies over millennia to enhance food production and increase food security” (2016, Jackley, Gardener, Djunaedi and Solomon) developed by the First Nations peoples of British Columbia’s central coast and cite both written social-ecological information and traditional knowledge, while Mt. Pleasant states that “the Iroquois preferred to plant the crops as polyculture because it required less time and labour” (2016, Mt.pleasant) and quotes century-old academic descriptions of Haudenosaunee culture. For a reader, these types of generalizations reduce Mt Pleasant’s study to the numbers of her research rather than the inclusive ideology found in Ancient Clam Gardens.
Ancient Clam Gardens (Research by Jackley, Gardener, Djunaedi and Solomon)
- Measured by biomass and density of food source (clams) found in the higher tidal stations of clam gardens (rock-walled terraces) to non-walled beaches
- Documents different species found within clam gardens
- Observes sustainability and conservation of indigenous governance systems and how they contributed to the resilience of food systems
- Acknowledges the sophistication of the food security strategy within the ancient resource management technology
- Finds that the clam garden food system was higher in food value than non-walled beaches
- Comments on the food security and resilience of the system
Three Sisters Cropping System (Research by Mt.Pleasant)
- Measured by the nutritional value (energy and protein) found in the polyculture of the three sisters (maize, beans, and squash) versus monocultures of the same crops
- Observes the nutritional content of maize was further increased by cooking in an alkaline solution
- Observes sustainability of system (mounds rather than tilling the soil)
- Makes assumptions on why the Haudenosaunee planted the three sisters guilds
- Does not address the complexity of the Haudenosaunee food system
- Finds that the Haudenosaunee food system was higher in value than a monoculture food system
- Comments on the food security and resilience of the system
In conclusion, Mt. Pleasants’ Three Sisters study documents the nutritional value yields of the Haudenosaunee three sisters crop food system while Jackley, Gardener, Djunaedi and Solomon’s Ancient Clam Gardens investigates the indigenous practice of marine cultivation to determine the biomass and density of clam gardens created by the First Nations peoples on the central coast of British Columbia.
Expanding research to include traditional knowledge in Ancient Clam Gardens provides a more dynamic context for grasping the complexity of ancient food systems. Both papers find that the indigenous food systems they are researching could be considered adaptive strategies that contributed to the reliable sustenance of their communities. They also both found that the systems they studied would be considered sustainable agriculture methods for long-term food production.
Comparing the way these articles handled their research gave me some insight into the similarities and differences of the focus and scope of the Ethnobiology Letters and the Ecology and Society journals.
Ethnobiology Letters
- peer-reviewed
- ethnobiology focus
- types of articles include research communications, short topical reviews, perspective essays, interviews, and reflections
- generally easy to read.
Ecology and Society
- peer-reviewed
- multi-disciplinary focus
- types of articles include current research about ecological, political, and social foundations for sustainable social-ecological systems.
- accessible to disciplines from the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.
Editors-in-Chief Carl Folke and Lance Gunderson have posted their guiding vision for Ecology and Society: We view humanity and nature as co-evolving systems that interact within the bounds of the biosphere at various temporal and spatial scales and across scales. We hope to create a rigorous scientific forum where we can discuss issues related to the linked and dynamic systems of humans and nature and generate an improved understanding of essential interactions that will enhance our capacity to actively adapt to change without eroding resilience or creating vulnerability.(Conservation Ecology Volume 6, issue 1, article 19)
Jane Mt.pleasant (10 Nov. 2016.). Food Yields and Nutrient Analyses of the Three Sisters: A Haudenosaunee Cropping System | Mt.Pleasant | Ethnobiology Letters.
Julia Jackley, Lindsay Gardner, Audrey F. Djunaedi and Anne K. Salomon(31 Oct. 2016.). Ecology and Society: Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems. Ecologyandsociety.org.
Norman K.denzin (n.d.). Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies – SAGE Research Methods.
Gathering Seeds 