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Ethnography in the reconstruction of African land use histories: a Sierra Leone example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

A. Endre Nyerges
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Résumé

L'histoire de l'utilisation de la végétation et de la terre en Afrique de l'ouest inclut un modèle de changements dans l'lenvironnement qui peuvent être decrit au mieux comme étant progressifs, subtils, et difficiles à mesurer avec précision. Comparer à, par exemple, le processus d'abbatement des arbres sur une grande échelle en Amazonie, la déforestation dans ce contexte ne se prête pas à des analyses et des évaluations toutes prêtes. Des techniques locales ethnographiques, écologiques, et ethno-historiques peuvent, cependant, eêre utilisées afin de développer l'information requise pour avancer notre compréhension des precédés d'utilisation de la terre et des changements forestiers dans la région.

Dans cet article, des recherches sur l'écologie contemporaine et ethnographique d'un groupe d'agriculteurs itinérant, les Susu de Sierra Leone, sont combinées avec une reconstruction historique et une documentation ethno-historique de l'endroit, commençant avec la visite du prêtre portuguais jésuite Fr Baltazar Barreira en 1516. Des sources documentaires ultérieures inclut le journal du sergent britannique Brian O'Beirne, qui a exploré la route de Freetown au Fouta Jallon en 1821, et le compte rendu d'un voyage régional par le voyageur colonial Frederick Migeod en 1922. Ces données parmi d'autres, sont utilisées pour déterminer comment les systèmes de production actuels reflètent le passé, et pour déterminer comment les systèmes du passé ont affecté l'environnement et comment ils ont changés et évolués avec le temps.

Type
Researching the social in biodiversity
Information
Africa , Volume 66 , Issue 1: The Social shaping of biodiversity: perspectives on the management of biological variety in Africa , January 1996 , pp. 122 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1996

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