Dear all,

It has been a fantastically frenetic and active year and I'm just now - at the end of the 11th month - getting around to providing some updates on events - I'll do my best to provide a review of the year's activity in the next few posts.

First of, I'll start with the first major ethnobiological conference of the year - I didn't make it to the International Society of Ethnobiology's  11th International Congress of Ethnobiology (see: http://ise.arts.ubc.ca/congresses/past.php) in Cuzco, Peru in June 2008 but I did make it to the 31st Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology at the University of Arkansas in Fayeteville, Arkansas in April 2008.

Eugene Hunn chaired a session with the title of  "Advancements and Prospects in Ethnoornithology" - indicating that, as I feel, there is a real need to examine not only what ethnoornithological research and work has been, and is being done - but also what lies in the future.

Eugene opened the session with his presentation that provided a statistical comparative analysis of ethnoornothological inventories and a discussion of the universalist/relativist theories of classification. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ETHNO-ORNITHOLOGICAL INVENTORIES (Oral presentation). I consider procedures for the systematic comparative analysis of ethno-ornithological systems and apply them to several systems that have been documented for a range of indigenous communities. Statistical comparisons include numbers of folk generic and terminal taxa recognized, proportions of total Western scientific species recognized, and patterns of such recognition by bird family and by size. I also compare nomenclatural patterns to assess the generality of the universalist claims of Berlin and others with regard to life-form names, binomial terminology, and the role of onomatopoeia. I discuss methodological difficulties that make such comparisons problematic.

Carlos Ramirez and Dwight Smith were scheduled to make an oral presentation on the ethnobiology of Monk parakeets in the eastern United States but unfortunately were unable to make it - their program abstract sounded very interesting.

Nicole Sault, who at the 30th SoE conference at Berkeley had presented a paper on the  Clay-Coloured Robin in her presentation "Bird Messengers for All Seasons: Landscapes of Knowledge Among the BriBri of Costa Rica" presented her further work on VULTURE CULTURE: BIRDS OF MIGRATION AND TRANSFORMATION AMONG THE BRIBRI
OF COSTA RICA. (Oral presentation). In the United States, vultures are often viewed with fear and loathing, as they are associated with death, filth, and decay—"fighting over the remains". However, some societies have positive associations with vultures. Not only do vultures "clean" the land of carcasses, they soar to the heavens and mediate between worlds, transforming death into rebirth. For the BriBri of Costa Rica, the vulture is also revered for its ability to migrate long distances and for its sacred role in the creation of the world.

Mercy Njeri, one of the many emerging young ethnoornithologists working in Kenya and eastern Africa that have provided a real and exciting new stimulus to ethnoornithology in recent years, and had been scheduled to make an oral presentation at the previous SoE conference at Berkeley but had been unable to make that meeting, made the long trip to Arkansas with several of her east African colleagues.

Mercy was one of the key organisers of the 1st Ethnoornithology meeting held at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi in October 2007 that I was honoured to be invited to and speak at.  Her presentation at the 31st SoE conference was based on her extensive knowledge of he cultural practices of the Maasai peoples that live a nomadic pastoral life in Tanzania and Keya in eastern Africa.

Mercy's presentation was well received and was entitled: BELIEF SYSTEMS, FOLKLORE, AND CONSERVATION CONCERNS IN THE USE OF BIRDS IN CULTURAL CEREMONIES
AMONG THE MAASAI OF KENYA. Ethno-ornithology is the study of birds in the relation to people's traditional cultural beliefs and practices. Communities in Kenya interact with birds and continue to use them in various ways. The goal of this paper is to document indigenous knowledge, beliefs, and practices related to birds among the Maasai in Kenya, and to promote sustainable strategies for understanding birds and their uses in cultural ceremonies. Different communities have developed specialized technologies and skills for hunting and trapping birds, based on culturally relevant attributes of birds themselves. Birds of beauty are highly preferred in cultural ceremonies. The distinctions between farming communities and pastoralists are also discussed with relation to how birds are used ceremonially.

It was then my turn and in my presentation I looked at what to me is an important issue for the future of ethnoornithology and some important issues that i think we need to address in the near future. DEVELOPMENTS AND PROSPECTS IN ETHNOORNITHOLOGY. (Oral presentation).
In this paper I will examine recent developments and future prospects for ethnoornithology, particularly in relation to the activities of members of the Ethnoornithology Research & Study Group, a web-based group established in early 2006. I will discuss recent ethnoornithological research and the 1st Ethnoornithology Conference held at Nairobi, Kenya in late 2007. I will also discuss future prospects and opportunities for research and the application of ethnoornithology, particularly in the fields of small tourist ventures and land and species management.

The final presentation for the symposium was from Peter Reynolds of the Sally Glean Center in Costa Rica. His presentation examined an interesting theory that the development of human language was closely related to the mimicry of birdsong. THE MIXED-FLOCK HYPOTHESIS: THE
SOURCE OF LINGUISTIC CATEGORIES. (Oral presentation). Even though the theory of "man the
hunter" enjoys wide popularity, bipedal primates have small canine teeth and large, grinding molars—exactly the opposite of carnivores. Jolly's seed-eater theory postulates that the first bipedal primates adapted to the savanna by eating grass seed. I extend this model by hypothesizing that prehuman seedeaters foraged with songbirds and attended to their vocalizations. By incorporating mimicry of birdsong into social interaction, protohumans developed a system of social communication in which birdlike acoustics cured primate cognitive categories—that is to say, language.

And as  final comment, this SoE Conference presented the usual wonderful opportunities for networking and the making of new and close contacts with colleagues that you might only know from their writings - personally, I can't wait for the next meeting in Tulane, Louisiana in April next year.

To find out more about next years SoE Conferenence have a look at: http://www.ethnobiology.org/conference

I will issue a call for papers in the near future for next years conference in the near future.

Cheers, best wishes and I look forward to your comments and suggestions about these matters.

Bob Gosford