Dear all,

Please note the following program of the "Birds in Culture & Context"
ethnoornithology symposium to be held at the 30th Society for
Ethnobiology conference to be held at the University of California,
Berkeley later this month.

As you can see there is a wonderful variety of presentations and we
are looking forward to a great conference.

Cheers and best,

Bob Gosford
ERSG moderator

1:30-1:40    Introductory comments to the symposium:  Eugene  Anderson

1:40-1:55    Mercy Muiruri and Patrick Maundu: Conservation concerns
in the use of birds in cultural ceremonies among the Maasai of east
Africa.

1:55-2:15     Alejandro Hernández-Jaramillo: So live the birds of
Belén de Docampadó, Bajo Baudó, Chocó

2:20-2:40    Shepard Krech III: Augural, powerful, and dangerous birds
among Indians in the American south.

2:45- 3:05    Robert Gosford: The stormbird cult in the Central
Northern Territory: A migratory cuckoo, aboriginal languages and
cultural practice.

3:10-3:30    Berioska Quispe Estrada: Ashaninkas, Machiguengas and
Huachipaeris: Environmental relationships of Amazonian communities of
southeastern Peru.
3:35-3:55    Eugene Hunn: A Zapotec ethnoornithological sketch from
San Juan Gbee, Oaxaca, Mexico.

4:00-4:20    Cecil Brown: Raven=Heron in Mayan Language prehistory: An
ethnoornithological/linguistic puzzle.

4:25-4:45    Nicole Sault: Bird messengers for all seasons: Landscapes
of knowledge in Costa Rica.
4:50- 5:10     Gregory Forth: Symbolic birds and ironic bats.

Dear David,

Not yet but certainly after the conference!

Cheers and enjoy Groningen!

Bob

DJowl@... wrote:
>
> Dear Bob,
> Do you know if the abstracts for these (wonderful!) presentations are
> yet available?   Thank you good sir. Strigologically yours, David
>
>     Please note the following program of the "Birds in Culture &
>     Context" ethnoornithology symposium to be held at the 30th Society
>     for Ethnobiology conference to be held at the University of
>     California, Berkeley later this month.
>
> *World Owl Conference* 31Oct - 4Nov 2007, Groningen, Netherlands
> http://www.worldowlconference.com/ <http://www.worldowlconference.com/>
>
> David H. Johnson
> Executive Director - Global Owl Project
> 6504 Carriage Drive
> Alexandria, Virginia 22310 USA
> djowl@...
> 202-360-0313 cell
> www.globalowlproject.com <http://www.globalowlproject.com/>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
> from AOL at *AOL.com* <http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000339>.
>

Dear Maan Barua,

Thanks for your query. Unfortunately the CFP for the 30th SoE conference
closed some time ago. However would be welcome to post any material of
relevance to ethnoornithology on the ERSG website.
We are planning a similar symposium for the Australasian Ornithology
Symposium at Perth in December 2007 but that will focus on emerging and
seniors indigenous ornithologists from the Austral-Pacific area - though
while I'm thinking of it there is no reason why we should leave
ethnoornithologists from the Indian ocean area out of it ...
We are also planning several events for 2008 - including attendance at
the Birdlife International conference in Buenos Aires and the IUCN
conference in Barcelona later in 2008. At present both of these events
are in very early planning stages and we will need to put in a fair
amount of work to firm them up.

Thanks for your enquiry and I look forward to hearing more about your
work and that of others in the sub-continent.

Robert Gosford
ERSG moderator

Maan Barua wrote:
> Dear Robert,
>
> Are call for papers for this symposium still on?
>
> Regards,
> Maan Barua
>
> Kaziranga National Park
> Assam, India
>

Dear ethno-members,

Many things are happening here in America on relation to ethno-
ornithology. For example just to illustrate how this issue is
growing, a special volume of the Geographical Review is being
prepared on how birds are studied by geographers under the title:
Avifauna research and the social sciences: geographical perspectives.
This work is coordinated by Michael Steinberg from U. of Hawaii.

I am co-leading a research project proposal on the ethno-ornithology
of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia (Canada) and coordinating a
symposium on "Exploring bird conservation by indigenous people:
insights fro biocuktural conservation" in Venezuela, May 2007.

I sincerely hope, no, I want to invite you to sum efforts from the
people already interested in ethno-ornithology and start making plans
for further collaborative research. I am sure we are advancing
importantly the knowledge for bird/cultural conservation by touching
the human-bird connections in a more respectful, integrative and
collaborative fashion, hoping benefiting all the parties involved and
reaching more enduring solutions.

I could not attend to the Ethno congress,, but I am sure we can
coordinate efforts and resources for key meetings as Robert has
mentioned in his last email. This may be a good opportunity.

Receive my warmest regards,

Leonardo Cabrera-Garcia, PhD.
Conservation Geographer
McGill University
Montreal, Canada.

Dear all,

Just a quick note to advise that I have established a Members Contact
database on the ERSG website.

Please feel free to add your own contact details to this database.

This will perhaps provide another means by which we can develop
networks and better establish and maintain contact betyween us to
further the work of the ERSG.

Looking forward to your contributions!

Robert Gosford
ERSG moderator
Yuendumu,
Northern Territory
Australia

Dear Leonardo & group members,

Good to hear Leonardo's news and an update on the 8th Neotropical
Ornithology Congress. To see more go to:
http://www.nocvenezuela.org/en/index.cfm.

I withdrew my participation in the proposed symposium earlier in the
year ... but I may have to reconsider as it sounds like a great
congress and symposium and a wonderful way to meet and make new
contacts in the Americas - whether I get there or not will depend on
my bank manager!

I agree with Leonardo's call for greater collaboration and cooperation
between what is really a small - but growing - community of
ethnoornithologists. Most of us are familiar and comfortable (because
of the inherent nature of ethnobiology as a cross-disciplinary
practice) with working with researchers from other disciplines,
interests and backgrounds.

Some ideas for collaboration between ethnoornithologists might include:

- development of further symposia like the Venezuela symposium, the
Ethnoornithology symposium at the 30th Society of Ethnobiology and the
proposed symposium for the Australasian Ornithology Conference in
Perth, Australia for later this year;
- collaboration in the preparation of publications like books of
conference/symposia proceedings (as per proposed volume of the
Roundtable proceedings from the International Ornithology Congress at
Hamburg last year)and special editions of more mainstream journals (as
with the Geographical Journal);
- collaborative research within regional/national and international
areas where there are common or comparable ethnoornithological
knowledge and practices;
- work towards a dedicated Journal - perhaps a "Journal of
Ethnoornithology";
- work towards a dedicated, ethnoornithology-specific, conference -
perhaps in late 2008, early 2009;
- work towards a more formally incorporated representative body for
world ethnoornithology - I've put up a proposal to Birds Australia for
the ERSG to become a "Special Interest Group" of Birds Australia - as
part of this proposal I've suggested that the ERSG become formally
incorporated;
- keep working on developing relations with existing institutions and
individual ornithologists; and
- perhaps above all, nurture emergent and young ethnoornithologists,
particularly those from an indigenous background and identify and
recognise individuals and groups whose knowledge and work has not been
recognised or valued to date.

A useful resource is the "Intellectual Imperatives in Ethnobiology"
published in 2003 - for those unfamiliar with I can highly recommend
it as a useful framework for future development of our work. It can be
found at: http://www.econbot.org/pdf/NSF_brochure.pdf.

I think that we are at an important and exciting time for the future
development of ethnoornithology - there is a lot to do and we can
expect to be busy - not only with research but with lobbying,
spreading the word and expanding the reach of the work of the ERSG -
we'll be busy for some time yet.

Enjoy your work - I know that I do!

Best,

Robert Gosford
ERSG moderator



--- In Ethnoornithology@..., "Leonardo Cabrera"
<lcabre@...> wrote:
>
> Dear ethno-members,
>
> Many things are happening here in America on relation to ethno-
> ornithology. For example just to illustrate how this issue is
> growing, a special volume of the Geographical Review is being
> prepared on how birds are studied by geographers under the title:
> Avifauna research and the social sciences: geographical perspectives.
> This work is coordinated by Michael Steinberg from U. of Hawaii.
>
> I am co-leading a research project proposal on the ethno-ornithology
> of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia (Canada) and coordinating a
> symposium on "Exploring bird conservation by indigenous people:
> insights fro biocuktural conservation" in Venezuela, May 2007.
>
> I sincerely hope, no, I want to invite you to sum efforts from the
> people already interested in ethno-ornithology and start making plans
> for further collaborative research. I am sure we are advancing
> importantly the knowledge for bird/cultural conservation by touching
> the human-bird connections in a more respectful, integrative and
> collaborative fashion, hoping benefiting all the parties involved and
> reaching more enduring solutions.
>
> I could not attend to the Ethno congress,, but I am sure we can
> coordinate efforts and resources for key meetings as Robert has
> mentioned in his last email. This may be a good opportunity.
>
> Receive my warmest regards,
>
> Leonardo Cabrera-Garcia, PhD.
> Conservation Geographer
> McGill University
> Montreal, Canada.
>

Hi all

I am a lone ranger in the central Mediterranean! I follow closely e-mails
from the ethnoornithology group Robert has set up and I feel there is a
big gap as I hardly see any interest from “our” side of the planet!
I am a full time journalist working for a daily paper in Malta, but I am a
geographer by profession (I obtained my PhD from Durham, UK) and my field
of study was “Bird hunting and trapping Maltese Islands – some
socio-economic, cultural, political, demographic and environmental
aspects”. I have been involved in research about birds, bird related
folklore, etc since the late 1970s. But I feel this topic never had and
still does not have the importance it deserves.
I am all for science, but it seems these days DNA profiling and
identification of species under the microscope is given more importance
than man-bird relations, what birds meant to man etc etc.
I find that birds watchers, as well as hunters in Europe, often care very
little about bird lore, even though, in my view, it’s an essential
component of the topic. I strongly believe that for conservation work to
be meaningful and effective it needs to go to the roots first to be able
to find causes and solutions.
I can cite a classical example from Malta. Trapping of turtledoves existed
since time immemorial. We know for sure it was practised since the 17th
century as there are regulations permitting it. But it was evidently
practised much earlier. People trapped doves because trapping was cheaper
and more efficient than guns, which were not that widespread either. As
fridges were not available, trapping enabled people to keep birds alive
and kill them to eat when they were needed. This was still very much the
norm until the 1950s. Even though guns were very common by that time.
People shot birds, but more were trapped. Shooting was restricted to what
people could consume (or to sell to buy more powder and shot). I have
recently managed to obtain bag records of a very wealthy man for a 24-year
period starting in 1915. In 1932, for instance in 1932, between April 10
and May 19, the principal spring migration period, this man shot 27 turtle
doves from his estate, but 141 doves were caught from two snaring sites on
the same estate.
Hunting has now changed from a food procurement activity, through which
hunters had fun too, to a sporting activity. Doves are still eaten, but no
one hunts to eat these days. Turtle dove hunting and trapping in spring is
about to be banned because of EU laws. This is bringing a lot of
controversies as hunters argue the spring season is their main season,
which is true, but the EU is arguing birds should not be shot on their way
to breed and they can be shot in autumn, where they pass in September,
which is also true. Actually, many more birds pass in spring than in
autumn and an analysis of bag records shows that some 72 per cent of doves
taken were shot in spring, the rest in autumn.
I am not in favour of hunting, especially hunting for fun. What I am
concerned about is trapping. I would like to see turtle dove trappers
being turned into bird ringers. This has already happened in Holland with
plover trappers when the golden plover became protected in the 1970s.
Turning trappers into ringers has many advantages. It will assist in the
study of migration of turtledoves. Currently, we still know very little
about it. It will preserve a cultural heritage. There is a lot of lore
related to dove trapping and there have been many cultural shifts here
over time too, and I should perhaps try to write a paper about all this.
There is also a lot of effort that goes into trapping and many of it is
still done in the same way as it used to be 400 years ago. It will also
cause no hardship neither to the wild birds and still give trappers the
satisfaction they used to get because these days trappers catch much fewer
turtle doves because of hunting and they do not kill the birds for food.
They don’t release them again as they would rather give them to someone to
keep than letting them go to see them being shot. But when spring hunting
is stopped, dove trappers can catch a lot more birds and they would be
able to ring them.
But to go back to where I started from, as ethnoornithologists we are
working alone, lone voices in the wilderness with many air and land miles
separating us. Those who like me, do not work in an educational or other
institution that can help promote these ideas, are even more cut off, have
no access to funds and find it difficult to publish such material to
disseminate the information. I do not give up and recently, with a Dutch
colleague of mine, we published a study about lark mirrors, a form of
decoy that was used to lure larks. But we find there is very little
interest in such things. One can’t ram things down in people’s throats,
but we have to awaken people’s senses to these things. These things are
part of out culture and their lore should be preserved. Finding use for
these things in new ways and making them harmless in the process would
ensure their survival for future generations. We are getting too much
driven in the direction of knowing the price of everything and the value
of nothing.
I am posting this as soon as I wrote it and would greatly appreciate any
ideas of how we can work more together.

Dr Natalino Fenech
Journalist
tel: (00356) 7943 8024



-----

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If
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Allied Newspapers Limited
Strickland House, 341 St Paul Street, Valletta VLT1211, Malta
Tel: (+356) 25594100
http://www.timesofmalta.com

Hi All

Has anyone from the ethnoornithology group ever did any research or read
anything about birds in heraldry or birds in proverbs and sayings?
I am doing some research about these two topics related to Malta and would
be grateful for any foreign references about these subjects. I have a few
references from Italy regarding proverbs and most of the heraldry we have
is imported through the Knights of St John who had seven languages, so
it’s pretty diverse.
I am also looking at birds in coats of arms of surnames. Although the
strict rules of heraldry did not apply here, there are some really
interesting depictions of birds of all shapes, colour and sizes in these arms.

Thanks in advance



Dr Natalino Fenech
Journalist
tel: (00356) 7943 8024



-----

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If
you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender. Please note
that any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the
author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. Finally, the
recipient should check this e-mail and any attachments for the presence of
viruses. The company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus
transmitted by this e-mail.

Allied Newspapers Limited
Strickland House, 341 St Paul Street, Valletta VLT1211, Malta
Tel: (+356) 25594100
http://www.timesofmalta.com

Dear all,

Chris, and the editors of the Journal of Ethnobiology, have kindly
agreed o make a copy of Chris's review of Greg Forth's book "Nage
Birds" published in 2004 by Routledge.

I am currently reading Greg's book and agree with Chris's view that it
represents a long-overdue approach to ethnoornithology, that is, a
monograph that focuses on the knowledge of a specific group for its
own value and not as a comparative analysis of how that knowledge
'matches'- or does not - contemporary scientific thought.

I've posted the review on the ERSG net - see under "Files".

I'll have a report and some abstracts from the recent Society of
Ethnobiology conference posted in the next few days.

Cheers and best,

Robert Gosford
ERSG moderator

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the Ethnoornithology
group.

   File        : /HealeyReviewForthNageBirds.pdf
   Uploaded by : robert_gosford <robertgosford@...>
   Description : Nage Birds - a review of Greg Forth's 2004 book published by
Routledge. The review was published in the Journal of Ethnobiology and
publication on the ERSG site has been kindly allowed by the Journal of
Ethnobioloy editors.

You can access this file at the URL:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ethnoornithology/files/HealeyReviewForthNageBir\
ds.pdf

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/uk/groups/files

Regards,

robert_gosford <robertgosford@...>

Dear all,

I'm in the USA so my email access is intermittent. Today I noticed
another spam email offering members access to a video of doubtful
relevance to the groups purposes and aims.

I've removed the message from the ERSG messages list and unsubscribed
the author.

Cheers and I'll have a lot to report from the 30th Society of
Ethnobiology conference at San Francisco and the Ethnoornithology
Symposium held in conjunction with the conference when I get back to
Australia early next week.

Robert Gosford
ERSG moderator

Dear all,

Please find listed below the abstracts of papers and posters presented
  at the recent Etnoornithology Symposium, entitled "Birds in culture
and context – Ethnoornithology in application and theory", during the
30th Society of Ethnobiology conference at the University of
California, Berkeley from 28 to 31st March 2007.

It was a great day, with a quantity and quality of papers that
reflects the complexity and diversity of ethnoornithological research
being undertaken across the globe at present. I believe that the
symposium participants reflect the global interest in ethnoornithology
as an emerging sub-discipline of ethnobiology and will go a long way
towards stimulating interest in the work of the ERSG and in
encouraging young and emergent scholars and researchers to present
their work at future SoE conferences. (next years will be in Arkansas).

For future reference or to find out more of the work of the Society of
Ethnobiology please see the society website at: http://ethnobiology.org/

I had a great time at the conference and heard some wonderful
presentations and caught up with some old (and not so old) friends and
made a bunch of new acquaintances and contacts. Following the
conference my partner and I(she went to Seattle to do some work while
the conference was on) went to New Mexico and Arizona to see what life
(and the birds) in another desert looks like.

Highlights of the trip? - the conference boat trip to the Farallon
Islands 25 miles offshore from San Francisco, seeing a family of
Harris Hawks (and other raptors) being free flown at the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum at Tucson, AZ and, of course, a couple of
early morning visits to the wetland habitats at Bosque del Apache on
the Rio Grande outside of Socorro in New Mexico.

Anyway - here are the abstracts - enjoy.

Robert Gosford,
ERSG moderator


Birds in culture and context – Ethnoornithology in application and theory

Chair: Robert Gosford

(1) Introductory comments to the symposium:  Eugene Anderson

(2) Mercy Muiruri and Patrick Maundu: Conservation concerns in the use
of birds in cultural ceremonies among the Maasai of east Africa.

The Maasai are a pastoral community in southern Kenya and northern
Tanzania. They still uphold their traditional lifestyle characterized
by ceremonies. The circumcision ceremony, emurata, is preceded by
killing of birds for headgear. Each initiate has to kill approximately
sixty birds of mixed species and keep on replacing spoilt bird skins.
  Research was carried out to find the significance of birds in Maasai
ceremonies and conservation status. Birds such as Schalow's Turacos,
Grey Helmet Shrike have been affected perhaps due to hunting, but hard
data on actual causes is lacking. The Maasai do not usually kill birds
for other reasons.

(3) Alejandro Hernández-Jaramillo: So live the birds of Belén de
Docampadó, Bajo Baudó, Chocó- poster

Belén de Docampadó belongs to the municipality of the Bajo Baudó, the
Afrocolombian communities are the owners of these territories,
habitants identified 92 species of the 124 species registered in the
area, 75 represent particular ethnographic aspects, of them 65% was
associated to nutritional uses, 28% to recreation activities, 9% to
activities of "witchcraft" and 8% were associated to origin myths. The
percentage of species with probability of risk of local extinction
corresponds to 15%; that combined to the impact to the timber
extraction demonstrates the necessity to implement alternative
economic viable for the conservation birds and local traditional
knowledge.

(4) Shepard Krech III: Augural, powerful, and dangerous birds among
Indians in the American south.

This paper addresses the salience of various birds in the traditional
native cultures of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Catawba, and
other indigenous people in the American south. The analysis draws on a
book in process, Spirits of the Air, and focuses especially on whether
or not it is possible to arrive at satisfactory conclusions about the
cultural meaning of birds or human-bird relationships among people for
whom, both native people and anthropologists admit, much cultural
information has been lost and might remain forever partial and opaque
due to the ravages of time, language loss, and relocation. Among
birds, the focus is on those that rise to the level not simply of
being noted (by native people) but that figure in important and
interesting, although sometimes inscrutable and indefinite, ways in
the lives of native people.

(5) Robert Gosford: The stormbird cult in the Central Northern
Territory: A migratory cuckoo, aboriginal languages and cultural practice.

The Stormbird (Kurrakurraja, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Scythrops
novaehollandiae) is the largest member of the Cuculidae and is a
significant species in the cultural and ceremonial practices of
several Aboriginal language groups in the north and central areas of
the Northern Territory of Australia. In this paper I will examine
aspects of the cultural relations between Aboriginal peoples and
Kurrakurraja. I will examine naming similarities throughout
Kurrakurraja's migratory range and the particular cultural
significance of Kurrakurraja for one language group in the central
Northern Territory and its role in continental-scale ceremonies across
Australia's Top End.

(6) CANCELED Berioska Quispe Estrada: Ashaninkas, Machiguengas and
Huachipaeris: Environmental relationships of Amazonian communities of
southeastern Peru.

This study illustrates the importance of the traditional knowledge of
three Amazonian communities of the Southeastern Peru, its recovery and
conservation, analyzing the connection between the Amazonian tradition
and the diversity of birds. Taking of data included the coexistence
with the communities and the implementation of surveys. As a main
result it was found that in spite of the cultural and geographical
differences among these groups, it exists in general the same
conception of the ecosystem and mainly of the birds. It discusses in
this study that they have been conserved through the time starting
from this knowledge traditional many species of birds. This supports
the theory that the conservation of the biodiversity of birds is
benefited by the active presence of indigenous communities in areas of
high ecological relevance.

(7) Eugene Hunn: A Zapotec ethnoornithological sketch from San Juan
Gbee, Oaxaca, Mexico.

I recorded an inventory of 69 folk generic bird taxa and a total of
103 terminal taxa for birds in San Juan Gbee, a Zapotec municipio in
the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca. I also recorded 190 species of birds in and
near that community during several years of intermittent field work
1996-2003. I will briefly compare this ethnoornithological vocabulary
and its associated beliefs and practices with comparable systems
elsewhere. As seem often the case, small, migratory birds are
relatively poorly differentiated as are larger species that are of
seasonal or sporadic occurrence. Onomatopoeia is common in naming
birds, and certain imitative names are quite creative. Nocturnal birds
are widely feared as ill omens, as are certain wrens that nest in
abandoned structures. Turkeys and chickens are common domesticates.
Curiously, the chicken, a post-colonial introduction, is highly
differentiated by breed, while the turkey, an indigenous domesticate,
is not. A few wild gallinaceous birds are hunted. The sphinx moth is
considered by some to be a "night hummingbird," though others consider
that name metaphorical.

(8) Cecil Brown: Raven=Heron in Mayan Language prehistory: An
ethno-ornithological/linguistic puzzle.

Two very different kinds of bird, ravens and herons, are
nomenclaturally linked in the prehistory of Mayan languages of
Mesoamerica. Reflexes of Proto-Mayan *jooj found in daughter languages
spoken in highland areas denote ravens, and reflexes in daughter
languages of lowland areas designate herons. In the Mayan-language
region, the Common Raven is found in the highlands but not in the
lowlands, and a species of heron that among all regional herons shows
the most (superficial) resemblance to the Common Raven, i.e., the
Boat-billed Heron, is found in the lowlands but not in the highlands.
When ancient speakers of Mayan languages moved from the lowlands to
the highlands or conversely (direction is not definitively known),
reflexes of *jooj respectively shifted in reference from the
Boat-billed Heron to the Common Raven or vice versa. This
nomenclatural switch was based solely on the superficial similarity of
these two extremely different kinds of bird that have nothing in
common phylogenetically other than their birdness.


(9) Nicole Sault: Nicole Sault: Bird Messengers for All Seasons:
     Landscapes of Knowledge Among the BriBri of Costa Rica

The rather plain, clay-colored robin is spoken of with affection by
Costa Ricans, not simply for its lovely song, but because it "calls
the rains" at the end of the dry season. Many birds are important for
the messages they send out: predicting the weather or warning about
venemous snakes. However, birds do not simply inhabit the landscape-
they are beings with knowledge that can benefit people in everyday
life, as well as in critical times of change or disaster. People
recognize that this requires paying attention, knowing how to
interpret the messages, and protecting bird populations.

(10) Gregory Forth: Symbolic birds and ironic bats.

Ethnobiologists have long recognized a distinction between `general
purpose' ethnotaxonomies and more specialized ways of classifying
plants and animals. Among the latter is `symbolic classification' (a
term here employed somewhat differently from uses in social-cultural
anthropology). In this paper I apply the distinction of ethnotaxonomy
and symbolic classification in order to consider the conceptual
position of bats, considered as a type of `bird', in the folk
ornithology of an eastern Indonesian society. In a way contrary to the
predictions of Douglas and other anthropologists, chiropertans are
shown to be peripheral to both forms of classification, in a way that
contrasts especially with values attached to both nocturnal and
diurnal birds of prey.

END abstracts

Dear all,

Please find below an outline of the symposium organised by Leonardo
Cabrera and Mark Bonta at the VIIIth Beotropical Ornithological
Congress being held at Maturin, Venezuela next month.

The papers sound very interesting and I hope that we will be able to
post further information (abstracts, papers etc) to the site as they
come to hand. Good luck and I trust it will be a successful symposium!

Cheers,

Robert Gosford
ERSG moderator

VIIIth Neotropical Ornithological Congress

Maturín, Venezuela, from May 13 – 19, 2007

Scientific Program/ Programa Científico

Saturday 19 May – morning session

SYMPOSIUM 19 / SIMPOSIO 19

Gran Salón B

Exploring Bird Conservation by Indigenous People: Insights for
Bio-Cultural Conservation. Conveners: Leonardo Cabrera and Mark Bonta

FOREST MANAGEMENT FOR BIRD CONSERVATION IN AGUARUNA-JIVARO COMMUNITIES
IN THE CORDILEERA DE COLÁN, NORTHERN PERÚ. Dauphine, Nico; Tsamajain
Yagkuag, Agustín; Cooper, Robert J.

BIRDS AND TRADITIONAL COFFEE PLANTATIONS: ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT BY
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN THE NORTH MOUNTAIN RANGE OF PUEBLA, MEXICO.
Leyequien, Euridice; Toledo, Víctor M.; López de Aquino, Samuel

ASHANINKAS, MACHIGUENGAS Y HUACHIPAIRES: EL PENSAMIENTO DE LAS
COMUNIDADES AMAZÓNICAS DEL SUR ESTE PERUANO. Quispe Estrada, Berioska

EXPLORING COMMUNITY-BASED BIRD CONSERVATION OPTIONS: A PARTICIPATORY
EXPERIENCE TO CONSERVE THE SIERRA MADRE SPARROW IN CENTRAL MEXICO.
Cabrera-García, Leonardo; Meredith, Thomas; Seutin, Gilles

VALORIZANDO LAS RELACIONES ENTRE LA GENTE Y LAS AVES: EXPERIENCIAS Y
LECCIONES DE HONDURAS. Bonta, Mark

Dear all,

This is a very early Call for Papers/Expressions of Interest for
participation in a proposed Ethnoornithology session at the 12th Pan
African Ornithological Congress to be held near Cape Town in South
Africa from 7 to 12 September 2008. The conference theme is "Birds and
Man" - which should offer ERSG members lots of scope for discussion
and consideration.

I have received a preliminary invitation for the ERSG and its members
to be involved in the proposed session and have very limited
information at present. The congress website (http://www.paoc12.org)
has very limited (no) information at present though more is expected soon.

As in all of these things it is best to be prepared as early as
possible so I'd appreciate your ideas or expression of interest in
your participation in this session as soon as possible. I'd also
propose that a member or members from the African continent take on
the organisation of the session - this strikes me as a better
arrangement that me trying to organise it from Australia.

I trust that this will be of interest to members and I look forward to
hearing further from you. Sounds like a great idea and I for one am
looking forward to my first trip to the African continent!


Robert Gosford
ERSG founder and moderator

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the Ethnoornithology
group.

   File        : /Cecil Brown SoE paper 2007.doc
   Uploaded by : robert_gosford <robertgosford@...>
   Description : RAVEN = HERON IN MAYAN-LANGUAGE PREHISTORY: AN
ETHNO-ORNITHOLOGICAL/LINGUISTIC PUZZLE

You can access this file at the URL:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ethnoornithology/files/Cecil%20Brown%20SoE%20pa\
per%202007.doc

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/uk/groups/files

Regards,

robert_gosford <robertgosford@...>

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the Ethnoornithology
group.

   File        : /Use of birds in ceremonies among Maasai of Kenya-2.ppt
   Uploaded by : robert_gosford <robertgosford@...>
   Description : Use of birds in ceremonies among Maasai of Kenya - Mercy Muiruri
& Patrick Maundu

You can access this file at the URL:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ethnoornithology/files/Use%20of%20birds%20in%20\
ceremonies%20among%20Maasai%20of%20Kenya-2.ppt

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/uk/groups/files

Regards,

robert_gosford <robertgosford@...>

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the Ethnoornithology
group.

   File        : /Augural powerful and dangerous birds Krech 2007.doc
   Uploaded by : robert_gosford <robertgosford@...>
   Description : Paper presented by Shepard Krech III at the 30th SoE meeting at
the University of California, Berkeley in March 2007.  I wish to revisit the
connections between birds in nature and birds in culture. As social
anthropologists, we are alert to cultural difference and expect that when it
comes to things like birds no two peoples will see exactly alike and no two
cultures will encode identical meanings. As anticipated--but roundly
debated--cultural differences loom in all classificatory levels.

You can access this file at the URL:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ethnoornithology/files/Augural%20powerful%20and\
%20dangerous%20birds%20Krech%202007.doc

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/uk/groups/files

Regards,

robert_gosford <robertgosford@...>

First announcement:

12th Pan-African Ornithological Congress
South Africa, 7-12 September 2008

Information relating to the venue and the construction of the scientific
programme is now available at http://www.paoc12.org <http://www.paoc12.org>

Registration will be open in due course. Further announcements and web
updates will be made shortly.

Please distribute to any interested and appropriate groups.

Kind regards
Doug Harebottle
Chair: PAOC12 Scientific Programme Committtee (info@...
<mailto:info%40paoc12.org>)
Member: Interim Local Organising Committee

Dear Nature Lovers !

Few months back, a weblog on 'Biodiversity of Gujarat' was
launched with an intention of sharing information on hand.

Keeping in mind, the very need of the nature lovers around the
State as well as Country, recently the same "Blog" has been
furnished with lot of information such as:

==========================================
GUJARAT:

Gujarat Forest
Gujarat Wetlands
Gujarat Avifauna
Gujarat Wildlife
Gujarat Organisations

INDIA:

India Organisations
India Bibliography

INTERNATIONAL:

International Organisations
International Bibliography

OTHERS:

E-Groups
Links
E-Library
Blog Archives

& MANY MORE ARE STILL TO COME.....!

A link of the weblog is as follows:

http://www.gujarat-biodiversity.blogspot.com

Hope it would be much informative with 'Handful Information' on
'Biodiversity, Bibliography & Leading Insinuations' for all.

Fruitful suggestions from all of you are welcome for the
betterment of the same.

Warm & Best Regards - HIREN SONI

================================


HIREN SONI
(Biodiversity Specialist-Ornithology & Wildlife Biology)
Lecturer in Animal Science (Zoology)
29 - Yogiswami Society
Bhalej Road, Anand-388001
Gujarat (India)
E-mail: hirensoni@... / hinazeni@...
Tel: 02692-251217 (R), 9426023901 (M)
URL: http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/resumes/hirensoni/cv
Blog: http://gujarat-biodiversity.blogspot.com
Moderator: Gujarat_Birds
[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Gujarat_Birds]

"Solutions to Problems depend upon Knowledge which only Research can provide -
H. Kalmbach"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Dear Nature Lovers !

Few months back, a weblog on 'Biodiversity of Gujarat' was
launched with an intention of sharing information on hand.

Keeping in mind, the very need of the nature lovers around the
State as well as Country, recently the same "Blog" has been
furnished with lot of information such as:

==========================================
GUJARAT:

Gujarat Forest
Gujarat Wetlands
Gujarat Avifauna
Gujarat Wildlife
Gujarat Organisations

INDIA:

India Organisations
India Bibliography

INTERNATIONAL:

International Organisations
International Bibliography

OTHERS:

E-Groups
Links
E-Library
Blog Archives

& MANY MORE ARE STILL TO COME.....!

A link of the weblog is as follows:

http://www.gujarat-biodiversity.blogspot.com

Hope it would be much informative with 'Handful Information' on
'Biodiversity, Bibliography & Leading Insinuations' for all.

Fruitful suggestions from all of you are welcome for the
betterment of the same.

Warm & Best Regards - HIREN SONI

================================

HIREN SONI
(Biodiversity Specialist - Ornithology & Wildlife Biology)
Lecturer in Animal Science (Zoology)
29 - Yogiswami Society
Bhalej Road, Anand - 388001
Gujarat (India)
E-mail: hirensoni@... / hinazeni@...
Tel: 02692 - 251217 (R), 9426023901 (M)
URL: http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/resumes/hirensoni/cv
Blog: http://gujarat-biodiversity.blogspot.com
Moderator: Gujarat_Birds
[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Gujarat_Birds]

"Solutions to Problems depend upon Knowledge which only Research can
provide - H. Kalmbach"

Dear all,

I'm tremendously excited to announce that I have recently signed with
CSIRO Publishing to produce a book to examine, for the first time in any
systematic and (hopefully) comprehensive way, the bird knowledge of
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The book's
working title is /Aboriginal Bird Knowledge/ - though I hope to come up
with something a little more catchy over the next year or so! I'm
planning on getting the book to CSIRO Publishing by around June 2008.

I plan to present historical information (from the oral traditions,
anthropological and linguistic records and ornithological material etc,
of which I've already gathered a lot of material), alongside
contemporary information gathered through contacts and meetings with
Aboriginal people and groups over the course of the next 9 months or so.
I plan to do two long road-trips covering most of the country meeting
and talking with people. I'll also do a few smaller trips to places that
I can't reach easily by car. I look forward to being able to present a
progress report at the AOC 2007 in Perth in December.

The layout of the book will broadly follow that used by Mark Cocker in
his recent encyclopeadic work on British bird knowledge (which I regard
as an ethnoornithology of the British Isles and peoples) titled /Birds
Britannica, /and with a couple of chapters reflecting Aboriginal uses of
birds, and reflections on Birds in indigenous art and culture/. /In
Cocker's book birds were examined by family groupings and I think this
will allow for ease of reference and also a more convenient way to group
knowledge from different language groups from across the country rather
than just by local language groupings.

I'm very aware of the issues related to the use (and potential for
misuse) of Aboriginal traditional knowledge and have proposed several
ways to address possible concerns:

1 - In compliance with the recently released Code of Conduct prepared by
the /International Society of Ethnobiology/ (of which I am a member and
thus bound by) I will seek the prior and informed consent of all
participants in the project;
2 - I'll provide copies of photos, tapes and other research material etc
to all participants or their nominated places of safekeeping (local
Keeping Place, Museum, representative organisation etc);
3 - I'll also lodge a copy of all research material with the Australian
Institute of Aboriginal and Islander Studies (AITSIS) in Canberra; and
4 - I will preserve individual and group copyrights and intellectual
property and provide written credits and acknowledgments for all
contributions.

There may be other things I need to do in this regard and I'd welcome
any suggestions or comments on this part of the process.

What I'd like to ask this group for are any suggestions or comments you
might have on this project that might be of assistance. I'll be doing
extensive pre-trip contacts and an email and snail-mail mailout plus
drawing on my contacts over the years in order to find the rights people
to talk to during my research.

I'd particularly welcome any suggestions along the following line:

1 - important or relevant people, communities or organisations you think
I should contact;
2 - previous or current research, publications etc relevant to this area;
3 - examples of the application of traditional ornithological knowledge
in practice;
4 - any local resources of relevance;
5 - any other research areas or approaches I might have overlooked; and
6 - anyone who might want to meet and/or provide a bed/in-kind support
etc during my cross-country treks - as always it is the local
connections that are important and any tip, suggestion or new contact
can be important.

I'll set up a blog/webpage to record comments and progress over the
course of this research, particularly what I hope will be the great
field trips to many parts of the country I've yet to visit, and will
advise of the address when this is done. I also have a dedicated email
address (BirdKnowledge@...) to which I'd prefer email for this
project sent.

Thanks to you all and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Robert Gosford
Aboriginal Bird Knowledge book project
LPO Yuendumu
via Alice Springs
NT 0872
Australia
Email: BirdKnowledge@...

----- Original Message -----

From: Robert Gosford

To: Birding-Aus ; COG list ; Birds Queensland Forum ; Ethnoornithology group ; Nt Birds group

Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 7:57 AM

Subject: [Ethnoornithology] Aboriginal Bird Knowledge book project - announcement

Dear all,

I'm tremendously excited to announce that I have recently signed with
CSIRO Publishing to produce a book to examine, for the first time in any
systematic and (hopefully) comprehensive way, the bird knowledge of
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The book's
working title is /Aboriginal Bird Knowledge/ - though I hope to come up
with something a little more catchy over the next year or so! I'm
planning on getting the book to CSIRO Publishing by around June 2008.

I plan to present historical information (from the oral traditions,
anthropological and linguistic records and ornithological material etc,
of which I've already gathered a lot of material), alongside
contemporary information gathered through contacts and meetings with
Aboriginal people and groups over the course of the next 9 months or so.
I plan to do two long road-trips covering most of the country meeting
and talking with people. I'll also do a few smaller trips to places that
I can't reach easily by car. I look forward to being able to present a
progress report at the AOC 2007 in Perth in December.

The layout of the book will broadly follow that used by Mark Cocker in
his recent encyclopeadic work on British bird knowledge (which I regard
as an ethnoornithology of the British Isles and peoples) titled /Birds
Britannica, /and with a couple of chapters reflecting Aboriginal uses of
birds, and reflections on Birds in indigenous art and culture/. /In
Cocker's book birds were examined by family groupings and I think this
will allow for ease of reference and also a more convenient way to group
knowledge from different language groups from across the country rather
than just by local language groupings.

I'm very aware of the issues related to the use (and potential for
misuse) of Aboriginal traditional knowledge and have proposed several
ways to address possible concerns:

1 - In compliance with the recently released Code of Conduct prepared by
the /International Society of Ethnobiology/ (of which I am a member and
thus bound by) I will seek the prior and informed consent of all
participants in the project;
2 - I'll provide copies of photos, tapes and other research material etc
to all participants or their nominated places of safekeeping (local
Keeping Place, Museum, representative organisation etc);
3 - I'll also lodge a copy of all research material with the Australian
Institute of Aboriginal and Islander Studies (AITSIS) in Canberra; and
4 - I will preserve individual and group copyrights and intellectual
property and provide written credits and acknowledgments for all
contributions.

There may be other things I need to do in this regard and I'd welcome
any suggestions or comments on this part of the process.

What I'd like to ask this group for are any suggestions or comments you
might have on this project that might be of assistance. I'll be doing
extensive pre-trip contacts and an email and snail-mail mailout plus
drawing on my contacts over the years in order to find the rights people
to talk to during my research.

I'd particularly welcome any suggestions along the following line:

1 - important or relevant people, communities or organisations you think
I should contact;
2 - previous or current research, publications etc relevant to this area;
3 - examples of the application of traditional ornithological knowledge
in practice;
4 - any local resources of relevance;
5 - any other research areas or approaches I might have overlooked; and
6 - anyone who might want to meet and/or provide a bed/in-kind support
etc during my cross-country treks - as always it is the local
connections that are important and any tip, suggestion or new contact
can be important.

I'll set up a blog/webpage to record comments and progress over the
course of this research, particularly what I hope will be the great
field trips to many parts of the country I've yet to visit, and will
advise of the address when this is done. I also have a dedicated email
address (BirdKnowledge@gmail.com) to which I'd prefer email for this
project sent.

Thanks to you all and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Robert Gosford
Aboriginal Bird Knowledge book project
LPO Yuendumu
via Alice Springs
NT 0872
Australia
Email: BirdKnowledge@gmail.com

Greg,

As always good to hear from you. I'll pass on (or else you'll have to
buy the book?) any relevant material on B-n Stork
- why Satin? I can't think of other references for leg sinew use, though
with such a long leg I can imagine, as with kangaroos & wallabies, that
the leg sinews would be a good length and would contract nicely once
dried out ... though they might not have the 'spring' that a kangaroo
sinew would.
I haven't seen the paper - I'll do some more research when I get to a
Qld library in a few months time (Qld seems to be a fruitful area for
ethnographic research). I think Whistling Ducks are good food wherever
they are found - BTW we saw Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at a pond in
south-easter Venezuela a few weeks ago.

Cheers, thanks and best and please keep up the good work and remember to
send any tips, however small or seemingly irrelevant and also to pass my
message on to anyone you think might be interested. I might drop in to
see you later in the year - otherwise see you in Perth.

Bob Gosford

Greg wrote:
>
> Hi Robert,
>
> I will be very interested in what you find out about Aboriginal bird
> knowledge (and use) with respect to the Black-necked (Satin) Stork.
>
>
> The only reference I found was "the leg sinews are valued for binding
> barbs to spears but it is also eaten".  Stephen Garnett and Robert
> Bredl 'Birds in the vicinity of Edward River Settlement. The Sunbird
> 15 :7-40 (Nos. 1 and 2).  There are also references to Wandering
> Whistling-Ducks being extensively hunted for food.  There may be other
> references to such interactions.  Have you seen this paper?
>
>
> Regards
>
> Greg Clancy
>
>
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Robert Gosford <mailto:robertgosford@...>
>     *To:* Birding-Aus <mailto:birding-aus@...> ; COG list
>     <mailto:canberrabirds@...> ; Birds Queensland
>     Forum <mailto:BQ_Forum@yahoogroups.com> ; Ethnoornithology group
>     <mailto:ethnoornithology@...> ; Nt Birds group
>     <mailto:ntbirds@yahoogroups.com>
>     *Sent:* Sunday, May 27, 2007 7:57 AM
>     *Subject:* [Ethnoornithology] Aboriginal Bird Knowledge book
>     project - announcement
>
>     Dear all,
>
>     I'm tremendously excited to announce that I have recently signed with
>     CSIRO Publishing to produce a book to examine, for the first time
>     in any
>     systematic and (hopefully) comprehensive way, the bird knowledge of
>     Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The book's
>     working title is /Aboriginal Bird Knowledge/ - though I hope to
>     come up
>     with something a little more catchy over the next year or so! I'm
>     planning on getting the book to CSIRO Publishing by around June 2008.
>
>     I plan to present historical information (from the oral traditions,
>     anthropological and linguistic records and ornithological material
>     etc,
>     of which I've already gathered a lot of material), alongside
>     contemporary information gathered through contacts and meetings with
>     Aboriginal people and groups over the course of the next 9 months
>     or so.
>     I plan to do two long road-trips covering most of the country meeting
>     and talking with people. I'll also do a few smaller trips to
>     places that
>     I can't reach easily by car. I look forward to being able to
>     present a
>     progress report at the AOC 2007 in Perth in December.
>
>     The layout of the book will broadly follow that used by Mark
>     Cocker in
>     his recent encyclopeadic work on British bird knowledge (which I
>     regard
>     as an ethnoornithology of the British Isles and peoples) titled
>     /Birds
>     Britannica, /and with a couple of chapters reflecting Aboriginal
>     uses of
>     birds, and reflections on Birds in indigenous art and culture/. /In
>     Cocker's book birds were examined by family groupings and I think
>     this
>     will allow for ease of reference and also a more convenient way to
>     group
>     knowledge from different language groups from across the country
>     rather
>     than just by local language groupings.
>
>     I'm very aware of the issues related to the use (and potential for
>     misuse) of Aboriginal traditional knowledge and have proposed several
>     ways to address possible concerns:
>
>     1 - In compliance with the recently released Code of Conduct
>     prepared by
>     the /International Society of Ethnobiology/ (of which I am a
>     member and
>     thus bound by) I will seek the prior and informed consent of all
>     participants in the project;
>     2 - I'll provide copies of photos, tapes and other research
>     material etc
>     to all participants or their nominated places of safekeeping (local
>     Keeping Place, Museum, representative organisation etc);
>     3 - I'll also lodge a copy of all research material with the
>     Australian
>     Institute of Aboriginal and Islander Studies (AITSIS) in Canberra; and
>     4 - I will preserve individual and group copyrights and intellectual
>     property and provide written credits and acknowledgments for all
>     contributions.
>
>     There may be other things I need to do in this regard and I'd welcome
>     any suggestions or comments on this part of the process.
>
>     What I'd like to ask this group for are any suggestions or
>     comments you
>     might have on this project that might be of assistance. I'll be doing
>     extensive pre-trip contacts and an email and snail-mail mailout plus
>     drawing on my contacts over the years in order to find the rights
>     people
>     to talk to during my research.
>
>     I'd particularly welcome any suggestions along the following line:
>
>     1 - important or relevant people, communities or organisations you
>     think
>     I should contact;
>     2 - previous or current research, publications etc relevant to
>     this area;
>     3 - examples of the application of traditional ornithological
>     knowledge
>     in practice;
>     4 - any local resources of relevance;
>     5 - any other research areas or approaches I might have
>     overlooked; and
>     6 - anyone who might want to meet and/or provide a bed/in-kind
>     support
>     etc during my cross-country treks - as always it is the local
>     connections that are important and any tip, suggestion or new contact
>     can be important.
>
>     I'll set up a blog/webpage to record comments and progress over the
>     course of this research, particularly what I hope will be the great
>     field trips to many parts of the country I've yet to visit, and will
>     advise of the address when this is done. I also have a dedicated
>     email
>     address (BirdKnowledge@...
>     <mailto:BirdKnowledge%40gmail.com>) to which I'd prefer email for
>     this
>     project sent.
>
>     Thanks to you all and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
>
>     Robert Gosford
>     Aboriginal Bird Knowledge book project
>     LPO Yuendumu
>     via Alice Springs
>     NT 0872
>     Australia
>     Email: BirdKnowledge@... <mailto:BirdKnowledge%40gmail.com>
>
>

----- Original Message -----

From: Robert Gosford

To: Ethnoornithology@...

Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:48 PM

Subject: Re: [Ethnoornithology] Aboriginal Bird Knowledge book project - announcement

Greg,

As always good to hear from you. I'll pass on (or else you'll have to
buy the book?) any relevant material on B-n Stork
- why Satin? I can't think of other references for leg sinew use, though
with such a long leg I can imagine, as with kangaroos & wallabies, that
the leg sinews would be a good length and would contract nicely once
dried out ... though they might not have the 'spring' that a kangaroo
sinew would.
I haven't seen the paper - I'll do some more research when I get to a
Qld library in a few months time (Qld seems to be a fruitful area for
ethnographic research). I think Whistling Ducks are good food wherever
they are found - BTW we saw Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at a pond in
south-easter Venezuela a few weeks ago.

Cheers, thanks and best and please keep up the good work and remember to
send any tips, however small or seemingly irrelevant and also to pass my
message on to anyone you think might be interested. I might drop in to
see you later in the year - otherwise see you in Perth.

Bob Gosford

Greg wrote:
>
> Hi Robert,
>
> I will be very interested in what you find out about Aboriginal bird
> knowledge (and use) with respect to the Black-necked (Satin) Stork.
>
>
> The only reference I found was "the leg sinews are valued for binding
> barbs to spears but it is also eaten". Stephen Garnett and Robert
> Bredl 'Birds in the vicinity of Edward River Settlement. The Sunbird
> 15 :7-40 (Nos. 1 and 2). There are also references to Wandering
> Whistling-Ducks being extensively hunted for food. There may be other
> references to such interactions. Have you seen this paper?
>
>
> Regards
>
> Greg Clancy
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Robert Gosford <mailto:robertgosford@bigpond.com>
> *To:* Birding-Aus <mailto:birding-aus@vicnet.net.au> ; COG list
> <mailto:canberrabirds@canberrabirds.org.au> ; Birds Queensland
> Forum <mailto:BQ_Forum@yahoogroups.com> ; Ethnoornithology group
> <mailto:ethnoornithology@yahoogroups.co.uk> ; Nt Birds group
> <mailto:ntbirds@yahoogroups.com>
> *Sent:* Sunday, May 27, 2007 7:57 AM
> *Subject:* [Ethnoornithology] Aboriginal Bird Knowledge book
> project - announcement
>
> Dear all,
>
> I'm tremendously excited to announce that I have recently signed with
> CSIRO Publishing to produce a book to examine, for the first time
> in any
> systematic and (hopefully) comprehensive way, the bird knowledge of
> Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The book's
> working title is /Aboriginal Bird Knowledge/ - though I hope to
> come up
> with something a little more catchy over the next year or so! I'm
> planning on getting the book to CSIRO Publishing by around June 2008.
>
> I plan to present historical information (from the oral traditions,
> anthropological and linguistic records and ornithological material
> etc,
> of which I've already gathered a lot of material), alongside
> contemporary information gathered through contacts and meetings with
> Aboriginal people and groups over the course of the next 9 months
> or so.
> I plan to do two long road-trips covering most of the country meeting
> and talking with people. I'll also do a few smaller trips to
> places that
> I can't reach easily by car. I look forward to being able to
> present a
> progress report at the AOC 2007 in Perth in December.
>
> The layout of the book will broadly follow that used by Mark
> Cocker in
> his recent encyclopeadic work on British bird knowledge (which I
> regard
> as an ethnoornithology of the British Isles and peoples) titled
> /Birds
> Britannica, /and with a couple of chapters reflecting Aboriginal
> uses of
> birds, and reflections on Birds in indigenous art and culture/. /In
> Cocker's book birds were examined by family groupings and I think
> this
> will allow for ease of reference and also a more convenient way to
> group
> knowledge from different language groups from across the country
> rather
> than just by local language groupings.
>
> I'm very aware of the issues related to the use (and potential for
> misuse) of Aboriginal traditional knowledge and have proposed several
> ways to address possible concerns:
>
> 1 - In compliance with the recently released Code of Conduct
> prepared by
> the /International Society of Ethnobiology/ (of which I am a
> member and
> thus bound by) I will seek the prior and informed consent of all
> participants in the project;
> 2 - I'll provide copies of photos, tapes and other research
> material etc
> to all participants or their nominated places of safekeeping (local
> Keeping Place, Museum, representative organisation etc);
> 3 - I'll also lodge a copy of all research material with the
> Australian
> Institute of Aboriginal and Islander Studies (AITSIS) in Canberra; and
> 4 - I will preserve individual and group copyrights and intellectual
> property and provide written credits and acknowledgments for all
> contributions.
>
> There may be other things I need to do in this regard and I'd welcome
> any suggestions or comments on this part of the process.
>
> What I'd like to ask this group for are any suggestions or
> comments you
> might have on this project that might be of assistance. I'll be doing
> extensive pre-trip contacts and an email and snail-mail mailout plus
> drawing on my contacts over the years in order to find the rights
> people
> to talk to during my research.
>
> I'd particularly welcome any suggestions along the following line:
>
> 1 - important or relevant people, communities or organisations you
> think
> I should contact;
> 2 - previous or current research, publications etc relevant to
> this area;
> 3 - examples of the application of traditional ornithological
> knowledge
> in practice;
> 4 - any local resources of relevance;
> 5 - any other research areas or approaches I might have
> overlooked; and
> 6 - anyone who might want to meet and/or provide a bed/in-kind
> support
> etc during my cross-country treks - as always it is the local
> connections that are important and any tip, suggestion or new contact
> can be important.
>
> I'll set up a blog/webpage to record comments and progress over the
> course of this research, particularly what I hope will be the great
> field trips to many parts of the country I've yet to visit, and will
> advise of the address when this is done. I also have a dedicated
> email
> address (BirdKnowledge@gmail.com
> <mailto:BirdKnowledge%40gmail.com>) to which I'd prefer email for
> this
> project sent.
>
> Thanks to you all and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
>
> Robert Gosford
> Aboriginal Bird Knowledge book project
> LPO Yuendumu
> via Alice Springs
> NT 0872
> Australia
> Email: BirdKnowledge@gmail.com <mailto:BirdKnowledge%40gmail.com>
>
>

Dear all,

Just a quick note to advise that I have today posted 3 new files to
the ERSG website. The first is a notice of a new book, Animals the
Ancestors Hunted, by Ian Saem Majnep & Ralph Bulmer on the animals of
Kalam country in Papua New Guinea. For those familiar with the first
book from these esteemed ethnobiologists, Birds of my Kalam Country,
this second volume of the planned trilogy is keenly anticipated.

The two other files are powerpoints of presentations to the recent
VIIIth Neotropical Ornithological Congress at Maturin, Venezuela by
me, Robert Gosford, and Dr. Mark Bonta of Delta State University.
These presentations were part of the symposium "Exploring Bird
Conservation by Indigenous People: Insights for Biocultural
Conservation", organised by Mark Bonta and Leonardo Cabrera of McGill
University, Canada.

I have other presentations from the conference but they are too big in
their current form to upload to this site.

I'll issue another Call for Contributions for the next ERSG Newsletter
soon - we should have more than enough material since the last issue!

Cheers and best - please send your thoughts, notes etc - no matter how
   small - to share with the rest of us.

Robert Gosford
ERSG moderator

Dear all - can you think of a person worthy of this award - see below
for nominations etc.
Cheers,

Robert Gosford
ERSG Moderator


The deadline for the Science and Practice of Ecology and Society Award
is fast approaching. If you are interested in submitting a
nominations, please read the text below for details and send your
nominations to Dr. Marco Janssen (Marco.Janssen@...) before July 1st.


THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY AWARD

The Science and Practice of Ecology & Society Award is an annual award
given to the individual or organization that is the most effective in
bringing transdisciplinary science of the interactions of ecology and
society into practice. An article about the winner, Gloria Gaia, of
the inaugural edition of 2006 can be found at
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art28/. Examples of
possible nominees include, a high school teacher who develops a
special curriculum, a mayor with initiatives and actions for her/his
town based on scientific concepts, a journalist who brings scientific
insights to a broader audience, or a NGO group who facilitates local
knowledge production in rural communities.

The purpose of this award is to recognize the importance of
practitioners who translate the scientific findings and insights of
the scholarly community to practical applications. We want to identify
innovative practitioners so that their story can be an example for others.

The Award
The award consists of 1000 Euro and an article in Ecology and Society
devoted to this person or organization. This article will be written
by those who send in the nomination.

Who can be nominated?
A person or organization that has succeeded in translating
transdisciplinary science theory into practice.

Who nominates?
Any academic scholar or group of academic scholars can nominate a
person or organization. An accompanying letter will argue why this
person or organization is an exemplary example of the interface of
practice and science in the domain of ecology and society.

Where to submit nominations?
The deadline for nominations will be July 1, 2007. Nomination letters
can be sent, preferably electronically, to Dr. Marco Janssen, Email:
Marco.Janssen@.... School of Human Evolution and Social Change,
Arizona State University, Box 872402, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402.