Friday, November 10, 2006



ES posible la coexistencia entre los humanos y la naturaleza?

Los japoneses tienen una palabra kyosei que se puede traducir como convivencia, coexistencia con intercambio mutuo, mas que solo tolerancia a la presencia del otro. Este concepto es explorado en el problema de los monos en los espacios rurales en Japon.

Coexistence and Exclusion Between Humans and Monkeys in Japan: Is Either Really Possible?David S. Sprague and Nobusuke Iwasaki

Abstract: The Japanese people face a cultural and ecological challenge in seeking a new relationship between themselves and the Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata). Monkeys are a major agricultural pest. Monkey habitat often lies within a short distance from fields and villages, and vice versa, especially in mountainous areas. The idealized solution is a form of coexistence where humans and monkeys somehow negotiate a harmonious compromise. A word used often in Japanese is kyosei, to live in common, implying a more intimate relation than mere side-by-side coexistence. In practice, kyosei is a word used by policy makers or scholars, but less often used by primatologists and agricultural officials. Primatologists aid agricultural extension programs that encourage farmers to implement practical measures to reduce the attractiveness of farmland and villages as feeding sites to monkeys. However, agricultural extension programs may be operationalizing kyosei by encouraging rural communities to reformulate their relationship with monkeys.

Link al JOurnal de Ecological and Environmental Anthropology

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