Resilience and Adaptation in Social-Ecological Systems

WASHINGTON SOARES FERREIRA JÚNIOR; ANDRÉ LUIS BORBA DO NASCIMENTO; MARCELO ALVES RAMOS; PATRÍCIA MUNIZ DE MEDEIROS; GUSTAVO TABOADA SOLDATI; FLÁVIA ROSA SANTORO; VICTORIA REYES-GARCÍA

Evolutionary Ethnobiology

Springer International Publishing

Año: 2019; p. 105 - 119

People appropriate the environment to obtain the resources that provide theirlivelihood. In such appropriation, human groups develop a set of knowledge andpractices on the local resources that enable them to live under different conditions and environmental adversities. Far from being a research topiconly for scholars interested in the evolutionary process, the discussion of human adaptation to the environment is also critical in ethnobiological studies aiming to understand which characteristics favor the maintenance of practices, knowledge, values and beliefs that ensure people?s livelihood in adverse contexts. Furthermore, the topic is even more relevant in the current context of global change, as human populations are exposed to disturbances that affect their known environmental (e.g., deforestation) and cultural orders (e.g., the presence of health centers near populations that historically havekept traditional medical systems). Such an context confronts us with the challenge of understanding how humans behave when faced with changes, either environmental or cultural. We argue that ethnobiologists can draw on a set of concepts developed in other disciplines (i.e., systems, stability, resilience, disturbance, and adaptation) to understand current human adaptive strategies.