Douglas Deur, Ph.D.

PNW Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit
University of Washington
P.O. Box 58
Arch Cape OR 97102
Office: (503)436-8877

Presentation Time

Friday, September 8, 2006: 5:00 PM

Title

American Indian Reciprocity and Cosmology as Ecological Factors in Western Oregon

Abstract

Scholarly explanations for the motives and mechanisms of traditional plant management typically differ considerably from explanations provided by tribal elders, historical and contemporary. Researchers typically cast traditional plant management in implicitly microeconomic terms, applying models of utility maximization within specific temporal and spatial constraints. Tribal specialists, though clearly attentive to material outcomes, usually embed explanations of traditional plant management within notions of interspecific reciprocity and the mediation of cosmological relationships. This paper briefly examines explanations provided by elders from various western Oregon tribes. Specifically, it explores whether these cultural motives might help us better understand the nature of Oregon's anthropogenic landscapes.

Select Bibliography

Deur, Douglas 2000. A Domesticated Landscape: Native American Plant Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America. PhD Dissertation, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 361 pp.

Deur, Douglas 2002. "Plant Cultivation on the Northwest Coast: A Reconsideration," Journal of Cultural Geography. Vol. 19, No. 1: 9-35.

Deur, Douglas and Nancy J. Turner (eds.) 2005a. Keeping It Living: Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America. University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington: 404 pp.

Deur, Douglas and Nancy J. Turner 2005b. "Introduction: Reassessing Indigenous Resource Management, Reassessing the History of An Idea," IN: Keeping It Living: Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America, Douglas Deur and Nancy J. Turner (eds.), University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington: 3-217.

Deur, Douglas and Nancy J. Turner 2005c. "Conclusions," IN: Keeping It Living: Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America, Douglas Deur and Nancy J. Turner (eds.), University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington: 331-342.