Steve Wolverton
Department of Geography
University of North Texas
The Mean Green Mandala blog is an outcome of an unconventional midterm exam that I gave to my undergraduate ethnobiology students in October of 2013 at the University of North Texas. The exam was a free-writing experiment based loosely on the book The Forest Unseen by David Haskell. I had never taught ethnobiology before, but I have been actively involved in the Society of Ethnobiology for several years, and I was interested in teaching this class because I think it is good for people to be ethnobiologists (at whatever scale possible). So, what is ethnobiology? Academics define it as "the "study of dynamic relationships humans, biota and environments." However, scholars also recognize an emic ethnobiology embedded in each person; that is, there are individuated human-environmental interactions that consitute the ethnobiology of individuals (based on their own perceptions and knowledge).
I assigned Haskell's book not because he identifies himself as an ethnobiologist; rather, his book records a year's worth of visits to a patch of forest that he calls his mandala, which refers to a Hindu spiritual symbol (often circular patterns) of the universe. These symbols are used to help train minds during meditation. The photo to the left is from the Wikipedia page about mandalas, and there is no doubt that Haskell's experiences were symbolic and meditative.
For the purposes of my class, however, it is also important that Haskell journaled visits to his forest mandala that were ethnobiological. He holds a PhD in Biology, and thus his window to the world of the forest, its ecology, and the biology of its inhabitats is specialized and informed, perhaps etic. However, what is genuine and interesting about his book is its refreshing subjectivity.
Some ethnobiologists and environmental philosophers who are concerned with global environmental crises, such as the impacts of global warming on biodiversity and cultural diversity, assert that what need to change in Western society are environmental values (ethics). Nancy Turner, Fikret Berkes, Eugene Anderson, Robert Figueroa, and Ricardo Rozzi represent some scholars who hold that ethics change when experiences change. Thus, one way to influence environmental values is to become ethnobiological, to spend time in the outdoors like Haskell did, offering natural places the attention deserved of a mandala. The midterm exam for my class was to choose a mandala (an outdoor place), to visit it regularly, to observe the soil, plants, and animals, to note changes between visits, and to write about the experience.
Here is the exam question:
Create a mandala in a green space that you can regularly access. This could be your yard, a small area in a park near where you live, or another accessible area. It could be a place on campus, for example. Leading up to the exam, visit the mandala five times for fifteen minutes each; observe and experience the place. First, describe the mandala in general: where it is, what types of biota are there; what the soil is like, and anything else you observe. Second, make sure you note any changes in your mandala over the five visits; make sure you describe any types of insects, plants, birds, litter, and so forth that occur on each visit (you should record notes during each visit). Third, make sure you highlight any human-nature interactions that appear; from litter to other human visitors to noises, you will be interacting with other people, so record it. For steps one through three, it may be helpful to photo-document some parts of your mandala (use your phone camera); it may also be advantageous to target a few interesting species and learn their biology and/or ethnobiology. Finally, use the definition of “Ecological Understanding” provided by Turner and Berkes (2006) to discuss what you think the benefits are of the mandala observations you have made and the mandala observations you have read about from Haskell’s book.
I am hesitant to give writing assignments these days because I have found that students regularly copy from the internet, cannot write well, or simply will not do the work. I do not wish to police behavior; I want to engage in a partnership with my students where learning is paramount. I was surprised at how well written these exams were and at how much effort students put into their work. These students can write! I have begun to question my assumption that students (on average) are not good writers; rather, perhaps they are not interested in those things we would like them to write about. My own experience as a writer has been that I cannot write about a topic that I have no ownership in; the difference may simply be ownership. Perhaps the primary literature in ethnobiology (or other subjects) is more interesting when students can more readily contextualize it in their own experience (duh! say my colleagues in education and those who are simply better teachers than I am!).
So, the students have agreed to publish their mandala narratives on the blog. Their final exam will be a similar assigment, but the observations will take place over a longer period. It is my hope that students will continue to provide new posts beyond the scope of the class. Certainly, I hope to add to this blog during future ethnobiology classes that I teach. For reference, I have listed books and papers by some of the ethnobiologists, philosophers, and other scholars who inspired me to teach ethnobiology.
Relevant Literature
Anderson, E. N. 2010. The Pursuit of Ecotopia: Lessons from Indigenous and Traditional Societies for the Human Ecology of Our Modern World. Praeger Press, Santa Barbara, CA.
Davidson-Hunt, I. J., K. L. Turner, A. T. Pareake Mead, J. Cabrera-Lopez, R. Bolton, C. J. Idrobo, I. Miretski, A. Morrison, & J. Robson. 2012 Biocultural Design: A New Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Development in Rural Indigenous and Local Communities. SAPI EN. S. Surveys and Perspectives Integrating Environment and Society 5.2.
Dunnell, R. C. 1982. Science, Social Science, and Common Sense: The Agonizing Dilemma of Modern Archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Research 38:1-25.
Figueroa, R. M. & G. Waitt. 2008. Cracks in the Mirror: (Un)covering the Moral Terrains of Environmental Justice at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Ethics, Place, and Environment 11: 327-348.
Figueroa, R. M. & G. Waitt. 2010. Climb: Restorative Justice, Environmental Heritage, and the Moral Terrains of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Environmental Philosophy 7:135-163.
Hunn, E. 2007. Ethnobiology in Four Phases. Journal of Ethnobiology 27:1-10.
Lepofsky, D. 2009. The Past, Present, and Future of Traditional Resource and Environmental Management. Journal of Ethnobiology 29:161-166.
Lertzman, K. 2009. The Paradigm of Management, Management Systems, and Resource Stewardship. Journal of Ethnobiology 29:339-358.
Nabhan, G. P. 2004. Cross-Pollinations: The Marriage of Science and Poetry. Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, MN.
Nabhan, G. P. 2013. Ethnobiology for a Diverse World: Autobiology? The Traditional Ecological, Agricultural and Culinary Knowledge of Us! Journal of Ethnobiology 33:2-6.
Nabhan, G. P., K. Chambers, D. Tecklin, E. Perramond, & T. E. Sheridan. 2011a. Ethnobiology for a Diverse World – Defining New Disciplinary Trajectories: Mixing Political Ecology with Ethnobiology. Journal of Ethnobiology 31:1-3
Nolan, J. M. 2007. Wild Harvest in the Heartland: Ethnobotany in Missouri’ s Little Dixie. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD.
Rolston, H. III. 1988. Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in the Natural World. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA.
Rozzi, R. 1999. The Reciprocal Links between Evolutionary-Ecological Sciences and Environmental Ethics. Bioscience 49:911-921.
Rozzi, R., Massardo, F., Anderson, C. B., Heidinger, K. & J. A. Silander, Jr. 2006. Ten Principles of Biocultural Conservationat the Southern Tip of the Americas: the Approach of the Omora Ethnobotanical Park. Ecology and Society 11(1): article 43.
Taylor, J. David. 2013. The Log from the Sea of Cortez: A Poem Series. Wings Press, San Antonio, TX.
Turner, N. J. & F. Berkes . 2006. Coming to Understanding: Developing Conservation through Incremental Learning in the Pacific Northwest. Human Ecology 34:495-513.
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