Indigeneity and the Sacred

This book presents current research in the political ecology of indigenous revival and its role in nature conservation in critical areas in the Americas. An important contribution to evolving studies on conservation of sacred natural sites (SNS), the book elucidates the complexity of development scenarios within cultural landscapes related to the appropriation of religion, environmental change in indigenous territories, and new conservation management approaches. Indigeneity and the Sacred explores how these struggles for land, rights, and political power are embedded within physical landscapes, and how indigenous identity is reconstituted as globalizing forces simultaneously threaten and promote the notion of indigeneity.

This book presents current research in the political ecology of indigenous revival and its role in nature conservation in critical areas in the Americas. An important contribution to evolving studies on conservation of sacred natural sites (SNS), the book elucidates the complexity of development scenarios within cultural landscapes related to the appropriation of religion, environmental change in indigenous territories, and new conservation management approaches. Indigeneity and the Sacred explores how these struggles for land, rights, and political power are embedded within physical landscapes, and how indigenous identity is reconstituted as globalizing forces simultaneously threaten and promote the notion of indigeneity.

Dedication
List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes
Acknowledgements

Prologue: Whose Sacred Sites? Indigenous Political Use of Sacred Sites, Mythology, and Religion
Randall Borman

PART I: GEOGRAPHIES OF INDIGENOUS REVIVAL AND CONSERVATION

Introduction
Fausto Sarmiento and Sarah Hitchner

Chapter 1. Sacred Natural Sites in a Conservation Management and Policy Perspective
Bas Verschuuren, Robert Wild, and Gerard Verschoor

Chapter 2. Structural Changes in Latin American Spirituality: An Essay on the Geography of Religions
Axel Borsdorf

PART II: FRAMING SACRED SITES IN INDIGENOUS MINDSCAPES

Introduction to Part II: Framing Sacred Sites in Indigenous Mindscapes
Fausto Sarmiento and Sarah Hitchner

Chapter 3. El Buen Vivir and “The Good Life”: A South-North Binary Perspective on the Indigenous, the Sacred, and their Conservation
Esmeralda Guevara and Larry M. Frolich

Chapter 4. Sacred Mountains: Sources of Indigenous Revival and Sustenance
Edwin Bernbaum

Chapter 5. Frozen Mummies and the Archaeology of High Mountains in the Construction of Andean Identity
Constanza Ceruti

Chapter 6. Changing Images and Dimensions of Andean Indigenous Identities in Space and Time
Christoph Stadel

Chapter 7. National Park Service Approaches to Connecting Indigenous Cultural and Spiritual Values to Protected Places
David E. Ruppert and Charles W. Smythe

PART III: CASE STUDIES

Introduction to Part III: Case Studies
Fausto Sarmiento and Sarah Hitchner

Chapter 8. Collaborative Archaeology as a Tool for Preserving Sacred Sites in the Cherokee Heartland
Benjamin A. Steere

Chapter 9. Biocultural Sacred Sites in Mexico
Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz and Geraldine Patrick Encina

Chapter 10. New Dimensions in the Territorial Conservation Management in Ecuador: A Brief Political View of Sacred Sites in Ecuador
Xavier Viteri O.


Chapter 11. Traditional Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Sustainable Development in the Peruvian Amazon
Fernando Roca Alcazar

PART IV: CONCLUSION

Conclusion
Sarah Hitchner, Fausto Sarmiento, and John Schelhas

Bibliography
Index