ABSTRACT
The earliest systematic studies of traditional ecological knowledge were carried out by anthropologists. As part of this endeavour, ecological knowledge was studied by ethnoecology, an approach that focuses on the conceptions of ecological relationships held by a people or a culture. Various kinds of indigenous environmental knowledge have come to be accepted and used by scientific experts in a number of areas. The story of Cree hunters provides insights into a culture "from the inside". Traditional knowledge may be considered at several levels of analysis, consistent with the definition of traditional ecological knowledge as a knowledge-practice-belief complex. According to Lewis, traditional ecological knowledge begins with local knowledge at the level of taxonomic systems and then proceeds to the understanding of processes or functional relationships. Thus, traditional knowledge provides lessons not in resource management but in dealing with human-environment relations. This chapter provides an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book.
