All the versions of this article: [English] [français]
– Collecting and Curating Biocultural Diversity: How, Why and for Whom?
– Original title in French: Collecter et mettre en collection la diversité bioculturelle: comment, pourquoi et pour qui?
Member of the Organising Committee for the Second Scientific Conference of the EthnoÉco Thematic Network (Réseau thématique Ethnoécologie et interactions humains-écosystèmes),
Paris, 22 & 23 September 2026
– Organising Committee:
Vincent Battesti, Nicolas Césard, Esther Katz, Richard Raymond, Matthieu Salpeteur et Hermine Xhauflair
Collections occupy a distinctive place in the history of ethnoecology, which both extends and reconfigures older traditions of research into the relationships between societies and their environments. Practices of collecting and building collections have continually raised scientific, political and ethical issues, from the natural history collections that accompanied the imperialist project initiated in Europe in the sixteenth century—which already documented local uses of the living world—to contemporary reflections on the need to reconsider the place of local populations, their knowledge and their values within museums and collections.
The incorporation of biocultural diversity into collections now presents numerous challenges. The composite nature of these ‘objects’—combining specimens, local knowledge and material culture—is in itself a conundrum for researchers, museum staff and collection managers. Building such collections also raises fundamental questions: why collect, by what methods, and with whom? How should these collections be documented and preserved? How can relationships between the various individuals, populations and institutions involved be rebalanced? Within what ethical, legal and regulatory frameworks should these practices be situated?
The second annual scientific meeting of the EthnoÉco Thematic Network will address these questions through a series of round-table discussions, exchanges of experience and visits to collections.
– Registration: https://framaforms.org/journees-sci...
– Programme:
