Cultures of Habitat: Geoheritage Places and Landscapes

Cultural habitats are the relationships between traditional peoples and the plants, animals, and geological features of their ancestral landscapes. These relationships form the human dimension of geoheritage. However, research on cultural habitats and research on geoheritage have typically developed separately. This review brings these two frameworks together by drawing on four decades of ethnobotanical and ethnoecological studies, involving 24 research projects with Native American tribes and traditional communities in North America and the Caribbean. Using ethnographic methods, habitat mapping, and indices to measure cultural significance, the research documented how traditional communities use plants and define the extent of their cultural habitats. Analysis of six case studies shows that each cultural habitat is closely tied to a unique geological or landform feature. In all cases, the official heritage boundaries set by nomination processes are smaller than the areas traditional peoples recognize as their cultural habitats. This gap comes from differences between Western approaches to defining heritage and the ways indigenous and traditional communities understand their responsibilities to the land. The review calls for wider standards of evidence, collaborative approaches to setting boundaries, and co-stewardship to be included in geoheritage management policies.