The Resilient World

There are some important lessons here for community-based natural resource management. In particular, it raises the possibility that the cultural frames of reference of outside observers of CBNRM may be radically different from those of the community itself. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has been at this business for a while, but it does provide an interesting explanation as to the nature of the difference. It makes me want to go back and reread Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Amplify’d from jonfwilkins.blogspot.com

 

human cooperation may have emerged first in the context of spiteful punishment, rather than through altruistic or community-oriented enforcement of social norms. They suggest that third-party punishment arises only with the establishment of more complex societies. In particular, once a society exceeds a certain size, it becomes difficult to keep track of individual reputations. In such groups, collective-action problems require the existence of institutions that promote and reward third-party punishment. Read more at jonfwilkins.blogspot.com