On Biocultural Diversity: Linking Language, Knowledge, and the Environment

It is estimated that of the more than 6,000 oral languages in use today (Grimes 1996), as many as 90 percent may be replaced by dominant languages by the end of the Twenty-first century (Krauss 1992; UNESCO 2003:4). The central thesis of the volume under review is that this predicted decline in linguistic diversity can only be prevented if the interdependence of linguistic, cultural, and biological diversity is recognised. This interdependence is reflected in the term BIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY. One aspect of culture and language which is under threat in many language communities is traditional ecological knowledge: the concepts and terminology which inform a community’s understanding of and interaction with the natural world. If a language ceases to be used in this domain, the associated knowledge is lost to the community, and when this knowledge is lost, so—often—is the way of life which it supported. With the loss of a way of life, it is a short step to the loss of other aspects of culture and ultimately to assimilation into the dominant language community, resulting in language death.