Language Skills and Ethnobiological Knowledge in the Young and Educated Indigenous Melpa Speakers in Papua New Guinea

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60077344%3A_____%2F25%3A00636781" target="_blank" >RIV/60077344:_____/25:00636781 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/60076658:12310/25:43909910

Result on the web

<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02780771251325397" target="_blank" >https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02780771251325397</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02780771251325397" target="_blank" >10.1177/02780771251325397</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Language Skills and Ethnobiological Knowledge in the Young and Educated Indigenous Melpa Speakers in Papua New Guinea

Original language description

Indigenous populations are rapidly losing their languages and culture, including traditional knowledge of nature, passed down orally from generation to generation. Here we examine knowledge of bird and plant species among the young and educated cohort of the Melpa people of Papua New Guinea and seek to understand the main causes of the decline in this knowledge. We show that although the young, educated Melpa speakers remain fluent in their native language, they are losing their ethnobiological knowledge. We have uncovered the gaps in bird knowledge, including culturally important ones such as birds of paradise. Knowledge of traditionally used plant species is also limited, with a total of 117 species listed by 1,313 respondents. Nearly half of the plant uses listed by respondents concerned nonnative plant species. The identified drivers of the decline in Melpa language proficiency and ethnobiological knowledge include urbanization, the use of Neo-Melanesian pidgin and English at home, mixed-language marriages, and the decline in traditional skills caused by lifestyle changes. These socioeconomic trends are largely endogenous, reflecting the choices and aspirations of the Melpa people. Therefore, the ongoing loss of traditional knowledge is difficult to reverse. Our study shows that ethnobiological knowledge can be endangered even in large and vigorously used Indigenous languages, such as Melpa.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10620 - Other biological topics

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA18-23889S" target="_blank" >GA18-23889S: Ecological and geographical determinants of modern human diversification: a phylogenetic approach on global and local scales</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY

ISSN

0278-0771

e-ISSN

2162-4496

Volume of the periodical

45

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

129-139

UT code for WoS article

001505301100005

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105005849853