Biocultural homogenization entails interwoven losses of native biological and cultural diversity at local, regional, and global scales. It is a driver and a product of complex and pervasive losses of biological and cultural diversity; however, it is not yet widely recognized to its full extent. In this study, we show how the processes of biological and cultural homogenization are intricately interrelated. A guiding theme is the conceptual framework of the biocultural ethic and its “3Hs” model, which facilitates understanding how some life habits that are being globalized can lead to homogeneous habitats with detrimental consequences for many human and other-than-human co-inhabitants. Based on case studies in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas we examine how the 3Hs conceptual framework enables a visualization of the interrelations between the homogenization of habits and habitats and the consequences it has for the well-being or the displacement of human and other-than-human co-inhabitants.
Results/Conclusions
A first result has been the identification of feedback processes entailing interwoven losses of biological and cultural diversity. Then, we organize these feedback processes in a hierarchical sequence of increasing structural complexity. Analysis of these processes offers a theoretical framework for understanding the interrelations between the homogenization of habits and habitats and the consequences of biocultural homogenization for the lives of diverse human and other-than-human co-inhabitants. Co-inhabitants are subjects (not objects). They co-constitute their identities and share habitats that they co-structure through co-inhabitation relationships of complementarity and reciprocity. Habitats are the condition of possibility for the existence and well-being of the co-inhabitants. In this way, it can inform and provide insights for decision-making in environmental policies, development, and educational programs, in order to foster processes of biocultural conservation and avoid pressing social and environmental injustices conveyed by current processes of biocultural homogenization. Additionally, the notion of co-inhabitants provides an ethical justification to oppose biocultural homogenization and to demand biocultural conservation in terms of socio-environmental justice.