野象的迷思:野象谷人—象冲突的社会建构分析

The Myth of Wild Elephants: A Social Constructive Analysis of Elephant-human Conflicts in Wild Elephants Valley

在野生动物旅游活动中,人与动物之间的冲突一直受到关注。而现在占主导地位的科学主义研究范式并不能够有效缓解这种冲突,反而强调了人与动物的二元对立。社会建构论被认为可以超越这种对立,在其视野下,科学知识是围绕社会事实所建构的多种知识中的一种。该文针对西双版纳野象谷出现的管理上的矛盾现象和各种利益相关者眼中出现的矛盾的大象形象,利用社会建构论对其进行了分析。发现游客、员工和周边社区对大象的知识的建构来源于他们日常生活经验而非科学,甚至与科学知识相悖。游客将野象建构为稀少、可爱和吉祥,期待野象出现;员工认识到野象的可怕,不希望野象在景区出现;社区居民虽认识到野象的危险,却不认为其可怕,对野象的出现习以为常。要理解人与象的冲突必须理解不同人建构的关于象的知识,而不能仅仅关注科学对象的知识建构。

Current studies on wildlife tourism focus on two areas ： 1 ） the negative biological effects of tourism activities on wildlife, and 2） the factors influencing tourist＇ s satisfaction. Natural scientific knowledge is dominant in both areas, and such knowledge is based on the dualism between human and animal. Therefore, the praxis knowledge is more important than the scientific knowledge to understand human behavior. Social constructivism is believed to be the paradigm that is beyond the binary opposition between human and nature. From such perspective, knowledge is constructed under unique historical and cultural contexts. Unlike scientific knowledge, the praxis knowledge that determines human behavior is not reflective. This research takes a social constructive angle to analyze the different knowledge of wild elephants from distinct groups of people, and examine how these knowledge lead to human - elephant conflicts in wild life tourism in Wild Elephant Valley, Yunnan Province, China. The findings are summarized as follows. 1） In tourists＇ construct, elephants are lovely animals. They attempt to get closer to wild elephants for a better photo-shot. Yet, according to scientific knowledge, the wild elephant is dangerous. The conflict between the two constructs of knowledge may induce potential threats to tourists＇ safety. 2） In staff＇s construct, wild elephants are scary according to their previous experiences that wild elephants hurt people, and damaged houses and trees. The appearance of wild elephants signals danger and emergency. 3） In local residents＇ construct, wild elephants are common animals that exist in their daily life. They are not scary or lovely. This study finds that people＇ s knowledge of wild elephants based on their experiences and that resulted from general scientific knowledge are different, even conflict with each other. The existing wild life management paradigm is dominated by the scientific knowledge. It, to a large degree, leads to the separation of the human being and animals and neglects the differences between knowledge from personal experiences and scientific knowledge. This management paradigm not only negatively affects management effectiveness, but also discourages using wildlife tourism as an approach to bonding human and nature together. Social constructivism gets beyond the binary opposition between human and nature and extends human＇ s cognitions and accordingly actions toward wildlife. This study suggests using the integration of scientific knowledge and knowledge based on personal experiences in wildlife tourism development and management. People＇ s emotional and behavioral associations with nature lead to the harmony between human beings and nature, and furthermore, the sustainable development of wildlife tourism.