Documenting and Evaluating Traditional Conservation Practice Between the Ethnic Groups in Four Districts of Greater Mymensingh Region

Master's Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, grade: 01, Jahangirnagar University, language: English, abstract: Totem and taboo play a major role in biodiversity conservation. Totem usually means the animal or plant that is preserved or conserved by the members of a particular social group. Taboo means the prohibition of an act or the use of an object or word under pain of punishment. Originally it is a Polynesian word. Generally it is used as sacred or dangerous, unclean and forbidden meanings. The paper presents some conservation oriented totem and taboos from four districts of greater Mymensingh region of Bangladesh which are strictly involve in the life of ethnic communities. There are 11 species of animals and 6 species of plants have been recorded in this paper in the context of taboo. This paper presents also that 24 species of animals and 27 species of plants are related to the conservation oriented totem in the research area.