The danger of misunderstanding ‘culture’

Most conservationists working in Madagascar recognise that if conservation goals are to be achieved, conservation bodies have to work together with, rather than against, local people. One important aspect of this is taking local ‘culture’ into account. However, what is understood by ‘culture’ in such contexts tends to be extremely partial as ‘culture’ is almost always limited to taboos (fady). The article discusses the danger of such a narrow view suggesting that ‘culture’ is infinitely more complex and subtle than its immediately apparent surface. I argue that if conservationists’ commitment to take ‘culture’ seriously is genuine, it must also apply to those cultural phenomena that are in conflict with conservation programmes. This applies in particular to rural Malagasy people’s desire to have many descendants; a desire which is linked to their fundamental understanding of what represents a meaningful life