SHADOW FORKS: A SMALL COMMUNITY'S RELATIONSHIP TO ECOLOGY AND REGULATION.

摘要

This dissertation is a study of the social ecology of a Northern California back country community of 150 people. Called Shadow Forks in this study, this hamlet located on the Shadow River in the Klamath National Forest is populated by Karok Indians, gold miners, loggers, retirees, young people influenced by the counterculture movement of the late 1960s, and employees of the U.S. Forest Service.; A participant-observer approach was employed in studying the role of conceptions and perspectives influenced by the surrounding forest ecology. A second related subject of study was the relationship of this community to the various agencies and special interest groups which periodically affect life on the River.; The analysis of this community attempted to place Shadow Forks in an historical, frontier-oriented tradition through a discussion of the area's history in relation to present-day life styles and values. The community is held to be representative of other small rural communities which are currently threatened by a series of technological, recreational, energy related, or simply bureaucratic intrusions.; This dissertation argues that Shadow Forks presents a model of developing ecological consciousness encouraged by the presence of a Native American land-oriented ethic which survives in certain exemplary individuals long after the greater part of culturally specific rituals and symbols have been lost. The tightening of restrictions on mining and the habituation of mining claims has at the same time resulted in an increased awareness among the local population of ecological constraints and of the politically precarious position of Forks as an anomalous small community existing on public land.; The relationships between the community and a series of governmental agencies and special interest groups as diverse as the Sierra Club, logging interests, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Commission, the Fish and Game Commission, and most frequently the U.S. Forest Service are examined. This is accomplished through a case study discussion of the adaptive characteristics of a variety of techniques developed by locals in maintaining a state of balance with these more highly organized, purposive groups. In this connection the coercive political power of such organizations is contrasted to the locally recognized qualities of authority based upon willing cooperation and shared goals.; Utilizing Edward T. Hall's concepts of high and low context systems, the contrasting social and ecological paradigm represented by local and agency perspectives are examined. These positions are demonstrated in a series of adaptive strategies including a movement toward the sacralization of personal relationships, and more abstractly, toward the assumption of sanctified qualities by certain orders of relationships, e.g., authentic, reciprocal, free and egalitarian.; This study is organized into three major sections, each of which is accompanied by a short, fictionalized account of life in Shadow Forks. These sections of this dissertation offer another order of information concerning the specific, day-to-day diversity of this riverine community. Short oral statements are presented throughout the text while a series of appendices offer more lengthy statements and recollections. One appendix offers a series of suggestions applicable to the problems raised by conflicting values, miscommunication, and in-service requirements which encourage distance between administrators and communities being administered. This appendicized material is included to provide a more textured presentation of this community with a pattern of culture which is at the same time familiar and remote to twentieth century America.