Showing papers on "Traditional knowledge published in 1971"

Efforts for Educational Synthesis under Colonial Rule: Egypt and Tunisia

Abstract: THIS IS A STUDY of the impact of colonialism on indigenous efforts to develop new forms of education. The innovations are broadly viewed as a response to the challenge of modernity. The purpose of the study is to identify the conditions that affected the incidence, orientation and outcome of the efforts and to assess the influence of colonialism as an independent variable. Prior studies of educational adaptation under colonial rule have generally dealt with one or both of two types of institutional modification. In those cases where there has been a heritage of traditional schools, the focus has been on the problem of their adjustment to new knowledge and social functions. In the normal case where modern schools of a Western type have been transposed, the concern has been with their adaptation to local traditions, conditions and needs. Relatively little attention has been given to occasional efforts that have been made to establish new educational institutions standing between the traditional and Western models and including a synthesis of the old and the new, of the inherited and the imported. This study will concentrate on two such experiments in educational synthesis on what might be called the secondary level: Dar al-Ulum in Egypt before and during the British Protectorate, and Khalduniya in Tunisia under the French Protectorate. Synthesis will refer to a balance between the study of local language, religion and culture, which had been related to traditional knowledge or functions in society, and the study of modern subjects which conveyed new knowledge and were associated with new or adapted functions. The adaptation of institutions to the demands of new knowledge and social functions is basic to the process of modernization.1 In this process there is a natural tension between a desire for some degree of continuity in cultural identity and the need for change required by the challenge of modernity. One response may be to create new institutions that seek to reconcile these competing needs. It is contended that a comparative analysis of these two experiments can suggest hypotheses as to the incidence, involved personnel, and outcome of such efforts that can be tested in other colonial situations.

TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS GELENEKSEL TIP ve FİKRİ MÜLKİYET HAKLARI

Abstract: Ethnopharmacological information is an important component in both traditional health systems and for future medicine development. Biodiversity-rich countries, indigenous cultures with their knowledge of the use of biosources as medicines and companies that seek to discover new therapeutics through medicinal plants and traditional knowledge are on the way sharing common interests. The value of plants for medicines is more widely recognized and the “intellectual property rights” (IPR) connected with their use have been debated worldwide. “Convention on Biological Diversity” (CBD) which was signed in Rio in 1992, enforces protection of the rights of local people and local knowledge as well as conservation of the biological resources which forms the basic of all those health systems. Thus, conservation of local and indigenous peoples’ rights over their knowledge and resources are an important element of all contemporary conservation approaches.Generally, the intellectual property rights are protected under the patent systems in many countries, whereas access to such legal procedures are not easily available for most of the indigenous communities. Present and future perspectives on the subject are discussed in this article.