Showing papers on "Traditional knowledge published in 2004"

Combining Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Monitoring Populations for Co-Management

Abstract: Using a combination of traditional ecological knowledge and science to monitor populations can greatly assist co-management for sustainable customary wildlife harvests by indigenous peoples. Case studies from Canada and New Zealand emphasize that, although traditional monitoring methods may often be imprecise and qualitative, they are nevertheless valuable because they are based on observations over long time periods, incorporate large sample sizes, are inexpensive, invite the participation of harvesters as researchers, and sometimes incorporate subtle multivariate cross checks for environmental change. A few simple rules suggested by traditional knowledge may produce good management outcomes consistent with fuzzy logic thinking. Science can sometimes offer better tests of potential causes of population change by research on larger spatial scales, precise quantification, and evaluation of population change where no harvest occurs. However, science is expensive and may not always be trusted or welcomed by customary users of wildlife. Short scientific studies in which traditional monitoring methods are calibrated against population abundance could make it possible to mesh traditional ecological knowledge with scientific inferences of prey population dynamics. This paper analyzes the traditional monitoring techniques of catch per unit effort and body condition. Combining scientific and traditional monitoring methods can not only build partnership and community consensus, but also, and more importantly, allow indigenous wildlife users to critically evaluate scientific predictions on their own terms and test sustainability using their own forms of adaptive management.

Anticolonial Strategies for the Recovery and Maintenance of Indigenous Knowledge

Abstract: Indigenist thinkers have advocated for the recovery and promotion of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge (ik) systems as an important process in decolonizing Indigenous nations and their relationships with settler governments, whether those strategies are applied to political and legal systems, governance, health and wellness, education, or the environment.1 Recovering and maintaining Indigenous worldviews, philosophies, and ways of knowing and applying those teachings in a contemporary context represents a web of liberation strategies Indigenous Peoples can employ to disentangle themselves from the oppressive control of colonizing state governments. Combined with the political drive toward self-determination, these strategies mark resistance to cultural genocide, vitalize an agenda to rebuild strong and sustainable Indigenous national territories, and promote a just relationship with neighboring states based on the notions of peace and just coexistence embodied in Indigenous Knowledge and encoded in the original treaties.2 After centuries of benefiting from the promotion of European colonialism and the denial of Indigenous Knowledge as a legitimate knowledge system, the Western academy is now becoming interested in certain aspects of Indigenous Knowledge, particularly those aspects that directly relate to the Western conceptualizations of ecology and environment.3 Over the past fifteen years Traditional Ecological Knowledge (tek) has received much attention in United Nations–sanctioned forums concerned with biodiversity and sustainable development, and this has sparked the curiosity of scientists working in these areas.4 Those aspects of tek that are most similar to data generated by the scientific method are seen as a potential resource, holding answers to the environmental Anticolonial Strategies for the Recovery and Maintenance of Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous knowledges and development: a postcolonial caution

Abstract: As a result of the failure of formal top‐down development, there has recently been increased interest in the possibilities of drawing upon the indigenous knowledges of those in the communities involved, in an attempt to produce more effective development strategies. The concept of indigenous knowledge calls for the inclusion of local voices and priorities, and promises empowerment through ownership of the process. However, there has been little critical examination of the ways in which indigenous knowledges have been included in the development process. Drawing upon postcolonial theory, this article suggests that indigenous knowledges are often drawn into development by both theorists and development institutions in a very limited way, failing to engage with other ways of perceiving development, and thus missing the possibility of devising more challenging alternatives.

Understanding health and illness: research at the interface between science and indigenous knowledge

Abstract: Indigenous knowledge cannot be verified by scientific criteria nor can science be adequately assessed according to the tenets of indigenous knowledge. Each is built on distinctive philosophies, methodologies, and criteria. While there is considerable debate around their relative merits, contests about the validities of the two systems tend to serve as distractions from explorations of the interface, and the subsequent opportunities for creating new knowledge that reflects the dual persuasions. Maori researchers in Aotearoa/New Zealand have been able to apply the methods and values of both systems in order to reach more comprehensive understandings of health and illness. Two case studies are used to demonstrate how the incorporation of indigenous beliefs into research protocols and measurements can enhance health research and understandings of health and illness.

Coming Full Circle: Indigenous Knowledge, Environment, and Our Future

Abstract: Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as a construct of broader society is a relatively recent phenomenon, and the field that supports the acquisition of environmental knowledge from Aboriginal people has rapidly grown over the last two decades.' In part, TEK has emerged from the growing recognition that Indigenous people all over the world developed sustainable environmental knowledge and practices that can be used to address problems that face global society.2 David Suzuki, scientist and environmentalist, writes, "My experience with Aboriginal people convinced me... of the power and relevance of their knowledge and worldview in a time of imminent global ecocatastrophe."3 The international community has also recognized the important role Indigenous people and their knowledge can play in global society. In 1987 the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (or the Brundtland Report) recognized the important role of Indigenous people in sustainable development. Five years later, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) was signed, one of two legally binding agreements. The CBD reiterated the important role of Indigenous people and their knowledge for achieving sustainable environmental and resource management.4 Canada has responded to the challenges brought forth by the Convention on Biodiversity and the Brundtland Report and is incorporating TEK into various environmental decision-making processes. The field of TEK is well on its way to becoming firmly entrenched in the discourse on environmental management and decision making in Canada, particularly in the north where it is part of public policy.5 The practice and application of TEK research in Canada, and the specific research methods

Patterns of use and knowledge of wild edible plants in distinct ecological environments: a case study of a Mapuche community from northwestern Patagonia.

Abstract: The multiple use of distinct ecological environments in the search for wild resources has been practiced since ancestral times in aboriginal communities inhabiting northwestern Patagonia. This paper examines the actual use and knowledge of wild edible plants in a Mapuche community presently settled in one of the most arid areas of Patagonia, far from the temperate forests where their ancestors used to live. The difference between knowledge of and use of wild plants is analyzed emphasizing that these differences could contribute to the understanding of eroding processes believed to be occurring in the community. These objectives are studied quantitatively by utilizing ethnobotanical indices, partially derived from ecological theory. Our results indicate that the Paineo dwellers still utilize multiple ecological gathering environments and have thorough plant knowledge of both native and exotic species. The Andean forest, more than 50 km away from this community, is the environment from which the Paineo dwellers know the greatest total richness and the highest diversity of wild edible plants, followed by the Monte–Steppe species and lastly, those growing around their homes. The transmission of wild edible plant knowledge in the Paineo community diminishes with age, and the forest plants are the most vulnerable to loss. Our results have shown that the knowledge and consumption of wild edible plants follows a pattern according to ecological conditions of the gathering environments, as well as the cultural heritage of the Paineo people.

Forgetting the forest: Assessing medicinal plant erosion in Eastern Brazil

Abstract: Tropical landscapes represent storehouses of medicinal drug plants. It is widely held that these medicinal resources—real and potential—are threatened by a host of destructive forces. This paper examines these threats, especially the process of culture change and ethnobotanical erosion, in a rural Brazilian community. Employing a quantitative analysis of a sample plant pharmacopoeia, we investigate the relationship between medicinal plant knowledge and age, gender, and socio-economic standing. The results indicate that female gender, increasing age, illiteracy, and decreasing formal education are all positively correlated with level of medicinal plant knowledge. The process of modernization, particularly increasing access to formal education, appears to be incompatible with the retention of traditional domains of medical knowledge. Increasingly perceived as an irrelevant province of past generations, knowledge of the healing powers of tropical forests and fields is rapidly declining in this community.

The Romance of the Public Domain

Abstract: Since Hardin, law and economics scholars have launched a crusade to expose the evil of the commons - the evil, that is, of not propertizing. Progressive legal scholars have responded in kind, exposing the perils of propertization. With the rise of the Information Age, the flashpoint debates about property have moved from land to information. The public domain is now the cause celebre among progressive intellectual property and cyber-law scholars, who extol the public domain as necessary for sustaining innovation. But scholars obscure the distributional consequences of the commons. They presume a landscape where every person can reap the riches found in the commons. This is the romance of the commons - the belief that because a resource is open to all by force of law, it will indeed be equally exploited by all. But in practice, differing circumstances - including knowledge, wealth, power, access, and ability - render some better able than others to exploit a commons. We examine this romance through the lens of the global intellectual property regime in genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) transformed a global public domain in information by propertizing the information resources of the West - from entertainment to technological advances - but leaving in the commons the information resources of the rest of the world, such as genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Just as the trope of the romantic author has served to bolster the property rights claims of the powerful, so too does the romance of the public domain. Resourcefully, the romantic public domain trope steps in exactly where the romantic author falters. Where genius cannot justify the property claims of corporations (because the knowledge pre-exists individual claims of authorship), the public domain can. We review real-world strategies for resolving the romance of the commons. Just as recognition of the tragedy of the commons is the central justification for private property, recognizing the romance of the commons may justify forms of property uncommon in Western legal traditions.

As if Indigenous Knowledge and Communities Mattered: Transformative Education in First Nations Communities in Canada.

Abstract: This article describes a unique approach to Indigenous community development through community-based education partnerships between First Nations and postsecondary institutions in Canada. Using a “generative curriculum model,” Indigenous knowledge is brought into the process of teaching and learning by community Elders, and this is considered alongside Eurowestern theory, research, and practice. Evaluation research has documented the success of these partnerships in supporting an unprecedented high rate of postsecondary diploma completion among the First Nations community members. The use of a community of learners approach has also been shown to create conditions for community development by reinforcing the value of Indigenous knowledge, rekindling processes of intergenerational teaching and learning, increasing social cohesion, and securing community commitment to create programs of support for young First Nations children and families.

Knowledge translation and indigenous knowledge.

Abstract: Objective. We wanted to evaluate the interface between knowledge translation theory and Indigenous knowledge. Design. Literature review supplemented by expert opinion was carried out. Method. Thematic analysis to identify gaps and convergences between the two domains was done. Results. The theoretical and epistemological frameworks underlying Western scientific and Indigenous knowledge systems were shown to have fundamental differences. Conclusion. Knowledge translation methods for health sciences research need to be specifically developed and evaluated within the context of Aboriginal communities. Keywords: knowledge translation, indigenous knowledge, Aboriginal health

Integrating Indigenous Knowledge and GIS for Participatory Natural Resource Management: State‐of‐the‐Practice

Abstract: Experience has shown that development efforts that ignore indigenous knowledge (IK), local systems of knowledge, and the local environment generally fail to achieve their desired objectives. IK systems are becoming extinct because of rapidly changing natural and social environments. A Geographic Information System provides a framework to document and store indigenous knowledge meaningfully. Participation by the local community in development initiatives is critical for achieving sound natural resource management to utilize the full potential of IK systems. The main premise of this paper is to review the literature available on the approach of integrating indigenous knowledge with Geographic Information Systems as a way of promoting participatory natural resource management and giving opportunity to the local community to participate in development programs and decisionmaking both as contributors and as users of knowledge.

Poor People's Knowledge: Promoting Intellectual Property in Developing Countries

Abstract: How can we help poor people earn more from their knowledge rather than from their sweat and muscle alone? This book is about increasing the earnings of poor people in poor countries from their innovation, knowledge, and creative skills. Case studies look at the African music industry; traditional crafts and ways to prevent counterfeit crafts designs; the activities of fair trade organizations; biopiracy and the commercialization of ethnobotanical knowledge; the use of intellectual property laws and other tools to protect traditional knowledge. The contributors' motivation is sometimes to maintain the art and culture of poor people, but they recognize that except in a museum setting, no traditional skill can live on unless it has a viable market. Culture and commerce more often complement than conflict in the cases reviewed here. The book calls attention to the unwritten half of the World Trade Organization's Agreement on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS). TRIPS is about knowledge that industrial countries own, and which poor people buy. This book is about knowledge that poor people in poor countries generate and have to sell. It will be of interest to students and scholars of international trade and law, and to anyone with an interest in ways developing countries can find markets for cultural, intellectual, and traditional knowledge."

Indigenous Nutrition: Using Traditional Food Knowledge to Solve Contemporary Health Problems

Abstract: I grew up on the island of Cape Breton in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, an island called Unama'ki (land of fog) by the Mi'kmaq people indigenous to this region. I was taught to hunt and fish by my grandfather and father, gathered berries with my family, developed a taste for many wild foods, and enjoyed a wide assortment of produce from the family garden. These experiences expanded my enjoyment of food beyond the traditional fish, potato, and cabbage fare on the eastern coast of Canada. I was also exposed to the processed and "fast" foods then rising in cultural prominence. Following the tradition of leaving Cape Breton/Unama'ki because of the economic conditions there, I have lived in urban areas across Canada for much of my life. Over the ensuing years I have had a keen interest in the relationship between food and culture, nutrition and health. While learning to appreciate the global diversity of food traditions from my culturally diverse friends, I have been concurrently dismayed by the dramatic changes in dietary habits associated with consumer culture. These changes in dietary habits reflect, in my opinion, a deteriorating appreciation in our personal and social connections to food as well as underlying environmental and ecological problems. While studying science in a multidisciplinary university environment, I also pursued an interest in traditional Chinese medicine. From this emerged an effort to understand the relationship between science and traditional knowledge, particularly in the area of health and healing.' In traditional Chinese culture, as in Aboriginal culture, there is no clear distinction between food and medicine. In working as a healer I became in-

Introduction: Indigenous Knowledge Recovery Is Indigenous Empowerment

Abstract: Indigenous knowledge recovery is an anticolonial project.1 It is a project that gains its momentum from the anguish of the loss of what was and the determined hope for what will be. It springs from the disaster resulting from the centuries of colonialism’s efforts to methodically eradicate our ways of seeing, being, and interacting with the world. At the dawn of the twenty-first century the recovery of Indigenous knowledge is a conscious and systematic effort to revalue that which has been denigrated and revive that which has been destroyed. It is about regaining the ways of being that allowed our peoples to live a spiritually balanced, sustainable existence within our ancient homelands for thousands of years. In privileging writings about current work in Indigenous knowledge recovery, we are challenging the powerful institutions of colonization that have routinely dismissed alternative knowledges and ways of being as irrelevant to the modern world. Because Indigenous Peoples and other advocates of Indigenous knowledge have typically been denied access to the academic power structures that legitimize such knowledge, this special issue of American Indian Quarterly offers us a rare scholarly opportunity to validate it. In carving a new space for discussion about Indigenous knowledge, we are testifying to its importance. This special issue provides a forum for sharing the ways in which researchers and writers are engaging Indigenous knowledge in the academy and in communities, both on individual and collective levels. Rather than engaging this issue simply as an intellectual exploit, our goal is to discuss Indigenous knowledge in the broader context of Indigenous empowerment. All the contributors to this collection would agree that Indigenous knowledge is meaningless and actually harmful if its holders and practitioners are not Indigenous Knowledge Recovery Is Indigenous Empowerment

Intellectual Property, Biogenetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge

Abstract: Part 1: Knowledge, Property and Trade Sovereignty, Common Heritage and Property Rights Biotechnology and the Expanding Boundaries of Intellectual Property Protection The International Law of Biogenetic Resources and Intellectual Property Part 2: Conflicts and Controversies National Sovereignty, Benefit Sharing and the Patenting of Life Biopiracy Environmental Impacts Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition Beyond Intellectual property: Technological Protection Systems Life Science Innovation, Biotechnology Transfer and Developing Countries Part 3: Protecting Traditional Knowledge Traditional Knowledge and the Intellectual Property System Alternative Approaches to Traditional Knowledge Protection Part 4: Forums, Processes and Initiatives International Forums and Processes Government and Regional Initiatives Part 5: National Case Studies: India Kenya Lessons of the Case Studies

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in a High Altitude Society in Kumaun Himalaya, India

Abstract: Considerable effort has been made to study the resource use patterns of indigenous people with a view to understanding the traditional knowledge base of different ecosystems. This study has tried to explore the linkages between the subsistence economy and utilization and conservation of natural resources in the transhumant Bhotiya society of central Himalaya. These people are also aware that the biological diversity is a crucial factor in generating the natural resources on which they depend for their survival. Hence, they have domesticated a number of wild plants and crops, and have devised their own mechanisms for indigenous cattle production. These practices of conservation of their natural resources, has ensured their survival in extreme inhospitable environmental conditions of high altitudes. But, now their indigenous knowledge and practices are on the verge of extinction, due to the integration of their society with the main stream of other societies and market economy.

Indigenous Knowledge in the Decolonial Era

Abstract: world, yet it also privileges itself as the fiduciary of all knowledge with authority to authenticate or invalidate other knowledge (when it gets around to it). Colonial-power-knowledge conceptualizes intellectual colonization in Foucaultian terms, in this case with a Western knowledge fiduciary acting as guardian over its Indigenous knowledge ward (Foucault 1977; Feldman 1997). I suggest that the resulting contradiction embroiders some Western knowledge expertise with unreasonableness through its ignorance of other knowledge. Posing as the fiduciary of all knowledge exposes the limits of Western knowledge. Early twentieth-century poet Carl Sandburg poses the knowledge landscape as circles in the sand that help explain Western knowledge's conundrum. "The white man drew a circle in the sand," Sandburg begins immediately, "and told the red man 'This is what the Indian knows.'" Continuing, Sandburg describes the white man drawing a big circle around the smaller one: "This is what the white man knows." Then, as though responding to international development and Western knowledge experts, Sandburg shows the Indian sweeping an immense circle around both rings in the sand. "This is where the white and the red man know nothing" (Sandburg 1971, 30). Often it never seems to dawn on experts that there are limits to their knowledge. In the early twentieth century the philosophical syzygy of modernity included the spheres of Marxian ideology and liberal theory. Sandburg poses his view of colonial-power-knowledge amidst Western self-doubts after the horrors of attempted world colonization became known and

The Geographies of Difference: The Production of the East Side,West Side, and Central City School:

Abstract: Citywide constructs such as “West Side” or “South Side” are spatial codes that result from more than the informal conversations of city residents. This article shows how elementary school educators in one U.S. metropolitan school district participated in the production of a local knowledge of the East Side and West Side space and individual. It demonstrates how educators used these codes to name race and class, as well as to obscure the codes’ meanings. The article maps the convergence of institutional technologies and local educational knowledge whereby this knowledge resisted change and buttressed the citywide East Side–West Side relations and knowledge. The disjunctures in this knowledge base are also identified, as educators attempted to produce a knowledge of a third space that they termed “Central City.”

Exploring Indigenous Mental Health Practices: The Roles of Healers and Helpers in Promoting Well-Being in People of Color.

Abstract: The authors present an extensive literature review and discuss the cultural relevance of indigenous healing practices in promoting psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being in people of color. Suggestions are also presented for ways counselors might work with indigenous healing resources to promote the well-being of people of color.

Learning and Transformation in the Context of Hawaiian Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Abstract: Traditional ecological knowledge is a potentially powerful medium in which to teach environmental education and has the potential for influencing transformative learning. Although many educators agree that one of the focuses of environmental education is adult transformation, this has not been extensively explored in the context of Hawaiian environmental knowledge. Specifically, there has been very little work done in immersion courses where nonnative and part-native students learn from local and indigenous experts. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of transformative learning in this context. This article investigates student responses to the course curriculum and instructional methodologies of an undergraduate, introductory immersion course on Hawaiian environmental knowledge. The article also explores one student’s transformation through her participation in the course and describes the conditions that were met to catalyze that transformation.

Caribou Crossings and Cultural Meanings: Placing Traditional Knowledge and Archaeology in Context in an Inuit Landscape

Abstract: Meaning is conveyed by context. Northern landscapes associated with oral traditions provide rich contexts for understanding archaeological features and their spatial and temporal distribution. At the same time, traditional knowledge, including place names, is supported by the persistence of an integral archaeological landscape. The lower Kazan River, Nunavut Territory, Canada, preserves a record of land use for a hunting-trapping society in archaeological remains and traditional knowledge. The record shows that traditions of knowledge are manifest in the archaeological landscape. These traditions include commemoration of people and events in monuments, enduring practices (land skills) that are associated with a “traditional” time, and principles of spatial differentiation and orientation based on relations between people and caribou.

Copyrighting the Past

Abstract: Rights to intellectual property have become a major issue in ethnobotany and many other realms of research involving Indigenous communities. This paper examines intellectualpropertyrightsrelated issues in archaeology, including the relevance of such rights within the discipline, the forms these rights take, and the impacts of applying intellectual property protection in archaeology. It identifies the products of archaeological research and what they represent in a contemporary sociocultural context, examines ownership issues, assesses the level of protection of these products provided by existing legislation, and discusses the potential of current intellectual property protection mechanisms to augment cultural heritage protection for Indigenous communities.

Indigenous knowledge in environmental education processes: Perspectives on a growing research arena

Abstract: What, then, is the problem? Indigenous knowledge has not, or not entirely disappeared from the collective memory. It has not lost any parcel of its age old efficiency either. Besides, it should not be considered a problem that it coexists today with so called modern science (i.e. an imported, supposedly rational system of knowledge and know-how). The real problem is elsewhere: about the very form of this coexistence. (Hountondji, 2002, p. 24, emphasis original)

Farmers’ Rights: Intellectual Property Regimes and the Struggle over Seeds

Abstract: This article analyzes “farmers’ rights” as a strategy of resistance against the perceived inequities of intellectual property rights regimes for plant varieties. As commercial models of intellectual property have made their way into agriculture, farmers’ traditional seed-saving practices have been increasingly delegitimized. In response, farmers have adopted the language of farmers’ rights to demand greater material recognition of their contributions and better measures to protect their autonomy. This campaign has mixed implications. On one hand, farmers’rights are a unique form of right that may help transform conventions of intellectual property in ways that are better suited for registering and materially encouraging alternative forms of innovation, such as those offered by farming communities. On the other hand, farmers’ rights have proved enormously difficult to enact. And by situating farmers’rights alongside easily enacted commercial breeders’rights, the campaign risks further legitimizing the ineq...

“Indigenous knowledge” : Conceptions and misconceptions

Abstract: ‘Indigenous knowledge’ is a relatively recent buzz phrase that, amongst other things, constitutes part of a challenge to ‘western’ education. Apologists of indigenous knowledge not only maintain that its study has a profound effect on education and educational curricula but emphasise its significance in antiracist, antisexist and postcolonialist discourse, in general, and in terms of the ‘African Renaissance’, in particular. In this paper, I argue the following: (1) ‘indigenous knowledge’ involves at best an incomplete, partial or, at worst, a questionable understanding or conception of knowledge; (2) as a tool in antidiscrimination and anti-repression discourse (e.g. driving discussions around literacy, numeracy, poverty alleviation and development strategies in Africa), ‘indigenous knowledge’ is largely inappropriate. I show, further, that in the development of ‘knowledge’, following some necessary conceptual readjustments in our understanding of this term, there is considerably greater common ground than admitted by theorists. It is this acknowledgement, not lip service to a popular concept of debatable relevance, that has profound educational and ethical consequences.