Traditional knowledge

About: Traditional knowledge is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10825 publications have been published within this topic receiving 202790 citations. The topic is also known as: indigenous knowledge & indigenous knowledge system.

Linking traditional knowledge and environmental practice in Ontario.

Abstract: Beginning in the late 1980s with the release of Our Common Future by the World Commission on Environment and Development, followed by the development of international accords such as the 1992 Conve...

Colonial Encounters and the Forging of New Knowledge and National Identities: Great Britain and India, 1760-1850

Abstract: In opposition both to the dominant vision of colonial science as an hegemonic European enterprise whose universalization can be conceived of in purely diffusionist terms, and to the more recent perception of it as a simple reordering of indigenous knowledge within the European canon, this essay seeks to show the complex reciprocity involved in the making of science within the colonial context. Based on the example of India during the first century of British colonial conquest, it examines the specificities of intercultural encounter in the subcontinent, the formalized institutions that were engendered, and the kinds of knowledge practices that emerged in the case of the geographical survey of India. The essay suggests that the knowledge created in this context is not just local in character, but participates wholly in the emergence of universal science, as well as of other institutions of modernity.

Scales of knowledge: North Sea fisheries governance, the local fisherman and the European scientist

Abstract: Recent European Union fisheries governance reforms have included the development of new regional fora designed to enable stakeholders and scientists to deliberate together about the nature of the fisheries crisis and its possible solutions. In this devolved context, fishing industry groups frequently argue, deploying local knowledge of the fishing grounds, that stocks are in better shape than many authorities estimate using the tools of universal science. Under EU fisheries governance reform, policymakers and stakeholders are forced to arbitrate between these different knowledge claims in new ways and in new, rescaled spaces. This adjudication between universal, expert knowledges and the locally-framed ‘insurgent knowledge’ of fishermen is a power-laden exercise. The rescaling of participatory processes appears to have had an effect upon the way, and at which scale, stakeholders frame their knowledge claims and how, through this reframing of knowledge, certain stakeholders attempt to lever greater influen...

Resilience at the border: traditional botanical knowledge among Macedonians and Albanians living in Gollobordo, Eastern Albania

Abstract: Background: Ethnobotany in South-Eastern Europe is gaining the interest of several scholars and stakeholders, since it is increasingly considered a key point for the re-evaluation of local bio-cultural heritage. The region of Gollobordo, located in Eastern Albania and bordering the Republic of Macedonia, is of particular interest for conducting ethnobiological studies, since it remained relatively isolated for the larger part of the 20 th Century and is traditionally inhabited by a majority of ethnic Macedonians and a minority of Albanians (nowadays both sharing the Muslim faith). Methods: An ethnobotanical survey focused on local food, medicinal, and veterinary plant uses was conducted with 58 participants using open and semi-structured interviews and via participant observation. Results: We recorded and identified 115 taxa of vascular plants, which are locally used for food, medicinal, and veterinary purposes (representing 268 total plant reports). The Macedonian Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) was greater than the Albanian TEK, especially in the herbal and ritual domains. This phenomenon may be linked to the long socio-cultural and linguistic isolation of this group during the time when the borders between Albania and the former Yugoslavia were completely closed. Moreover, the unusual current food utilisation of cooked potatoes leaves, still in use nowadays among Macedonians, could represent the side effect of an extreme adaptation that locals underwent over the past century when the introduction of the potato crop made new strategies available for establishing stable settlements around the highest pastures. Additionally, the difference in use of Helichrysum plicatum, which is popular in the local Macedonian folk medicine but absent among Albanians, confirms the particular significance of this taxon as it relates to the yellow colour of its flowers in South Slavic folklore. Conclusion: Botanical studies with an ethnographic approach are crucial for understanding patterns of use of plants within given cultures. Importantly, such studies can also allow for analysis of the dynamics of change in these TEK patterns over the time. The results of this study may be important as baseline data set to be used in rural development programs in Gollobordo, aimed at fostering community-based strategies of management of natural resources.