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.

Australian Indigenous students: addressing equity issues in assessment

Abstract: This article provides the background and context to the important issue of assessment and equity in relation to Indigenous students in Australia. Questions about the validity and fairness of assessment are raised and ways forward are suggested by attending to assessment questions in relation to equity and culture‐fair assessment. Patterns of under‐achievement by Indigenous students are reflected in national benchmark data and international testing programmes like the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Program for International Student Assessment. The argument developed views equity, in relation to assessment, as more of a sociocultural issue than a technical matter. It highlights how teachers need to distinguish the “funds of knowledge” that Indigenous students draw on and how teachers need to adopt culturally responsive pedagogy to open up the curriculum and assessment practice to allow for different ways of knowing and being.

Ethnobotany in the Nepal Himalaya

Abstract: Indigenous knowledge has become recognized worldwide not only because of its intrinsic value but also because it has a potential instrumental value to science and conservation. In Nepal, the indigenous knowledge of useful and medicinal plants has roots in the remote past. The present study reviews the indigenous knowledge and use of plant resources of the Nepal Himalayas along the altitudinal and longitudinal gradient. A total of 264 studies focusing on ethnobotany, ethnomedicine and diversity of medicinal and aromatic plants, carried out between 1979 and 2006 were consulted for the present analysis. In order to cross check and verify the data, seven districts of west Nepal were visited in four field campaigns. In contrast to an average of 21–28% ethnobotanically/ethnomedicinally important plants reported for Nepal, the present study found that up to about 55% of the flora of the study region had medicinal value. This indicates a vast amount of undocumented knowledge about important plant species that needs to be explored and documented. The richness of medicinal plants decreased with increasing altitude but the percentage of plants used as medicine steadily increased with increasing altitude. This was due to preferences given to herbal remedies in high altitude areas and a combination of having no alternative choices, poverty and trust in the effectiveness of folklore herbal remedies. Indigenous knowledge systems are culturally valued and scientifically important. Strengthening the wise use and conservation of indigenous knowledge of useful plants may benefit and improve the living standard of poor people.

Improving shifting cultivation in Southeast Asia by building on indigenous fallow management strategies

Abstract: Shifting cultivation continues as the economic mainstay of upland communities in many countries in Southeast Asia. However, the conditions that historically underpinned the sustainability of rotations with long fallows have largely vanished. The imperative to evolve more permanent forms of land use has been exacerbated by rapid population growth, gazettement of remnant wildlands into protected areas, and state policies to sedentarize agriculture and discourage the use of fallows and fire. There are many compelling examples where shifting cultivators have successfully managed local resources to solve local problems. Technical approaches to stabilizing and improving productivity of shifting cultivation systems have not been notably successful. Farmer rejection of researcher-driven solutions has led to greater recognition of farmer constraints. This experience underlined the need for participatory, on-farm research approaches to identify solutions. The challenge is to document and evaluate indigenous strategies for intensification of shifting cultivation through a process of research and development. This process involves identification of promising indigenous practices, characterization of the practices, validation of the utility of the practice for other communities, extrapolation to other locations, verification with key farmers, and wide-scale extension.

Introduction: climate change and indigenous peoples of the USA

Abstract: This special issue of Climatic Change, dedicated to the examination of impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples and their homelands, and proposed strategies of adaptation, constitutes a compelling and timely report on what is happening in Native homelands and communities. Indigenous peoples and marginalized populations are particularly exposed and sensitive to climate change impacts due to their resource-based livelihoods and the location of their homes in vulnerable environments.

Diversity and Traditional Knowledge Concerning Wild Food Species in a Locally Managed Forest in Nepal

Abstract: This study documents wild food species in a locally managed forest by the inhabitants of nine villages in the Dolakha district, Nepal. It presents data on their diversity, and traditional knowledge on plant use, propagation and local domestication collected through household and key informant interviews, forest transects inventories and herbaria verifications. Sixty-two wild food plants belonging to 36 families were recorded; most of them (80%) have multiple uses. Many of the food plants are herbaceous (24 species) and produce fruits for consumption (46%). Most of the food plants are consumed by the local communities as snacks, and are supplementary and nutritionally important especially prior to the harvest of staple foods. Elder women (>35 years) are the most knowledgeable group, being able to describe the use of 65% of all edibles as compared to only 23% described by young men (<35 years). Many villagers also possess knowledge on the modes of propagation for the food plants that may be used in the process of domestication. The local communities expressed a strong desire for the establishment of community enterprises based on the wild food resources for long-term income generation sources. To accomplish this, development of collective co-operative strategies based on assessments of the biology, size of harvestable population, sustainable harvesting techniques, and marketing value and demand of promising species would be required. Moreover domestication potential based on species identified in this paper and other species that local communities have knowledge on ought to be encouraged through incentive and policy interventions.