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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.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a typology of settings to bridge scientific and indigenous knowledge systems and to enhance governance of the environmental commons in contexts of change is presented, with a focus on indigenous and scientific knowledge.
Abstract: We offer a typology of settings to bridge scientific and indigenous knowledge systems and to enhance governance of the environmental commons in contexts of change. We contribute to a need for further clarity on how to incorporate diverse knowledge systems and in ways that contribute to planning, management, monitoring and assessment from local to global levels. We ask, what settings are discussed in the resource and environmental governance literature to support efforts to bridge indigenous and scientific knowledge systems? The objectives are: 1) to offer a typology that organizes various settings to bridge knowledge systems; and 2) to elaborate on how these settings function independently and in concert, using examples from a diverse literature in addition to field research experience. Our focus is on indigenous and scientific knowledge, but the typology offers lessons to bridge diverse knowledge systems more generally, and in ways that are sensitive to a moral, political and process-based approach. The typology includes specific methods and processes, brokering strategies, governance and institutional contexts, and the arena of epistemology. We describe each setting in the typology, and provide examples to reflect on the function and potential outcomes of different settings. Insights from our synthesis can inform policy and participatory action.

96 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that non-indigenous interpretations of indigenous knowledge have propelled us toward reified meanings, abstracted concepts, and an information-based taxonomy of place, and the result can be the diminishing and ossifying of a dynamic living practice and the failure to recognize expressions of indigeneity in contemporary forms.
Abstract: Over the last decade, indigenous knowledge has been widely touted by researchers and natural resource managers as a valuable contributor to natural resource management and biodiversity conservation. In Australia, the concept of indigenous knowledge has gained such rapid currency that it has tended toward an essentialized and universal truth rather than remaining a diverse range of highly localized and contested knowledge. In this paper, I undertake a critical analysis of some of the current issues around the interpretation and application of indigenous knowledge and its relationship with natural resource management in northern Australia. Through a focus on how indigenous knowledge operates at a range of scales, I argue that indigenous knowledge is not adapted to the scales and kinds of disturbances that contemporary society is exerting on natural systems. Rather than being realistic about the limitations of indigenous knowledge, I argue that nonindigenous interpretations of indigenous knowledge have propelled us toward reified meanings, abstracted concepts, and an information-based taxonomy of place. The result can be the diminishing and ossifying of a dynamic living practice and the failure to recognize expressions of indigeneity in contemporary forms.

95 citations

Book
23 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on increasing the earnings of poor people in poor countries from their innovation, knowledge, and creative skills through the use of intellectual property laws and other tools to protect traditional knowledge.
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."

95 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared scientific data with information from traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in the context of a threat to the sustainable harvesting of a nontimber forest product (NTFP) of livelihood importance in southern India.
Abstract: Many forest communities possess considerable knowledge of the natural resources they use. Such knowledge can potentially inform scientific approaches to management, either as a source of baseline data to fill information gaps that cannot otherwise be addressed or to provide alternative management approaches from which scientists and managers might learn. In general, however, little attention has been given to the relevance of quantitative forms of such knowledge for resource management. Much discussion has focused on the integration of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into management, but less attention has been paid to identifying specific areas where it is most useful and where it may be most problematic. We contrasted scientific data with information from TEK in the context of a threat to the sustainable harvesting of a nontimber forest product (NTFP) of livelihood importance in southern India, specifically, a fruit tree infected by mistletoe. The efficiency of deriving information from NTFP harvesters compared to scientific field studies was assessed. We further evaluated the potential of TEK to provide novel solutions to the management problem in question, the degree to which TEK could provide quantitative information, and the biases that might be associated with information derived from TEK. TEK complemented previously gathered ecological data by providing concordant and additional information, but also contradicted some results obtained using a scientific approach. TEK also gave a longer-term perspective with regard to NTFP harvesting patterns. Combining information on historical and current harvesting trends for the NTFP with official data suggests that current assessments of sustainability may be inaccurate and that the use of diverse information sources may provide an effective approach to assessing the status of harvested resources.

95 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that restoration ecologists should acknowledge the rigor of ecological knowledge gained through detailed observation of landscapes over lengthy time periods by nonscientists, and advocate a view of knowledge that permits multiple perspectives: local, indigenous, and scientific.
Abstract: This article examines environmental narratives for their potential to contribute to the restoration of ecosystem health in areas recently degraded by agricultural activities, including Australian rural landscapes. Environmental narratives encompass oral environmental histories and other anecdotal sources of knowledge and perceptions that are bounded by the narrator's experiences, observations, and attachment to place. They are analogous to indigenous knowledge. Environmental narratives can make a significant contribution to ecological restoration. We argue that restoration ecologists should acknowledge the rigor of ecological knowledge gained through detailed observation of landscapes over lengthy time periods by nonscientists. Accordingly, we advocate a view of knowledge that permits multiple perspectives: local, indigenous, and scientific. Ecological restoration in fragmented agricultural landscapes is as much a cultural as a biophysical process. It requires an understanding of and respect for cultural attributes of landscapes, including the beliefs, values, and perceptions people hold about their local environment, such as a sense of loss felt for particular landscape components, features, or functions. Recent work in Australia shows environmental narratives emerging as a practical means of integrating these biophysical and cultural aspects in ecological restoration.

95 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023468
2022966
2021533
2020645
2019629
2018616