Indigenous Knowledge

Bringing together researchers from geographically, culturally, and linguistically diverse regions, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Research Methodologies offers practical guidance and lessons learned from research projects in and with Indigenous communities around the world. With an aim to examine issues of power, representation, participation, and accountability in studies involving Indigenous populations, the contributors reflect on their own experiences conducting collaborative research in distinct yet related fields. The book is anchored by specific themes: exploring decolonizing methodological paradigms, honoring Indigenous knowledge systems, and growing interdisciplinary collaboration toward Indigenous self-determination. This volume makes a significant contribution to Indigenous community as well as institutional scholarly and practical discussions by emphasizing guidance and questions from Indigenous scholars who are designing studies and conducting research that is moving the field of Indigenous research methodologies forward. Discussing challenges and ideas regarding research ethics, data co-ownership, data sovereignty, and dissemination strategies, this text is a vital resource for all students interested in the application of what can be gained from Indigenous research methods.

While there is talk of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, old and new challenges bedevil the world – climate change, nutrition, and health poverty being at the top of the list. In seeking solutions to these and other problems which afflict the modern era, it is worthwhile to look into our collective past, to the traditions and knowledges of our ancestors. Such knowledge continues to exist in many parts of the world, though now marginalized by homogenous, Eurocentric ontolology and epistemology. This book presents a compilation of reviews, case studies, and primary research attempting to locate the utility of traditional and Indigenous Knowledges in an increasingly complex world. It assembles chapter authors from across the world to tackle topics ranging from traditional knowledge-based innovations and commercialization, traditional medicine systems as practiced around the world, ethnoveterinary practices, and food innovation to traditional governance and leadership systems, among others. This book is an important resource for policymakers; scholars and researchers of cultural studies, leadership, governance, ethnobotany, anthropology, plant genetic resources and technology innovation; and readers interested in the history of knowledge and culture, as well as cultural activists and political scientists. Features: Unique combination of social science and anthropological aspects with natural science perspectives Includes summaries aimed at policymakers to immediately see what would be relevant to their work Combines case studies illuminating important lessons learned with reviews and primary data Multidisciplinary in the scope of the topics tackled and assemblage of contributors Global footprint with contributions from Africa, Europe, North America, Asia, and the West Indies David R. Katerere, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa Wendy Applequist, William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis, Missouri Oluwaseyi M. Aboyade, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa and Nutritica SA, The Innovation Hub, Pretoria, South Africa Chamunorwa Togo, The Innovation Hub, Pretoria, South Africa

Ladislaus M. Semali and Joe L. Kincheloe's edited book, What is Indigenous Knowledge?: Voices from the Academy not only exposes the fault lines of modernist grand narratives, but also illuminates, in a vivid and direct way, what it means to come to subjectivity in the margins. The international panel of contributors from both industrialized and developing countries, led by Semali and Kincheloe, injects a dramatic dynamic into the analysis of knowledge production and the rules of scholarship, opening new avenues for discussion in education, philosophy, cultural studies, as well as in other important fields.

Indigenous ways of understanding and interacting with the natural world are characterized as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), which derives from emphasizing relationships and connections among species. This book examines TEK and its strengths in relation to Western ecological knowledge and evolutionary philosophy. Pierotti takes a look at the scientific basis of this approach, focusing on different concepts of communities and connections among living entities, the importance of understanding the meaning of relatedness in both spiritual and biological creation, and a careful comparison with evolutionary ecology. The text examines the themes and principles informing this knowledge, and offers a look at the complexities of conducting research from an indigenous perspective.

This book presents seventeen of Posey's articles on the topics of ethnoentomology, indigenous knowledge, and intellectual property rights.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Working with Indigenous Knowledge: A guide for researchers

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) reviews cutting-edge research and links theory with practice to further our understanding of this important approach's contribution to natural resource management. It addresses IK's potential in solving issues such as coping with change, ensuring global food supply for a growing population, reversing environmental degradation and promoting sustainable practices. It is increasingly recognised that IK, which has featured centrally in resource management for millennia, should play a significant part in today's programmes that seek to increase land productivity and food security while ensuring environmental conservation. An invaluable resource for researchers and postgraduate students in environmental science and natural resources management, this book is also an informative read for development practitioners and undergraduates in agriculture, forestry, geography, anthropology and environmental studies.

Indigenous knowledge has become a catchphrase in global struggles for environmental justice. Yet indigenous knowledges are often viewed, incorrectly, as pure and primordial cultural artifacts. This collection draws from African and North American cases to argue that the forms of knowledge identified as “indigenous” resulted from strategies to control environmental resources during and after colonial encounters. At times indigenous knowledges represented a “middle ground” of intellectual exchanges between colonizers and colonized; elsewhere, indigenous knowledges were defined through conflict and struggle. The authors demonstrate how people claimed that their hybrid forms of knowledge were communal, religious, and traditional, as opposed to individualist, secular, and scientific, which they associated with European colonialism. Indigenous Knowledge and the Environment offers comparative and transnational insights that disturb romantic views of unchanging indigenous knowledges in harmony with the environment. The result is a book that informs and complicates how indigenous knowledges can and should relate to environmental policy-making. Contributors: David Bernstein, Derick Fay, Andrew H. Fisher, Karen Flint, David M. Gordon, Paul Kelton, Shepard Krech III, Joshua Reid, Parker Shipton, Lance van Sittert, Jacob Tropp, James L. A. Webb, Jr., Marsha Weisiger

This book explores the role of the social and natural sciences in supporting the development of indigenous knowledge systems. It looks at how indigenous knowledge systems can impact on the transformation of knowledge generating institutions such as scientific and higher education institutions on the one hand, and the policy domain on the other.