September 30, 2020
When one asks what traditional knowledge is, it is usually meant as a ‘functional’ term, and what it entails is assumed to be names and uses of the flora and fauna of a region, their status and distribution, etc. It’s the kind of hands on, in situ skills and know-how that an indigenous person is supposedly adept at. A shopping list, of some kind. These skills are something anybody may acquire, given the time and the opportunity to stay among indigenous communities with a desire to learn. Much of this knowledge is acquired through observations, even subconsciously as a child, and perfected while ‘on the job’ with peers or elders. Perhaps little of it is acquired in formal settings, and through formal instruction.
However, the characteristics of indigenous knowledge, as I understand and experience it to be, is that:
What then is our interest in traditional knowledge? Our appreciation of it? The intention to keep it alive so that it may be passed on and be useful to humanity? And how does one achieve that?
Of course the best way to sustain traditional knowledge is to keep peoples and their landscapes from getting fragmented, something easier said than done in today’s context. Multiple forces, both from within and without indigenous and traditional societies, are and will create conditions that are not conducive to our interest. Wherever it is possible for communities to hold on to their territories, it would be the best way to conserve and keep alive such knowledge. However, there is a paucity of such opportunities and our attempts restore these people-landscape binaries will be an uphill task: landscapes as well as knowledge, in the holistic sense, need restoration. This will, by necessity, be an in situ effort as both the core aspects (of traditional knowledge) are symbiotic, making little sense on their own.
And what of traditional peoples sans landscapes or fragmented landscapes? The bulk of traditional peoples are in such conditions and it would be best to put our energies in this area, and attempt a simultaneous restoration of both (as mentioned above). It is with this broad perspective of what traditional knowledge encompasses that we need to work towards its restoration.
Written by Madhu Ramnath, NTFP-EP India
[1] As Alvin Toffler remarked in the introduction to Order out of chaos (Prigogine and Stengers, 1984): “One of the most highly developed skills in contemporary Western civilization is dissection: the split-up of problems into their smallest possible components. We are good at it. So good, we often forget to put the pieces back together again.”
[2] This is contrary to the Genesis, Book of Moses, 2.19
[3] Unfortunately, the understanding of kinship is all but absent in the Western world; in most urban societies across the world, even if the terms are known, the bonds that meaningfully bind them are weak and weakening with migrations, education, etc. Even the paucity of terms for the ‘kind’ of uncle or aunt in English/Dutch is evidence of the unimportance of kinship in such societies.
Madhu Ramnath is the coordinator for NTFP-EP India. He has been immersed in the subject of barefoot ecology, wild forest foods in Asia and traditional cultivated plants. His other areas of interest include nutrition, health, indigenous land tenure, nurseries and reforestation. He has authored several books, including “Wood Smoke and Leaf Cups” and “Wild Tastes in Asia: Coming Home to the Forest for Food”.
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