Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Towards a Holistic Inclusive Conservation

Although there has been, in recent times, a widespread interest in preservation and promotion of Indigenous Heritage or Knowledge Systems from a variety of disciplines and sectors, from across the globe – the design principles or modalities of a holistic conservation remains largely un-explored. This book explores this lacunae and proposes the concept of Ecosemiotic Community Museuology (ECM), and a road map for it, through theory and practice. Based on the trajectories of conservation – natural, cultural and museological – down time, and indigenous epistemological premises brought forth from previous research, the treatise proposes the concept of ECM as a paradigm for successful community-based con-servation of indigenous knowledge systems or indigenous biocultural heritage in its holistic wholeness. While taking into cognizance the issues of interfacing – namely, cross-cultural knowledge integration, Information and Communication Techno-logies (ICT) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), the book attempts to add value to its basic ecosemiotic museological proposition, and strengthen its case, through presentation of, and comments on, a diverse range of secondary case-studies of ongoing conservational initiatives from across the globe that highlight the ingredients of success as well as non-performance of such efforts. The ultimate goal of the historical surveys, intellectual exercises and the case studies in this book are to capture the nuances that can help decolonize not just `museology’ or `conservation’ but `development’ and `sustainability’ itself. And, hopefully, help make advances towards a decentralised museological governance for the invaluable indigenous biocultural heritage that still lies strewn across the globe, in various stages of decimation. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Table of Contents:
Part I: Introduction 1. Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Sustainable Development: The Search for Alternative Paradigms 2. Disappearing Ecosystems, Land, People and Languages Part II: Historical Contextualization 3. Nature Conservation: Beginnings, History, Trends 4. Cultural Heritage Conservation: From Objects to Landscapes 5. Museums: An Evolving Notion Part III: Towards an Alternative Conservation/Development Paradigm 6. Revisiting Indigenous Epistemology 7. Ecosemiotic Community Museology 8. ECM: From Definition to a Road Map Part IV: Interfacing in a Globalizing World 9. Cross-cultural Knowledge Integration in a Globalizing World 10. The Role of ICTs in Conservation of Indigenous Heritage 11. Introducing Issues around Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights Part V: Strengthening the Case: Case Studies and Conclusions 12. Case Studies and Conclusions

About the Author :
Satarupa Dutta Majumder has a PhD in anthropology with a specialization in Indigenous Knowledge Systems from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. She had her initial training in Earth Sciences, and worked in USAID environmental projects, before veering into interdisciplinary sus-tainability issues as also indigenous biocultural heritage, engaging with the Crafts Council movement in India and the Asia-Pacific. She has been a Nehru Trust Fellow, a Charles Wallace Fellow as well as a Gulbenkian Scholar studying the various Indian collections in museums across UK and Europe.