Local Science Vs Global Science: Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge in International Development

While science has achieved a remarkable understanding of nature, affording humans an astonishing technological capability, it has led, through Euro-American global domination, to the muting of other cultural views and values, even threatening their continued existence. There is a growing realization that the diversity of knowledge systems demand respect, some refer to them in a conservation idiom as alternative information banks. The scientific perspective is only one. We now have many examples of the soundness of local science and practices, some previously considered “primitive” and in need of change, but this book goes beyond demonstrating the soundness of local science and arguing for the incorporation of others’ knowledge in development, to argue that we need to look quizzically at the foundations of science itself and further challenge its hegemony, not only over local communities in Africa, Asia, the Pacific or wherever, but also the global community. The issues are large and the challenges are exciting, as addressed in this book, in a range of ethnographic and institutional contexts.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements List of Contributors Chapter 1. Local Science vs. Global Science: an Overview Paul Sillitoe Chapter 2. Traditional Medical Knowledge and Twenty-first Century Healthcare: the Interface between Indigenous and Modern Science Gerard Bodeker Chapter 3. Local and Scientific Understandings of Forest Diversity on Seram, Eastern Indonesia Roy Ellen Chapter 4. ‘Indigenous’ and ‘Scientific’ Knowledge in Central Cape York Peninsula Benjamin R. Smith Chapter 5. On Knowing and Not Knowing: the Many Valuations of Piaroa Local Knowledge Serena Heckler Chapter 6. The Ashkui Project: Linking Western Science and Innu Environmental Knowledge in Creating a Sustainable Environment Trudy Sable with Geoff Howell, Dave Wilson, and Peter Penashue Chapter 7. Globalisation and the Construction of Western and Non-Western Knowledge Michael R. Dove, Daniel S. Smith, Marina T. Campos, Andrew S. Mathews, Anne Rademacher, Steve Rhee, and Laura M. Yoder Chapter 8. Science and Local Knowledge in Sri Lanka: Extension, Rubber and Farming Mariella Marzano Chapter 9. Creating Natural Knowledge: Agriculture, Science and Experiments Alberto Arce and Eleanor Fisher Chapter 10. Is Intellectual Property Protection a Good Idea? Charles Clift Chapter 11. Farmer Knowledge and Scientist Knowledge in Sustainable Agricultural Development: Ontology, Epistemology and Praxis David A. Cleveland and Daniela Soleri Chapter 12. Forgotten Futures: Scientific Models vs. Local Visions of Land Use Change Robert E. Rhoades and Virginia Nazarea Chapter 13. Counting on Local Knowledge Paul Sillitoe Index