2/24/24, 5:53 PM Indigenous Knowledge - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

Indigenous Knowledge
“Indigenous knowledge (IK), which is also known as
traditional knowledge, refers to the unique knowledge
restricted to a distinct group of people, culture or society”
(Elango et al., 2020).
From: Indigenous People and Nature, 2022

Related terms:

Ecosystem Service, Elderly (Age Groups), Canada, Decision Making,

Sustainable Development, Resources Management, Communities, Wellbeing,

Traditional knowledge, Influencer

Indigenous Knowledge
Jayalaxshmi Mistry, ... Sean Mendonca, in
International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition),
2020

Abstract
Indigenous knowledge is the vehicle through which the principles of
Indigenous worldviews, beliefs, traditions, practices, and institutions are
transmitted and put into practice. It is characteristically local in scale,
transmitted orally, collectively owned, holistic in perspective, and
adaptive in nature. Although it is now recognized as important for
maintaining Indigenous culture and rights, and for informing
environmental management and governance worldwide, it still fails to be
routinely adopted in practical and policy interventions, partly due to
epistemological differences between Indigenous and scientific ways of
knowing, partly due to the political and the power differentials between
different actors and their knowledge, and partly due to the limited
engagement of decolonizing methodologies that could reveal new ways of
working and alternative ways of thinking about issues. There is increasing
evidence from around the world that Indigenous lands protect the natural
environment. This recognition is in the context of continued widespread
loss of Indigenous knowledge. Community-owned solutions founded on
Indigenous knowledge have the potential to renew and strengthen
tradition in the present day by creating dynamic expressions of

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indigeneity that seek to highlight the agency and autonomy of Indigenous

people and the value of Indigenous knowledge.

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081022955108303

Indigenous knowledge management in

Botswana using ICT applications
Priti Jain, in
Concepts and Advances in Information Knowledge Management,
2014

Benefits of indigenous knowledge and

indigenous knowledge systems
IK affects the well-being of the majority of people in developing
countries. Some 80 per cent of the world’s population depend on IK for
medicinal needs, and at least 50 per cent rely on IK for their food supplies.
Because it is mostly stored in people’s minds and passed on through
generations by word of mouth rather than in written form, it is
susceptible to rapid change. IK is central to the culture and history of any
local community (McNulty, 2013). The major IK benefits can be
summarized as follows (Chiwanza, 2013; Greyling, 2008; Jain, 2008):

■ IK contributes to economic development; this is evidenced by the

explosion of herbal products onto the global market. The herbal
products market, based on IK, is expected to reach US$5 trillion by
2020.

■ IK identifies cost-effective and sustainable mechanisms for poverty

alleviation that are locally manageable and meaningful.

■ IK is readily available at little or no cost.

■ Proper documentation of IK produces a written cultural heritage that
can be passed on from generation to generation.

■ Systematic documentation exposes indigenous communities to the

risk of losing their intellectual property rights through piracy and
commercial exploitation.

■ In the endeavour to manage IK some of the lost African traditions and

information will be traced.

■ IK helps communities cope with periodic food shortages by utilizing

the traditional know-how of preserving food, thus revitalizing
agriculture and increasing food security.

■ Indigenous people can provide valuable input in the local

environment for the efficient use and management of local resources.

■ IK is vital for ecologically sensitive socio-economic activities.

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■ IK can contribute to sustainable local and national development.

■ Through IK, African cultures are getting known to the global society.

■ IK supports the well-being of the majority of people in developing

countries.

■ IK is a problem-solving mechanism for indigenous people.

■ IK will facilitate sustainable development.
After presenting the major benefits of IK, the next section presents the
role of ICTs in advancing the IK agenda.

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9781843347545500099

Indigenous Knowledges
J. Mistry, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009

Indigenous knowledge is defined as knowledge which is spatially and/or

culturally context specific, collective, holistic, and adaptive. Although it
was previously largely ignored in the fields of development and
conservation, indigenous knowledge is currently living a revival and its
incorporation into development projects is seen as essential. However,
there are many issues surrounding the recording of indigenous
knowledge and its transference to other localities and contexts. There are
debates on the extent to which indigenous knowledge is useful and to
whom, outside the situation within which it was constructed. Although it
is widely recognized that many lessons could be learnt from indigenous
knowledge systems, there is little protection for indigenous knowledge
within international law and as such it is vulnerable to abuse and
disownment.

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080449104001012

Indigenous technologies: knowledge and

practices for sustainable development
Abubakari Zarouk Imoro, ... Ziblim Abukari Imoro, in
Indigenous People and Nature, 2022

Abstract
Indigenous knowledge and practices have many benefits to mankind and
the environment. In spite of this, indigenous knowledge is being replaced
with foreign ones. This chapter aims to illuminate the importance of
indigenous knowledge and practices in achieving sustainable
development. To achieve this, a systematic review was conducted to

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collate and discuss various applications of indigenous knowledge and

practices for human development. Research studies included in the
systematic review were from reputable databases such as Google Scholar,
PubMed, Science Direct, and Web of Science. A total of 1470 articles were
downloaded, but only 51 of them were in accordance with the Preferred
Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis framework.
Our analysis showed that indigenous knowledge had the potential to
substantially contribute to the sustainable development of
underprivileged societies. The integration of indigenous knowledge and
practices in development plans, policies, and programs is recommended
for a sustainable world.

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323916035000130

The Rise of STEM Education

Sameer Honward, in
International Encyclopedia of Education(Fourth Edition), 2023

Why is indigenous knowledge important to the

educational system
Indigenous knowledge (IK) can be defined as the process through which
the natives of an area have built a relationship with their natural
environment (Semali and Kincheloe, 1999). Thus, indigenous knowledge
is developed over time and tied to a certain community. The community
can be urban, rural, nomadic, or tribal (IIRR, 1996). Indigenous knowledge
(IK) is dynamic, as each generation chooses to adapt the knowledge to suit
their needs and values (Agrawal, 2005). But indigenous knowledge is
unique to the place and thus is tied to the context. The IK system is often
tied to the sustainable livelihood of the people. Generally, the system
supports environmental sustainability because it represents generations
of observations, analysis, and experimentation. IK provides a powerful
problem-solving mechanism for local communities (Tella, 2007).

Understanding IK in traditional communities is fundamental to the design

of any learning environment in the Kumaon region of the Himalayas (IIRR,
1996). Learning environments have to take into consideration several
aspects of community. These include the community of the classroom,
the school, and the connections between the school and the larger
community, including the home. The importance of out-of-school
learning becomes clear when one examines the relatively small amount
of time spent in school compared to other settings. Activities in homes,
community centers, and after-school clubs can have important effects on
students’ academic achievement (Bell et al., 2006). In the Kumaon region,
learning also takes place when youth work on family farms, take cattle

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out for grazing and do landscape related work. Thus the effective
instruction begins with taking into account what learners bring to the
setting; this includes cultural practices and beliefs as well as knowledge
of academic content. There are many studies that have shown that what
people learn and how people learn is context-dependent (Mertl et al.,
2007). Therefore, a learning environment that takes into consideration
the context should help learners link ideas from ecology and formal
science to their own lives (Burford et al., 2005). Finally, an educational
initiative on sustainability that embraces IK would help learners negotiate
different worldviews and value systems about development and
livelihood (Palmer, 1998).

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128186305130763

Children Learn by Observing and

Contributing to Family and Community
Endeavors
Rubén Flores, ... Angélica López, in
Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 2015

2 Indigenous Knowledge Systems and LOPI

The role of past experience in shaping those social practices related to
processes of LOPI can be better understood by developing a narrative
about their historical continuity across generations in Indigenous
Knowledge Systems. Rogoff, Paradise, Arauz, Correa-Chávez, and Angelillo
(2003), Rogoff et al. (2007), Rogoff, Alcalá, et al. (2014), Rogoff, Najafi, and
Mejía-Arauz (2014), and López, Najafi, Rogoff, and Mejía-Arauz (2012)
define LOPI (formerly known as intent community participation) as a form
of learning that takes place with initiative and access to abundant
community activities alongside more experienced and supportive peers
and adults. Such a learning tradition appears to be especially common in
Indigenous-heritage and Mexican-heritage communities where formal
schooling has not been historically prevalent. LOPI activities tend not to be
a collection of separate, step-by-step behaviors, as in more formalized
schooling instruction models (Rogoff, Alcalá, et al., 2014; Rogoff, Najafi, et
al., 2014; Rogoff et al., 2003), but organic, coordinated practices, including
assessments, that encourage children's contributions during mutual
endeavors while maintaining a high degree of acceptance of children's
efforts. Through these collective practices, “… children participate in the
same activities of the everyday life of the community as do adults,
contributing in real ways as they learn about their shared economic and
social reality” (Paradise & Rogoff, 2009, p. 106). LOPI represents a
constellation of social features in which specific practices relate to each

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other and cannot be isolated without destroying the coherence of culture

(Rogoff, Najafi, & Mejía-Arauz, 2012). Without adhering to romantic
perceptions of cultures as coherent wholes (Rosaldo, 1988), we do
maintain that cultural processes “hang together” in patterned
constellations that endure, change and are innovated across history
(Rogoff, Pérez González, Chavajay Quiacaín, & Chavajay Quiacaín, 2011).

Indigenous knowledge includes a broad array of knowings that are often

particular to local communities and rooted in history yet which
encompass a wide range of specific practices, relationships, and cognitive
understandings. Such knowledge(s) can be as broad and abstract as
learning what it means to be a member of a community through the
notion of respect or by participating in el trueque (bartering) alongside
neighboring communities, or as specific as learning how to count, seriate,
or to predict the weather. Knowings within Indigenous knowledge also
encompass larger and broader understandings about the world and how
to survive in it (Barnhardt & Kawagley, 2005). Battiste (2002) defines
Indigenous knowledge as “… an adaptable, dynamic system, based on
skills, abilities, and problem-solving techniques that change over time
depending on environmental conditions … (p. 11).” Battiste's definition of
Indigenous knowledge not only includes an abundance of skill sets, but
also a larger, organic breadth of “competency” (Barnhardt & Kawagley,
2005) that includes both ways of knowing and ways of being in the world,
such as being acomedida/o, a concept studied by Angélica López and
colleagues, and defined as:

… attentive helping without being asked. This cultural value system may
encourage children's voluntary, spontaneous assistance to others in family
and community work [that appears to be widespread in Indigenous
communities of the Americas]…

López, Ruvalcaba, and Rogoff (2015, p. 76).

Indigenous contemporary practices, like being acomedida/o, as described
above, are acquired as life-long processes and as a responsibility that
model competent and respectful behavior in community life (Battiste,
2002).

Within these knowledge structures of Indigenous-heritage communities,

learning (aprender in Spanish) literally means “to apprehend” or “to
catch” and is an active form of comprehension. Indigenous contemporary
community practices like the trueque, the cargo, or the tequio (all forms of
community-wide collaborations), respectful behavior, and being
acomedida/o are acquired through participation, often with minimal
intervention and direct instruction. They are, in other words, a type of
learning that takes place by “seeing and doing” (Battiste, 2002).

LOPI, or “side-by-side” learning (Paradise & Rogoff, 2009), seems to be

more prevalent in societies in which children are integrated in the range
of everyday adult community life (Peele-Eady, 2011; Rogoff, Alcalá, et al.,

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2014; Rogoff et al., 2007, 2003; Rogoff, Najafi, et al., 2014). While aspects
of LOPI have been observed in various contexts (Rogoff et al., 2003, 2007),
especially in Indigenous communities around the world (Paradise &
Rogoff, 2009), these should be recognized as “indicative and not
definitive” of the way Indigenous-heritage people organize learning
(Barnhardt & Kawagley, 2005, p. 10). Indigenous-heritage communities
can organize learning in multiple ways. For example, Chavajay (2006)
found that Maya mothers in Guatemala with more years of formal
schooling used more school-like ways of interacting with their children,
such as asking children more recall questions and offering more verbal
explanations of activities being carried out. Such school-like practices can
also coexist with LOPI in the same community.

However, the research also shows that observation, listening-in, and

participation with initiative are important in first-hand learning through
LOPI (Rogoff et al., 2003). Children's observations of adult activities have
often been characterized as keen, long, and often involving intense
concentration, qualities that are thought to include active cognition,
social, and emotional participation (López, Correa-Chávez, Rogoff, &
Gutiérrez, 2010). Children are usually not segregated into children's
activities or children's spaces and are expected to take initiative and
responsibility in their participation in community life (Bolin, 2006; Rogoff
et al., 2003).

LOPI has been observed to be common in a number of contemporary

American Indigenous communities, especially in families with limited
years of formal schooling (Bolin, 2006; Chavajay, 2006; Chavajay & Rogoff,
2002; Correa-Chávez & Rogoff, 2009; Gaskins, 2000; Paradise & de Haan,
2013; Urrieta, 2013). Although some learning through LOPI exists in
everyday life in all societies, acquired and expected knowings in
Indigenous communities form part of the common funds of knowledge
(Moll et al., 1992) and cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) that Latina/o
Indigenous children bring to the context of the U.S. schools. Lamentably,
the organization of teaching and learning in schools generally does not
acknowledge such Indigenous saberes (knowings), nor does it recognize
the teaching and learning practices that are most familiar to Indigenous
students, their families, and communities (Brayboy & Maughan, 2009).

Paradise (1994) with Mazahua children in Mexico illustrates important

aspects of the learning practices of Indigenous family and community-
based learning. Paradise and de Haan (2009) found that in the Mazahua
adult–child and child–child interactions they observed at a local market
in Mexico City, “… adults do not explicitly organize learning activities or
attempt to teach their children in the Western sense; it is generally
assumed that children are capable of taking initiative and of gradually
learning by themselves to take on adult roles” (p. 197). Although keen
observation and pitching in as forms of participation might be interpreted

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as an unorganized and laissez-faire way of learning from a formal

schooling perspective, to the Mazahua mothers observed, it was a
valuable form of tacit collaboration in which learning occurred through
daily interaction (Paradise, 1994). Nonverbal behavior and judicious use
of speech were also observed while teaching and learning activities
occurred in other Indigenous communities (Lancy, 2008). Similar
approaches to teaching and learning have been observed in other
Indigenous communities of the Americas, including those located in the
Andes of Peru (Bolin, 2006) and in the Western United States (Brayboy &
Maughan, 2009). Martínez Pérez (unpublished manuscript, 2011) has
suggested based on ongoing work in Chiapas, for example, that children
contribute to their community by participating, listening, and observing.
Their contribution is made merely by being there and learning the
necessary cultural signs that assure the survival of the community.

LOPI and Indigenous learning pedagogies are a broad base for organizing
learning. According to Battiste (2002), “Indigenous pedagogy values a
person's ability to learn independently by observing, listening,
participating with a minimum of intervention and instruction” (p. 11).
Indigenous pedagogy and the basic form of LOPI are dynamic and
experiential, and view Indigenous knowledges and competencies as living
processes to be absorbed and understood by community members
(Battiste, 2002; Brayboy & Maughan, 2009). In contrast to behaviorist
learning models, these teaching and learning pedagogies are broader in
scope, since the general flexibility of these approaches allow every child
to explore his/her own unique capacities, learning styles, pace of learning,
and knowledge bases (Battiste, 2002) in the process of acquiring family
and community knowing(s). By contrast, in Western-style schooling age
gradation has become connected to curricula often thought to be
developmentally appropriate according to age and grade levels. Students
are often restricted in their access to more advanced curricula, or older
peers, unless they can show competency in the different gradations.
Emphasis is often placed on the steps of the process rather than on the
comprehensive outcomes of the process.

But where did the emphasis on collective collaboration come from? Below,
we have addressed the role of cuatequitl in Aztec community shared work,
the history of the cofradía system in Mesoamerica, and the emphasis on
reciprocity in the compadrazco system. Our analysis is intended to be a
sketch for nonhistorians, based on what we know of the history of
Mexico's regions. We are guided by sensitivity to interdisciplinary and
intercultural subjectivity, recognizing that openness in our approach had
to be a fundamental axiom of our inquiry. We feel it important to identify
the institutional structures in which people operated, whether those were
rural or urban, metropolitan or provincial, and informal rather than

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formal. And our temporal focus includes all epochs, including recent years
and distant moments in the past.

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Agriculture, Traditional
Miguel A. Altieri, in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity (Second Edition),
2001

Knowledge of the Environment

Indigenous knowledge about the physical environment is often very
detailed. Many farmers have developed traditional calendars to control
the scheduling of agricultural activities, and many sow according to the
phase of the moon, believing that there are lunar phases of rainfall. They
also cope with climatic seasonality by utilizing weather indicators based
on the phenologies of local vegetation.

Soil types, degrees of soil fertility, and land-use categories are also
discriminated in detail. Soil types are commonly distinguished by color,
texture, and sometimes taste. Shifting cultivators usually classify their
soils based on vegetation cover. In general, peasants identify soil types
based on the nature of the peasant's relationship to the land (Williams
and Ortiz-Solario, 1981). Aztec soil classification systems were very
complex, recognizing more than two dozen soil types identified by origin,
color, texture, smell, consistency, and organic content. These soils were
also ranked according to agricultural potential, which was used in both
land-value evaluations and rural census. Today, Andean peasants in
Coporaque, Peru, recognize four main soil classes, where each class has
specific characteristics matching the most adequate cropping system
(Brush, 1982).

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Indigenous people activities on

ecosystems and sustainable
development- a paradigm shift
Gyanaranjan Sahoo, ... Santosh Pandurang Mane, in
Indigenous People and Nature, 2022

1.3 Livelihoods and traditional knowledge of

indigenous people
Indigenous knowledge refers to all knowledge about a specific people and
their region that has been passed down from generation to generation,
regardless of its nature or application (Daes, 1993). The creation of
indigenous knowledge systems that include all elements of life, including
natural resource management, was a question of survival for the people
who created them. It serves as the foundation for decision-making at the
local level in agriculture, nonfarm activities, health, resource extraction
utilization, servings, and a variety of other indigenous people’s activities.
“All forms of scientific, agricultural, technical, and ecological information,
including cultigens, medicines, and the sensible use of flora and fauna,”
are all included in this knowledge. Environmental change is the best test
confronting mankind today (Cunningham, 1992; Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, 2020). Its belongings,
notwithstanding, are excessively dispersed, specifically influencing
powerless and socially underestimated populace gatherings. Native
people groups are quick to confront the immediate effects of a worldwide
temperature alteration on the biological systems or scenes they occupy,
owing additionally to their reliance upon, and close relationship with the
climate and its assets (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, 2020; Grieves, 2009). Instances of adverse consequences
incorporate infections related with expanding temperatures, for example,
sicknesses spread by vectors and transmitted by water; dry spell and
desertification prompting forest fires and the deficiency of backwoods
(Mori et al., 2017); inordinate precipitation bringing about the harm of
meadows, seedlings, and different harvests; ascending of streams and
liquefying mountain snow, glacial masses, and ocean ice because of
higher temperatures influencing vocations; increase of new kinds of
insects and protracted life expectancies of endemic bugs intensifying food
insecurity (Ninan & Kontoleon, 2016); and beach front disintegration by
increase in ocean level, influencing the economies of little island states.
Besides, numerous native people groups are turning out to be natural
outcasts because of the expanded recurrence and force of these natural
disasters and other climatic risks like floods, tropical storms, and
hurricanes that obliterate native people groups’ territory and property
(Akinsemolu, 2018). They likewise endure genuine denial of basic

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freedoms because of the seizure of terrains for biofuel ranches or because

of the execution of environmental change alleviation ventures, for
example, carbon sinks and sustainable power projects.

Indigenous people protect the world’s ecological and social multiplicity as

stewards. Despite accounting for only about 5% of the global population,
they efficiently manage roughly 20%–25% of the Earth’s land surface. This
territory is home to 80% of the world’s biodiversity, as well as around 40%
of all terrestrial protected areas and biologically intact landscapes (Chang
et al., 2013; Dove, 2000). As a result, indigenous people play a pivotal role
in environmental and biodiversity conservation initiatives. In the context
of indigenous people, the importance of indigenous institutions in
generating income cannot be overstated. The majority of India’s tribal
groups have their own indigenous organizations, which are critical for
generating income. The Madait and Paancha systems are found among the
Kharia. The importance of these two indigenous institutions is so great
that the modern concept of self-help groups may be traced back to them
(Kates et al., 2001).

Traditionally, indigenous people have been more devoted to their natural

habitats. Their land, water, plants, and animals are all intertwined with
their lives. Tribal societies have gained unique knowledge about the usage
of wild flora and animals as a result of this aspect, which is unknown to
nontribals. In India, tribal wisdom was crucial in the development of
agricultural practices (Lin & Wang, 2014). Tribal knowledge inspired
agricultural practices such as cross-cropping and rotational cropping
patterns to maintain land fertility. Even organic farming (in the traditional
sense) has its origins in tribal wisdom. “Perhaps this is why India’s entire
North Eastern area has the potential to be proclaimed a naturally organic
region” (Subramaniam & Venkat, 2009). The relevance of tribal
indigenous knowledge systems cannot be overstated. Their connection to
nature and various cropping mechanisms are responsible for ecosystem
preservation. When we examine the role of women in biodiversity
management and environmental protection, it is clear that their
ecological commitment cannot be replaced by any other factor, as their
participation is active in land rehabilitation, replanting of endangered
plant species, and conservation strategy in collective initiation
(Ramachandran, 2008). It’s because they have a wide spectrum of
traditional knowledge in biological resource manipulation. Indigenous
knowledge is at the heart of the livelihood indigenous knowledge system
structure. Tradition, religion, belief, and institution are all terms that can
be used to describe something. The second layer is occupied by
organization and practice packages, while the third or outer layer is
where we discover our living. It is the indigenous knowledge system that
has generated various types of traditions, beliefs, and institutions, among
other things, all of which are crucial for generating income. These

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traditions, beliefs, religions, institutions, and other factors influenced

people’s choices of livelihood (Bini, 2009).

Albeit native people groups’ flexibility is undermined by their weakness

to the pessimistic impacts of environmental change, regularly they have
had the option to adjust to these progressions by the training of
customary information, frequently encoded in native dialects and passed
across generations. Through such practices, native people have overseen
and utilized the normal assets to guarantee their protection into what’s to
come (Daes, 1993). In this specific situation, indigenous people groups
can add to relief and variation procedures. A couple of responsibilities
join local social classes’ productivity defend their family’s landscapes
from devastation, resource, fuel, and energy exploitation besides the
battle for extra improvement of monocrop bequests; their headway of
viable creation and usage structures through standard data and potential
gains of correspondence with nature (Persha et al., 2011).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the

international authority in charge of reviewing the global warming
research. It has been discovered that native data is not reliably mirrored
in existing variation exertions. The Paris Agreement likewise marks
reference to native people groups’ privileges and recognizes the centrality
of conventional information to beat the pessimistic effects of
environmental variation. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
additionally perceives the nearby ties of native people groups and
neighborhood networks to natural assets, and the commitments that
customary information can make to the convention and feasible organic
variety (Article 8 (j)). These instruments upheld by the UN Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can direct, give direction, assemble
connections, and advance regard for the self-assurance of native people
groups. Despite such commitments and acknowledgment of the basic
arrangements offered by native people groups, the environment activity
techniques regularly neglect to regard individual and aggregate native
people groups’ privileges, or to remember the certifiable cooperation of
native people groups for dynamic cycles at all levels.

Globalization and the digital divide have polarized the old, wealthy
“global people” in the North and the adolescent, impoverished “local
people” in the South, as well as indigenous people with cultural heritage
in the glacier fringes or rural and middle class with greater technological
capabilities in developing world as we enter the new millennium and
information age (A Vision of New Partnership between Indigenous
Peoples and National Park; Council of Indigenous Peoples, 2001). Due to
off-farm and migration options in the metropolis, the profit motive and
entrepreneurship have divided indigenous communities’ old and young
generations. The process of removing indigenous people’s dependency on
their immediate environment for survival has started. Knowledge, the use

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of biological resources for medicine, food, and shelter, land use practices,
and traditional mechanisms for restricting natural capital exploitation are
among the first parts of indigenous culture to succumb to the attack of
outside the sphere of culture (Altman et al., 2011).

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Ethnomedicine and indigenous people:

analysis of economic and ecological
sustainability in Jangalmahal area of
Paschim Medinipur and Jhargram
districts, West Bengal, India
Manishree Mondal, ... Sanchita Bhattacharya, in
Indigenous People and Nature, 2022

6.4.3 Ecological sustainability

Indigenous knowledge has already entered into the discourse of
sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Article 8(j) of the
Convention of Biological Diversity taken in Rio conference on
Environment and Development 1992 has contributed to this process by
requiring signatories to: “respect, preserve and maintain knowledge,
innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities
embodying traditional life-styles relevant for the conservation and
sustainable use of biological diversity” (Nakashima & Roue, 2002).

Beside their growing economic importance, the medicinal plants are also
crucial to human health, livelihood, and knowledge as ecological services
which are not popular till now. With the loss of biodiversity and erosion
of these ethnic knowledge systems, medicinal herbs and their associated
knowledge face threats to increased commercialization of medicinal
resources, which also brings in issues of access to the equitable sharing of
benefits of this wealth.

The ground truth experienced through field survey has to be revealed

here. Once, these areas had luxurious open mixed forest dominated with
sal (Shorea robusta). This forest was the only source of livelihoods and
healthcare of the indigenous people living in the forest villages. In many
places Joint Forest Management (JFM) has alarmingly depleted the species
heterogeneity. At the moment few chosen money-making species are
planted at the cost of other worthy herbs and plants. Presently, it is very
laborious to find out useful medicinal herbs which were easily accessible
previously. These medicinal species are not only used as medicine but
also helped to maintain the ecological balance of the surroundings by
deceasing soil loss, improving atmospheric moisture, fulfilling the need of

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livestock. These medicinal plants grow mainly on the bottom layer of the
forest. The forest also becomes thinner due to illegal cutting of trees and
poaching of medicinal herbs for commercialization. The respondents
claim that such species are not domesticated out of their natural habitat.
If these are planted artificially, then their natural efficacy in the form of
medicinal and aromatic properties got diminished (Kala, 2005). It is better
to conserve such species in their natural habitats as in-situ conservation.

The indigenous people of the study area have not only coexisted with
their surrounding environment but also they have maintained it through
various religious rituals and ceremonies in their sacred landscapes, sacred
groves, places of worship (“Jaher Than”) where the remnants of virgin
forests are seen. The use of medicinal plants is deeply rooted in their
cultural fabrics; the sustained availability of these plant resources is the
demand of these indigenous communities. Though they have no much
scientific knowledge about conservation strategies, but such demand had
forced them to establish a system of laws and practices, which might help
to conserve the useful medicinal species in future.

The tribal people of the study areas normally collect the medicinal herbs
from the surrounding fallow lands and forests. They have no such land
property or practice to plant these species. Due to the high rate of
encroachment and damage, these natural resources face alarming rate of
destruction. It is very difficult for these indigenous medical men to find
out the essential medicinal herbs for the preparation of ethnomedicines.
The medicinal fauna varieties also face same threats. Few medicines are
prepared with the mixture of both plant and animal parts. They also
confess that they did not apply any management process for conservation
because they do not have such infrastructural or administrative provisions
and scientific ecological knowledge. They are aware of deforestation,
overgrazing, intentional forest fire, expansion of agriculture, and
overexploitation of species, but they are helpless.

Therefore, these people are slowly switching to commercial synthetic

drugs and their proficiency about these ethnomedicines is shriveling
progressively.

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978032391603500018X

Ways of Knowing and Indigenous

Education
Sean Asikłuk Topkok, ... Theresa Arevgaq John, in
International Encyclopedia of Education(Fourth Edition), 2023

The Indigenous Knowledge Systems concentration contributes to and taps

into newly emerging bodies of academic scholarship that address the role

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of Indigenous knowledge systems in fields such as ecological studies,

natural resources management, health care, education, language
revitalization, community development, social services, justice, and
Native studies. Students focusing on this concentration area will compare
and analyze the epistemological properties, worldviews, and modes of
transmission associated with various Indigenous knowledge systems.
Below is an abstract from the first graduate from the Indigenous Studies
Ph.D. program with a concentration in Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
Dr. Theresa Arevgaq John's title of her dissertation is, “Yuraryararput
Kangiit-llu: Our Ways of Dance and Their Meanings.”

The first purpose of this study is to describe the categories of dance. The
second purpose is to describe how Yup'ik music and dance has played a
functional role in organizing and maintaining various societal
infrastructures (kinship, social, political, subsistence/economic, and
spiritual) within the Yup'ik culture. This study seeks to further
understand this role and how it has evolved over time.

The study utilizes an ethnographic methodology that includes historical

and contemporary perspectives to describe Yup'ik music and dance
categories and to explain how dance serves to organize various aspects of
Yup'ik culture and societal infrastructure. Data includes interviews from
Yup'ik elders and adults, fieldnotes, research journal entries, digital
recordings, photographs, and observations of Yup'ik immersion school
performers and rural community cultural events such as the Cama-i
Festival.

The study suggests that Yup'ik dance and categories are important
elements of the multiple cyclic rituals. It adds to the present literature
revealing that there are twenty different dance types and categories, and
many of the rituals are lost except for the ciuqitet (common dances),
nangerceciyaraq (the first dance), and iluriurucaraq (teasing dance)
dances.

The study also suggests that dancing is an essential part of the Yup'ik
social infrastructure and that dancing is integral to the social system. This
is demonstrated through six themes: Kinship, Physical/Mental Health,
Form of Prayer, Spiritual Enlightenment, Leadership, and Teasing.

I also argue that there is connectedness in dance, music, and stories that
are part of our yuuyaraq (epistemic worldview). Yuuyaraq is defined as a
way of being a human or an absolute unified social web. This web is
represented in our social infrastructures of kinship, health/physical and
mental, form of prayer/rituals, spiritual enlightenment, leadership, and
teasing. There is a relationship in storytelling genres in dance and oral
stories that represent people's historical and contemporary accounts,
describing their social, cultural, and subsistence lifestyle. Interview
participant data suggest these connections still exist in our society today.

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John (2010).

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128186305060486

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