David Turnbull
Big Question 2: Re-imagining Ways of Knowing Can indigenous and scientific ways of knowing work together in solving some of the world's problems without losing their special values and differences?
David Turnbull says: My answer would be a qualified yes. Qualified by two important conditions. Indigenous Knowledges ought not to be simply absorbed into the western scientific tradition. This would be exploitative and would strip them of their values and their differences. For this to be avoided science itself has to be re-imagined in at least two ways; as performative and local. This to say that science must be seen as a set of particular ways of knowing not as a set of universal and objective truths. The other qualification is that indigenous knowledge owners and producers must have their intellectual property rights protected.
Given these qualifications, there are many examples of indigenous knowledge traditions which, if thoughtfully re-imagined by both modern scientists and Indigenous knowledge holders, could help towards mitigating the environmental crisis. For example, Native Americans have developed a number of agricultural practices which western science has only recently come to recognise as environmentally desirable, e.g. chinampa, milpa and terra preta.
On chinampa, see wikipedia entry, an ecologist's perspective, an archeologist's perspective, and an agriculturalist's analysis.
On milpa, see Wikipedia entry and Working with Incommensurable Knowledge Traditions: Assemblage, Diversity, Emergent Knowledge, Narrativity, Performativity, Mobility and Synergy by David Turnbull.
On terra preta, see Wikipedia entry.
I do not believe that the first condition is achieveable. When we consider the socio-political climate in any country, we will see that a predominantly western regime rules. Regardless to the ideals of science and the process of knowing, it will eventually depict the ruling regime. Had the socio-political system of a country assimulated some of its indigenous knowledge systems prior to colonalization or capitalism, i believe that there will be room for indigenous and scientific ways to work together.
The examples cited are worth futher looking into. Was it all a localised phenomena or are there allowances within the American socio-political system for embeddment of indigenous knowledge?
For now (with existing approaches), i believe that special values and differences will be lost when indigenous and scietific ways work together.