Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

only since 2019, their claims to being
recognized
have been long disputed. What
Indigenous
the implications of designating the Ainu as
are
Indigenous group as opposed to an ethnic
an
Consider the following article, as well
minority?
the questions below.
as
1. What gives legitimacy to the claim of Ainu
the diversity of Indigenous Peoples, their
Despite
and the contexts in which they live,
histories
knowledges are often said to possess
Indigenous
shared features, two of which specifically
some
the scope of Indigenous knowledge: the
concern
that it is local and holistic.
claims
does it mean to say that Indigenous
What
is local? The word suggests that
knowledge
is depth to this knowledge: it is produced
there
a specific cultural and ecological context, by
in
with a long tradition of direct personal
people
and close engagement with the
experiences
and is appropriate to navigating a
place,
environmental and social reality.
particular
Peoples have developed an intimate
Indigenous
of their environments that allows
understanding
to thrive anywhere from the Amazon
them
to the high-altitude deserts of the
rainforest
At the same time, implicit in the
Himalaya.
that Indigenous knowledge is local is
claim
assumption that it is only appropriate to or
the
in a local context. Could it be that
applicable
have so little to learn from the tribes in the
we
or nomads in the Changthang? Or is
Amazon
idea a vestige of colonization, of a failure to
this
decolonize?
is important to consider why universality is
It
a claim typically associated with Indigenous
not
Could some aspects of Indigenous
knowledge.
be considered universal? Could, for
knowledges
(b) By whom?
What are the implications for the
4.
and traditions of the Ainu if
knowledge
who voyaged over vast stretches of
navigators
ocean be generalized into a universal system
open
navigation? What about the water management
of
crop cultivation practices of Indigenous
and
do have a system of knowledge that is
We
across the world—through education
deployed
globalization—that is assumed to be
and
valid and applicable. Consider why
universally
forms of knowledge are assumed to be
some
rather than local, and through which
universal
and practices they have been produced.
methods
critics have argued that local knowledges
Some
all there is—that the Western system of
are
is not inherently universal, but has
knowledge
universalized. For example, Vandana Shiva
been
the following.
writes
universal/local dichotomy is misplaced when
The
to the western and Indigenous traditions
applied
knowledge, because the western is a local
of
which has been spread world wide through
tradition
universal would spread in openness. The globalising
The
spreads by violence and misrepresentation. The
local
level of violence unleashed on local systems
rst
knowledge is to not see them as knowledge. …
of
local knowledge does appear in the eld of
When
globalising vision, it is made to disappear by
the
it the status of a systematic knowledge, and
denying
it the adjectives ‘primitive’ and ‘unscientic’.
assigning
the western system is assumed to be
Correspondingly,
‘scientic’ and universal.
uniquely
5I. Scope
What is offered as evidence, and what
2.
compelling evidence of the
constitutes
Ainu’s indigeneity?
3. (a) On what basis can this evidence be
disputed?
Search terms: tofugu the Anui
they are considered Indigenous?
indigeneity?
I.2 Indigenous knowledge as local,
holistic and dynamic
farmers on the Balinese terraced rice fields?
intellectual colonisation.
(Shiva 1993)
example, the knowledge and skills of Polynesian
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