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

we consider the contributions of TEK
Below,
modern science. Can the lessons of TEK be
to
in isolation, or are the languages
understood
cultural and spiritual practices and beliefs
or
accompany it necessary? How does holism
that
to TEK? Do we need, for example, to
apply
the grammar of animacy as described by
learn
(in the case study) or other relational
Kimmerer
Wyndham is an ecological anthropologist
Felice
ethnobiologist who has studied people
and
highly sophisticated sense of space beyond
with
body, “a form of enhanced mindfulness”
their
says is common in many hunter-gatherer
she
She describes this as “an extremely
groups.
skill base of cognitive agility, of
developed
able to put yourself into a viewpoint
being
perspective of many creatures or objects—
and
water, clouds” (quoted in Robbins 2017).
rocks,
the extent that these abilities are necessary for
To
understanding and application of TEK, how
the
we learn them? TEK is not only facts about
might
natural world, but also ways of thinking and
the
to a report published by the
According
Bank (Sobrevila 2008) Indigenous
World
comprise less than 5% of the world’s
Peoples
but manage 25% of the world’s
population,
surface and maintain 80% of the
land
biodiversity. TEK is described as the
planet’s
holistic body of knowledge that
cumulative,
over time as successive generations
accumulates
discoveries about their environment. This
make
is said to be “tried and tested” as
knowledge
generation has relied upon it, for example
each
navigating and sustainably using their
in
recent decades, anthropologists and
In
have documented the ecological
conservationists
and insight of Indigenous Peoples
understanding
the world, from Māori navigation at sea
around
Mayan forest-gardens. Henry Huntington
to
how Inuit elders in Alaska were able to
reported
the future behaviour of beluga whales from
infer
present behaviour of beavers, which had
the
spawning habitat for salmon that would
reduced
less food for the whales. Huntington
mean
how he was initially confused about
recounts
they were talking about beavers until he
why
the connection himself: “It was a more
made
view of the ecosystem … It would be
holistic
rare for someone studying belugas to be
pretty
about freshwater ecology” (Huntingdon
thinking
managers and scientists in Australia
Land
adopted Indigenous Peoples’ fire-
have
techniques and enlisted their help as
control
of the land after a particularly
co-managers
to colonization in 1789, Aborigines
Prior
the landscape with controlled burns—a
managed
called “fire stick farming”. Using this
practice
they influenced many parts of the
technique
including biodiversity, water stocks
landscape,
flows, the stock of wildlife for hunting and
and
5III. Methods and tools
ways of being to comprehend and applyTEK?
natural environments.
Examples of TEK in practice
quoted in Robbins 2018).
perceiving.
destructive decade of bush fires.
the balance of edible plants.
Figure 5.4 Yugambeh man demonstrating his re-building skills
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