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

IV. Ethics
intellectual property has been used
Indigenous
a legal term to identify collective intellectual
as
rights for specific cultural knowledge.
property
has been promoted by the World Intellectual
It
Organization of the United Nations
Property
more fairly value Indigenous knowledge
to
cultural heritage. In 2007, the UN General
and
accepted the Declaration on the Rights
Assembly
Knowledge and access—
IV.3
peoples
uncontacted
referred to as lost or isolated tribes,
Variously
the term “uncontacted peoples” rings
even
misconceptions about these groups living
with
voluntary isolation across the world today.
in
they may not have peaceful contact with
While
groups at the moment, this does not mean
other
they never have had. Still, very little is
that
about them. Only about 100 such groups
known
in the world today and their survival is
exist
threat. Their predicament poses urgent
under
are some of the practical challenges to
What
collective intellectual property,
implementing
or otherwise? Advocates of collective
Indigenous
rights seek a new legal system that
property
Indigenous Peoples’ rights over their
protects
cultural heritage and
property—including
Knowledge—as formsof intellectual
Traditional
that are collectiveresources.
property
11:] States shall provide redress … which may include restitution, developed in
[Article
with Indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual, religious and
conjunction
property taken without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their
spiritual
traditions and customs. …
laws,
31:] Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop
[Article
cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as
their
manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic
the
seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions,
resources,
designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have
literatures,
right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural
the
about sharing and having access to
questions
One perspective argues that we have
knowledge.
responsibility to share knowledge with them
a
could improve their lives.
that
idea, combined with popular stereotypical
This
of their lives, has motivated all sorts
depictions
people to initiate “first contact”—sometimes
of
tragic consequences. Missionary work is
with
common motivation for contacting these
another
Refer to the Washington Post article “‘God,
tribes.
Don’t Want to Die’ US Missionary Wrote Before
I
was Killed” (Slater, Allan 2018) for how one
he
5
of Indigenous Peoples, including the following.
heritage, traditional knowledge, andtraditional cultural expressions.
Making connections
which powerfully inuenced colonial attitudes to
Indigenous art in the early 20th century, are owned and
Indigenous art and artefacts in museums
held in London by the British Museum, though a small
In Chapter 10, section II, we examine the issue of
selection was temporarily loaned back to Nigeria in
Indigenous art and artefacts held in museums in
late 2018. Refer to Chapter 10 for further discussion on
advanced industrialized nations, and the related issues
of appropriation and repatriation. The Benin Bronzes,
patrimony and the repatriation of Indigenous art.
recent story ended badly.
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