Knowledge and Indigenous Societies

The community of knowers you belong to will shape what you accept as knowledge. The fact that you are an IB DP student, whose education is primarily delivered through the medium of the English language, for example, will influence how you know. Most IB DP students have been educated through a more or less westernised method of education, where we place a lot of importance on things such as the scientific method, reason, and mathematics. Your studies generally require you to look at the parts rather than a whole. After all, you are taught different subjects in isolation and you are more than likely going to specialise your compartmentalised knowledge even further at university or higher education and beyond. This compartmentalised approach to knowledge may seem very obvious to you because of the current dominant cognitive paradigm you are most familiar with (and has influenced your thinking).

However, historically, things have not always been that way. Ancient Greeks, for example, had a more holistic view of education. Even at this point in time, there are numerous indigenous communities that approach knowledge differently. This awareness of different perspectives and approaches towards knowledge is very important in TOK terms.

Cognitive dominance comes with an ethical price tag. It leads to a hierarchy of ideas and the loss of valuable knowledge. It has a significant impact on knowers. What are the implications of receiving an entire education in a dominant language that may not be your own? What if our learning was holistic rather than compartmentalised and it took place through life rather than in a formal school setting? You may believe that what you know is impressive compared to the knowledge of an indigenous person living in the rainforest. But, how useful is the knowledge you have gathered on the school benches to survive in the jungle? We also tend to think hierarchically when it comes to areas of knowledge and subject disciplines. If your teacher asked your peers to rank the IBDP subjects in order of importance, the arts (and maybe languages) would probably appear at the bottom of the list. Maths and Science, conversely, would probably be rated highly.

This is interesting, because indigenous cultures, in contrast, place much more emphasis on songs, stories, dance, art and rituals (things we usually associate with "the arts") to embody knowledge. When we think hierarchically, we forget that there are other ways to look at the world. We think that our way of thinking is the best, that our language is the most important (we tend to assume everyone should learn to speak English) and we ignore the wealth of knowledge (and ways of thinking) we lose through cognitive imperialism and globalisation. We could ask ourselves what kind of knowledge we lose when we are moving to one global culture, speak one dominant language and ultimately have only one way of looking at the world.

When we explore knowledge and indigenous societies, we will undoubtedly come across the theme of language and thought. Every couple of weeks, the last speaker of a language dies and with this person, the knowledge and culture embodied by this language disappears forever. This is significant, because although there exist over 6000 languages in the world, only a couple are spoken globally. Since the language you speak shapes the way you think, the loss of linguistic diversity is significant.

As an international student, you may wish to research cultures which are native to the land in which you study. If you are a 'third culture kid', you could delve into your ancestry in search of Indigenous Knowledge. By finding out more how indigenous people know, you will discover how traditional native knowledge differs from the dominant knowledge paradigms which are heavily influenced by the Western scientific method. Key terms such as 'holistic' world views, 'metaphysics', 'intuition', 'oral history' and 'ecology' will be part of TOK classes on knowledge and indigenous societies.

Students are also reminded to critically evaluate the effects of colonisation and globalisation. They should understand the 'danger of a single story' and remember that 'the world does not exist in an absolute sense' (Wade Davis, Ted). The knowledge community which we belong to will undoubtedly affect our value judgement. It is also interesting to explore how methods and ways of knowing are used in a different way by different cultures when establishing knowledge. An awareness of different perspectives will hopefully lead to a consideration of the way in which knowledge has been 'mapped' in the last few centuries. What do the 'un mapped', or forgotten 'territories' remind us about in terms of knowledge?

According to UNESCO, “Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system.” The term indigenous is, of course, contestable and relative to where you are in the world.

If you are a semi-nomadic member of the Penan people at the heart of Borneo, you may not feel "indigenous" as such. The very fact that we use the term indigenous to refer to the communities mentioned by UNESCO, highlights the problematic nature of the status of these societies and communities in the contemporary, globalised world. In this respect, it is important not to make sweeping statements regarding members of indigenous communities. Not all indigenous communities are the same and, just like not every Englishman thinks the same way, there is obviously a wealth of diversity in thinking and beliefs within the indigenous communities as well

How do indigenous societies know?

Reflection:

​What methods have indigenous peoples developed to support the recording, preservation and protection of their traditional knowledge? Are these methods reliable? How are they different from the methods you may be familiar with?

Researchers have uncovered a list of characteristics associates with indigenous and non-indigenous ways of thinking. The (contrasts between these) characteristics may help you understand how indigenous peoples acquire knowledge. You are most likely influenced by the paradigm on the left, because of your schooling and the language you speak. However, "The world does not exist in an absolute sense" (Davis). There may exist other, valuable explanations. What you accept as knowledge depends much on "the model of reality you are most familiar with" (Davis).