Fluent Essays

Topic: Why have indigenous knowledge systems often be devalued or treated as idle curiositiesI need help with this questionWord limit: 1000 wordsRest all details have been written in the attachments.Please do the best work What counts as knowledge? Whose knowledge counts? Overview 1 A/Prof Evan Poata-Smith At the end of this module, you should be able to: Evaluate the argument that we can be epistemologically bjective if we adopt the ‘right’ method of inquiry. Identify how our social location may affect what and how we know. Explain why particular knowledge systems achieve legitimacy and authority at the expense of other knowledge systems. This will help you… Analyse the extent to which science exists apart from the forces that shape our everyday lives and the structure of our society. Describe and analyze how power structures shape what we ‘know’, how we ‘know’ it and, indeed, what is validated as knowledge. Overview Key concepts Assumptions about the nature of reality, knowledge and values. Epistemology – What is knowledge? Ontology (metaphysics) – What is real? Ethics –What is right or wrong? Aesthetics – What is beauty? What things are of value? Module Epistemology What is Epistemology ? Comes from two Greek words: “Episteme” = knowledge, understanding. “Logia” = science, study. Epistemological questions What does it mean to “know”? What can we know? How can we know it? Why do we know some things and not others? How do we acquire knowledge? Can knowledge be certain? How can we differentiate truth from falsehood? Why do we believe certain claims and not others? Like so many words, the word “know” is used in many different ways. Module Epistemology 5 Epistemology – the nature of knowledge Traditionally, philosophers have made the distinction between three types of knowledge: 1.Practical knowledge: knowledge that is skills-based, e.g. being able to drive or use a computer; 2.Knowledge by acquaintance: knowledge that doesn’t involve facts but familiarity with someone or an objects, e.g. I know my mother, I know what an apple looks like 3.Factual knowledge: knowledge based on fact, e.g. I know that the sun rises every morning –I know it is true. 6 Epistemology Epistemology – the nature of knowledge What are the requirements for knowing something—as opposed to just believing it, or wondering about it, or dreaming about it? Module Epistemology Epistemology – What is knowledge? Traditionally, scholars have argued that knowledge is “justified, true belief”: 1.The person must be able to justify the claim; 2.The claim must be true, and 3.The person must believe in it. It is not necessarily denied that knowers have identities and social locations, but they aren’t viewed as relevant factors to include in epistemic assessments. Epistemology This type of approach rests on a number of assumptions: That all knowers are essentially alike, so that in principle, any knower is interchangeable with any other knower. That all knowers are capable of autonomy or self-sufficiency in knowing. § What are the implications of this way of thinking? § The primary concern, therefore, is in evaluating the beliefs and disbeliefs of individuals in abstraction from their social environment. 9 “This bifurcation legitimates the assumption that the human perceiver occupies no space in the known cosmos; existing outside of history, the knower knows the world objectively. Thus, knowers are untainted by the world of opinions, perspectives, or values. Operating objectively (without bias), the knower sets out on the neutral mission of science: the application of abstract reasoning to the understanding of the natural environment.” Ladislaus M. Semali and Joe L. Kincheloe (1999) What Is Indigenous Knowledge? Voices from the Academy New York: Routledge, p. 25. Objectivity? Two ideas: Is it possible to be epistemologically objective, to somehow be a neutral mouthpiece for the world’s truths if one adopts the ‘right’ method of inquiry? Are scientists uniquely and exclusively equipped to be bjective? Objectivity? Module 11 Social Epistemology Basic arguments § Epistemology—the study of knowledge and justified belief—has been heavily individualistic in focus. § The emphasis has been on evaluating doxastic attitudes (beliefs and disbeliefs) of individuals in abstraction from their social environment. § The human epistemic situation, however, is largely shaped by social relationships and institutions. § Social epistemology seeks to redress this imbalance by investigating the epistemic effects of social interactions and social systems. “Situated Knowledge” § Knowledge is not something created out of neutral, empirical data; it is actively constructed. § Of course, in our efforts to know something we always have at our disposal something to work with (i.e. material events, actions, texts, people etc.), but what we make of the meaning of all of this is always constructed in some significant way. § Knowledge claims are always interpretations that are culturally and historically contingent, reflecting certain interests, and infused with moral and political values. § All forms of knowledge reflect the particular conditions in which they are produced, and at some level reflect social locations of knowledge producers. 13 Objectivity? Module Is there a danger of “relativism”? § Relativism is the idea that conditions of justification, criteria of truth and falsity and standards of rationality are relative: therefore, there are no universal, unchanging frameworks or schemes for rational adjudication among competing knowledge claims. § Does a focus on social epistemology represent a slide into subjectivism—a position where knowledge claims are indistinguishable from expressions of personal opinion, taste or bias? “There probably is no absolute authority, no practice of all practices or schemes of all schemes. Yet it does not follow that conceptual schemes, practices and paradigms are radically idiosyncratic or purely subjective. Schemes, practices and paradigms evolve out of communal projects of inquiry. To sustain viability and authority, they must demonstrate their adequacy in enabling people to negotiate the everyday world and to cope with the decisions, problems, and puzzles they encounter daily.” Lorraine Code (1991) What Can She Know? Feminist Theory and the Construction of Knowledge Objectivity? Module Ithaca: Cornell University Press, p. 4. Objectivity v Subjectivity? § From the claim that no single scheme has absolute explanatory power, it does not follow that all schemes are equally valid. § Key points: Knowledge is qualitatively variable: some knowledge is better than other knowledge. Social epistemologists are in a good position to take such qualitative variations into account and to analyse their implications. The Epistemic Fallacy “The epistemic fallacy involves the fallacious inference that because there is no epistemologically objective view of the world, there is also no objective world ontologically. Such an inference leads to the extravagant and relativist claim that, to the extent that we embrace different world-views, we inhabit objectively different worlds.” Margaret S. Archer, Andrew Collier and Douglas V. Porpora (2004), Transcendance: Critical Realism and God, London: Routledge, p. 1. Objectivity? Module § Most social epistemologists do not argue that the circumstances Objectivity v Subjectivity? 17 of the knower are all that counts in knowledge evaluation. § A focus on social epistemology by no means implies that the identities of the knower are the final word, capable of bearing the entire burden of justification and evaluation. Central point: • The claim that the circumstances of the knower are not epistemologically definitive is quite different from the claim that those circumstances are of no epistemological consequence. Objectivity? Module Two ideas: Is it possible to be epistemologically objective, to somehow be a neutral mouthpiece for the world’s truths if one adopts the ‘right’ method of inquiry? Are scientists uniquely and exclusively equipped to be bjective? Objectivity? Module 19 R.C. Lewontin (1992), Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA, New York: Harper Perennial, Chapter One “A Reasonable Skepticism” pp. 3-16. Central arguments: Science does not exist apart from the forces that rule our everyday lives and that govern the structure of our society. Science is a social institution completely integrated into and influenced by the structure of all our other social institutions. The problems that science deals with, the ideas that it uses in investigating those problems, even the so-called scientific results that come out of scientific investigation, are all deeply influenced by predispositions that derive from the society in which we live. “Scientists do not begin life as scientists, after all, but as social beings immersed in a family, a state, a productive structure, and they view nature through a lens that has been molded by their social experience.” R.C. Lewontin (1992) Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA, New York: Harper Perennial. Objectivity? Module § Science is also molded by society because it is a human Political Economy of Science 21 activity that takes time and money, and so is guided by, and directed by, those forces in the world that have control over money and time. § People earn their living by science, and as a consequence the dominant social and economic forces in society determine to a large extent what science does and how it does it. § Furthermore, these forces have the power to appropriate from science ideas that are particularly suited to the maintenance and continued prosperity of the social structures of which they are a part. Indigenous People & Science Module The privileging of Western science as the teller of truth’. Despite the growing interest in IKS, indigenous knowledge systems are often treated as mystical curiosities rather than constituting value-free, scientific contributions. The Latin scientia (from scire to know) was a generic term encompassing all forms of knowledge—in recent centuries science has come to include only certain kinds of technical knowledge. Science has come to be recognized as both a specific body of knowledge and a process of obtaining that knowledge. Whose knowledge counts? Module 23 General ideology of modern science places physics on a pedestal as the model science which all other sciences should strive to emulate. Reinforces the idea that science should be “value-free”, especially with respect to social problems. Epistemological separation of knower and known. Whose knowledge counts? Indigenous peoples engagement with Western science was one in which they were the subjects of morbid curiosity and were examined as one would examine the flora and fauna of a country. The advent of Social Darwinism acted to reinforce racial hierarchies and the representation of indigenous people as intellectually inferior. Prevailing colonial attitudes, reinforced by a wide range of government policies, resulted in minimal recognition and often the devaluing of Indigenous knowledge systems. 25 “The story of the Scientific Revolution in Europe itself is framed in the ethnocentric West-is-best discourse of colonialism. The irony of the story is that Western science is not an essentialized European achievement, as knowledge interchanges between Europe and various non-Western cultures had taken place for hundreds of years preceding the Western Enlightenment.” Ladislaus M. Semali and Joe L. Kincheloe (1999) What Is Indigenous Knowledge? Voices from the Academy New York: Routledge, p. 25. Indigenous knowledge is often compared unfavourably with “Western” or “scientific” knowledge”. Indigenous people have participated in creating science in profound ways that are often not acknowledged or recognised. Examples: Virtually every plant and animal species we eat today was domesticated by experimentation and de facto genetic engineering practiced by peoples with oral cultures. The science of medicine began and continues to draw on knowledge of plants’ therapeutic properties discovered by people over thousands of years. Chemistry, metallurgy and the materials sciences in general originated in knowledge produced by ancient miners, smiths, and potters. Whose knowledge counts? Module Geography and cartography of the Americas and the Pacific Ocean are founded on the knowledge of indigenous peoples. Anonymous sailors and fishers were the original source of scientific data regarding tides, oceans currents, and prevailing winds. These contributions, however, are not always acknowledged or valued appropriately. Scientific and technological ideas and inventions usually attributed to the West include, for example: China— magnetic science, quantitative cartography, cast iron, the mechanical clock, and harnesses for horses. Polynesia— knowledge of navigation and sea currents. Aboriginal peoples— knowledge of flora and fauna of Australia (Scheurich & Young, 1997; Hess, 1995; Baker, 1996). 29 “No history of science could be less balanced than the traditional romantic narratives of Newtons, Darwins, and Einsteins transforming the world by the force of their unique brainpower.” Clifford D. Conner (2005) A People’s History of Science: Miners, Midwives and “Low Mechanics” New York: Nation Books, p. 4. Clifford D. Conner (2005), A People’s History of Science: Miners, Midwives and “Low Mechanics”, New York: Nation Books. The so-called “Great Men of Science” were not unimportant, but their achievements were predicated on prior contributions—by anonymous ordinary people “…most of whom have never been thought of as great and many of whom were not men” (Connor 2005, p.4). The contributions of the history of science made by socially subordinate peoples and those with oral knowledge systems have not left the paper trail that historians customarily depend on for evidence. 31 Scientific Racism Skulls, brains and Intelligence A/Prof Evan Poata-Smith Image Source: Photograph by Robert Clark--Photographed at Penn Museum. ‘Race’ Thinking ‘Race’ has emerged as a commonsense category for explaining and evaluating human differences only in more recent history. The concept of ‘race’ is based on three key assumptions: That human beings can be classified according to their physical features into discrete biological categories known as ‘races’. That these biological features (in, and of, themselves) determine variations in intellectual capacity and positions in societal hierarchies. That the distinctive biological features of an individual or group can be ranked according to their superiority or inferiority to each ther. 3 The cross-cultural and historical evidence demonstrates that… The idea of ‘race’ is a relatively recent development in human thought. The cultural or physical differences singled out as being significant were wide ranging. The ideas that were used to justify the importance attached to those alleged differences –varied tremendously. The causal explanations for those alleged difference have also changed considerably over time. ‘Race’ Thinking The idea of ‘race’ Historical examples Slave societies of classical Greece and Rome. § While these societies were brutal, hierarchical and oppressive, the idea of ‘race’ was conspicuously absent from representations of difference. § These societies were preoccupied with the notion of “citizenship” and the importance of citizens discharging their public duty. § This was the basis by which they represented, categorized and justified their treatment of ‘outsiders’. Terms to designate people outside the orbit of these communities: The Ancient Greek word βάρβαρος (barbaros), barbarian, was an antonym for πολίτης (politēs), citizen (from πόλις - polis, city-state). For the Ancient Greeks, it was the inhumani who lived in the frozen wastes to the north, the land of exile, who embodied, as the term suggests, the absence of human attributes. The Romans also used the term “barbarian” and handed on to post- medieval Europeans who then made good use of it in the development of colonial empires. Septimius Severus Septimus Severus Roman emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna (present day Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. First African to hold the highest position in the Roman empire. His death marked the beginning of a succession of African emperors of Rome. Central Issue Differences between human beings were not seen as inherent, fixed and inevitable. Human attributes were largely seen as being culturally acquired: i.e. a barbarian could become civilized and part of the Roman Empire; a ‘heathen’ could convert to Christianity. Religion Papal Bulls of the 15th century gave Christian explorers the right to claim lands they discovered and lay claim to those lands for their Christian monarchs. § Under various theological and legal doctrines formulated during and after the Crusades, non-Christians were considered enemies of the Catholic faith and, as such, less than human. § Any land that was not inhabited by Christians was available to be discovered, claimed, and exploited. § If the “pagan” inhabitants could be converted, they might be spared. If not, they could be enslaved or killed. ‘Race’ Thinking The idea of ‘race’ 8 Etymology: The word ‘race’ only entered Western languages in the period between 1200-1500 AD Its meaning has changed overtime. § Ras (middle English): a trial of speed; swift course or current of a river. § In the later Middle Ages it was sometimes used to refer to lineage or the continuity of generations in families (esp. royal or noble families). It wasn’t until the late 17th century that ‘race’ came to assume a new meaning different from the original ‘clan’. Distinction needs to be made between earlier forms of prejudice and the coherent doctrines of racial inferiority that were to develop later. Xenophobia and superstition was a characteristic of medieval village life. The very words, ‘black’ and ‘white’ were heavily charged with meaning long before the English even met people whose skins were black. Whereas these old forms of prejudice were merely scraps of irrationality and fear, racism developed as a coherent doctrine of inferiority from the 17th century onwards. 11 Evolution of ‘Race’ Thinking The idea of ‘race’ ‘Race’ Thinking Image Source: Al Jazeera Three crucial developments in the evolution of ‘race’ thinking. The development of pseudo-science. The global expansion of European capitalism & the period of empire building that characterised the colonial era. The development and maintenance of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The idea of ‘race’ Slavery The trans-Atlantic Slave Trade § From 1526 to 1870 between 12 and 15 million Africans were enslaved in the Americas. § British ships transported about 2.6 million slaves alone. The largest forced migration of people in history. The death rate of the slaves was horrific. Unknown millions died in Africa before they even made it to the ships. It has been estimated that perhaps a fifth of the slaves died on the Middle Passage across the Atlantic. In the Americas, the death rate amongst the slaves was also very high. Some historians suggest that the death rate in the seasoning camps was up to 50\%. Source: Plymouth Chapter of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade - This image is available from the United States Library of Congresss Prints and Photographs division The idea of ‘race’ The trans-Atlantic Slave Trade* Slavery § Followed a triangular route: § Traders set out from European ports towards the west coast of Africa where they bought and/or kidnapped people and loaded them into the ships. § The voyage across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, generally took 6 to 8 weeks. Once in the Americas those Africans who had survived the journey were off-loaded for sale and put to work as slaves. § The ships then returned to Europe with goods such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice and later cotton, which had been produced by slave labour. *See http://www.understandingslavery.com/ 16 Destinations for slaves § Over 55 per cent of the slaves were taken to Brazil and Spanish colonies in South America. § About 35 per cent were taken to the West Indies. § Less than 5 per cent of slaves were sold in North America. The idea of ‘race’ Slavery § Slavery predates the ideas of ‘race’. § About 60\% of African slaves were taken in the 18th century. § Racist ideologies served a useful purpose in this context. “It was their drive for profit that led English merchant capitalists to traffic in Africans. There was big money in it. The Theory [of ‘race’] came later. Once the English slave trade, English sugar-producing plantation slavery, and English manufacturing industry had begun to operate as a trebly profitable interlocking system, the economic basis had been laid for all those ancient scraps of myth and prejudice to be woven into a more or less coherent racist ideology: a mythology of race.” Peter Fryer (1984), Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, London: Pluto Press, p. 134. The idea of ‘race’ The Age of Empire The British slave trade ended in 1807; and slavery abolished officially in 1833. However, racial ideologies became a convenient rationale for the control of indigenous peoples under colonial rule. The British Empire § In 1900, the British Empire covered one-fifth of the globe and governed between 470 and 570 million people. § Most extensive empire in world history. Colonialism The idea of ‘race’ What is Colonialism? Week Four Colonialism The idea of ‘race’ § “Britain’s ‘native policy’ was dominated by racism. The golden age of the British Empire was the golden age of British racism too.” § P. Fryer (1984), Staying Power, Pluto Press: London, p. 134. The idea of ‘race’ Characteristics of Core Inventiveness Rationality, intellect Abstract thought Theoretical reasoning Mind Discipline Adulthood Sanity Science Progress Characteristic of Periphery Imitativeness Irrationality, emotion, instinct Concrete thought Empirical, practical reasoning Body, matter Spontaneity Childhood Insanity Sorcery Stagnation Source: J.M. Blaut, The Colonizers Model of the World, New York: Guildford Press, 1993, p. 17. “Whether the ‘inferior races’ were to be coddled and protected, exterminated, forced to labor for their ‘betters’, or made into permanent wards, they were undoubtedly outsiders –a kind of racial proletariat. They were forever barred both individually and collectively from high office in church and state, from important technical posts in law and medicine, and from any important voice in their own affairs...” P.D. Curtin (1960), “ ‘Scientific’ Racism and the British Theory of Empire”, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, p. 50. The Idea of ‘Race’ “From the 1770s onwards the empire and the pseudo scientific racism that served it developed side by side.” § The scientific revolution was seen as gradually replacing § P. Fryer (1984), Staying Power, Pluto Press: London, p. 134. superstition, speculation and religious authority. § In reality, science merely added another level of justification to pre-existing myths and concerns. Human differences were now seen as being biological, and therefore inherent and unalterable. The Enlightenment challenged, but did not replace, the “Great Chain of Being”: § Every existing thing in the universe had its place in a divinely planned hierarchical order, which was pictured as a chain vertically extended. “All colonised peoples were inferior to all colonisers, but some were more inferior than others. Those with undeniable evidence of civilisation — Chinese, some Indians, a very few North Africans — were somewhat ‘higher’ on the cultural (and racial) ladder. Lighter skinned warriors — Maori, some Native Americans — could be respected enough to negotiate treaties. The darker the colour, the closer to savages. And right at the bottom, only just above the animals, were Hottentots and Australian Aborigines [sic].” Tony Barta (2001), “Discourses of genocide in Germany and Australia: a linked history”, Aboriginal History 21, p. 46. “Morphological & Aesthetic Trees of The Human Race” The Idea of ‘Race’ The advent of evolutionary interpretations of humanity in the latter half of the 19th century did nothing to alter this notion of a hierarchy. Examples: § Evolutionists viewed Indigenous Australians as living fossils who had survived, through seclusion, in a remote part of the world. § Their allegedly lowly status, however, no longer simply signified their ordained place in Creation, it now signified their backward stage of advancement along an evolutionary sequence. Australia was viewed as a huge museum of antiquated life. “Centuries ago, nature ‘side’ tracked a race in Australia. At the present time, despite some drawbacks or interference from outside, that race remains, to a large extent in primitive conditions. It is capable of casting light on the evolution of human races in a way and to an extent that probably no other can equal.” W.R. Smith (1913), “Australian Conditions and Problems From the Standpoint of Present Anthropological Knowledge”, AAAS 14 , p. 374. Social Darwinism § Applies the biological concepts of The Idea of ‘Race’ Pseudo-scientific Racism natural selection to human societies. § Life is viewed as a struggle for existence characterised by Herbert Spencer’s phrase the “survival of the fittest”. § The process of natural selection would result in the survival of the best competitors and the elimination of the ‘unfit’. Herbert Spencer, 1879 caricature by Francis Carruthers Herbert Gould Spencer Social Darwinism § ‘Natural selection’ was applied to the idea of ‘race’—i.e. superior ‘races’ would flourish, while inferior ‘races’ would die out. § Used to justify inequalities in wider society as natural phenomena that simply reflected the superiority of the powerful and the inferiority of the weak. “It has become an axiom that, following the law of evolution and survival of the fittest, the inferior races of mankind must give place to the highest type of man, and that this law is adequate to account for the gradual decline in numbers of the aboriginal inhabitants of a country before the march of civilisation.” J.Barnard James Barnard (1809-1897) (1890), “Aborigines [sic] of Tasmania”, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science 2, p. 597. ‘Smooth the pillow of dying race’ Social Darwinism underpinned many policy regimes to regulate indigenous lives. In Australia, it was widely accepted that “Full-blood” Aboriginal people were doomed to inevitable extinction. “The romance of extinction” was firmly entrenched in the colonial discourse. § “A dying race”. § The last of his or her tribe e.g. “last of the Mohicans”. Wide range of euphemisms were used: Indigenous people were described as ‘fading away’, ‘decaying’, ‘slipping away’, ‘melting away’ etc. Eugenics Pseudo-scientific Racism The Idea of ‘Race’ 36 § Based on the idea that one could improve the human population by carefully selecting those who could procreate and produce offspring. This had particularly sinister applications: § Populations deemed ‘unfit’ were subjected to lifelong segregation and sterilization programs to kill inferior ‘bloodlines’. § The grand plan was to literally wipe away the reproductive capability of those deemed weak and inferior—the so-called “unfit”. Sir Francis Galton A.O. Neville (1875-1954). § “Chief Protector of Aborigines” in Western Australia from 1915 to 1936 and Commissioner for Native Affairs from 1936 until his retirement in 1940. § Articulated the belief that assimilation of Aboriginal people of mixed descent could only occur through the “breeding out the colour”. § The key issue for Neville was skin colour; once `half-castes were sufficiently white in colour they would become like white people. § After two or three generations the process of acceptance in the non-Indigenous community would be complete, the older generations would have died and the settlements could be closed. Source: A. O. Neville, Australias Coloured Minority: Its Place in the Community, Sydney: Currawong Publishing, 1947. Von Luschans chromatic scale: a method of classifying skin colour. Pseudo-scientific Racism The Idea of ‘Race’ Social Darwinism and Eugenics provided a justification for the subjugation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by British settlers. § It demonstrated the inherent superiority of the colonising ‘races’ and the ‘inferiority’ of the colonised. § It provided a rationale for a range of colonial policies e.g. the establishment of a system of reserves, missions and other institutions that isolated, confined and controlled Aboriginal people. § It underpinned the ongoing and systematic kidnapping of Indigenous children (see the “Stolen generation”). The study of the human skull was also seen as crucial to ‘race’ science. It was believed that: § Skull sizes varied according to distinct populations. § That bigger skulls must have contained bigger brains. § Bigger brains meant greater intellectual capacity. Samuel George Morton (1799-1851) collected 837 skulls and spent most of his time in the 1840s filling those skulls with white pepper seed or shot pellets –to measure “cranial capacity”. He concluded that English skulls had a greater cranial capacity than African, Chinese and Indian skulls. In the late 19th century, numerous physical anthropologists subjected the skulls of Indigenous Australians to meticulous examination and minute measurement. All claimed to have found archaic traits and low cranial capacity. English biologist, T.H.Huxley, was one of the first to claim that there was a similarity between Aboriginal skulls and fossil crania such as that from Neanderthal. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 1895) Known as Darwins Bulldog Pseudo-scientific Racism Craniometry The measurement of cranial The Idea of ‘Race’ features in order to classify people according to ‘race’, criminal temperament, and intelligence. It was used to justify racist policies towards Indigenous Australians, the Irish and those from Africa. Week Three Pseudo-scientific Racism Cesare Lombrosso (1835 1909) • Flattened or hawk-like nose. • High cheekbones. • Long arms. • Shifty eyes. • Large, protruding jaw. • Low, sloping foreheads • Large chin. • A reduced sensitivity to pain! Characteristics of criminals: Week Three faculties were located on the surface of the brain and could be detected by visible inspection. It was believed that mental Racism Summary Racism was not confined to a handful of eccentric cranks on the periphery of society. § Most scientists and intellectuals accepted these doctrines of racial superiority and inferiority until well into the twentieth century. § There was a close connection between the attitude the ruling class took to ‘natives’ in the colonies and the attitude they took to women and the working class and poor at home. § Nevertheless, the doctrines of racial inferiority were contested by a minority. § Pseudo-scientific ideas underpined the Nazi eugenics program. 49 The Idea of ‘Race’ Racism What does the evidence tell us? The idea of ‘race’ is a modern idea. It has no genetic basis. Human sub-species don’t exist. Most genetic variation is within not between groups ften classified as ‘races’. Slavery predates the idea of ‘race’. The idea of ‘race’ provided a powerful justification for social, economic and political inequalities as ‘natural’ and ‘inevitable’. ‘Race’ isn’t biological, but racism is still real. Racism The Idea of ‘Race’ https://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm Racism The idea of ‘race’ has no objective genetic basis. § However: § Large numbers of people continue to believe that world’s population is divided into ‘races’. § The concept of ‘race’ remains an important feature of ‘common sense’ views of human difference. § The ideology of ‘race’ is still a pervasive feature of our society. § While ‘race’ is not a valid biological category, racism is still real. § “If men [and women] define situations as real, they are real in their consequences…” § W.I. Thomas (1863-1947) INDS130 Overview. Module Two What do we mean by § Can we clearly differentiate “indigenous knowledge” from Indigenous knowledge ? “Western knowledge”? 1 A/Prof Evan Poata-Smth What is Indigenous Knowledge? Module Two How have our understandings of indigenous people and the knowledge they create and consume been shaped? Essentialism Eco-primitivism Romantic primitivism/romantic racism Fundamental questions we will address over the session: Is there such a category as “Indigenous knowledge” (IK)? How would we define it? What conceptual difficulties would we encounter? Is it more meaningful to speak of indigenous people who both produce and consume knowledge? INDS130 Module Two 3 There are many terms and acronyms—with a range of accompanying but broadly overlapping definitions— used to describe what Indigenous people know. This includes: Indigenous knowledge (IK), Indigenous environmental knowledge (IEK), traditional knowledge (TK), traditional ecological or traditional environmental knowledge (TEK). Other common terms: Folk knowledge, farmers’ knowledge, fishers’ knowledge and local knowledge. More recently there has been a strong emphasis, particularly by Indigenous peoples, on promoting a broader understanding of Indigenous knowledge as a product of Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). INDS130 Module Two Each of these terms carries different implications, and there is considerable debate about which one is the most appropriate. “Traditional” Knowledge? The word ‘traditional’ places the emphasis on cultural continuity and the transmission of knowledge over time. Often ignores, however, the way indigenous societies critique and revaluate knowledge and adapt that knowledge to changing circumstances. INDS130 Module Two 5 There is a tendency to assume that there is a clear divide between indigenous and Western knowledges. Commonly held assumptions Substantive differences –there are significant differences in subject matter and characteristics of indigenous and Western knowledges; Methodological and epistemological differences-–the two forms of knowledge employ different methods to investigate reality, and possess different “world views”; and, Contextual differences—traditional and Western knowledge differ because traditional knowledge is more deeply rooted in its context. Substantive differences? § IK is usually represented as being preoccupied with those activities that are intimately connected with the livelihoods of people rather than with abstract ideas and philosophies. § Western knowledge, by contrast, is usually depicted as being divorced from the everyday lives of people and is said to involve more analytical and abstract representations of the world. Evidence? There is equally impressive evidence that IK is not just about immediate technical solutions to everyday problems, but also contains “..non-technical insights, wisdom, ideas, perceptions, and capabilities which pertain to ecological, § * Separate biological, as independent geographical, and fix as stationary or physical and unchanging. phenomena (Thrupp, 1989, 139). The line divorcing Western knowledge from the livelihoods of western 7 people may be too simplistic. INDS130 Module Two Methodological and epistemological differences? § Science is usually depicted as being open, systematic and analytical, and advances by building rigorously on previous achievements. § What scientists do is supposed to be strictly separable from common sense or non-science. § IK, in contrast, is usually represented as being little more than common-sense—it depicted as being closed, non-systematic, without concepts that would conform to ideas of objectivity or rigorous analysis. § Philosophers of science, however, have abandoned any serious hope for a satisfactory methodology to distinguish science from non science. “The critical difference between indigenous and scientific knowledge is not at an epistemological level: rather it lies in their relationship to power ...” A. Agrawal (1996) ‘A sequel to the debate (2): a response to certain comments’ Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, http://www.nuffic. nl/ciran/ikdm/4–2/articles/agrawal.html INDS130 Module Two Contextuality? § IK, is usually represented as being in close and organic harmony with the lives of the people who generate it. § Modern knowledge, is said to thrive on abstract formulation and exists divorced from the lives of people. Is science divorced from the lives of people?* • In our efforts to know something we always have at our disposal something to work with (i.e. material events, actions, texts, people etc.), but what we make of the meaning of all of this is always culturally and historically contingent, reflecting certain interests, and is infused with moral and political values. *We will look at this question in more depth module 4. 10 INDS130 Module Two 11 § ‘Race’ § Gender. § Class. § Inequality. § Sexuality. Scientists, as members of society, have themselves been shaped by the prevailing attitudes and political narratives about: Can the categories of knowledge—“Western” and “indigenous”—be so clearly differentiated? It disregards internal heterogeneity. § The knowledges that fill the conceptual boxes marked “indigenous” or “Western” are not monolithic. § Different indigenous and Western knowledges possess “…specific histories, particular burdens from the past, and distinctive patterns of change” (Agrawal 1995, p. 421). “Any one world is always, also, a radical heterogeneity which radiates out in a tissue of differences that undoes the initial identity.” (McCabe 1998, p. xvii). It assumes that indigenous and Western knowledges are separate and fixed in time and space.* § This would require the two forms of knowledge to have totally divorced historical sequences of change—a condition the evidence doesn’t support. § Contact and exchange among different cultures was a fact of life from as early as thousands of years ago. § Sometimes when people adhere to particular ideologies (esp. notions of racial superiority) they have attempted to suppress this history of cross-cultural interaction and the cross fertilisation of knowledge between cultural communities. *“Separate” in the sense of being independent; “fixed” as in being unchanging. Module Two An example of this… Bernal argues that classical civilization has deep roots in Afro-Asiatic cultures. These Afro-Asiatic influences, however, have been systematically ignored, denied, or suppressed since the Eighteenth Century— chiefly because of the influence of ideas of racial inferiority. As a result, Bernal argues, Ancient Greece is often viewed as an essentially European or “Aryan” phenomena, when in fact it was the product of successive waves of contact, variation, transformation and exchange from Africa and Asia as well. Martin Bernal (1987) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, New Brunswick: Rutgers Uni Press. “For 18th-and 19th-century Romantics and racists it was simply intolerable for Greece, which was seen not merely as the epitome of Europe but also as its pure childhood, to have been the result of the mixture of native Europeans and colonizing Africans and Semites. Therefore the Ancient Model had to be overthrown and replaced by something more acceptable.” Martin Bernal (1987) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, New Brunswick: Rutgers Uni Press, p. 2. INDS130 Module Two Indigenous and Western knowledge systems have not been totally independent of each other or unchanging. § The evidence shows that the view that indigenous and Western knowledge were untouched by each other is fundamentally problematic. § The historical record suggests contact, variation, transformation, exchange, communication, and the cross fertilization of knowledge over the last several centuries. § Certainly, what we classify as “indigenous knowledge” today, has been in intimate interaction with Western knowledge since at least the fifteenth century. It is difficult to clearly distinguish between “Western” and “Indigenous” knowledge systems on the basis of: Significant differences in subject matter; Methodological and epistemological differences; and/or Contextual differences. Nevertheless, we can turn our analytical attention to the indigenous people who both produce and consume that knowledge. Focus How has the knowledge and the understandings of the world produced by indigenous people been studied and represented? How and why do particular knowledge systems achieve legitimacy and authority at the expense of other knowledge systems? 17 Module Two The Each challenge of these terms carries different implications, • and “Indigeneity” there is is considerable often connect d debate about which one is the with most n tions appropriate. of ‘cultur l purity’ and ‘tradition’ that lock “Traditional” indigenous peoples Knowledge? in the past. • • These The word ideas ‘traditional’ are like a lens places the emphasis on cultural continuity through and the which transmission many of of us knowledge view over time. the world. Often ignores, however, the way indigenous societies critique and We revaluate look out knowledge at the world and adapt that knowledge to changing through circumstances. these ideas with little understanding about how deeply they are affecting our vision. 18 Week Two Our views of indigenous people, and what they know, are shaped by a number of ‘paradigms’ or ways of thinking. We will focus on three of those paradigms in this module*: *NB We will look at the influence of ‘race’ thinking, social Darwinism, eugenics and ‘Orientalism’ in the next two modules. “Paradigms are the lens through which we look at the world and it therefore determines what we perceive. A paradigm is a set of beliefs or assumptions we make about the world, normally beneath the level of awareness and therefore mostly never questioned.” Ralph D. Stacey (1996) Complexity and Creativity in Organizations, San Francisco : Berrett-Koehler Publishers, p. 257. What is “essentialism”? The reduction of a range of complex phenomena to a narrow set of elements or features which are then taken to be the defining features of an individual or group. § Assumes that all individuals in a group share the same essential features and characteristics. § It ignores any variations between individuals. § It also excludes other characteristics of that individual or group that don’t fit the key elements originally identified. INDS130 Module Two 21 What is “essentialism”? How is this expressed? § The view that categories of people, such as women and men, or heterosexuals and homosexuals, or members of ethnic groups, have intrinsically different and characteristic natures or dispositions. Examples Essentialism often pops up throughout our day-to-day lives. For instance, “boys will be boys”, or the idea that women are inherently better parents because they have “maternal instincts,” are both based on the logic of essentialism. The same logic is behind the belief that Muslims are inherently violent or prone to terrorism. There is a good chance that if someone is making broad over-generalizations about a whole group of people, or arguing that there are natural biological differences between social groups, they are being essentialist. 22 Essentialism and the colonial “other” § Colonial discourses relied heavily on such essentialisms. § In a host of scholarly and literary works, the colonized were described as inferior, irrational, depraved and childlike. § In European writings, for instance, Africans were consistently essentialized as savage, primitive, superstitious and hypersexed. § These became the characteristic features of all Africans, and there was no reference to the rich folklore, music, oral literature, religion or philosophies of the African continent. § Any African individual would therefore be expected to possess these properties by virtue of being an African. 23 “Essentialism served a crucial purpose for colonial administrators. It fixed the colonial subject in an unalterable condition, with no variations and therefore would offer no surprises. The colonial comes to acquire comprehensive knowledge of the native through such an essentialism. Cultural categories such as ‘inferior’ or ‘pre-modern’ races were essentialisms that then enabled the colonial to prepare policies based on these ‘core’ features of the native subject.” Pramod K. Nayar (2015) The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary, New York: John Wiley & Sons, p. 68. What is “eco-primitivism”? § Indigeneity is strongly associated with notions of idealized simplicity and ecological belonging (i.e. indigenous people being an intrinsic part of the landscape, intimately linked to the ecology of the country like trees and rivers and animals). § How do you think that these “primitivist” ideologies may enable and/or constrain Indigenous agency? § If Indigenous peoples don’t express themselves in these easily recognisable ways they are all too often treated as being ‘inauthentic’ or fake. 25 “In an indigenous context this essentialist authenticity involves a semiotic (code) of the prehistoric. Such a signification inscribes indigeneity as a historical artifact far removed from contemporary life. Activities or identities, thus, that fall outside of this narrow backward looking classification are deemed unauthentic, impure, or phony. Indigenous knowledge in this essentialist configuration is caught in the prehistoric, stationary, and unchanging web that is ever separate from non-indigenous information.” L. Semali & J. L. Kincheloe (1999) What is indigenous knowledge?: Voices from the academy, New York: Falmer Press, p. 23. § In art and literature, the idealization of indigenous peoples were chiefly used as a rhetorical device to criticize aspects of European society. § “Primitive peoples” were said to be closer to the sources of poetry and artistic inspiration than “civilized” or “modern” men and women. § This underpins the utopian idea of the Noble Savage; an idealized indigene, outsider, or “other” who has not been “corrupted” by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanitys innate goodness. § The glorification of the Noble Savage is a dominant theme in the Romantic writings of the 18th and 19th centuries. INDS130 Module Two 27 The Noble Savage In its first incarnation, the noble savage was a shorthand term for the idealized European vision of the inhabitants of the New World. • “…the land belonged to all, just like the sun and water. Mine and thine, the seeds of all evils, do not exist for those people... They live in a golden age,... in open gardens, without laws or books, without judges, and they naturally follow goodness.” – Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, writing from the New World in 1500, cited in Hemming, John (1978), Red gold: The conquest of the Brazilian Indians, London: MacMillan. 28 The Noble Savage It presupposes that before technology and development, men and women were living in an innocent and harmonious state with nature. For many Europeans, indigenous communities were dwellers in an earthly “Garden of Eden”. • “…all are equal in every respect, and so in harmony with their surroundings that they all live justly and in conformity with the laws of nature.” – Gandavo, Pero De Magalhães. The Histories of Brazil. 1922. p. 92. INDS130 Module Two 29 From Noble Savages to eco-primitivism This older idea that Indigenous people lived in conformity with nature, has inspired this centurys reincarnation of the ‘noble savage’. The writings of a number of scientists and indigenous rights advocates have revived the assumption that indigenous people lived in balance with their environment. Prominent conservationists have also emphasised the way indigenous people “lived in close harmony with the environment. 30 § Often expressed as a form of cultural and artistic “primitivism”. § It originates in an older tradition of primitivizing and romanticizing the experiences of indigenous people or ethnic minorities and raiding their culture and contemporary experience as a remedy for their dissatisfaction with dominant societal values and beliefs. § These “dissidents” often don’t recognise their own complicity in perpetuating racist ideologies. INDS130 Module Two 31 Jack Kerouac, leading figure in the literary movement known as the Beat Generation in the 1950s. § A generation of writers who became known for experimenting with literary form and depicting explicit subject matter such as sex, drugs, and hedonism, which made them highly controversial in their day. § They liberally appropriated forms of cultural expression from Native Americans and African-Americans that they believed were more alive, vital, and honest. Best known examples of Beat literature: Allen Ginsberg, Howl (1956) William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch (1959) Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957) “Romantic Primitivism” § Many felt limited by, or alienated from, mainstream society, and sought influences from other cultures as a form of rebellion. § They contrasted this with what they perceived as the fake, impotent, and artificial forms of literature emanating from the establishment. § Forerunners of the counterculture movement of the 1960s. INDS130 Module Two Norman Mailer (US Novelist). Jazz enthusiast. Created his concept of what it meant to be “hip”, or a member of the white urban counterculture, largely on his perception of the culture f urban African-Americans (with whom the jazz expression “hip”, meaning “in the know”, originated). Articulated his vision in an essay entitled, “The White Negro”. INDS130 Module Two 35 Mailer, considered himself an opponent f Victorian sexual repression and regimentation. Idealized what he saw as the sexual and other freedoms of minority and ther counter-cultural groups. Hyper-sexualization of the ‘other’ The perception of indigenous people as hyper-sexualized and uncivilized is deeply entrenched in colonial narratives. • Anne McClintock (1995), Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest, Routledge: New York. 37 INDS130 Module Two The dangers of “Romantic Primitivism”? § When people buy into such romanticization, they often attempt to censor “alien” presences and restore the indigene to a “pure” pre colonial cosmos. § This ignores the facts that all cultures (especially colonized ones) are perpetually in a state of change. § The premise that indigenous peoples were isolated from the rest of the world until European conquest and colonization is a myth that must be challenged along with other essentialist ideas about indigenous cultural purity. 38 Example? Salvage anthropology –promotes a fossilised vision of indigeneity which is regurgitated over and over again. § Primarily interested in describing and analysing peoples with minimal European contact. § Obsession with what were seen as “primitive” cultures and especially on the “pristine” and “pure” indigenous “other”. § It viewed Aboriginal people in the south-east as inauthentic, as people who had lost their “Aboriginal” culture and had only a fragmented memory of their (past) culture. 39 INDS207 Week One James Luna (Luiseño Indian) is a performance and installation artist 40 (http://www.jamesluna.com/mainmenu/) Summary The lens we choose, can transform the way we look at things. § ‘Primitivist’ ideas freeze indigenous peoples in the past . § Indigenous cultures therefore tend to be depicted as static and unchanging. § Because of this, Indigenous knowledge systems are too often viewed as sacred relics, fixed in the past and of little relevance to the contemporary world. http://www.1491s.com/ INDS130 Module Two 41 Summary § It tends to reproduce essentialist notions of indigeneity based on idealized and romantic ideas of indigenous people being natural and free—uncorrupted by civilization. § Europeans, however, tend to be associated with reason and modernity. § If indigenous people are frozen in the past, the knowledge they produce and consume is also caught in this prehistoric, static, and unchanging web. § This partially explains why indigenous knowledge systems are too often viewed as of little relevance to the contemporary world. 43