13.2 Types of Indigenous Knowledge
While IK research originally emphasized indigenous technical
knowledge of the environment, it is now accepted that the concept of IK goes
beyond this narrow interpretation. IK is now considered to be cultural
knowledge in its broadest sense, including all of the social, political,
economic and spiritual aspects of a local way of life. Sustainable development
researchers, however, have found the following categories of IK to be of
particular interest:
- resource management knowledge and
the tools,
- techniques, practices and rules
related to pastoralism,
- agriculture, agro-forestry, water
management and the gathering of wild food;
- classification systems for plants,
animals, soils, water and weather;
- empirical knowledge about flora,
fauna and inanimate resources and their practical uses;
- and the worldview or way the local
group perceives its relationship to the natural world.
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