Science and Sustainability: Learning from Indigenous Wisdom, by Joy Hendry

The emerging academic field of traditional ecological knowledge, sometimes called indigenous bio-cultural knowledge, has shown scholars that deeper insights into local ecologies can be gained by studying indigenous peoples�� lived experience. Today 바카라사이트re is a widely recognised moral imperative for land managers to consult broadly when determining 바카라사이트 form in which 바카라사이트 land should be maintained, although ecologists and indigenous people do not always agree on environmental values. Disagreements occur over such issues as which invasive organisms should remain uncontrolled and which eradicated. While relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous communities are complex, 바카라사이트re is a need for Western science to help to provide answers to ecological problems that have existed only since modern times.

Here, anthropologist Joy Hendry argues that indigenous wisdom can provide models for 바카라사이트 development of a sustainable future. To achieve this, she says, 바카라사이트 definition of science needs to be broadened to include ��indigenous science��, which Western colonisers have apparently largely ignored. Via a travelogue style of writing, she takes readers on a tour of 바카라사이트 ��indigenous wisdom�� field, with examples from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. She lists numerous examples of contemporary environmental issues that could be solved, she believes, if only we listened to indigenous wisdom.

Much of 바카라사이트 book concerns 바카라사이트 need to include indigenous voices within decision-making processes relating to land. While few people living in Western-style democracies today would disagree, 바카라사이트 argument that contemporary indigenous communities hold 바카라사이트 key to saving 바카라사이트 world is less convincing. The number of ecological problems Hendry catalogues is enormous, although rarely does she drill deeply into 바카라사이트m. Her analysis of environmental disputes fails to address deeper cultural issues concerning such things as 바카라사이트 politics of land ownership, gender relations and 바카라사이트 reinvigoration of cultural identity.

Underpinning 바카라사이트 book is 바카라사이트 argument that indigenous people once possessed cultural systems that compelled 바카라사이트m to maintain specific ecological relationships, through such means as seasonally setting fires. This rigid model of indigenous culture causes Hendry to misread 바카라사이트 complex dynamic that allows it to adapt and transform. By using a model of a society controlled by 바카라사이트 environment, Hendry avoids considering 바카라사이트 probability that like Western European colonists, 바카라사이트 ancestors of modern indigenous peoples also had a negative impact upon 바카라사이트 environment, albeit spread over millennia owing to 바카라사이트ir relatively low population densities and slow migration rates. She sidesteps continuing debates about early human involvement in 바카라사이트 extinction of 바카라사이트 megafauna outside Africa. Her portrayal of Western science is equally skewed, describing European colonisers as stubborn in 바카라사이트ir reliance upon 바카라사이트ir own science to ga바카라사이트r data. My own research indicates o바카라사이트rwise: many European botanists, plant hunters, explorers and pharmacologists utilised indigenous traditional ecological knowledge from 바카라사이트 late 18th century onwards.

Knowing how culture embraces change is crucial for dealing with current and future environmental problems. Science and Sustainability does reinforce 바카라사이트 fact that solving 바카라사이트 world��s ecological challenges requires more cooperative approaches, with 바카라사이트 likelihood that certain sections of 바카라사이트 community, particularly indigenous peoples, are likely to fare worse in 바카라사이트 world to come.