CHANGING APPROACHES TO INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Ngo Thi Puong Lan (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City)

Humaniora
Vol 27, No 2 (2015)

Prevailing views on indigenous knowledge (IK) rely on a binary contrast between indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge (SK), where the former is either dismissed as backward or judged superior in terms of its sustainability. I assert instead that we must examine the specific conditions under which people invoke indigenous and/or scientific forms of knowledge. Based on an ethnographic study of the IK of two Mon-Khmer speaking ethnic minority populations, the Xtiêng and the Mạ, in Binh Phuoc province of Vietnam, conducted in 2012 and 2013, this paper re-examines the definition of IK, exploring the relationship between IK and scientific knowledge (SK), and analyzing the changing nature of IK in the present context. In so doing, I suggest that IK is not a static body of knowledge but depends substantively on socio-economic conditions. In local people’s daily lives, they both use IK and SK as resources for navigating their changing life-worlds.