Skip to main content
Log in

Traditional knowledge in a time of crisis: climate change, culture and communication

  • Special Feature: Original Article
  • Weaving Indigenous and Sustainability Sciences to Diversify Our Methods (WIS2DOM)
  • Published:
Sustainability Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Science as it has come to be defined in Western thought is at the root of our current environmental problems. This article reviews the historical trajectory of specific facets in Western thought, including the disenchantment of nature, the apotheosis of reason, the technological domination of nature, and the Puritan temper. Illuminating this history points out that what is called “rational” and what popularly acceptable as “science” is in fact a by-product of specific historical, cultural, and political circumstances, and has produced a culture of “scientism” that is ideological, not value-free, and is in fact contrary to the open inquiry of science. These ideas are linked to economic rationality, colonialism, and human rights, severing modern humans from our Indigenous roots and fostering an ideology of rapacious environmental exploitation. The author proposes “indigeneity” as embracing the holistic knowledge and wisdom found in traditional cultures while also utilizing the advances in science and other areas of human endeavor. Specifically, the paper argues for bringing about a new cultural discourse that helps reshape human behavior into a more sustainable direction. The role of communication and storytelling is emphasized, with an example given in the story of Polynesian voyaging and the five values of the voyaging canoe.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Copernican astronomy is heliocentric, posing that the Sun is stationary with the Earth and other planets moving around it. This was considered heresy to the traditional Ptolomaic notion that the Earth was the center with the sun and the planets revolving around it.

  2. “Sir Isaac Newton,” Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/413189/Sir-Isaac-Newton/12246/Influence-of-the-scientific-revolution. Accessed 5 Jan 2015.

  3. Weber is quoted in Greisman (1976).

  4. See for example Long (1948), Deloria Jr. (2006). Francis Bacon himself considered “magic” to be a science of understanding matter's hidden virtues, but his focus on magic has largely been ignored.

  5. National Academy of Engineering (2015) “Petroleum Technology History Part 1—Background”. http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3677. Accessed January 9, 2015.

  6. While such sentiment is not so overt in the writings of the late eighteenth century explorers, it becomes much more clear in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Commodore Wilkes’ (1845) journal of the United States Exploring Expedition is an excellent example.

  7. While I am discussing human rights in the broadest sense, there are sub-areas within the human rights arena that approach the issue more holistically, including the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the United Farmworkers Union.

  8. See, for example, the work of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy in promoting wind energy.

  9. I am drawing on Sundberg’s (2014) reading of Kuokkanen.  See also Shaw et al. (2006) for a critique of the Indigenous-Western binary.

  10. See also Nisbett 1999.

  11. The Polynesian Voyaging Society, with whom I worked closely, espouses six values which are similar to the five I propose. See http://www.pvs-hawaii.com/about.htm. I had derived mine before learning of theirs, but those I worked with there approved of my five.

References

  • Amundson R (1982) Science, ethnoscience, and ethnocentrism. Philos Sci 49(2):236–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Argonne National Laboratory (2015) Complex adaptive systems. http://www.dis.anl.gov/exp/cas/index.html. Accessed 9 Jan 2015

  • Baker J, Allyson R, Jennifer W (2011) Native science: a primer for science teachers.” Retrieved from: http://ctabobandung.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/ns-primer.pdf

  • Barnard A (2006) Kalahari revisionism, Vienna and the ‘indigenous peoples’ debate. Soc Anthropol 14(1):1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell D (1972) The cultural contradictions of capitalism. In: Proceedings of Journal of Aesthetic Education, 6- 1/2, Special Double Issue: Capitalism, Culture, and Education, pp 11–38

  • Besecke K (2001) Speaking of meaning in modernity: reflexive spirituality as a cultural resource. Soc Relig 62(3):365–381

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bostrom N (2011) A history of transhumanist thought. In: Michael R, Lisa C (eds) Academic Writing Across the Disciplines, New York: Pearson Longman, Section available online at http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf

  • Burlingame B (2008) The fifth wonder: Iolani palace. Honolulu Star Bulletin 13(94). http://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/04/03/features/story02.html. Accessed 10 Jan 2015

  • Cajete G (2000) Native science: natural laws of interdependence. Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe

    Google Scholar 

  • Callicott JB (2013) A neo presocratic manifesto. Environ Humanit 2:169–186

    Google Scholar 

  • Castree N, Nash C (2006) Posthuman geographies. Soc Cult Geogr 7(4):501–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman CL, Herman D (2010) Ways of knowing: ‘naked science’ or native wisdom. In: Proceedings of National Museum of the American Indian Magazine, Winter 2010, pp 28–33

  • de Certeau M (1984) The practice of everyday life Berkeley et al. University of California Press

  • Deloria PJ (1998) Playing Indian. Yale University Press

  • Deloria V Jr. (2006) The world we used to live. In: Remembering the powers of the medicine men. Fulcrum Publishing

  • Dupre L (2004) The enlightenment and the intellectual foundations of modern culture. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler J (2011) The concept of indigeneity: can the declaration of the rights of indigenous people be understood within western liberal philosophy? Queensland Law Student Rev 4(1):36–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Franklin A (2007) Posthumanism. In: George R (ed) Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405124331_chunk_g978140512433122_ss1-71. Accessed 10 Jan 2015

  • Ginn F (2014) Post-humanism. In: The International Encyclopedia of Geography, Wiley- Blackwell. https://franklinginn.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/post-humanism.pdf

  • Golay C, Ioana C (2010) Legal opinion: the right to property from a human rights perspective. ICHRDD and ADH Genève

  • Grampp William D (1948) Adam smith and the economic man. J Polit Econ 56(4):315–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greisman HC (1976) ‘Disenchantment of the world’: romanticism, aesthetics and sociological theory. Br J Sociol 27(4):495–507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardin Garrett (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, New Series 162(3859):1243–1248

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hauser-Schäublin B (ed) (2013) Adat and indigeneity in Indonesia: culture and entitlements between heteronomy and self-ascription. Göttingen Studies in Cultural Property, vol 7

  • Hayek FA (1955) The counter-revolution of science: studies on the abuse of reason. Collier-Macmillan Limited, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Herman RDK (2008) Reflections on the Importance of indigenous Geography. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 32(3):73–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herman RDK (2013) In the canoe: intersections in space, time, and becoming. In: Larsen Soren, Johnson Jay T (eds) A deeper sense of place: stories and journeys of collaboration in indigenous research. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, pp 55–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson I (2011) Monopolizing knowledge. Fias Publishing

  • Jacobs HM (2013) Private property and human rights: a mismatch in the 21st century? Int J Soc Welfare 22(Issue Supplement S1):S85–S101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson Jay T, Murton Brian (2007) Re/placing native science: indigenous voices in contemporary constructions of nature. Geograph Res 45(2):121–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kekes J (1983) Wisdom. Am Philosop Quart 20(3):277–286

    Google Scholar 

  • Leach WR (1994) Land of desire: merchants, power, and the rise of a new American culture. Vintage Books

  • Lewallen Ann-Elise (2003) Strategic “Indigeneity” and the possibility of a global indigenous women’s movement. Michigan Feminist Studies 17:105–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Long MF (1948) The Secret Science Behind Miracles. DeVorss & Company

  • Loury E (2012) Q&A: what can indigenous people tell us about climate change? Science Magazine. http://news.sciencemag.org/2012/02/qa-what-can-indigenous-people-tell-us-about-climate-change. Accessed 19 Feb 2012

  • Maxwell N (1984) From knowledge to wisdom: a revolution in the aims and methods of science. Basil Blackwell Inc, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehta N (2011) Mind-body dualism: a critique from a health perspective. Mens Sana Monographs 9(1):202–209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbet M (1999) The phantom menace of superstition in film and television. Skeptical Inquirer, http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/phantom_menace_of_superstition_in_film_and_television/

  • O’Sullivan D (2006) Needs, rights, nationhood, and the politics of indigeneity. MAI Rev 1:1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom E (1990) Governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press

  • Panelli R (2010) More-than-human social geographies: posthuman and other possibilities. Prog Hum Geogr 34(1):79–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peperzak A (1995) Life, science, and wisdom according to descartes. Hist Philos Q 12(2):133–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Plumwood V (1991) Nature, self, and gender: feminism, environmental philosophy, and the critique of rationalism. Hypatia 6(1):3–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plumwood V (2009) Nature in the active voice. Aust Humanit Rev 46. http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-May-2009/plumwood.html

  • Pratt ML (1992) Imperial eyes: travel writing and transculturation. Routledge

  • Reydon TAC (2012) Philosophy of technology. Int Encycl Philos. http://www.iep.utm.edu/technolo/. Accessed 8 Jan 2015

  • Robbins RH (1999) Global problems and the culture of capitalism, 1st edn. Pearson Publishers. http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/richard.robbins/legacy/chap_1_intro.html

  • Scribner RW (1993) The reformation, popular magic, and the ‘Disenchantment of the World’. J Interdiscip History 23:475

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw WS, Herman RDK, Rebecca Dobbs G (2006) Encountering indigeneity: re-imagining and decolonizing geography. Geogr Ann 88B(3):267–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skirry J (2006) René Descartes: the mind-body distinction, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/descmind/. Accessed 7 Jan 2015

  • Sundberg J (2014) Decolonizing posthumanist geographies. Cult Geogr 21(1):33–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swing D (1889) Will reason exterminate christianity? North Am Rev 393(149):196–204

    Google Scholar 

  • Turnbull D (2007) Maps narratives and trails: performativity, hodology and distributed knowledges in complex adaptive systems—an approach to emergent mapping. Geogr Res 45(2):140–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Washington Post (2013) The 10 best PSAs of all time. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-10-best-psas-of-all-time/2013/09/13/10cb0ebe-1bf2-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_gallery.html

  • Weber M (1930) The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Routledge, London

  • White L (1967) The historical roots of our ecologic crisis. Science 155(3767):1203–1207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wildcat DR (2009) Red alert! saving the planet with indigenous knowledge. Fulcrum, Golden

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkes C (1845) Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, vol I & IV. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, The Gregg Press reprint: Ridgewood

  • Williams RN (2015) Introduction. In: Robinson DN, Williams RN (eds) Scientism: the new orthodoxy. pp 1–22

  • Zimmer C (2013) Genes are us. And them. Natl Geogr. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/125-explore/shared-genes

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. D. K. Herman.

Additional information

Handled by Jay T. Johnson, The University of Kansas, USA.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Herman, R.D.K. Traditional knowledge in a time of crisis: climate change, culture and communication. Sustain Sci 11, 163–176 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-015-0305-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-015-0305-9

Keywords

Navigation