Indigenous Knowledge, Technology Blending and Gender Implications

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In the process of industrialization, indigenous (local) knowledge is often devalued relative to the ‘modern’ knowledge and technologies that develop to serve the needs of the new commodity-generating economy. In developing countries, it is often the case that men and ethnic majorities gravitate toward the emerging modern sector, whereas women, ethnic minorities and others remain more on the margins of the new economy. This may allow those at the margins to retain indigenous knowledge long after it has been lost by others and, in fact, the sudden commercial interest in indigenous knowledge often targets women and indigenous groups who are furthest removed from the industrial economy as potential sources of local knowledge.

Technology blending (combining indigenous knowledge with ‘modern’ knowledge and technologies) represents one means of applying and extending local knowledge. This paper examines how technology blending has been used historically in East Asia, and how women’s organizations are currently—and might even more in the future—use technology blending as a means of providing cultural and intellectual continuity, and as a means of generating self-sustaining livelihoods. It focuses in particular on botanical/agroforestry knowledge, craft-based knowledge, and medical knowledge and practices as fields in which technology blending has been successfully applied.¹