Indigenous knowledge: searching for a model of sustainable development for humankind

Abstract

Many people are now searching for a way to sustain development while balancing the relationships between humans, society and nature. The Commission on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development, a group within the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, has been searching for solutions to this problem in the knowledge and wisdom of indigenous people. A history of the work of this panel shows that scholars from all over the world have presented different perspectives and studies of peoples of many times and places who have found ways to sustain their lives and their environments.

Keywords:

• folk culture
• cultural heritage
• sustainability
• renewable resources
• nature

A history of humankind has shown only too well that each generation has had its own successes and failures when using nature and pursuing activities that support life, on a regional and global level. Local discoveries from the past have been found to be important now for the living, just as they were for ancient populations. Industrial and post-industrial epochs illustrate this: while there have been great results from using and transforming natural resources for the creation of well-equipped surroundings, at the same time there has always been the danger of systemic crises caused by the limited availability of natural resources. Problems related to finding and using renewable resources, human health and ecological conditions changing for the worse are distinctive characteristics of the twenty-first century. In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) declared that it is essential for survival that ways be found for development that are sustainable and that guarantee favourable interaction between humankind and nature for future generations. “Agenda 21”, adopted at this conference, focused on the necessity of new solutions for problems concerning the relationship between nature and humankind, mentioning interdisciplinary research as a positive way to search for solutions to existing problems and citing as a goal a “balance between nature and humankind”.

In a multidisciplinary scientific approach to resolving these problems, ethnologists have an original and unique part to play in looking for data which could be useful for changing the situation for the better. Folk/indigenous pre-industrial societies had different relationships with nature than modern societies, and carried out life-supporting activities under a regime that was constantly mindful of nature and used it sparingly. They did not possess the elaborate technologies that permitted them to ignore nature's own requirements.

This issue was of cardinal importance in the creation of the Commission on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development under the auspices of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES). The Commission was founded in 1998, at the 14th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (ICAES) in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. The 14th ICAES was the last global ethnological and anthropological meeting of the twentieth century. It marked the future of our science and the theme of the programme was “The Twenty-First Century: The Century of Anthropology”. The Chairpersons of the Commission (Dr Dorothy Billings, Department of Anthropology, Wichita State University, USA and Dr Viacheslav Rudnev, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia) were elected at a meeting held in the James Room at the College of William and Mary on 30 July 1998.

Both had considerable experience in the topics of the Commission. Dr Dorothy Billings is a specialist in the history and culture of peoples of the Pacific area, especially Melanesia (Billings, 1991); and Dr Viacheslav Rudnev is a specialist in the problems of folk culture, particularly the peoples of Europe and Asia, who focus on ethnometeorology and other aspects of indigenous experience when using nature to support life (Rudnev, 1990).

Two important ethnological conferences preceded the formal recognition of the IUAES Commission. The International Conference on Ethnic Traditional Culture and Folk Knowledge (Moscow, Russia, 21–24 March 1994; Viacheslav Rudnev, Programme Chair, organized this event with the support of UNESCO and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research) was one of the global ethnological meetings toward the end of the twentieth century that provided evidence that ethnological data is urgently needed for solving current problems. Folk and indigenous societies learned how to integrate renewable resources at an optimum level into their traditional cultures. Ethnologists from Europe, Asia and America focused attention on the significance of folk knowledge and folk experiences and presented various models of harmony in human–nature–society systems (“Ethnic”, 1994).

Another important ethnological event was the session on “Cultures and Sustainable Development for Humankind in the Twenty-First Century” (Chairpersons: Dorothy Kay Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) organized at the 14th ICAES in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA (28 July–1 August 1998). This was one of the largest sessions in the 14th ICAES programme. The participants of the session (ethnologists from Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, USA and others) gave more than 20 lectures and presented a wide survey of perspectives on different aspects of the problems of sustainability on the basis of ethnological data (ICAES, 1998).

This session became the inaugural session of the Commission on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development. The Commission, after 1998, took the lead in organizing sessions (and panes) such as: a session on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development (Chairperson: Rudnev Viacheslav) at the IUAES Inter-congress in Gottingen, Germany (IUAES Inter-congress, 2001); a session on Indigenous Knowledge and Problems of Sustainability (Chairpersons: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the IUAES Inter-congress in Tokyo, Japan, in 2002 (IUAES, 2002); a session on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development (Chairpersons: Dorothy Kay Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the 15th Congress of the IUAES in Florence, Italy, in 2003 (IUAES, 2003); a session on “Sustainability: Village Views, City Views” (Chairpersons: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the IUAES Inter-congress in Kolkata, India, in 2004 (“Mega” 2004); a panel on “Folk Wisdom and Transcending Society” (Chairpersons: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the Joint Conference of Anthropology Southern Africa, the Pan African Anthropological Association and IUAES in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2006 (ASA, PAAA, & IUAES, 2006); a session on “Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development” (Chairpersons: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the 16th World Congress of the IUAES in Kunming, China, 2009 (IUAES, 2009); a session on “Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development” (Chairperson: Viacheslav Rudnev) at the IUAES Inter-congress in Belek, Antalya, Turkey, in 2010 (IUAES, 2010); a session on “Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development” (Convenors: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the IUAES/Australian Anthropological Society (AAS)/Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa/New Zealand (ASAANZ) Conference 2011 in Perth, Australia (IUAES/AAS/ASAANZ Conference, 2011); a panel on “Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development” (Convenors: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the 17th World Congress of the IUAES in Manchester, UK, in 2013 (IUAES, 2013); a panel on “Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development” (Convenors: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the IUAES Inter-congress in Tokyo, Japan, in 2014 (IUAES, 2014); and a panel on “Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development” (Organizers: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Washington, DC, USA, in 2014 (AAA, 2014).

When discussing a strategy for resolving the present crisis between nature and humankind, the Second United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992) focused on the concept of sustainable development for societies. The basic purpose of this initiative was to work toward a successful relationship between nature and modern societies in the interests of present and future generations. Sustainability has been defined as the satisfying of today's needs without undermining the satisfaction of the needs of subsequent generations. The complexity of such a task has drawn from research conducted by a broad range of fields, such as economy, ecology, education, law, medicine, energy, agronomics, and the natural and social sciences, covering nature and society. Only an interdisciplinary approach of this kind will suffice to face the complexity and importance of the task. A holistic analysis of indigenous/folk experiences in using nature, which is central to ethnologic science, is important in this context.

Society's interest in traditional folk/indigenous culture increased considerably toward the end of the twentieth century. The introduction of folk technologies (in treatment and diagnostics) in the medical practices of modern man has enhanced this process. Chronologically, society's interest in folk/indigenous knowledge has coincided with a period of active transformations in the environment as a result of industrial society's pressure on nature, and the generation of new approaches in the study of nature and human activities based on wildlife “technologies”.

Ethnologists possess original, unique data in this area. Pre-industrial societies had a different relationship with nature and carried out life-supporting activities under a regime that was constantly mindful of nature and used it sparingly. Such knowledge is urgently needed for dealing with the current problems of human health and renewable resources. Folk societies (particularly indigenous people's economies) have learned how to integrate with local environments at an optimum level based on the conservative use of renewable resources.

There is now a niche in modern society for effective traditional folk technologies. Modern medical practices have adopted phyto remedies (grasses used according to folk recipes) which assist in strengthening the immune system and promoting a neutralization of the negative effects of intensive therapies (for example, the restoration of microflora in the stomach following a course of antibiotics). Farmers utilize past experience for plant protection; seismologists have acquired new information from local folk experience on earthquake prediction techniques; meteorologists, likewise, have learned from indigenous knowledge how to read important signs for predicting forthcoming changes in weather.

Scholars presenting papers to sessions and panels organized by the Commission on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development (IUAES) have focused their attention on several main topics:

• (1) The cultural specificity of indigenous experience in nature–society relationships.

Cultural polymorphism (apparent in the diversity of humankind's achievements in life-supporting activities) is a particularly interesting field for investigation. The sheer variety of national cuisines and folk experiences in diagnosis and the protection of health make this an invaluable source of knowledge. Learning from traditional experiences for the maintenance of harmonious relationships between populations and nature is an important aspect of finding ways to achieve sustainable development (Rudnev, 2003). It is important for anthropologists to study the contribution of indigenous knowledge to sustainable development (Billings, 2011). The results of special investigations into these topics have been presented in lectures by Dorothy Billings (USA), Buddhadeb Chaudhuri (India), Paul Sillitoe (UK), Brunetto Chiarelli (Italy), Tomoko Hamada (USA), Rajko Mursic (Slovenia), Ethel Vesper (USA), Viacheslav Rudnev (Russia), Scott Simon (Canada), Behera Kumar (India), David Blundel (USA), Marina Martynova (Russia), Emmanuel Das (India), Anna Kostina (Russia), Bernard Virginie (France), Petr Skalnik (Czech Republic), Boris Markov (Russia), Khalid Younis (Iraq, UN), Valeria Vasilkova (Russia), Gudrun Dahl (Sweden), De Silva Deema (USA), Elena Fursova (Russia), Helen Johnson (Australia), Debashis Debnath (India) and others.

• (2) Life-support activities (health protection, housekeeping, alimentation, education and so forth).

Indigenous knowledge of the use of plants has been acknowledged as important for solving modern health problems (Sebestyen, 2003). Investigations into indigenous African pastoralist technology in the use of local plants for maintaining animal health and productivity revealed the positive effects of many of these plants, which have now been incorporated in modern veterinary medicine (Gefu, 2001). Earthen architecture as a sustainable alternative for house construction is both practical and effective in low-income countries (Daneels, 2011). The results of special investigations on these topics have been presented in lectures by Zhanna Pataky (USA), Elena Fursova (Russia), Ludmila Nikonova (Russia), Teresa Weitzhofer (Austria), Annick Daniels (Mexico), Linda Davis-Stephens (USA), Emanuel Das (India), Oleg Backsansky (Russia), Nadezda Grigulevich (Russia), Magomedkadi Gasanov (Russia), Aleksandr Gavrilov (Russia), Arkady Fedotov (Russia), Geoffrey Nwaka (Nigeria), Nataliya Ikonnikova (Russia), Tatiana Mastugina (Russia), Maria Vasekha (Russia), Meera Swain (India) and others.

• (3) Traditions and modernization.

Researching the role of traditions in processes of modernization is an important aspect of intercultural dialogue. There is definitely a need to bridge the gap between the past and the future, and fully understanding traditions is important in modern life. The Udmurt people continue to preserve their traditional folk calendar today. Cultural processes will also continue if the traditional folk calendar is preserved and practised (Minniyakhmetova, 2011). The results of special investigations on these topics have been presented in lectures by Inga-Lill Aronsson (Sweden), Petr Simonic (Slovenia), Boris Markov (Russia), Nikolay Mintchev (UK), Rebecca Stephenson (USA), Maj-Britt Andersson (Sweden), Hiro Kurashina (USA), Thomas Iverson (USA), Alexey Nikishenko (Russia), Brian Bennett (USA) and others.

• (4) Jurisdiction and law.

One of the actual problems today is how indigenous rights can be advanced through existing mechanisms and the application of customary international law (Phillips, 2011). The results of special investigations on this topic have been presented in lectures by James Phillips (USA), Susan Hascall (USA), Castro Lucic (Chile), Valery Stepanov (Russia) and others.

• (5) Regional factors and cultural heritage.

Local cultural traditions provide exceptional opportunities for comparative research and a better understanding of the interrelationship between cultures, forecasting and directing the future. In Papua New Guinea, for example, the people of Lavongai Island traditionally select people to be the next keepers of local knowledge, myths and legends (Kaiku, 2011). Results of special investigations into these topics have been presented in lectures by Vladimir Podmaskin (Russia), David Ryniker (Canada), P. R. G. Mathur (India), Shen Lin (China), Elena Gushchina (Russia), Yu Luo (China), Asuka Udagawa (Japan) and others.

At the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Washington, DC, December 2014), the 11 papers presented for the session on “Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development” (Organizers: Dorothy Billings and Viacheslav Rudnev) were based on a broad range of knowledge related to traditional ethnographic and archaeological research, ideas for future projects and also on legal research of contemporary data (AAA, 2014).

This panel of the IUAES continues to bring together scholars from all over the world, who learn from one another as well as from the indigenous people, while working to create a future for humankind based on firm bioethical principles.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.