Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor - CiteSeerX

The Indigenous Knowledge

and Development Monitor

promotes the dissemination of

local knowledge as a service

to the international development

community and all scientists

who share a professional interest

in indigenous knowledge systems

and practices. The journal is

published three times a year by

CIRAN—the Centre for

International Research and

Advisory Networks, a department

of Nuffic (Netherlands

organization for international

cooperation in higher education)

as part of its Indigenous

Knowledge Information System.

IndigenousKnowledge andDevelopmentMonitor

E d i t o r i a l

Just before the copy for this issue of the Indigenous Knowledge andDevelopment Monitor was to go to the printer, an interesting call came in.Although it was long past the deadline, in this case we were happy to make anexception. In 2001 the University of North-West in Mafikeng, South Africa, is tointroduce a new interdisciplinary undergraduate and postgraduate degreeprogramme in indigenous knowledge systems. This programme has beenformally accredited by the South African government. For purposes of humanresource capacity-building in teaching and research, the university is nowinterested in obtaining volunteer teaching assistance. (Further information canbe found on page 29.)

This is only one example of the new initiatives being developed in thefield of indigenous knowledge systems in which – and this is an important point– we see a direct link to formal education and research. The broader field ofindigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSP) is also a hive of activity. InAfrica, Asia and Latin America fieldworkers and researchers are teaming upwith local communities to chart their IKSP, examine them in terms ofsustainability, and assess possibilities for improvement. They are increasinglymaking use of local or indigenous knowledge, as well as science and otherknowledge systems. This is an example of ‘the best of both worlds’, for thebenefit of individuals in communities all over the world. More and more, theutilization of all these resources is governed by international and nationalpolicy, and this has already resulted in intriguing new initiatives. In December1999, for example, the Ugandan goverment formulated a National Strategy andFramework of Action for the sustainable application of indigenous knowledge.This has created the necessary conditions for such successful pilots as theNakaseke Community Telecentre Project (see page 27, under CIRAN).

The results of all these initiatives are reflected in each issue of theIndigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor. But the magazine is not ableto publish all the research information contained in the articles, papers andcommunications which are sent to us. There is, of course, a certain selection bymeans of the peer review process, but this still leaves a great deal of interestinginformation, while in each issue there is room for only three to five full-lengtharticles. This time we have attempted to solve the problem by reserving extraspace for research communications. This makes it possible to deal with moretopics – ‘in a nutshell’, as it were – than can be done in the usual articles. Thisissue contains a grand total of seven communications, which has enabled us topublish more of the material which we had on hand. (Please continue to send usyour information and contributions!)

This means that the present issue contains only two regular, full-lengtharticles. The first, by Louis C. Forline, describes and analyzes the use of thebabassu palm among the Guajá of Brazil. Not only does the tribe make use ofmany different parts of the palm, it manages the trees in a sustainable manner.Indeed, their practices may serve as a model within rural development (see pages 3-7).

The second article was written by Mansoor Shahvali, HoushangMoinizadeh, and Mohammad Amiri Ardekani, who report on their research intothe poultry management practices of local women in three provinces in thesouthwest of Iran. It documents why people keep poultry and what breeds areraised, and provides detailed information on the methods of poultry-keeping inrural areas of Iran. The findings will be used to adapt development strategies tothe needs and knowledge of these women (see pages 8-12).

C o n t e n t s

Using and sustaining resources:

the Guajá Indians and the

babassu palm (Attalea speciosa)

Local poultry management

practices in southwest Iran

Parade of research results

Focus on: The Ethnoveterinary

Mailing List

Communications

24 IK Resource centres

28 Calls

30 Conferences

31 Networks

32 Videos

32 Publications

45 Preview

45 Websites

Guest column

by Martin Khor

3

8

13

22

24

48

2 | Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor | Volume 8 | Issue 3 | November 2000

Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor

Since February 1993, the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor (IK&DM) hasbeen promoting the dissemination of local knowledge as a service to the internationaldevelopment community and to all scientists who share a professional interest in indigenousknowledge systems and practices. The journal is an instrument for the exchange of

information required for integrating indigenous knowledge (IK) into global science.

Indigenous or local knowledge is knowledge that is unique to a given culture or society. It isseen to contrast with the knowledge generated within the international system of universities,research institutes and private firms. Indigenous knowledge is used at the local level by

communities in developing countries as the basis for decision-making pertaining to foodsecurity, human and animal health, education, natural resource management, and other vitalactivities.

The IK&DM is published by CIRAN—the Centre for International Research and Advisory

Networks, a department of Nuffic (Netherlands organization for international cooperation inhigher education).

The IK&DM has two main sections. The articles section offers practice-oriented accounts ofresearch into indigenous knowledge systems all over the world. The articles discuss the policy

implications of incorporating IK into development efforts, and make recommendations to thiseffect. The communications section presents news and notices in ten sub-sections: IK resourcecentres; Calls; Conferences; Networks, international organizations; Research, projects;Publications; Mailing lists; Websites; Databases; and Films and audio-visual devices.

The Editorial Board has a majority of members from the developing world. This reflects thejournal’s policy of encouraging contributions from the South. The Indigenous KnowledgeResource Centres in Africa, Latin America and Asia have always played a crucial role inproviding this invaluable, demand-driven input. They continue to mobilize information forpublication in the IK&DM, but their efforts are increasingly being supplemented by those of

other organizations and individuals throughout the world. New channels for the flow ofinformation have opened up as a result of the widespread distribution of the journal indeveloping countries, the growing impact of the Monitor online, and the IndigenousKnowledge Information System which Nuffic-CIRAN has recently started.

Indigenous Knowledge Information SystemThe Indigenous Knowledge Information System provides easy access to information that isrelevant for sustainable development. The idea behind the Indigenous Information System isthat indigenous knowledge can prove widely applicable and valuable only if it is made knownand can be validated around the world. The system at present has the following components:

■ IK pages, offering links to relevant information on indigenous knowledge which can befound on the Internet: http://www.nuffic.nl/ik-pages/. On the IK pages, you will find thefollowing options:

■ IK resources, offering direct information in the form of notices, reports and articles which

can be browsed through and searched online ■ Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor online, offering all issues of the journal

in complete form: http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/ikdm/■ News and announcements dealing with indigenous knowledge systems and practices■ Mailing lists to facilitate discussion and exchanges of information on specific topics such as

biodiversity and animal production and healthcare■ Best Practices on Indigenous Knowledge, a database maintained in cooperation with

UNESCO as part of its MOST programme (Management of Social Transformations) ■ An offline database of professionals and organizations in the Netherlands that are engaged

in development-related research and activities.

Nuffic-CIRAN will continue to build up and develop the IK Information System as a way ofhelping to generate ‘knowledge for development’. This effort is based on the conviction thatsustainable development will be achieved only through a world-wide sharing of informationthat results in blending local knowledge with insights derived from modern science and

technology.

Guus W. von Liebenstein Anna van MarrewijkDirector CIRAN Editor IK&DM

Editorial address

Nuffic-CIRAN, P.O. Box 29777

2502 LT The Hague

The Netherlands

Tel.: +31-70-4260 324

Fax: +31-70-4260 329/4260 399

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/ikdm

Editor

Anna van Marrewijk

Editorial Board

Guus W. von Liebenstein, CIRAN

L. Jan Slikkerveer, LEAD

Claude G. Mararike, Zimbabwe

Landon B. Myer, South Africa

Consuelo Quiroz, Venezuela

Ning Wu, China

M.I. Zuberi, Bangladesh

For the addresses, see p. 47.

Correspondents

See under IK Resource centres,

pp. 23-29.

Subscriptions

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free except for persons living in

the USA, Canada, New Zealand,

Australia, Japan and Europe.

Subscription for USA and

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Subscription for Europe, New

Zealand, Australia and Japan:

NLG 40.

Contributions

The next issue of the Monitor

will appear in March 2001.

Contributions for this issue

should reach the editor before

26 January 2001.

ISSN 0928-1460

Materials from this Monitor may

be reproduced and translated,

provided the author(s), publisher

and source are acknowledged.

The editor would appreciate

receipt of a copy.

The opinions expressed in the

Indigenous Knowledge and

Development Monitor do not

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Nuffic-CIRAN.

© copyright Nuffic-CIRAN and

contributors 2000.

http://www.nuffic.nl/ik-pages/

http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/ikdm/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/ikdm

Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor | Volume 8 | Issue 3 | November 2000 | 3

T he Guajá of the eastern Amazon, whocurrently number about 230 individuals,constitute one of the few remaining hunter-

gatherer cultures on earth. The initial contacts withthese people were made in 1973. The Guajá areTupi-Gurani speakers and presently reside in foursemi-nucleated settlements on the Alto Turiaçu andCaru Indian Reserves in Maranhão state, under theauspices of Brazil’s Indian Service (FUNAI)1 (see Maps1 and 2). There are still an unknown number ofGuajá living in this region who have not beencontacted.

Following their contact with Brazilian societyas such, the Guajá adopted shifting cultivation,employing a farming strategy similar to that oftheir non-Indian neighbours. In this region, shiftingcultivation consists primarily in intercroppingmanioc (both bitter and sweet varieties) and rice,alongside the cultivation of other crops. Rice cannottolerate extended periods of drought, while maniocis sensitive to flooding. The Guajá quickly adjustedto shifting cultivation, which provides more optionsfor subsistence. In the same way, they moved closerto the FUNAI Indian posts, making it easier toobtain the medicines and treatment for introducedailments and diseases. The Guajá still rely onhunting and gathering, frequently trekking fromIndian post villages to temporary hunting camps inthe forest.

The Guajá occupy a region in the easternAmazon which is generally characterized as aseasonally dry tropical forest (cf. Janzen 1988). Thedry season lasts approximately seven months, fromJune to December. Mean annual rainfall rangesfrom 1,900 to 2,000 mm. Although many wouldclassify this region as terra firme (upland forest), itactually exhibits a mosaic of distinct and contiguousecological zones: white-sand vegetation, black-waterecosystems, igapó forests, and secondary forest.

One of the most distinguishing characteristicsof this region is the immense stand of babassupalms (Attalea speciosa; in the literature also referredto as Orbignya matiana or Orbignya phalerata). Knownregionally as cocais, these stands range across anumber of Brazilian states (see map 1), embracingan area of almost 200,000 km2 (May et al. 1985). Overhalf of these palm forests are in Maranhão state,where they occupy about one-third of its territory,or 103,035 km2 (Hecht et al. 1988), an area roughlythe size of the U.S. state of Virginia.

Map 2

Map of Indian Reservesoccupied by Guajá Indians

and adjacent land areas.

Adapted from Coelho 1991.

Illustration by JorgeMardock.

Using and sustaining resources:the Guajá Indians and the babassu palm(Attalea speciosa)

Louis C. Forline

This article discusses the history and present-day distribution of the babassu palm,highlighting the Guajá’s relationship with the tree, and the various ways in which itcontributes to their livelihood. These practices may serve as a model of sustainable useand management.

Map 1Map of Brazil with babassu areas

shaded in. Study area is enlarged inMap 2.

1 The acronym FUNAI stands for Fundação Nacional do

Indio, the government agency charged with administeringindigenous affairs in Brazil.

Adapted from Hecht et al. 1988.Illustration by Jorge Mardock

Guajá shelter (tapiri) thatched with babassu palm fronds.

The hammock to the left is made of tucum fibre (Astrocaryum vulgare)and the fire grill to the right of Cecropia sp. (imbaúba).

Photo: Louis Forline

4 | Indigenous Knowledge andDevelopment Monitor | Volume 8 | Issue 3 | November 2000

Guajá man cracking open babassu fruit with upright axe.

Note that he is positioning the fruit on the axe blade with his left hand,while using a wooden club to crack it open with his other hand.Photo: Louis Forline

Bruchid beetle larvae

(Pachymerus nucleorum)in a hollowed-out babassu fruithusk (to be used as fish bait).


Babassu stands abound in forest successions(see photo). The palm is not only extremely fire-resistant, it has hard, resilient fruits that arecapable of withstanding predation while lying onthe forest floor, awaiting optimal conditions forgermination. Babassu fruit sprouts through aprocess of cryptogeal germination, so that damagedseedlings and juveniles later resprout. Moreover,babassu juveniles (pindovas) can remain in the forestunderstory for as long as 50 years, ultimatelyyielding an accumulation of up to 6,000 plants/ha(Anderson 1983).

Food uses

In pre-colonial Brazil, stands of babassu andburiti palms (Mauritia flexuosa) served as a dietarysupplement for the Tupinambá Indians on the floodplains of Maranhão (Steward 1963). For nomadicgroups such stands were an important source of fueland fiber, and formed a hedge against starvation.When European settlers arrived, this floodplainlandscape was converted to large rice, cotton andsugarcane plantations. This regional economyfolded when slavery was abolished in 1888, leavinglarge tracts of land abandoned. Most of these areaseventually came to be dominated by stands ofbabassu palms, and many communities of freedslaves became dependent on this palm for food,fuel, and fiber. As these communities migratedwestward, babassu stands gradually extended in thesame direction.

The Guajá eat mainly the kernels (nuts) of thebabassu fruit. The fruits average a little over 3 seedskernels each (Anderson & May 1985), which meansthat regional peasants and indigenous groups canrely on babassu as a constant source of food. Fewpredators can access these kernels, as the fruits arevery hard and it takes 5 metric tons of pressure tobreak them. Before contact, the Guajá would place afruit on a semi-concave rock (itá) and strike it with awooden club or another rock to crack it open.Having acquired modern implements, they nowopen the fruits with steel axes (see photo to the left).

Babassu kernels are good sources of oil andprotein, which are often not readily available to thenative populations of Amazonia. Sometimes theGuajá grate or grind the seeds, which are thenmixed with water to prepare ‘babassu milk’. Thekernels are also used as feed for the many pets keptby the Guajá people.2 They chew the seeds first, toform a small mash, which is then fed to the animalsby hand or directly from their mouths. Pets are alsogiven babassu palm hearts, which are extractedfrom its shoots.

The fleshy mesocarp of the fruit is also eatenby the Guajá. This part of the fruit is usuallyprepared by heating it in a fire, after which thestarchy mesocarp is scraped off with a knife ortakwara , a sharp instrument made of bamboo andoften used for arrowheads. The mesocarp can alsobe boiled. There are two species of rodents whichfeed on the mesocarp, pacas (Agouti paca) andagoutis (Dasyprocta punctata), which are also themain dispersal agents of the fruit. Babassu standsfrequently attract these and other game animals,which are hunted by the Guajá.

Other parts of the fruit are rarely eaten,although the Guajá are known to consume sproutson ritual occasions. For example, when Guajá girlsexperience menarche, they are secluded in theirhomes and remain supine until the end of theirmenstrual period. While in seclusion the girls eatbabassu sprouts. Informants report that girls repeat

the procedure during their next two menstrualperiods; this concludes the rite of passage andinitiates womanhood.

Special uses

There are no other edible parts of the babassufruit, unless one includes the larvae of the bruchidbeetle (Pachymerus nuclearum and Carybruchuslipismatus). This beetle is a natural predator of the fruit and its larvae enter the fruit through itsgermination pores, usually after abcission. Thelarvae grow and develop within the fruit’s seedchambers, assimilating oil and protein. Regionalpeasants eat the larvae (tapu’a), which are extractedin the same manner as kernels, by cracking openthe fruit and picking them out of the chambers.Grubs are usually stir-fried with manioc flour, andtaste a bit like bacon. The Guajá do not nowconsume bruchid larvae, although some reportedhaving eaten them in the past during starvationperiods (cf. Dufour 1986). However, grubs arefrequently used as fish bait (see photo to the left).

Other uses: construction

The Guajá also use parts of the babassu palmas construction material. Palm fronds are used tobuild homes (tapiris) and before contact, the Guajáused to construct makeshift shelters by thatchingadjacent forest trees (see photo to the left). Tapiris served as temporary shelters at a time whenthe Guajá led a more nomadic life. These shelterswere revisited seasonally and the old frames wererethatched. The old fronds were not discarded, butwere used for kindling. Today the Guajá constructmore permanent houses in the vicinity of FUNAIIndian Posts. These structures are larger than thetraditional tapiri and are enclosed; babassu frondsare often used to construct ‘walls’. The Guajá stillconstruct their traditional shelters when they visittheir hunting camps.

Babassu fronds are also used to build huntingblinds (takaya ).3 Here the leaf base is dug into theground and stem tips are centrally arched and tiedtogether to form an enclosed, dome-like structure(see photo on page 6). Hunting blinds are usuallyconstructed near old fallows or hunting trails.Takayas are also built on tree branches where hunterscan stake out birds and monkeys.

On religious and ceremonial occasions the Guajá build takayas in their villages. In the dryseason, when there is a full moon, Guajá mendecorate themselves with ornamental plumage,before embarking on a voyage to the spirit world(iwá-beh). They are assisted by family members asthey sing and dance around the takayas. The menenter the takaya individually and continue to chantas they ready themselves for a sojourn with spiritual beings. The rich details of this eventcannot be fully elaborated here, but suffice it to saythat babassu materials serve as important vehiclesconnecting the Guajá to their spirit world.


2 The Guajá do not raise animals as a source of food, but they

do keep household pets. These are usually the young ofslain game animals, and include many types of monkeys,

pacas, agoutis, birds, and peccaries.3 The word takaya is of Tupi origin, and was incorporated

into Portuguese as tocaia. In Portuguese, it usually refers to

a hideout, or stakeout, where animals and/or enemies areambushed.

Cleared field with babassu

palms. Adult palms are in the background, whilejuveniles (pindovas)

occupy the ground in front.Photo: Louis Forline

Other uses

Palm fronds can also be made into receptacleswhich resemble the modern backpack. They arewoven by both men and women, and serve astemporary containers for transporting food, such asmanioc, and slain game animals (see photos).Carrying packs, which are not generally used forstorage purposes, can be woven to various sizes, sothat they can be carried by both children andadults. Fronds can also be woven into sitting matsand fans. And finally, palm leaves can even be usedto dam small rivers and streams in order to trapfish, and to make small corrals along river marginsand lakes, where manioc tubers are soaked (seephoto).

The fruit husks are used as fuel and formedicinal purposes. Although not all medicinaluses have been documented, one known treatmentis as a cure for athlete’s foot (Tinea pedis). Husks areprepared by placing them in a fire. After they catchfire, the flame is blown out and the foot is held overthe smoldering husk, thus ’smoking’ the affectedarea. This procedure is repeated over a period ofseveral days until healing is complete.4

Conclusion

While there are a host of other non-timberforest products used and managed by the Guajá, the use of one species, babassu, demonstrates theintimate balance they have forged with naturalresources. In many cases, the presence of babassupalms is an indication of past habitation and

Small riverside corral made of babassu

fronds in which manioc tubers are soaked. This particular corral is on the

Turiacu river at Indian Post Guajá, located on the Alto Turiacu Indian Reserve(see Map 2).


Guajá woman weaving carrying pack.Photo: Louis Forline


cultivation by indigenous groups and peasants.Often such areas were consciously created, as theGuajá and other groups prefer to leave the palmsstanding when clearing fields. In this respect, theywould fall under the category of species which have been protected and manipulated, with theintention of serving humans (cf. Alcorn 1981). Lévi-Strauss (1950) refers to this form of manage-ment as the cultivation of semi-domesticated plants,since they were not brought under full domestica-tion. This type of cultivation is extremely advantage-ous for both nomadic and semi-sedentary groups, as they can rely on semi-domesticated species thatgrow well on agricultural plots, yet persist in ‘wild’habitats.

While a description of babassu and itspotential uses among regional peasants hasappeared elsewhere (see Anderson et al. 1991), itsmultiple uses among the Guajá provide yet anotherexample of the sustainable use and management ofnatural resources. Indeed, Guajá managementpractices may serve as a model within rural develop-ment. The integration of these practices would, ofcourse, require further studies, partnerships withNGOs, entrepreneurial cooperation, and theformulation of government policy. While thecollaboration of all parties is essential in facilitatingthe use of non-timber forest products, indigenousautonomy must be respected, in the interest of asuccessful and ongoing project.

Louis C. ForlineMuseu GoeldiDepartemento de Ciências HumanasAvenido Perimetral, 1901Belém , ParáBrazil CEP 66.077-530Tel.: +55-217 6027.Fax: +55-217 6044.E-mail: [email protected]

4 Regional peasants also use the babassu epicarp formedicinal purposes. In this case, the husks are groundinto a fine powder, mixed with liquids and then drunk.

Husk powder helps cure gastro-intestinal disorders,allergies, stress, infections and other ailments.

Guajá takaya (hunting blind);

these are used not only duringhunting, but also on ritual and

ceremonial occasions.Photo: Louis Forline



References

Alcorn, Janis (1981) ‘Huastec noncropresource management: implications for

prehistoric rain forest management’,Human Ecology 9(4): 395-417.

Anderson, Anthony (1983) The biology of

Orbignya martiana (Palmae), a tropical dryforest dominant in Brazil. Doctoral

dissertation, University of Florida,Gainesville.

Anderson, Anthony; and P. May (1983) ‘A

palmeira de muitas vidas’, Ciência Hoje 4(20): 58-64.

Anderson, Anthony; P. May, and M. Balick(1991) The subsidy from nature: Palm forests,peasantry, and development on an Amazon

frontier.New York: Columbia UniversityPress.

Dufour, Darna (1986) ‘Insects as food: a casestudy from the Northwest Amazon’,American Anthropologist 89(2): 383-397.

Hecht, Susana; A. Anderson, and P. May(1988) ‘The subsidy from nature: shifting

cultivation, successional palm forests,and rural development’, HumanOrganization 47(1): 25-35.

Janzen, Dan (1988) ‘Tropical dry forests: themost endangered major tropical

ecosystem’, in E.O. Wilson (ed.) Biodiversity.Washington, D.C: National AcademyPress.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1950) ‘The use of wildplants in tropical South America’, pp.

465-486 in J. Steward (ed.) Handbook ofSouth American Indians. Vol. 6. Washington,D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

May, Peter; A. Anderson, J.M. Frazão, and M.Balick (1985) ‘Babassu palm in the

agroforestry systems in Brazil’s Mid-Northregion’, Agroforestry Systems 3: 275-295.

Steward, Julian (1963) Handbook of South

American Indians. Washington, D.C.: U.S.Government Printing Office.

Guajá man with babassu carrying pack filled with manioc

tubers. Shoulder straps are made of tree bark. He will place tubers to soak in

small lake in background.Photo: Louis Forline


In the context of the Ministry of RuralDevelopment’s focus on the position aneconomic situation of rural women, a study was

recently carried out in the provinces Fars, Kohgiloieand Boyerahma. The aim of the research was toobtain information on one of the most importanteconomic activities of local women: the keeping ofpoultry. This job is reserved for women, while themen are occupied with work outside the home,such as agricultural activities. This means that ruralwomen have a rich store of knowledge related tothe management of poultry. A research team ofthree people visited the local women in theirhomes, making use of observation, interviews, andparticipatory observation to collect information.Two of the three researchers were women, one ofthem a local, and this had much to do with thewomen’s readiness to share their knowledge. Also,as the women gradually realized that theirinformation was considered useful and was beingrecorded for later use, they were even more willingto contribute.

Research questions

On the basis of a literature study, three maintopics were chosen. The first was concerned withwhy people keep poultry. Next, the focus was on thedifferent breeds being kept. And finally, moredetailed information was collected on the methodsof poultry-keeping and such aspects as feeding,hatching, hygiene, the care of sick animals, and thevarious uses for poultry products. From a policypoint of view, the most important issue was thechoice of breeds. Government policy favours theintroduction and promotion of improved varieties,which are thought to be better than the traditionalones. Nevertheless, the rural population hascontinued to raise indigenous breeds. What was thereasoning behind this decision and what are thepossible implications for future policy?

Reasons for keeping poultry

The first reasons put forward by the womenwere as follows: poultry provide both eggs andmeat; rural woman have sufficient time and space

Local poultry management practices in southwest Iran

Mansoor Shahvali, Houshang Moinizadeh, Mohammad Amiri Ardekani

This article presents the results of quantitative research in three provinces in thesouthwest of Iran, aimed at documenting the indigenous poultry management practicesof women in rural villages. The findings will be used to adapt rural developmentstrategies to the needs and knowledge of these women.

Photo 1, 2 Kolah

A kolah is a coop made of clay or wood for the temporaryconfinement of poultry. The rural women make the kolah themselves,using local materials. They are placed fairly close to the house (to

make it easier to feed the poultry and inspect the chamber, as well asto hear the cocks crowing), and yet far enough away from a hygienic

point of view. The use of kolah makes it easy to collect the manure,which the rural women use for their home vegetable gardens.

The photos show kolah in the Kakan region, a dependency of Yasuj town. One is made of clay (photo 1) and the other of wood

(photo 2).Photos: Ali-Mohammed Moslehi, 1997

1 2

3

to care for the animals; and the practice provides adegree of economic independence. Poultry also helpin the fight against beetles and flies, which transmitdisease, while rural women prefer poultry manureto other types of animal manure and chemicalfertilizers. Moreover, in the case of cocks, they areneeded for mating and hatching-egg production,and for crowing in the morning. This latter aspect isimportant in rural areas, where the crowing of acock signals the break of day. A cock that is kept forcrowing (azan-goftan) must be able to crow threetimes before sunrise, and these hours are known as‘first cock’, ‘second cock’ and ‘third cock’ respectively.

Breeds

The hens and cocks traditionally kept in rural areas of Iran include both light breeds (layers)and light/heavy breeds (layers/meat animals). Thesetraditional breeds need relatively more feed inrelation to the quantity of eggs produced (Amin1982). In the last few years, the Ministry of RuralDevelopment has pursued a broad policy aimed at

the improvement of native breeds and, as part of itseducational programme, has distributed manyhighly productive laying breeds throughout ruralareas. However, due to a number of difficulties,such as the lack of coordination in the distributionof the new animals, and the lack of confidence intheir resistance to poultry diseases and their abilityto adapt to new environmental conditions, ruralpeople have preferred to keep to their owntraditional breeds.

Methods of keeping poultry

There are two ways to keep poultry: the openmethod and the closed method.

Open method

Here the animals are allowed to move freelyaround the house or farm. The advantage is thatthey find their own food (insects and worms),benefit from the fresh air, get more exercise, andcome into contact with various cocks, so broodyhens may come out of broodiness more quickly.


Tokhmna-tokhmi, or khaaygay-na khaayagi: theinspection of a hen about to lay

an egg.Photo: Ali-Mohammed Moslehi,

1997

Photo 3 KorkorA korkor or korkory is a kindof cage made of branches taken

from local trees, such as the wild almond; the material costs

nothing and the cages are madeby family members in their free time. The photo shows a

korkor in the Basht region, a dependency of Gatchsaran

town. These constructions weighvery little, so that they can bemoved to a warmer or safer

place at night. They are easy to ventilate and

to inspect, and poultrydroppings can be removedquickly; in addition, they retain

their elastic qualities. In case ofdisease or contamination, their

combustibility and low pricemean that they can be burnedin order to exterminate

pathogenic agents. Photo: Morteza Kazemi, 1997

Photo 4, 5 KahlooThe kahloo is quite similar to

the korkor and offers the sameadvantages (easy to inspect, toclean and to carry). The main

difference is its shape: a kahloois closely woven, with no

openings betweem the twigs.

Such baskets, which are usually

placed over the animal, servevarious purposes: they provide

a kind of quarantine; they allownewly acquired animals tobecome accustomed to their

surroundings; they encouragehens to lay their eggs in a

certain place in the house; andthey protect chickens from crowsand other birds of prey, and

protect the eggs from cats.The photos show a kahloo in

the Kakan region, a dependencyof Yasuj town, first uncovered,and then covered with cloths to

simulate night.Photo: Ali-Mohammed Moslehi,

1997

4

5

Also, there is less cackling at home, and poultrydroppings are deposited at some distance from thehouse, which helps keep the house area clean.

Closed method

This method makes it easier to protect theanimals (against wild animals, birds, dangerousinsects, outbreaks of disease, and farm equipmentleft lying around), and to prevent them from eatingseeds at seed-drilling time and crops such as wheatand barley during harvesting or threshing. Thereare three main types of housing, all of which aremade from local material and adapted to thenumber and type of poultry, as well as to climaticconditions. Their local names are kolah, korkor, andkahloo (see photo essay). Each type has its ownadvantages. For example, when poultry are kept in coops (kolah ), it is easier to collect the eggs, andthe hens get used to laying their eggs there. The women regularly feel the hens to determine howlong it will be before the egg is laid (so-calledtokhmna-tokhmior khaaygay-na khaayagi; see photo onpage 9). The hens are prevented from leaving thecoop before laying their egg. When the hen cackles(ghaz-ghaz), this indicates that an egg has been laidand the hen is then allowed to leave the coop.Moreover, during outbreaks of poultry diseases theanimals can be protected from exposure by keepingthem in kolah.

Feeding

In rural Iran, troughs are seldom used to feedpoultry. The women or other family members use a special call, which sounds like ‘piou-piou’, togather the hens and cocks. The feed is then strewnon the ground (see photo). This method has threeadvantages over a trough. Those distributing thefeed can see to it that the chicks and any sick orweak animals get enough to eat. Moreover, they canobserve the appearance, behaviour, face colour,consistency of droppings, and feed consumption ofthe various animals. And finally, feeding is stoppedwhen all of them have had enough, so that nothingis wasted or left lying around, to be spoiled by heator moisture.

The feed is a mixture of various ingredientscontaining protein, amino acids, starch, sodiumchloride and other important nutrients. Thequantity varies according to the time of year (extrafeed is given in the colder winter months). Thewomen have found that feeding ground maize helpsto produce a deep yellow yolk and good skin colour.It is also common practice to feed chickens pieces ofbread dipped in buttermilk (tarid dough) or yoghurt(tarid mast), in boiled water combined with cheese orrinsed yogurt (changal lour), or in soaked dried whey(changal kashk).

After ploughing, the poultry are led to thefarm, where they are allowed to feed on terrestrialinsects and earthworms, a source of animal protein.This kind of protein contains more of the importantamino acids and other nutrients than the proteinfound in meat or fish meal (Jazaii 1995). Thefavourable effect of such feeding on weight gain andlaying performance has been demonstrated, andscientific studies are already underway aimed atproducing earthworms commercially in beds orboxes, as a supplementary source of protein.

When the hens produce shell-less eggs, knownas wind eggs (dalameh), the women add rice bran tothe feed, while newly hatched chicks are givenpelleted ground barley, which is easier to digest;later on, ground wheat and maize are added.


Strewing feed by hand in the Kakan region,

a dependency of Yasuj town.Photo: Ali-Mohammed Moslehi, 1997

In many villages in the research area it is customaryto add egg yolk to the ground wheat or barley.

Hatching

In order to ensure that a sufficient number ofnew hens and cocks are produced, some eggs mustbe saved and hatched out. This involves three steps:selecting a broody hen, finding hatching eggs, andsupervising the hatching process.

Selection of a broody hen

Rural women usually select hens that are atthe beginning of their broodiness, have alreadybeen used for brooding, were careful sitters theprevious hatching, and are not too small. If necess-ary, suitable hens are borrowed from a neighbour.

Selection and collection of hatching eggs

Sometimes, rural women also select andcollect the required hatching eggs from neighbours.Eggs should be of medium size and weight, and laidby hens which have good body formation, weight,feathers, colour, and laying and growth rate, as wellas a short period of broodiness. Large eggs wouldmake it difficult to put the right number of eggsunder the broody hen, while very small eggs resultin low-quality chicks and may produce hens thatalso lay small eggs. The eggs should also have afairly thin shell (known as tanak), and should not becontaminated with dung or blood. The shellsproduced by young hens are usually thicker thanthose laid by older hens.

Rural women prefer eggs laid in the morning.This preference is supported by Chinese researcherswho studied the effect of the time of hatching onthe fertility and hatchability rate. Over a period oftwo years, they collected the eggs from a flock of200 laying hens every day at 5, 8, and 11 o’clock inthe morning and 2 and 5 o’clock in the afternoon.Their statistical analysis indicates that the fertilityand hatchability rate of eggs laid between 5 and 8 in the morning is higher than that of eggs laidbetween 2 and 5 in the afternoon (Ghaleh-Noei 1997).According to rural women, it is more economical to use eggs laid in the afternoon for cooking.

Supervising the hatching

The hatching period usually consists of thefollowing phases. ■ Choosing wooden nests for the eggs. ■ Putting straw, rice hulls, sawdust, and other

clean material in the nests.■ Placing the marked eggs in the baskets, in such a

way that they are completely covered by the hen.Depending on the hen and the size of the eggs,about 15 to 20 eggs are used.

■ Putting the brood hen on the eggs under acovered basket.

■ Putting the basket in a safe place.■ Giving the brood hen more and better-qualilty

feed during the hatching period. Feed and waterare placed near the hatching basket. When thebrood hen is feeding and drinking, the eggs arecovered with a piece of cloth to prevent themfrom cooling off.

■ Regular monitoring of the eggs for 20 days(candling). Eggs should hatch within 21-23 days;if they do not, the women have two ways to helpthe chick come out of the egg. First they strewsome roasted, lukewarm wheat on the eggs atregular intervals. This means that the eggs arealternately cold and warm, causing expansionand contraction which may stimulate the chick


to pip the eggs. Alternatively, they askexperienced women to scrape the eggs withspecial metal or wooden needles, which makes it easier for the chick to hatch, if it is still alive.

Once the chicks have hatched, the womenoften leave the task of rearing them to one hen andallow the other two or three to come out ofbroodiness and return to laying eggs. If one of thebrood hens dies, the motherless chicks are quicklyplaced with another brood hen, who will take careof them and see that they are not tormented by the other chicks.

Raising chicks

Since poultry are notoriously difficult to catch,rural women try to teach their animals to respondin a specific way to certain ‘calls’. One of the callsused to stop poultry and then catch them is ‘tep-tep’.If you follow the animal and keep repeating thesewords, it will stop. Some people get their poultry soaccustomed to this call that they quickly respondand sit down in a way that makes them easier tocatch. This means that children can also take part inthe raising of poultry. Some of the calls which thewomen use are quite melodious, such as thefollowing: ■ Biu-biu; piu-piu; biu-biu, to get poultry to return

home and feed;■ Kish-kolle’ and ’shime-shime’ to get them to

come home or to lay eggs;■ Kesh’ and ‘keshe’ to chase them away;■ Gat-gat’ or ‘gata-gata’ to separate animals; ■ BaYou’ to get hens used to not laying eggs on the

floor, or in inaccessible places.

Home remedies

Rural women are familiar with the behaviourof their chickens. For example, they know thatwhen animals spread their wings, ruffle theirfeathers, flap their wings repeatedly, or keep theirbeaks open, they are having trouble maintainingtheir body temperature. When they see these signs,the women begin to sprinkle water on the floor andwalls around the chamber and their own houses, in order to lower the surrounding temperature.

Another indisposition common amongpoultry arises when an object becomes stuck in theanimal’s throat. For example, if family members arecareless and fail to gather up their nail cuttings, thechickens may eat them. The main sign of suchindisposition is the unusual sound the animalmakes, known as gigheh zadan. Rural women thentry to give liquid feeds, together with a little butteror grease, so that the object can be swallowed.

Rural women heal infected pimples by makingan incision in the pimple or cooking an onion inthe ashes of a fire and binding it onto the pimple.They also treat dirty wounds by wrapping some gumfrom a wild almond tree in a piece of moist cloth,placing it under the hot ash, and then laying it onthe wound.

They also treat sores under the wings withbaby powder or wood ash. They lubricate the skinwith butter or grease before sprinkling on the ash.The butter or grease not only makes the ash adhereto the skin, but also promote the healing of sores.

In the case of broken legs, experiencedwomen wind a piece of cloth or clean cotton aroundthe leg and then tie several thin pieces of wood to it,forming a kind of splint. When the leg heals, thepieces of wood are removed.

References

Amin, M. (1982) ‘Laying hen keeping athome’, Tech.-Ext. Bulletin. Teheran;University of Teheran, College of

Agriculture, Department of AgriculturalEducation and Extension.

Faraji, R.(1992) The principles of feed keeping.Shiraz University Press.

Ghaleh-Noei, M.-R. (1995) ‘The effect of time

of lay on fertility and hatchability’(title translated from Iranian), Research &

Reconstruction; Scientific research andeducational quarterly of Jahad Sazandegi ,1995:26: 194.

Jazaii, J. (1995) ‘Production of earthwormprotein for animal feed from potato’ (title

translated from Iranian), Research &Reconstruction; Scientific research andeducational quarterly of Jahad Sazandegi ,

1995: 26: 147-150.Lahsaii-Zadeh, A-A. (1990) Social changes in

Iranian villages. Shiraz: Navid Shiraz.


Poultry products and by-products

Not only the eggs, but also the meat is adesirable poultry product. The chickens selected forhome consumption are usually old or injuredanimals, poor layers and cocks that do not crow. Ifpoultry have gotten into the habit of eating excre-ment, rural women will keep them in cages for fewdays before slaughtering them. This practice isrelated to their religious beliefs.1 When the meat ofold poultry is boiled, tea leaves are often placed in asmall cloth bag and added to the pot to tenderise it.If the meat is to be grilled, it is customary in someregions to use twigs from fig trees instead of metalspits. These twigs have been found to contain anenzyme called foscin, which helps to tenderise themeat (Faraji 1992).

Another by-product of poultry is their excre-ment. Bird excrement has been used in Iran forcenturies. As the Russian historian Petrushewskynoted, pigeon dung has traditionally been the mostvaluable dung used by Iranian farmers. And inIsfahan there were always a great many collectingtowers for pigeon dung (Lahsaii-zadeh 1990).Nowadays chicken manure is used only for vegetablegardens.

Soft feathers plucked or cut from the body are another by-product. Exposing them to sunshinefor a few days will remove the smell and ensure thatthey are free of fowl fleas. The feathers are thenmixed with leaves and the flowers of some sweet-smelling plant such as rose or carnation, and oftensprinkled with rose-water as well. They are thenused in pillows.

Conclusion

The aim of the above research was to describethe actual poultry management techniques used by rural women. It was carried out within thebroader context of the activities of Iran’s Ministry

of Rural Development aimed at improving theposition and economic conditions of rural women.Although the research in the provinces of Fars andKohgiloie and Boyerahma has been completed, aseparate study by the second author is now under-way which centres on the effects of a seasonallighting programme on the growth and sexualmaturity of indigenous poultry. Future researchmay be devoted to quantitative data on indigenouspoultry management. The results of such studieswill no doubt be useful to the Ministry for purposesof policy evaluation. In any case, the present studydemonstrates that the knowledge of rural women isa valuable resource, and that the results of suchqualitative research can not only improve theireconomic circumstances but also empower womenin rural areas.

Mansoor Shahvali, Ph.D.Assistant professor Agricultural Extension and Education Department Agricultural CollegeShiraz University71444 Badjgah - ShirazI.R. IranFax: +98-71-28 193E-mail: [email protected]

Houshang Moinizadeh, Ph.D.Assistant professor Animal Science Department Agricultural CollegeShiraz University71444 Badjgah - ShirazIslamic Republic of IranE-mail: [email protected]

Mohammad Amiri Ardekani, M.S.Agricultural Organization of Yasuj Province

1 The religious authoritiesbelieve that the meat and

other products ofanimals that were usedto consuming faeces and

urine is ceremoniallyimpure and must be

cleansed. The animalsmust be kept from eatingexcrement for a certain

period and given onlyclean feed until they are

considered clean. Thisperiod is 40 days forcamels, 20 days for cattle,

10 days for sheep, 5 to 7days for ducks, and 3

days for chickens.




Parade ofresearch results

Readers who turn to these pages expect to find the next article, anaccount of research into a specific aspect of indigenous and localknowledge systems and practices (IKSP), in which the author putsforward suggestions about how these insights can best beimplemented in the interests of sustainable development. Instead, you see before you a research communication, and another, andanother, and so on. A grand total of seven reports which togetherhighlight what is currently taking place in the field of IKSP research.As a rule, these communications appear in the second section of the Monitor, together with other reports, calls, announcements, andthe ever-popular book reviews. We thought it might be a good ideato ’promote’ these pieces to the front of this issue, to the spot usually reserved for the third article.

While this parade of research results is based on a fairlyarbitrary selection, it does include contributions from the three keycontinents for IK: Asia, Africa and the Americas. It begins with areport on a successful participatory project involving the validation oftraditional meteorological principles used to predict monsoons inIndia. Next, there is an introduction to the system behind theclassification of soils currently practised by the Iraqw farmers ofTanzania. This is followed by another communication from India,focusing on a traditional method of controlling the pigeon pea podborer, which can cause crop losses of up to 100%. Using the ’shakingand killing method’, it is possible to eliminate some 90% of the podborer larvae without the use of pesticides. The next piece deals withan investigation into the impact of subsistence hunting on fauna andwildlife numbers in Costa Rica. Focusing on the Guaymí, an indigenouspeople whose daily lives are still dictated by their traditional culture,it deals with the problem of reconciling the interests of localcommunities with those of the authorities, while safeguardingbiodiversity and ensuring sustainable development. This is followedby another report from Africa: written by two researchers from theDepartment of Botany, University of Benin, Nigeria, it centres on theplants used by the Koma people to treat ailments and diseases.

The research parade concludes with two slightly more personalcontributions. C.O. Izugbara of the University of Uyo in Nigeriastresses the need for proper behaviour on the part of researchersdoing fieldwork. On the basis of his own fieldwork experience, hehopes to alert IKSP investigators to the importance of minding theirconduct while doing research among indigenous peoples, if they hopeto generate reliable information. And finally Neerchal Balakrishnarajasks himself whether farmers can think like researchers. He reports onhis experiences in Karnataka, India, and answers his own questionwith an unequivocal yes! Farmers and farm labourers do understandthe importance of technology, and they are able to assess newtechnology as logically and rationally as researchers. This is a fittingconclusion to our series of research reports.

We hope that our readers will find this new initiative useful, andwe look forward to hearing your comments (see inside front cover for address). If the reactions are favourable, we will consider devotingseveral pages of the last issue of the year to a similar parade ofresearch communications.

The mission of Gujarat AgriculturalUniversity is to improve agriculturalpractices in the state. The university

has four main campuses, one of which islocated at Junagadh in Saurashtra. Herethe university has been contributing to thedevelopment of agriculture since 1960.Saurashtra is located in the western part ofGujarat state. It is a drought-prone, pre-dominantly dryland region. Agriculturaldrought has been a regular feature theresince the 1970s.

The monsoon season extends fromJune to September and is characterized byerratic rainfall. The farmers of the regionassign a lot of importance to accuratepredictions of monsoon’s onset since theybase their cropping-pattern decisions onthese predictions. Early onset suits cropswith a long growing season, such asgroundnut (the spreading type) andcotton. Delayed onset restricts the choiceof crops to pulses, pearl millet, castor, andthe bunching type of groundnut.

The monsoon season of 1990prompted Gujarat Agricultural Universityto launch a project to systematicallyvalidate traditional meteorological beliefsand principles. For that year the officialDepartment of Meteorology had predictednormal monsoon for the whole of India.Although monsoon was normal in the restof the country, it eluded the region ofSaurashtra until the month of July. Thefarmers of the region were anxious, sincethe time for sowing the crops with thelonger growing season had already passed.At that time, Assistant Professor P.R.Kanani met with two local meteorologicalexperts: Devji bhai Jamod, of Jetalsarvillage, and Jadhav bhai Kathiria ofAlidhra village. Both predicted thatmonsoon could not possibly arrive before15 August that year. Their assertion wasbased on the traditional belief that:

‘If there is rain, accompanied withlightning and “roaring of clouds” (mildthunder), on the second day of Jayastha1 ,there will be no rain for the next seventy-two days.’ (Bhadli, ca. 12th century)

On 15 August 1990, after exactly 72 days, Saurashtra experienced heavyshowers, enabling farmers to plant thecrops with the shorter growing season.This impressed Dr Kanani so much that hepublicized it in the local press and madean appeal to readers to send informationabout other local experts in weatherprediction. Many farmers wrote backsuggesting that the university conductsystematic research on the subject.

For the resulting participatoryresearch project, eight meteorological

beliefs were selected for scientific valida-tion, shortlisted on the basis of theirpopularity in Saurasthra. Traditionalmeteorological principles are often basedon interactions between atmosphericvariables such as wind, clouds and lightingthat have been observed by astronomersand astrologers over the years. Of these,the 12th century Bhadli is very popularthanks to his couplets (Bhadli Vakyas),which have been transmitted as part oforal tradition. But beliefs regarding theprediction of rain or monsoon can also bebased on biological indicators, such as theflowering and foliage of certain treespecies, or the behaviour of specific birdsand animals.

In collaboration with local experts,two diagrams were developed that providea systematic framework for observations.Editors of all the local dailies cooperatedby publishing the diagrams and the appealto farmers and local experts free of charge.Readers were asked to send their obser-vations to the university. The response wasvery encouraging, enabling the projectteam to select 200 collaborators from allover the region. For 195 days – from thefirst day of Kartika to the 15th day of Chaitra2 – the collaborators recorded dataalong such parameters as wind velocity anddirection, humidity, and the occurrence of rainbow and of dew. They did this foreight years, from 1990 to 1998. For eachyear, the data was tabulated and analysedon the basis of Bhadli’s criteria. It was then sent to the university’s AgriculturalResearch Committee for consideration byresearchers and extension workers. Thebeliefs have thus been treated as hypothesesand tested over a period of eight years. Upto now, the scientists have failed to provethat seven of them are untrue. It is there-fore likely that many of the beliefs willprove to be reliable indicators of monsoon.

Apart from validating their beliefs,the study has helped to restore thepeople’s confidence in their own traditionalknowledge and skills.

Another interesting side effect hasbeen the formation of a knowledgenetwork that cuts across formal andinformal systems. It is called the AncientRain Prediction Network and it came intobeing following the first symposium onthe subject. Under the title ‘Ancient methodsfor studying rain phenomena’, this was held at the Junagadh campus on 16 June 1997and attended by some 60 traditionalmeteorologists. Research findings andobservations were presented and the localexperts made predictions. These weredocumented in the proceedings anddisseminated to the public by the highlysupportive local press.

The symposium has now become anannual event3 with ever-growing numbersof participants. In last year’s symposium, aresolution was passed to establish aprofessional body called the Ancient RainPhenomena Association. Such a networkhelps individual experts to pool theirknowledge and learn from each other. Itenables the group as a whole to make acollective judgment and to provide thefarming community a valuable service. Inthe past, farmers were often faced withconflicting judgments and predictions.Now it is easier for them to make theirdecisions. It is this service and theresulting support and appreciation of thefarming community which keeps thenetwork going. The experimentation andpredictions are likely to continue withoutthe help of external support. In theprocess, valuable meteorological data willbe generated and additional beliefs will betested. We believe that such a network canserve as a model for other dryland areaswhich rely on traditional experts for theprediction of monsoon.

For more information, contact: ProfessorAstad Pastakia, Nirma College ofManagement, Ahmedabad, India; or P.R.Kanani, Assistant Professor, Department ofExtension Education, Gujarat AgriculturalUniversity, Junagadh Campus, Gujarat 362 001, India.Tel.: +91-285-675 517.Fax: +91-285-632 004.E-mail: [email protected]

1 The month indicated as per the Hindu lunarcalendar, corresponding with May-June.

2 The corresponding months for Kartika andChaitra would be October-November andMarch-April respectively.

3 Dr V.J. Savaliya, Dr M.A. Munshi, and Dr A.O.Kher are gratefully thanked for their help in

organizing the annual seminars andcontributing in various ways to the success ofthe project.

Validation of traditional meteorologicalprinciples in Saurashtra, India



T he Department of Soil Science atSokoine University of Agriculture inMorogoro, Tanzania, is conducting

research on the indigenous knowledge ofsoils in selected villages in the Mbulu andKaratu districts of the Arusha region ofTanzania. The current study focuses on thelocal soil classification system used by theIraqw in these districts and attempts toidentify the local diagnostic criteria fordifferentiating soil types as well as toexplain how indigenous knowledge of soilshas been applied to land use. The studywas conducted by Associate ProfessorBalthazar M. Msanya and Dr DismasMwaseba of Sokoine University ofAgriculture, from July 1997 to September1999 with financial support from theNorwegian Agency for DevelopmentCooperation (NORAD) under an agreementbetween Sokoine University and NORADfor a research programme. An earlierstudy (Msanya et al. 1998) had coveredthree villages. This study brings the totalto seven. Data were collected usingparticipatory rural appraisal (PRA)techniques with men and women farmers.These included group discussions, inter -views, direct field walks and observation.

The Iraqw live in the Mbulu, Karatu,Hanang and Babati districts of the Arusharegion in Tanzania (see map). They migratedfrom Kondoa-Irangi in the central regionof Tanzania in search of more land toaccommodate their fast-growing popu-lation. In the research area, the Mbulu andKaratu districts, the Iraqw now make up65 per cent of the population. Beingtraditional agro-pastoralists, the Iraqwoperate a production system wherebymanure produced by livestock is put onthe fields, while the livestock are fed oncrop residues. The main crops includemaize, wheat, barley, beans, sorghum,sweet potato, Irish potato, and peas. Themain livestock are cattle, goats, sheep andpigs. The high livestock densities typical in many areas of the districts have resultedin serious land degradation problems,particularly soil erosion, which is quiterampant.

The study produced detailed infor -mation which will be used for furtherethno-taxonomical research at SokoineUniversity of Agriculture. What is impor-tant to report in this journal now is thesystem by which Iraqw farmers classify soiland use the land. This system’s potentialfor incorporation into plans for sustain-able land use will also be discussed.

The Iraqw soil classification systemis based largely on surface characteristics,

unlike the more technological classifi-cation systems, which focus on the wholesoil to a depth of close to two metres (ifthere is no limiting layer) and which applythe concepts of soil profile and pedoncharacteristics. These well establishedsystems of soil classification – such as theFAO-UNESCO and USDA Soil Taxonomysystems – have good reasons for usingthese concepts since plants depend notonly on the surface soil for their growth,but also on the subsoil. Yet if we areserious about integrating local knowledgeinto development efforts, it is essential tostart from an understanding of the ethno-taxonomy of soils.

Interviews and discussions withlocal people in Mbulu and Karatu revealedclearly that when they talk of a particularsoil type they are referring to the soil asseen in terms of its surface characteristics.There are two basic principles behind theframework of the Iraqw classification:1. Most soil names start with the

formative element ‘Hhaper’ whichliterally means soil.

2. Hhaper is then followed by one or moreadjectives which describe the type ofsoil in terms of the properties of its toplayer. Examples of such propertiesinclude:

Soil colour. A typically red soil would becalled Hhaper daàten, which simply meansred soil (Daàten means red). Likewise,Hhaper bo’omeans dark or black soil andHhaper Sir-daàten means reddish brown soil.

Soil texture. A clayey soil would be calledHhaper tlei (tlei means clay). Hhaper sasagwanis typically a coarsely textured soil.

Soil workability (consistency). The soiltype known as Hhaper bulgar bo’o is namedfor its hard consistency and difficultworkability (bulgar). In the research area,Hhaper bulgar bo’o is associated with othercharacteristics as well, notably deep andwide cracking, which starts at the surfaceand extends to depths of more than 50 cm.

Presence of salts. The soil type HhaperHharki is a salty soil (Hharki means salt).

Water-logged conditions. Hhaper naari is asoil saturated with water (Naari meanswater-logged).

Other qualifiers:Position in the landscape. Soils on valleyfloors and floodplains, for example, are generally called Hhaper baraduxa(Baraduxa means river valley or floodplain).

Ethno-taxonomy of soils and their usesby the Iraqw of Mbulu and KaratuDistricts, Tanzania


Pigeon pea is a vital source of proteinfor the rural and urban poor ofIndia. It is mostly cultivated under

rain-fed conditions, either on its own or incombination with other crops such ascotton, sorghum, maize, or green gram.The major constraint in pigeon peaproduction is the pod borer (Helicoverpaarmigera), an insect that causes crop lossesof up to 100 per cent in spite of severalapplications of insecticide. The pod borerhas become increasingly difficult tocontrol. Recent surveys of insect pestsindicate that prior to 1975 fewer than 20per cent of pigeon pea farmers usedinsecticide to get rid of pod borer, but by1993 the percentage had increased to 100per cent. This has meant higher costs ofcultivation, health hazards, andenvironmental pollution.

The Centre for World Solidarity, aninternational NGO working for sustainabledevelopment in India, is conducting aprogramme of integrated pest manage-ment (IPM) for the cultivation of pigeonpea and chickpea crops. The programme is sponsored by IFAD (International Fundfor Agriculture Development) and ICRISAT(International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics). During the promotion of IPM, we and other projectworkers witnessed an indigenoustechnique that resource-poor farmers havebeen using for the last 60 years. It involvesshaking the plants in order to dislodge andthen destroy the pod-borer larvae. We

systematically analyzed the results of thistechnique and found it to be very effective.

During the 1998-1999 growingseason, ICRISAT and the Centre for WorldSolidarity carried out this study of anindigenous practice among pigeon peafarmers in Ranga Reddy and MehboobNagar districts of Andhra Pradesh, India.The practice is known as ‘shaking and

killing’. Two women or men walk oneither side of the row of pigeon pea plantsand shake each plant. At the same timetwo children drag a polythene sheet orcloth along the ground to collect thedislodged caterpillars, or pod borer larvae,which are then destroyed by burning orburying. Resource-poor farmers generallyinvolve the whole family in this practice.

Indigenous technical knowledge forcontrolling pigeon pea pod borer

Occasionally subsoil characteristicsare used. For example the soil type Hhaperbaraduxa (valley-floor soil) is characterizedby stratification which can be seen onlywhen the soil is exposed. Another exampleis Hhaper busli wak, which forms deep andwide gullies that expose saprolite, a rockthat weathers to a whitish colour.

Based on their knowledge of soiltypes, farmers decide the use to which aparticular piece of land can best be put.For example, they attribute a high fertilitystatus to Hhaper bo’o because it has a darkcolour, feels humid because of its highorganic content, and is easy to work with.Thus they use it for beans, sweet potatoes,bananas, maize, pigeon peas, wheat,sorghum, barley, wheat, sunflower, sugar -cane, vegetables and all other crops.Another example is Hhaper bulgar bo’o. TheIraqw observe that this type of soil expandswhen wet, shrinks and cracks upon drying,is very sticky and difficult to till, andcontains salts. They thus know that it isbest suited for grazing. The farmers putsoils which they judge to be unfit for agricultural production to other uses.

For example, the coarsely textured soilsare used for road construction, and thefine, sticky and powdery soils are used forplastering walls and making pots andbricks.

The study has revealed that farmersare familiar with the various soils in theirlocalities. This confirms findings amongfarmers in other countries. Soil scientistsand the managers of land resources shouldrecognize the existence of local knowledgepertaining to local soils, and shouldincorporate this into their professionalassessments of the suitability of soil andland. This would facilitate communicationbetween the two parties for the purpose ofdeveloping plans for sustainable land use.

For more information, please contact:Dr Balthazar M. Msanya, AssociateProfessor, Department of Soil Science,Faculty of Agriculture, Sokoine Universityof Agriculture, P.O. Box 3008, Morogoro,Tanzania.Tel.: +255-56 3380.Fax: +255-56 3259.E-mail: [email protected]

or: Dr Dismas Mwaseba, Lecturer,

Department of Agricultural Education andExtension, Faculty of Agriculture, SokoineUniversity of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3002,Morogoro, Tanzania.Fax: +255-56-3718.E-mail: [email protected]

or: Dorothy J. Ole-Meiludie,Agricultural Officer, Ministry ofAgriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives,Zonal Irrigation Office, P.O. Box 515,Morogoro, Tanzania;

or: Apia W. Massawe, AgriculturalResearch Officer, Ministry of Agriculture,Livestock and Cooperatives, RodentControl Centre, P.O. Box 3047, Morogoro,Tanzania.

Reference

Msanya, B.M.; D. Mwaseba, D.J. Ole-Meiludie, G.G.Kimbi, A.R. Massawe and D.N. Kimaro (1998)

‘Indigenous knowledge in soil classification:the case study of Mbulu and Karatu Districts inTanzania’, Journal of Management Development 10

(2): 237-260.


Women shaking pigeon pea

plants.Photo: M.S. Chari

Pod borer larvae collected on

plastic sheet.Photo: M.S. Chari



The Guaymí people, called Ngöbe intheir own language, are one of thenine tribes living in Costa Rica

(Central America) who still preserve theirtraditional culture. The Guaymí livemainly from hunting. Fabricio Carbonell,currently on the staff of the NGO Meralvis(see below), conducted a study among themin 1998 to determine the relationshipbetween their hunting practices and thesize of wildlife populations, particularly ofthreatened and endangered species.Carbonell’s study resulted in a master’sthesis. The research was supported byseveral organizations, among them theWorld Wildlife Fund and the United StatesFish and Wildlife Service.

The English title of the study is‘Fauna use and conservation in anindigenous Ngöbe (Guaymí) community inPunta Burica and its relation with conser-vation in Costa Rica’1. Carbonell describedand analyzed the hunting practices inorder to determine the rate at which theindigenous people were harvestinganimals. He then determined the size ofthe wildlife populations. The question hesought to answer was: How can soundplans for managing neotropical wildlife bedesigned that meet the requirements bothof the government and the localcommunities?

Fieldwork was conducted for sevenmonths between late 1997 and mid-1998.A total of 133 interviews were conductedwith 19 hunters and their families (55% ofthe local population). At the same time,assessments of the wildlife populationswere made on the basis of tracks and sight-ings. Over the seven months, the Guaymíes,who hunt with rifles, were found to haveshot 191 animals (851 kg). This game wasused mainly for consumption (81%), butsome cases (10%) were a matter of pestcontrol. The species hunted most frequently

were the paca (Agouti paca) and the coati(Nasua narica). But in terms of weight, threespecies accounted for most of the harvest:the paca, the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu)and the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). Thetamandua (Tamandua mexicana) and thecappucin monkey (Cebus capucinus) werethe main species shot as pests.

The Guaymíes generally prefer tohunt in primary forests and forests along-side rivers and streams. The exact areasdepend on the time of year. Carbonellfound that there seemed to be a trendtowards hunting farther and farther awayfrom the areas of forest inhabited byhumans. There red brocket deer (Mazamaamericana) and other larger species can befound in greater numbers. In inhabitedareas, where the people used to hunt,harvest rates had put pressure on suchspecies as the paca and the iguana (Iguanaiguana).

The study is concluded with severalrecommendations for wildlife manage-ment in the area where the Guaymíes live.In any case the indigenous groups andcommunity-based organizations should beinvolved in a dialogue with the govern-ment agents. And their harvest rates needto be watched. Even when the rates seemto be low, it is important to consider themalongside other factors, such as habitatfragmentation and the local status of thespecies in question. Tapirs (Tapirus bairdii),white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari ) andjaguars (Panthera onca) have become extinctin the area because of habitat fragmen-tation and overexploitation. If the same isnot to happen to green turtles, cappucinmonkeys, and red-faced monkeys (Atelesgeofroyi), steps will have to be taken quicklyto conserve and manage the presentpopulations.

The results of this study werepresented to key persons in the local

community, and a dialogue was establishedfor the purpose of partipatory education.One result has been the publication in twolanguages of a colouring book which hasbeen distributed in all the elementaryschools and to all the community develop-ment groups in the region. It is called‘Jaguars will come back’ (Kruá rugaydä-ghuóre in Ngöbe, and El regreso del tigre inSpanish). There are no more copies left,but possibilities are being sought forreprinting the colouring book.

Meralvis (Improving Regional RuralDevelopment through WildlifeConservation) is a recently establishedvirtual organization promoting ruralregional development in Latin Americathrough wildlife conservation (see‘Networks’, on page 31).

For more information, please contact:Meralvis, P.O. Box 1854-3000, Heredia,Costa Rica.E-mail: [email protected].

1 Carbonell, F. (1998) Uso y abundancia de fauna

en una comunidad indígena Ngöbe (Guaymí) enPunta Burica y su relación con la conservación en

Costa Rica. Master’s thesis in Wildlife andConservation Management. Regional WildlifeManagement Program for Mesoamerica

and the Caribbean, National University,Heredia, Costa Rica. 106 pp.

Conservation issues and the hunting practices of the Guaymí inSouthern Costa Rica


It was recorded that in the monthsOctober and November, when infestationis at its peak, an average of 10-12 larvae aredislodged from each pigeon pea plant. Thismeans a success rate of 97 per cent, a scoreimpossible to achieve with insecticidalsprays. The effects of manual shaking onpigeon pea flowers and pods were alsostudied. It is important to note that 70 percent of all pigeon pea flowers naturallydrop off, leaving only 30 per cent todevelop into pods. Manual shaking offlowers caused 16 per cent of them to dropoff, 20 per cent of which were healthy (not infected). Shaking of pods caused a

negligible 3 per cent to drop off, 66 percent of which were insect-damaged.

The traditional shaking techniquehas been identified as the most effectivecomponent in the integrated pest manage-ment programme for pigeon pea. It isknown as ‘the mechanical control option’.It is also an economical method. Resource-poor farmers usually employ their families,but even if labourers are hired, 10 labourersat a rate of IRS 35 per day cost IRS 350 perhectare, whereas any kind of insecticidalspray costs IRS 700 per hectare. Theresearchers who conducted this study haverecommended that the traditional shaking

method for controlling pod borer bepromoted in the other pigeon pea-growingareas of India as well.

For more information, please contact:S.M.A. Ali, M.Sc., DCP., CPS, Centre forWorld Solidarity, H. No. 12-13-438, StreetNo. 1, Tarnaka, Secunderabad, 500 017A.P., India.Tel.: +91-40-701 7735.Fax: +91-40-701 8257.E-mail: [email protected]



In the Alantika Mountains, which stretchbetween 8.5º and 9.00ºN latitude and12.3 and 12.50ºE longitude, in the

border area between Nigeria and theRepublic of Cameroon, live the Komapeople. In Nigeria, the Alantika Mountainsstretch 50 km eastward from Lendo villageto the Benue valley at Gbaji village. Thehighest peak is 4000 ft. The Koma peoplelive scattered over the mountain top. They are predominantly farmers andhunters. The fertile soils of the area supportdrought-resistant crops like sorghum andmillet. Other crops are cultivated on theplain: namely groundnut, rice andplantain. The Koma rear goats andchickens and they keep dogs to protecttheir homes. Not much is known about theorigin of the Koma; they themselves are ofthe opinion that war and soil infertilitydrove them to leave Cameroon and settlein the safer area now called Koma(meaning ‘we shall return’).

The present project was designed toinvestigate how the Koma people survivehealth-wise, living isolated as they do,without access to public health clinics. The first stage of the project to identify theethno-medicinal practices of the Komapeople was to document their knowledgeand identify the plants they use formedicinal purposes. The result might bethe preservation of unique indigenousknowledge which could disappear if it isnot documented. This will have to bedecided upon at a later stage.

The research was carried out by Dr Idu MacDonald and D.I. Olorunfemi ofthe Department of Botany, University ofBenin, Nigeria. One hundred informantswere asked about the medicinal plantsthey use. The informants included full-time and part-time herbalists, old men andwomen, family heads, and the villagehead. The information they supplied andtheir answers to specific questions wererecorded. If at least two informantsindependently reported using a particularplant to treat a particular disease, the datawere considered to be reliable. Samples ofthe plant parts used by the informantswere collected and identified.

Although the research at this stagehad a predominantly botanical focus, thefindings are presented here under thediseases or ailments for which the Komause the plant, with an indication of whichparts are used. The plants listed aregenerally used for one or more purposes. It is also common for a number of plantsto be combined for the effective control ofone ailment.

Plant names are given in English if there is an English name. This is followed by thelocal name (in bold italics) and the fullbotanical name.

MalariaLeaf of cashew tree mashichada(Anacardium occidentale L., Anacardiaceae);banana ayaba (Musa sp., Musaceae); leavesand fruit of papaya gwada (Carica papayaL.; Caricaceae); leaf and bark of mangomangoro (Mangifera indica L.,Anacardiaceae); neem dogonyaro(Azadirachta indica A. Juss, Meliaceae);African mahogany opi (Khaya senegalensis(Desr.) A. Juss, Meliaceae); bark of coralbush kowule (Erythrina senegalensis DC.,Papilionoideae); and fig tree gambo (Ficusvallis-choudae Del., Moraceae).

Diarrhoea Root, bark and fruits of horseradish tree,also called Ben-oil tree, or drumstick treezogole (Moringa oleifera Lam., Moringaceae);bark of Egyptian thorn tree, or pricklyacacia buldagl (Acacia nilotica (L.) Willd exDelile, Mimosoideae); stem and tuber ofyam katidali (Dioscorea composita Hemsl.,Dioscoreaceae).

GastroenteritisLeaf of common bitterleaf gwuchzaali(Vernonia amygdalina Del., Asteraceae); barkof African canarium, or incense tree atile(Canarium schweinfurthii Engl., Burseraceae).

DysenteryLeaf of sheanut tree bulanga (Vitellariaparadoxa Gaertner f., Sapotaceae); bal(Grewia vensuta Fres., Tiliaceae); leaf andstem of devil’s thorn tedo (Tribulus terrestrisL., Zygopyllaceae).

GonorrheaLeaf of tallow tree jangel (Detariummicrocarpum Guill. & Perr.,Caesalpinioideae); root of wujango(Nauclea pobeguinii (Pobeguin ex Pellegr.)Petit, Rubiaceae).

Dermatitis (skin disease)Leaf and stem of asthma weed kumama(Euphorbia hirta L., Euphorbiaceae); spreadinghogweed, or spiderling gogomashu(Boerhaavia diffusa L., Nyctaginaceae); cauli(Sapium grahamii (Staff) Pax, Euphorbiaceae);leaf of cutleaf groundcherry nujechada(Physalis angulata L., Solanaceae).

BurnsLeaf of nodeweed laachada (Synedrellanodiflora L., syn. Verbesina nodiflora L.,Asteraceae); root stem and stem bark ofhog plum, tallow wood shamaigoro(Ximenia americana L., Olacaceae).

Snake / scorpion bite – Anti-venomLeaf of black plum wawo (Vitex donianaSweet, Verbenaceae); root of calendulazani (Calendula arvensis L., Asteraceae).

CoughLeaf and bark of watcuto (Pergularia daemia(Forsk.) Chiov., Asclepiadaceae); tasu(Anogeissus leiocarpa (DC.) Guillemin &Perrottet, Combretaceae); root of andra(Albuca nigrum L., Liliaceae).

Vermifuge (worm expeller)Leaf and stem of garlic alubaza (Alliumsativum L., Liliaceae); root bark of confettitree yoi (Maytenus senegalensis (Lam.) Exell.,Celastraceae).

Rheumatism / painsLeaf of common bitterleaf gwuchzaali(Vernonia amygdalina Del., Asteraceae); leafand stem bark of watcuto (Pergulariadaemia (Forsk.) Chiov., Asclepiadaceae);root bark of Ilorin balsam tugada (Danielliaoliveri Hutch & Dalz., Caesalpinoideae).

HypertensionStem bark of wangula (Cassia goratensisFres., Caesalpinioideae).

Mental disorderRoot of fibre tree voly (Securidacalongipedunculata Fres., Polygalaceae).

ConjunctivitisLeaf of ber yago (Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.,Rhamnaceae).

BilharziaRoot of ginger magoni (Zingiber officinaleRosc., Zingiberaceae).

Up to now research has concentratedon identifying the common plants used for different diseases. The first contact waspromising but not conclusive as thecultural gap between indigenous andscientific knowledge is vast and sometimesvery difficult to bridge even when theresearch is carried out in an atmosphere oftrust and open-mindedness aimed atmutual understanding. Research in thisregion was quite difficult due to thedifficult terrain of the towns in Koma. Butin spite of all this, the second part of thisresearch has just been completed.

For more information, please contact:Dr Idu MacDonald or D.I. Olorunfemi,Department of Botany, University of Benin,PMB 1154, Benin City, Nigeria.Tel.: +234-52-600558 ext. 2143E-mail: [email protected]

Plants used for medicinal purposes by the Koma people of Adamawa State,Nigeria



Observations bearing on fieldworkers’manners and conductby C.O. Izugbara

In 1997 I conducted an elaborate studyof malaria-related beliefs among theNgwa of southeastern Nigeria. The

findings of this study have been publishedelsewhere (Izugbara 1998). While doingfieldwork I observed how important it is forresearchers to behave properly. As there islittle published information about this, Iwould like to share my observations withMonitor readers who are interested in thestudy of indigenous knowledge systems.

The fieldwork was done with thehelp of six trained Ngwa-speaking fieldassistants: two female and four male. Thestudy took place in the Ngwa communityAvo in Obete Nchina village of NtighauzorAmairi Autonomous community inObingwa Local Government Area of AbiaState, Nigeria. Avo has a population of 550persons. Four very small patrilineagesmake up Avo hamlet.

We had chosen to use the anthropo-logical approach that relies heavily onethnographic techniques of data collectionwhich yield rich qualitative data. Thisapproach uses informal and semi-structuredinterviews combined with intensive, sys -tematic observations made by a researcherwho participates in the community understudy. If we used it well, this anthropo-logical approach could provide thenecessary descriptive basis for a thoroughunderstanding of indigenous notions ofmalaria in the locality in question.

Manners during research

All members of the research teamswere Ngwa-speaking. This reduced theproblem of gaining entry, removed theneed to use interpreters, and provided theinsider's point of view regarding the issuesunder consideration. The fieldworkerswere aware of local mores, norms, and keyvalues, which facilitated their acceptanceamong the people.

During our stay in the field, wenoticed that local people want to beaccorded the respect due to them beforethey are ready to cooperate. Elderlyrespondents in particular were alwaysunwilling to cooperate with us if theythought we had ignored local rules governing conversation between the youngand the elderly. The Ngwa, like mostAfrican people, take very serious exceptionto young people probing and testing theintelligence of the elderly. So it was onlywhen we humbly, cautiously, andcourteously questioned them that theytalked freely. In many instances, ourrequests for clarification on certain issueswere also misconstrued.

When we asked one elderly man tooblige us with information, his reply wasrevealing: ‘I am ready to talk to you providedyou do not interrupt me. I will talk first and youwill ask questions later.’ Generally maleadults preferred requests for clarificationto come only after they had finished airingtheir views.

The behaviour of fieldworkers whileholding interviews with ‘key’ respondentsis also crucial. During the study, some ofthe key respondents we talked with werelocal healers. Discussions with local healershelp to bridge much of the gap existingbetween theory and practice in health-seeking behaviour. But for such discussionsto be fruitful, fieldworkers must watchhow they themselves behave. Our ex-perience in the field shows that only whenthe fieldworkers appeared ready to listento and learn from local healers were theyfurnished with more in-depth information.Fieldworkers who asserted themselves andasked challenging questions elicited verylittle information from the local healers. A researcher evidently needs humility,patience, and openness of mind to drinkfreely from local healers’ rich pool ofindigenous medical knowledge.

How researchers behave toward keyinformants is another critical issue. Keyinformants need to be selected, used, andrewarded with care. They are not to beaccorded special treatment in the presenceof other members of the community. Thisis very important if they are to avoidwhipping up feelings of envy in thecommunity. Two members of the commu-nity we studied went about inciting othersagainst us because one of our key infor-mants had boasted about an electronicwatch the research team presented to him.Evidently, community members hadstarted feeling that key informants weregetting more out of the research than wasnecessary. We had to step in to avoidthings getting out of hand.

Conduct at other times

When not actually doing research,researchers must try as much as possibleto bridge any gaps between them and thepopulation under study. We achieved thisby spending some of our time playfullywith the people and by being enmeshed in the social currents of the community’slife. Villagers were indeed happy to see uscome to their church, play games, anddrink with them. No sooner had localpeople became interested in us than theywanted to know everything about us: thetypes of food we ate, who helped us to

prepare it, whether or not the governmentwas paying us to do the study, what workwe did, whether or not we also sufferedfrom malaria, what we think aboutmalaria, etc. So before long we had becomeentangled in local gossip. We were alsogiven appropriate nicknames by thepeople. Local young men – and evenmarried men in positions of authority –reportedly made advances to femalemembers of the research team. I alsoreceived reports that some male membersof the research team were wooing younggirls in the community. The male head ofone of the patrilineages (Ubakala) told mein confidence that he had reports that oneof my field assistants was wooing hisdaughter. I promised him that I wouldwarn the person in question to steer clear.

Active involvement in local sociallife and close association with the peoplewere very instrumental in sustaining theirgoodwill toward the research team. Wehad been in the field barely two weeksbefore people were coming to us freely and giving us as much information as theyfelt was important. They also generally felt an obligation to ensure the success ofthe study. Visits were thus paid to us dailyby many people who just wanted to knowhow far we had gone and to make surethat we had made accurate note of somevital point or another. We appreciatedsuch visits and made sure that we couldalways offer a free drink of palm wine.Callers also went home with gifts of kola-nuts, bitter-kola, handkerchiefs, etc. Suchgestures secured the community’s longtermparticipation and involvement in the study.

The study of indigenous knowledgesystems and their place in the quest forsustainable development is one of the morerecent developments taking place world-wide. But if researchers fail to conductthemselves in culturally-responsive ways,they are unlikely to have a chance ofunderstanding indigenous knowledge, let alone incorporating it systematicallyinto efforts to achieve sustainability indevelopment initiatives. I hope to alertresearchers who investigate indigenousknowledge systems to the critical need forthem to mind their own conduct andbehaviour while doing fieldwork amonglocal people. If they do not do so, theycannot hope to generate information thatcould be relied upon for use in develop-ment initiatives and efforts.

Chimaraoke Otutubikey Izugbara Department of Sociology andAnthropology


The modern, educated classes worryabout the depletion of naturalresources but they normally place

all the blame for this on rural people, whobecause they are not formally educated areassumed to be ignorant and without anyconcern for either the nation or nature.But is this really so? This is a key questionwhich arises any time when sustainablesolutions are sought and indigenous andexogenous knowledge are being analyzedin terms of their possible relevance andcompatibility in a given situation.Landscapes around the world are highlydiverse, and technologies suitable forconserving biodiversity and maintainingecological equilibrium in one place mightnot be suitable in another place underdifferent local conditions. Input is neededfrom the local communitieswhose involve-ment is imperative for the sustainablemanagement of common resources. Buteducated development workers questionthe value of this input. Can farmers andfarm labourers understand the importanceof technology? Can they assess newtechnologies using the same powers ofreasoning and logic as researchers?

The answer I have found whilestudying indigenous technological know-ledge in India is ‘Yes!’ Just because farmersor farm labourers are illiterate – which,unfortunately, many of them are in India –does not mean that they do not have acognitive, affective and conative mind — a complete set of mental faculties forknowing, feeling and striving towards agoal.

I would like to share with Monitorreaders some of the important lessons Ilearned while doing research in Karnatakain connection with the Indo-Swiss Participative Watershed Development

Project. I worked in four project districts:Bidar, Bijapur, Gulbarga and Koppal. (Seereference below.)

The two examples I will present hereboth involve the construction of drainagecanals known as ‘nala’ in the Kannadalanguage. These are separated from thefields by dykes: reinforced, artificalembankments known in India as ‘bunds’.

Example one

In Bidar, in the Sasthapur village ofBasavakalyan taluk, I spoke with ShivappaVeerappa Patil and his son GurunathShivappa Patil, who had built a nala andbunds about 25 years ago. Following anacute drought some years ago, water fromthe nala began to leak through the bundsinto their fields during the rainy season,when the drainage canals are full and thewater is exerting great pressure on thebunds. Shivappa, who was in bed withfever when I talked with him, said thatthey had to do something to strengthenthe bunds. ‘Initially we had built the nalabunds some five meters wide and twometers high, using soil. But a monsoonwiped them out. Then, without raising theheight, we doubled the width, pitched thebanks at an angle, and reinforced thebanks with boulders that are availablelocally. And we planted vegetation on thebunds: neem (Azadirachta indica) and ‘lakki’(Vitex negunda), for example. After thatnothing bad ever happened to our nalabund again.’ The pitching made the em-bankments strong enough to withstandgreater forces, and this system has nowbeen applied with success over a length ofsome 100 meters.

I asked Shivappa who had told themto pitch the nala banks at an angle. Hadthey had any external guidance? His

immediate reply was, ‘Who would give usguidance? We did it ourselves! When thebund of soil proved unable to withstandthe force of the water, we thought of usingboulders to maintain the banks at anangle. We tried it, and it worked!’ Couldthere be a clearer example of farmers exhibiting the ability to reason and experi-ment like any researcher, or a clearerexample of a sustainable technology formanaging natural resources?

Example two

A nala flows alongside the road asyou enter the Moga village of Chincholitaluk in the Gulbarga district. Over a lengthof about one kilometre, the reinforcedbanks are crumbling and giving way. Thissystem was the product of a developmentagency operating ‘officially’ – ‘officially’meaning that officials make all thedecisions and villagers’ involvement islimited to the hiring of a few masons. We

Can farmers think like researchers?Experience gained while studyingindigenous technological knowledgeby Neerchal Balakrishnaraj

University of UyoP.M.B. 1017, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State,Nigeria, West AfricaFax: +234-926-634000.E-mail: [email protected]

Reference

Izugbara, C.O. (1998) ‘Malaria-related beliefsamong the Ngwa of southeastern Nigeria:

Implication for sustainable development’,South-South Journal of Culture and Development 1 (2)35-48.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank all members of theoriginal research team. Special thanks also goto Ms Gwendoline Macauley for her useful

comments on drafts. The financial support ofthe Burgsey Research Consortium is also

gratefully acknowledged.


Figure 1. Shivappa’s solution: to pitch the nala banks atan angle and reinforce them with boulders.


asked the villagers about the disintegratingnala. They said that during the construc-tion they had tried to offer advice but itwas not accepted. Their warning that thebanks would suffer during the rainy seasonwent unheeded. They have been provenright, however.

‘So what should have been done?’ we asked the villagers. They said that thebanks should have extended beneath thesurface for a distance equal to the width ofthe nala bed. And the banks should alsohave been pitched at an angle. ‘If a nala iswider at the top, the force of the waterthat flows in it is reduced. If the officialshad done this, the nala would have heldup,’ the villagers said.

A lesson for policy-makers and development agencies

These examples show that villagefarmers do have technological ideas worthlistening to, and they are capable of thesame sort of logic and experimentation asmodern researchers. This is seldomacknowledged, however. Many projectdocuments, certainly in the field of water-shed management, say how important it isthat local farmers participate fully, butthis seldom happens in practice. Rigidbureaucratic systems get in the way. Decision-makers at policy level have to domore to address the larger issue of popularparticipation, and officials at the grass -roots level need to be trained in how tointegrate indigenous technological know-ledge (ITK) with exogenous technologies. Itis imperative that these local-level officialschange their attitude, something thatcould be possible if development agencieswould change their role from ‘executive’to ‘facilitator’. NGOs could perhaps help totrain the grassroots officials, but none ofthis will ever take place until policy ischanged at the top.

Neerchal Balakrishnaraj Founder Secretary of an NGO namedAranya VikasaHouse for Social and EnvironmentalResearch and Transformationc/o T. Putta Naik5 th Stage, 5th CrossVeerannna Layout, Vinobha Nagar,Shimoga - 577 204 Karnataka, IndiaTel. +91-8182-57 280.E-mail: [email protected](Neerchal Balakrishnaraj is currentlyworking as a community organizer andtraining specialist with the Karnatakawatershed development project ).

ReferenceBalakrishnaraj, Neerchal, Roland Benson and

Prem Kumar (1998) Which is good? What needs tobe changed? - An action research study of indigenoustechnological knowledge. Indo-Swiss Participative

Watershed Development Project in Karnataka,Bangalore.


Figure 2. Two models for nala construction: one ‘modern’

and one ‘indigenous’.

extern technology ITK model


Exchanging information on local animalhealthcare, through cyberspace

Focus on: The Ethnoveterinary Mailing List

Back in the 1970s, when I studied veterinary medicine in West Germany, one of my professors wouldmake fun of alternative veterinary practices in his lectures. Acupuncture points could not be verifiedwith scientific methods, he said, and how could a homeopathic remedy work if it contained so little ofan ingredient in such highly diluted solutions?

At that time, development projects were busy exporting conventional veterinary medicine tocountries in the South and establishing veterinary schools, laboratories and services modelled onthose in Europe and North America. They dismissed as ‘superstition’ and ‘ignorance’ the knowledgethat local communities possess about their livestock, how to treat them, and how to keep themhealthy and productive. This knowledge is what is meant by ‘ethnoveterinary medicine’.1

Things have changed. In Europe, a growing number of veterinarians now offer alternative treatments:acupuncture, homeopathy, and phytotherapy. And development efforts now increasingly recognizethe value of indigenous knowledge, both as a resource that provides alternative solutions toproblems, and as a basis for understanding local communities.

Getting started

Ethnoveterinary medicine is an age-oldpractice, but as a field of study it dates back only tothe mid-1980s. Even today, university curriculaprovide hardly any information on this type ofmedicine. But ethnoveterinary research and develop-ment is finally gaining momentum. It focuses on:the local knowledge upon which appropriate andeffective development solutions have to be based;the testing of local knowledge and practices interms of their efficacy and applicability; and itsapplication in livestock development. Healers andother local experts—the bearers of the knowledge—can be valuable partners in the process.

The first international conference on ethno-veterinary medicine was held in 1997 in Pune,India. It was attended by 200 participants from 20countries, all of whom stressed the need for furtherinformation exchange and recommended theestablishment of an electronic mailing list.2

Participants in the Pune conference who wereinvolved in the international IK network beganexchanging information in the field of ethno-veterinary medicine and exploring ways to set up an electronic mailing list. In early 1999 they foundNuffic-CIRAN willing to host such a list with the helpof its IK website and an administrator. A teamof eight ‘ethnoveterinarians’—most of whom hadattended the Pune conference— agreed to act asmoderators of the Ethnoveterinary Mailing List(EVML).

EVML

The moderators represent five continents(Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Europe)and three major languages (English, French andSpanish). This multinational team has tried toachieve wide international coverage and to overcomethe linguistic barriers that so often separate peoplewho share common interests. Together they compileda list of potential subscribers from among their owncontacts and from lists of conference participants,etc. They then sent out an announcement, invitingpeople to subscribe to the new e-mail list.

The first message was circulated to 68subscribers in June 1999. The list has since grown

steadily, to 210 members in September 2000. This isa net growth average of ten people a month.

The list’s administrator is in charge of thetechnical work, but the moderators deal with allaspects concerning content. They contributeinformation from their regions and encourageinterested persons to join the list by promoting it atconferences, for example. The moderators alsohandle any problems that arise.

Every three months, one of the moderatorssummarizes the main points of the discussion andplaces information in categories for the benefit of


Combining old and new. Mr Albert Leleskep, a traditional

animal healer in South Horr,Kenya, uses a syringe to drencha goat with a self-made herbal

mixture against worms.Photo: Evelyn Mathias

all the subscribers. These quarterly summaries areplaced in the lists’ archive and can be browsed on-line. The categories facilitate searches. For example,if you are looking for details about a recentlypublished book, you do not have to scan all themessages in the archive. Instead you can just go to the section ‘Books’ in the quarterly summary.

Characteristics

No record is kept of the subscribers’ postaladdresses or backgrounds, but the text of messagesreveal that they come from at least 45 countries andfrom a variety of fields, including veterinarymedicine, botany, anthropology, pharmacy, agri -culture, animal husbandry, biology, and farming.They work in the field, in universities, laboratories,non-government and government institutions, andin industry. Several consultants and students alsosubscribe to the list.

Over 300 messages have been circulated in the list’s 15 months of existence: roughly onemessage every 1.5 days. Most are announcements ofpublications, training courses, conferences,databases and websites, or they contain informationabout projects either in the field or in the laboratory.Some messages have asked for information aboutspecific plants. Others have sought contacts. Suchrequests elicit responses, not all of which are sent tothe entire list. People often reply directly to theperson requesting the information rather than tothe wider list. This makes it impossible to count theexchanges, but in general, feedback has beenpositive. For example, one subscriber reportedreceiving a number of very helpful replies after shehad circulated a request for collaboration toestablish a network on local livestock breeds.

The list is used less as a discussion forum,although several short discussions have taken place.These have covered topics such as the roles ofethnoveterinary and modern medicine incommunity-based animal health projects, and locallivestock breeds and their conservation.

Has the list indeed brought together English-,French- and Spanish-speaking ethnoveterinarians?This is hard to tell, as there is no way of knowinghow many non-English speakers have subscribed. Afew messages in French (and one or two in Spanish)have been sent from time to time, but all othercontributions have been in English. The moderatorsat first planned to translate messages with the helpof automatic translation programs, but the resultswere unsatisfactory so the idea was abandoned.

Apart from one incident, where a subscriberkept sending messages of little relevance to thesubject of local animal healthcare and production,the list has run smoothly over the past year.

What next?

E-mail and the Internet are expanding veryrapidly. Increasing numbers of people are getting‘wired’. There is a wealth of mailing lists on different topics: www.liszt.com registers over 90,000 of them. With this breathtaking growth it is easy for people in the North to forget that onlyten per cent of all Internet users are in developingcountries, 3 and these tend to be the richer people in the cities. But many ethnoveterinary prac-titioners and field workers live and work in remoteareas and have limited access to the new media ormay lack the education and skills needed to usethem.

So while the ethnoveterinary mailing list isuseful, it does not go far enough. It should rather

become a starting point for other efforts—a placewhere local networks, newsletters and projects canpick up information which they then translate,disseminate and exchange.

Another challenge is to produce hard data onthe scientific validity and economics of ethnovet -erinary medicine. Without such data, policy-makersand development managers will remain sceptical ofthe value of building on this resource. The ethnovet-erinary mailing list can help stimulate research onthese issues, and encourage the development andadaptation of methods for measuring the validity ofethnoveterinary medicine, for demonstrating itsbenefits, and for sharing the results.

Dr Evelyn MathiasEVML moderatorIndependent ConsultantWeizenfeld 451467 Bergisch GladbachGermanyTel.: +49-2202-932 921Fax: +49-2202-932 922E-mail: [email protected]

The Ethnoveterinary Mailing List

Joining the ethnoveterinary mailing list is simple. Just send a blankmessage to this e-mail address: [email protected]. A new subscriberreceives a welcome message stating the purpose of the list, describing itsaudience, and saying how to use it. For example, messages should be short,to the point, and written in a friendly tone (this is called ‘netiquette’). File attachments are discouraged because they take longer to download,some Internet users cannot receive attachments, and some have to pay foreach bit and byte they receive.

Sending messages is also very simple. The subscriber just sends his or her e-mail message to [email protected].

The list is designed to run almost entirely automatically. It uses Lyris, acomputer program on Nuffic-CIRAN’s server that automatically distributesmessages to all subscribers. Members can choose to receive each messageseparately, get a ‘daily digest’ (one e-mail compiling all the messages sentthat day), or receive only a daily index. All the messages are archived onthe Internet (at http://lyris.nuffic.nl:3335/scripts/lyris.pl.). This website isopen only to subscribers.


1 For information on this subject, see Martin, Marina, EvelynMathias and Constance M. McCorkle (Forthcoming)

Ethnoveterinary medicine: an annotated bibliography ofcommunity animal healthcare. London: IntermediateTechnology Publications.

2 Mathias, E.; D.V. Rangnekar, and C.M. McCorkle (eds) (1999)Ethnoveterinary medicine: alternatives for livestock development.

Proceedings of an international conference held in Pune, India, onNovember 4-6, 1997. Volume 1: Selected Papers. Pune: BAIFDevelopment Research Foundation.

3 Geisz, Martin; Jutta Janzen und Heike Schmid Internet —eines neues Medium für die entwicklungspolitische Bildungsarbeit.

Rundbrief Bildungsauftrag Nord-Süd, World UniversityService.




Please note that thissection containsinformation only aboutIK Resource centres that have reported ontheir activities. Theother centres may beactive, but since wehave not heard fromthem we cannot be sure of this. To list themcould be giving falseinformation to peoplewho might wish tocontact them.


IK Re s o u rc eC e n t re s

AFRICA

Burkina Faso

BURCIK

Burkina Faso Resource Centre forIndigenous Knowledge(Centre Burkinabè de Recherche sur lesPratiques et Savoirs Paysans)Dr Basga E. Dialla, Director(Correspondent)INNS, B.P. 5154, Ouagadougou 02 Burkina FasoTel.: +226-360 746. Fax: +226-315 003.E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Biasga E. Dialla reports that theInstitute INNS which houses the BurkinaFaso Resource Centre for IndigenousKnowledge (BURCIK) is currently goingthrough an evaluation which will takefrom October to December 2000. Duringthat time, Dr Dialla will be not only headof BURCIK, and chairman of the Socio-economic Department of INNS, but alsoacting director of the entire institute INNS.In January 2001, Dr Dialla will take upextra activities again, such as writing abook review for this Monitor of Mazzucato,Valentina and David Niemeijer (2000)Rethinking soil and water conservation in achanging society. A case study in eastern BurkinaFaso. Wageningen: Tropical ResourceManagement Papers No. 32.

Kenya

KENRIK

Kenya Resource Centre for IndigenousKnowledgeDr Patrick Maundu, HeadMr Samuel Mwangi, CorrespondentNational Museums of KenyaP.O. Box 40658NairobiKenyaTel.: +254-2-742 131.Fax: +254-2-741 424.http://www.museums.or.ke

Mr Samuel Mwangi of the Kenya ResourceCentre for Indigenous Knowledge (KENRIK)reports that the centre held a workshop inAugust at the National Museums of Kenya,Nairobi. The workshop was attended by 126 persons, including staff of KENRIK and representatives of local universities,non-governmental organizations, researchinstitutions, donor agencies, community-based organizations, farmers andherbalists. On the first day, the KenyaSociety of Ethno-ecology (KSE) waslaunched. Some 60 people immediatelyregistered as members. The main purpose

of the new society will be to coordinateethno-ecological activities in Kenya with a view to achieving the sustainable use ofnatural resources, including plant andanimal resources. In addition, the societywill help KENRIK at the National Museumsto build an IK information resource. This resource will be available for use byresearchers, society members and thegeneral public. For the time being, the KSEwill be housed at the KENRIK offices. The head of KENRIK, Dr Patrick Maundu,has been elected coordinator for the firstthree years.

The workshop attendees resolved tohelp the society achieve its statedobjectives, which are mainly concernedwith networking among the stakeholdersand giving support to the groups involvedat various levels, from grassroots tointernational. A number of resolutionswere passed during the workshop. Forexample, the KSE has resolved: ■ to provide opportunities for seminars

and workshops that will help toeducate the member groups and thepublic;

■ to assist the members by channellingproposals to relevant donors;

■ to lobby for legislation that wouldbenefit the stakeholders in indigenousor local knowledge (IK);

■ to act as a clearinghouse for all news,information and developments at local,national, regional and internationallevels;

■ to develop and provide tools andcapacity for networking andconsultation and for representing andprotecting the interests of all relevantgroups.

The workshop was followed by a one-day seminar at the KENRIK officesgiven by Mr Paul Quek of the InternationalPlant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) in Malaysia, who presented a paper on IK documentation. The paper raisedimportant issues with regard to IK: therole of information and communicationtechnology in IK, the documentation ofindigenous and traditional knowledge,intellectual property rights as regardssharing knowledge and the benefits thataccrue from it, the IK journal, and generalaccess to knowledge. The seminar wasattended by the staff of KENRIK andrepresentatives of several NGOs andcommunity-based organizations. Readerswishing to obtain more information onthis subject are asked to contact KENRIK.

Nigeria

ARCIK

African Resource Centre for IndigenousKnowledgeProfessor D. Olu Ajakaiye, Director Professor S.O. Titilola, CoordinatorNigerian Institute of Social and EconomicResearch (NISER)P.M.B. 5, U.I. Post OfficeIbadan


http://www.museums.or.ke


NigeriaTel. : +234-2-810 2904.Fax: +234-02810 1194.E-mail: [email protected]

Professor S. Tunji Titilola would like toannounce that the African ResourceCentre for Indigenous Knowledge (ARCIK)is planning to host a two-day networkmeeting of directors and coordinators ofAfrica’s IK Centres at ARCIK, Ibadan. Theobjectives of the proposed networkmeeting are as follows:■ to share experience with each other

and coordinate efforts in networking,documentation and training at theregional level;

■ to explore possibilities of providingeffective linkages among centres inorder to sustain the product of ourefforts in the area of indigenousknowledge (IK);

■ to discuss how to meet the technicaland training demand of participants inIK in Africa;

■ to establish programmes that willinvestigate and further strengthen anddevelop IK-related technologies relevantto resource-poor farmers generally andwomen farmers in particular;

■ to increase IK input into developmentplanning activities for the region;

■ to strengthen the training demand ofeach centre in the region;

■ to develop a continent-wideprogramme of training to raisepractitioner’s skills.

The meeting is tentatively scheduledfor the first quarter of 2001 and ARCIK is,through this medium, soliciting for fundshelping to enable the realization of thisimportant network meeting. Tentativebudget will be sent to interestedorganization(s). Please send all correspondences to:[email protected]

CIKFIM / FIF

Centre for Indigenous Knowledge in Farmand Infrastructure ManagementDr G.B. Ayoola, Director (Correspondent)Farm and Infrastructure FoundationPrivate Mail Bag 2373Makurdi, NigeriaTel.: +234-44-533 204 / 205.Fax: +234-44-534 040.E-mail: [email protected]

The CIKFIM / FIF report was received long pastthe deadline so it could not be included, but wewould like to inform readers of the centre’s newtelephone and fax numbers as well as of its e-mail address.

CIKPREM

Centre for Indigenous Knowledge onPopulation Resource and EnvironmentalManagementProfessor D.S. Obikeze, DirectorDepartment of Sociology / AnthropologyUniversity of Nigeria, NsukkaEnugu Sate

NigeriaTel.: +234-42-770 172; 042-771911/78Fax: +234-42-255 026 E-mail: [email protected] (Prof. Obikeze)

Professor Obikeze, Director of the Centrefor Indigenous Knowledge on PopulationResource and Environmental Management(CIKPREM) asks readers to please note thatit takes approximately three monthsbefore letters and other information sentby surface mail reach the centre. Thereforehe asks that all urgent communication bedone by e-mail rather than through theregular post. He regrets any inconveniencesthis may cause.

ASIA

India

CARIKS

Centre for Advanced Research onIndigenous Knowledge SystemsDr Jan Brouwer, DirectorMs S.L. Meenu, CorrespondentP.O. Box 1, SaraswathipuramMysore - 570 009, IndiaTel.: +91-821-542 467.Fax: +91-821-542 459.E-mail: [email protected]://iias.leidenuniv.nl/host/ccrss/cariks/htm

The Centre for Advanced Studies onIndigenous Knowledge Systems (CARIKS)has started to organize and host a series ofseminars on Saturday. The first series dealswith Indigenous knowledge, anthropologyand industry’. Thus far, four seminars havebeen conducted. They were presided overby the Chairman of CARIKS, Dr B.L. Amla,while Professor P.K. Misra agreed to act asdiscussant. Each Saturday seminar wasattended by 12 participants from variousdisciplines, and by industrialists andartists as well. CARIKS director Dr JanBrouwer presented a paper to each of themeetings:1 ‘Modes of thinking: conflicts behind

practices in various domains of industry’ (19 February 2000)

2 ‘Conflict between modern and indigenous concepts in the small enterprise workplace’ (1 April 2000)

3 ‘Indigenous knowledge and economic success in Japan, India and Germany: a proposal’ (20 May 2000)

4 ‘Indigenous knowledge, anthropology and the emerging simulation state in Europe and India’ (1 July 2000).

The papers presented in theSaturday Seminar Series No. 2 and 3 havebeen published as one article in SocialAnthropology Vol. 8 No. 2. Part of theSaturday Seminar Series No. 4 paper willbe published by the CIIL, Mysore. Theinterdisciplinary series will be continuedlater this year with different speakers.

Currently, CARIKS is supervisingfour PhD projects. Land systems in theKannada language territory (South India):continuity and transformations at the time of

British colonization is a study which willincrease our knowledge and under-standing of agricultural organisation oflands that are facing major impacts ofglobalisation today. The project is carriedout by Mr Alex Cisilin (CNRS, Paris) whoconducted fieldwork from 20 August to 20October 1999. The second project is carriedout by Mr Gotz Hoeppe, University ofBerlin (Germany), who started doingfieldwork on 14 October 1999. His projectis entitled Discourses on nature and landscape in two fishing communities of Kerala.The fishermen’s maritime landscapeknowledge is crucial to the eco-balance inthe coastal region. Environmentalknowledge is also the central topic in thePhD project carried out by Mr AjayGandhi, McGill University, Montreal(Canada). Mr Gandhi has only recentlycommenced. His study is entitledEnvironmental knowledge as discourse in India.The fourth research is being conducted by Mrs Aya Ikegame, University of Kyoto(Japan) and is entitled Social changes by theMaharaja palace construction in Mysore.Mrs Ikegame focuses on the balancebetween indigenous and modernexpressions of the social in architecture.

On an institutional level, CARIKS ishappy to announce that the eminentanthropologist, Professor P.K. Misra hasagreed to join the Academic Body as amember. Professor Misra has more than 30 years personal fieldwork experienceamong nomadic and tribal peoples ofIndia and among Indians outside India,and is author of various books and manyscientific articles.

The Vice-Chancellor of the North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, ProfessorMrinal Miri, has kindly agreed to becomemember of CARIKS Advisory Board.Professor Miri studied philosophy atCambridge and is actively engaged ininterdisciplinary research and develop-ment programmes.

One of the members of the CARIKSAcademic Body, Professor V.K. Natraj hasbeen appointed Director of the MadrasInstitute of Development Studies (MIDS) atChennai.

CARIKS has started intensivecollaboration with the Centre for Co-operative Research in Social Science(CCRSS) in Pune as well as with the CentralInstitute of Indian Languages (CIIL) inMysore, and initiated networking with Dr K.K. Misra of the University ofHyderabad, and with Dr C.N. Rajgopalan,Centre for Folklore Studies at Trichur.

Over the past year, CARIKS directorDr Jan Brouwer has published thefollowing articles and papers:

Brouwer, Jan (2000a) ‘Practices are not without

concepts. Reflections on the use of indigenousknowledge in artisanal and agricultural

projects in India’, Journal of Social Sciences 4(1)(Special issue): 1-9.

– (2000b) ‘Trees for timber and trees for theforest: aspects of indigenous knowledge of wood






http://iias.leidenuniv.nl/host/ccrss/cariks/htm


Indonesia

INRIK

Indonesian Resource Center forIndigenous KnowledgeProf. Kusnaka Adimihardja, M.A. Director(Correspondent)Padjadjaran UniversityRoom K-3, JI. Dipatiukur 35 Bandung 40132, West JavaIndonesiaTel. / fax: +62-22-250 8592.E-mail: [email protected]://www.melsa.net.id/~inrik

The Indonesian Resource Centre forIndigenous Knowledge (INRIK), incollaboration with the Centre for RuralPlanning Studies, Universiti TeknologiMalaysia, has held a regional symposiumunder the title Rural small and medium-scaleindustries in the globalisation era. It took placein Skudai, Johore, Malaysia, on 11-13September 2000. (See the July 2000 issue ofthis journal.) The symposium was from anASEAN regional perspective. Its purposewas to identify, discuss and developstrategic approaches and frameworks forrural development in which small andmedium-scale industries play a role.Speakers and participants came fromgovernment and non-governmentorganizations, the academic world andindustry. They represented three countries:Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam andIndonesia. On the third day, all participantsvisited several small industries in Johore.

In July and August, in collaborationwith the Padjajaran University’scommunity service institute (LPMC), INRIKheld the first two training courses inparticipatory research and rural appraisal(PRA) for lecturers at University Padjajaranwho will be taking part in the LPMC Project.The next PRA training is taking place inOctober for the benefit of NGOs in Bandung.

On 17 July 2000 INRIK hosted adiscussion about intellectual propertyrights and set up the Working Group onIntellectual Property Rights, which willexamine issues involving the arts andindigenous knowledge in Indonesia.

As a member of JKTI - JaringanKearifan Tradisional Indonesia (TheTraditional Wisdom Cooperation Network),INRIK will participate in a nationalconference to discuss trade-relatedintellectual property rights (TRIPS), theWorld Trade Organization (WTO), and theimpact that these will have on thesustainable development process andbiodiversity conservation in Indonesia.The conference is taking place on 6-19October 2000 in Kampung Wisata InsanKrida, Desa Tonjong Km. 36, Parung-Bogor,West Java. The three main themes fordiscussion will be:■ the socialization of TRIPS and WTO for

sustainable development andbiodiversity conservation in Indonesia;

■ Indonesian government policy that willanticipate a WTO agreement on TRIPS,and autonomous policy for the area;

and stone in Karnataka, India’, 345-360 in: K.

Seeland and Fr. Schmithusen (eds) Man in theforest. Local knowledge and sustainable management

of forests and natural resources in tribal communitiesin India. New Delhi: D.K. Printworld.

— (2000c) ‘Artisans’ indigenous knowledge: itsrelevance for development’, pp. 23-42 in: R.K.

Bhattacharya and S.B. Chakrabarti (eds) Indianartisans. Social institutions and cultural values.Calcutta: Anthropological Survey of India.

— (2000d) ‘Conflict between modern and

indigenous concepts in the small enterpriseworkplace. A proposal’, Social Anthropology 8(2):181-201.

CIKIB

Centre for Indigenous Knowledge onIndian BioresourcesDr S.K. Jain, Director (Correspondent)Dr Ved Prakash, Assistant DirectorC-58, Sector H, Aliganj Lucknow – 226 024 IndiaTel.: +91-522-224 556.

Dr S.K. Jain reports that the Centre forIndigenous Knowledge on IndianBioresources (CIKIB) completed the projecton Ethnobotanical working plan of Sugujain Central India in April 2000. The researchscholar is now writing his doctoral thesis.The Indian Council for Forestry Researchand Education based in Dehradun hasasked CIKIB to make a comparative studyof 50-60 important forestry species and todocument the indigenous knowledgerelated to these trees and plants amongother major tribal or ethnic groups inIndia. The council allocated funds for thisproject and work on it has recently started.

The scientists affiliated with CIKIBare also busy comparing indigenousknowledge (IK) in India with IK in someother regions in the world, notably Africa.

As readers will know (see IK&DM 7(2)p. 18), Dr Jain was named DistinguishedEconomic Botanist in 1999 by the Societyfor Economic Botany in the United States.This fact and his biodata were published ina recent issue of Economic Botany; Dr Jain’saward lecture will be published in a laterissue.

In May 2000, Dr Jain and assistantdirector Ved Prakash delivered threelectures each in a training course onEthnobotany in a Women’s Post GraduateCollege in Bhopal, Central India. The twodirectors are planning to participate in aseminar on Ethnobotany of Gharwal andCentral India at the headquarters of theIndian Council of Forestry Research andEducation in Dehradun.

CIKIHR

Centre for Indigenous Knowledge ofIndian Herbal Resources Dr N.C. Shah, Coordinator andcorrespondent MS - 78; Sector D, Aliganj Lucknow – 226 024, India Tel. / fax: +91-522-326 489. E-mail: [email protected]

The Centre for Indigenous Knowledge ofIndian Herbal Resources (CIKIHR) is pleasedto report that the work of compilinginformation under the title A compendiumto the plant based health system projects (1992-1999) is nearing completion. The work wassponsored by the Science and SocietyDivision of the Department of Science andTechnology, New Delhi. The compendiumdocuments the ways that herbs are usedfor the indigenous treatment of ailmentsand diseases in four regions of India(Western, Southern, Eastern and Northern).

The first part of the compendium isorganized by geographic area anddescribes, among other things, whichherbs are prevalent in each area andwhich herbs are collected or cultivated forwhich purposes.

The second part is organized byailment or disease. The indigenous herbsused for treatment either singly or incombination are listed and discussedunder such headings as Digestive System,Respiratory System, Skin and SkeletalSystem, Musculo-Skeletal System, Genito-Urinary System, etc. Jaundice, diabetes,arthritis, and high blood pressure are justa few of the specific ailments dealt with.The entries describe the health problemsand for each remedy indicate the part ofthe plant used, give its botanical and localnames, and describe the method ofadministration.

The compendium offers interestingextra information about the unique waythat knowledge of herbal remedies isdisseminated among the indigenouswomen practitioners: that is, throughsongs. Here is the English translation ofone such song.

O lady friend, herbs are of different hues andcolours.Lahsun (garlic) treats rheumatism, the rusha(Malabar nut) removes asthma and bronchitis.‘Pitta and dosa’ are removed by anwla (Embelicmyrobolan), bariyara (country mallow) drivesaway all diseases.The dysentery and diarrhoea, boils and abscesses.For diabetes methi (fenugreek) is ambrosia. All above diseases removed by jamun (jamun),bel (Indian bael), vidhara (elephant creeper).Tulsi (holy basil) is queen of herbs, no one knowsits complete secrets.Over all, it is a panacea and a regular repositorymaterial.Trifala (belleric myrobolan, chebulic myrobolanfruits), trikuta (dry ginger, black pepper, longpepper), jira (cumin), ajawain (bishopsweed),haldi (turmeric), kali mirch, bakaeen (Persianlilac).Neem (Indian lilac), babul (Indian gum Arabictree), bar (banyan), peepal (sacred fig), pakar(pakar fig) relieve us from all the diseases andpains.Keep your home and family bonded together anddo not delay in helping the miserable.See every one happy daily and our life will bemeaningful.

Other interesting herbal uses will becommunicated in the next report.


http://www.melsa.net.id/~inrik



its partners in North and South, iscontinuously working to improve thequality and content of the informationoffered. Yet, although there is a worldwideneed for IK information as well as anoverwhelmingly rich variety of IK systemsand practices around the world, thisinformation, curiously enough, is notdirectly available. The problem is how tosecure the information. New methods arerequired. Fortunately, we are witnessingnew initiatives for the capture and use ofIK, as in Uganda, where policy-makers,development workers and scientists haveembarked on a national strategy regardingIK.

One of the activities Nuffic-CIRANhas been involved in is the selection of bestpractices on indigenous knowledge. Thisactivity was a joint venture with UNESCOthrough its MOST programme (ManagementOf Social Transformation). A first resultwas the publication of the ‘Best Practiceson Indigenous Knowledge’ database(http://www.unesco.org/most/bpikreg.htm/ ).The database is a useful tool for policy-makers and members of the developmentcommunity who are looking for concreteexamples of how to incorporate IK intotheir development efforts. We are there-fore happy to announce that the UNESCO-MOST programme has decided to continuewith this joint project, which is why weare now inviting readers to submit in-formation for inclusion in the Best Practicesdatabase. (See also the Call on pp. 28-29.)

Another UNESCO-CIRAN jointventure is a project known as Indigenousknowledge and water interactions. It issponsored by UNESCO’s ParticipationProgramme and its aim is to identify anddescribe 15 best practices in the area ofnatural resource management — inparticular, indigenous practices formanaging water resources.

Nuffic-CIRAN has been contracted byUNESCO’s Information and InformaticsDivision to develop a way to incorporateindigenous knowledge into the day-to-daypractice of multi-purpose communicationtelecentres. A pilot project has been startedwith the Nakaseke Telecentre in Uganda,where guidelines will be developed for thevarious aspects of dealing with indigenousknowledge. These include how to recordand store IK in publicly accessible data-bases, and will address such technicalissues as intellectual property and theverification and validation of knowledge.To launch the pilot project, a workshopwill be held on 23-25 October 2000 atNakaseke Telecentre. The workshop willalso explore the telecentre’s potential foroperating as a community-basedindigenous knowledge resource centre.The role of such centres is to document IK information (case studies and bestpractices) in print and through audio-visual devices, and to contribute to thecontent of the debate on the potentialcontribution that IK can make to the workof development professionals andscientists. As readers might know, the

establishment of many such centres wasone of the recommendations of the secondGlobal Knowledge for DevelopmentConference, which was held in KualaLumpur in March 2000. For moreinformation on this conference and itsoutcomes, see the website http://www.globalknowledge.org.my/index_main.html.

LEAD

Leiden Ethnosystems And DevelopmentProgrammeProfessor L. Jan Slikkerveer, DirectorMs Diana Bosch, MA, CorrespondentInstitute of Cultural and Social StudiesLeiden UniversityP.O. Box 95552300 RB LeidenThe NetherlandsTel.: +31-71-527 3403 / 3469.Fax: +31-71-527 3619.E-mail: [email protected]

In early June 2000, the Leiden Ethno-systems And Development Programme(LEAD) was visited by Associate ProfessorBenito Tan and Associate Professor DrPeter Ng of the Department of BiologicalSciences and the Raffles Museum at theNational University of Singapore, who areparticularly interested in LEAD’s advancedmedical ethnobotanical research inSoutheast Asia.

Towards the end of June, LEAD’sDirector, Professor Dr L.J. Slikkerveer,carried out a mission to Indonesia in orderto further assess the possibilities forfurther collaboration with UniversitasPadjadjaran in Bandung in the fields ofprimary health care and communityhealth research and technology inIndonesia. In addition, ProfessorSlikkerveer presented a seminar on Newtrends in ethnobotanical study in Indonesia andthe traditional resource rights debate. He alsopaid a visit to Universitas Brawijaya.

On 3 October, Professor Slikkerveerconducted a seminar in Heraklion, Crete,on Changing doctor-patient relationships in aglobal context, which had been organized byAssistant Professor Dr Ch. Lionis of theDepartment of Social Medicine and FamilyHealth of the University of Crete,Heraklion.

In early September 2000, Mrs DrSoehartinah K. Antono, MPH, of theUniversitas Padjadjaran in Bandung,Indonesia, joined the LEAD programme asa Visiting Research Fellow. She will followa three-month course of training at theDepartment of Radiology of the LeidenUniversity Medical Centre. In addition, sheis collaborating with Ms L.J. Bosch, MA, ofLEAD on the utilization of advancedmedical preventive and diagnostictechniques, such as computer tomographyand magnetic resonance imaging, forcomplementary primary health caredevelopment in Indonesia.

Mr Wai’l E. Abdalla, M.Sc., whojoined the LEAD programme as VisitingResearch Fellow on 1 January 2000, isworking on the theoretical orientation of

■ the probably negative impact thatTRIPS-WTO will have on community-based intellectual property rights.

Sri Lanka

SLARCIK

Sri Lanka Resource Centre for IndigenousKnowledgeDr D.M.S.K. Ranasinghe, DirectorDepartment of Forestry & EnvironmentalScienceUniversity of Sri JayewardenepuraNugegoda, Sri LankaTel.: +94-1-854 685.Fax: +94-1-437 879.E-mail: [email protected]

A new director has been appointed to theSri Lanka Resource Centre for IndigenousKnowledge (SLARCIK). It is Dr D.M.S.H.K.Ranasinghe, who succeeded ProfessorUlluwishewa. Dr Ranasinghe hasconducted research in the field of forestry.He published an article in the Monitor in1995: ‘Traditional tree crop practices in Sri Lanka’ (IK&DM 3(3): 7-9).

EUROPE

The Netherlands

CIRAN

Centre for International Research andAdvisory NetworksMr G.W. von Liebenstein, DirectorNuffic-CIRANP.O. Box 297772502 LT The HagueThe NetherlandsTel.: +31-70-4260 321. Fax: +31-70-4260 329.E-mail: [email protected]

[email protected]://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/index.html

It is encouraging to see how the demandfor information on indigenous knowledgekeeps growing, stimulated by the growinginterest of development professionals andscientists in how indigenous knowledgesystems can be put to use in the develop-ment and scientific enterprise. The Internetis a great medium for disseminating thisinformation, which is why Nuffic-CIRANhas redefined its policy concerning theservices and products it offers to theinternational development community.This Monitor is at the heart of theIndigenous Knowledge InformationSystem which has a strong presence on theInternet. The various products of Nuffic-CIRAN in the area of IK informationmanagement are now part of thisintegrated ‘linking knowledge worldwide’system that offers fast and easy access to IK data, and creates new opportunities forlinking IK resources to each other. Weinformed readers of these developments inthe first issue of this year, and the detailscan be found on the inside front cover ofeach issue under ‘Focus’.

Nuffic-CIRAN, in cooperation with

http://www.unesco.org/most/bpikreg.htm/

http://www





http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/index.html


his PhD research proposal entitled‘Medicinal plants knowledge and useamong the Nubians along the river Nile -An ethnobotanical study in NorthernSudan’. He plans to study, document andanalyse the medicinal plants and relatedindigenous knowledge of this famousethnic group. The aim is to improveresource conservation and health care, andas such, to contribute to the theory andpractice of ethnobotanical knowledgesystems.

LATIN AMERICA

Venezuela

VERSIK

Venezuelan Secretariat for the Promotionof Indigenous – Local – Knowledge forSustainable Development Dr Consuelo Quiroz, General CoordinatorCentre for Tropical Alternative Agricultureand Sustainable Development (CATADI) University of The Andes, Núcleo ‘RafaelRangel’Apartado Postal # 22Trujillo 3102, Estado Trujillo VenezuelaTel. / fax: +58-72-360 467.Mobile tel.: +58-166-72 1152.E-mail: [email protected]

General coordinator Dr Consuelo Quirozof VERSIK would like to inform readersthat the foundation FUNDATADI, wherethe secretariat is located, keeps carryingout the three projects started last year.They are one on ‘Education and localdevelopment’, one about ‘Biodiversityconservation in home gardens (conucos)’,and one on ‘Local knowledge abouttraditional food plants’ (these projectshave been described in details in previousissues). Postgraduate students interested to do their thesis in any of these projectsare encouraged to inquire after thepossibilities. Fluency in Spanish isrequired. For more information, pleasecontact Dr Quiroz.

From 31 May to 2 June 2000, Dr Quiroz attended to the InternationalLocal Development Week organized by theDeputy Office of Barcelona, Spain and theInternational Labor Office (ILO). It was aweek full of celebrations, presentationsand thought-provoking discussions.Readers interested in the papers presentedat this event may contact Dr Quiroz by e-mail. She will then send the papers(written in Spanish) by e-mail.

NORTH AMERICA

United States of America

CIKARD

Center for Indigenous Knowledge forAgriculture and Rural DevelopmentDr Shu-Min Huang, Acting DirectorPernell Plath, CorrespondentIowa State UniversityDepartment of Anthropology

324 Curtiss HallAmes, Iowa 50011, USATel: +1-515-294 7348.Fax: +1-515-294 1708.E-mail: [email protected]

[email protected]://www.iastate.edu/~anthr_info.cikard/

After a summer of dormancy, the Centerfor Indigenous Knowledge for Agricultureand Rural Development (CIKARD) is up and running once again! Former ActingDirector, Dr Norma Wolff, retired thisyear. Dr Wolff will now devote her fullattention to her passion: African art. A new Acting Director has been appointed.Dr Shu-Min Huang, long-time Iowa StateUniversity professor of anthropology, hastaken over the position.

Dr Huang is a professor of anthro-pology with a socio-cultural emphasis. His primary research interest is thecomparative study of change anddevelopment in rural societies in GreaterChina. He has done research on thefollowing subjects: land reform andeconomic development; changing beliefsand practices related to diet, nutrition,and healthcare; and environment,indigenous knowledge and sustainabilityin agriculture. Dr Huang has carried outfieldwork in Taiwan (1973-74 and 1991-92),Hong Kong (1980), and the Chineseprovinces of Fujian (1984-85 and 1997),Shandong (1987-91), Guizhou (1995), andManchuria (1998-2000). He is author of twomonographs: Agricultural degradation:Changing community systems in rural Taiwan(1980, University Press of America), and The spiral road: Change in a Chinese villagethrough the eyes of a Communist Party leader(1989, and 1998, second edition, Westview Press). He has also co-edited twoconference volumes: Ethnicity in Taiwan:Social, historical, and cultural perspectives(1994, Institute of Ethnology, AcademiaSinica), and Imagining China: Regionaldivision and national unity (published by theInstitute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica,Spring 1999).

CIKARD also has a new graduateassistant. Ms Pernell Plath worked withCIKARD as an undergraduate and has nowreturned to Iowa State and CIKARD. She ispursuing an MA in anthropology. Ms Plath’smain interest is small-scale agriculturalsystems. She has done agricultural work inthe U.S., Mexico, India and Spain. Sheplans to conduct research on local foodsystems for her thesis.

CIKARD has a new website! Thoughnot entirely complete, it is steadily beingimproved. Come visit us athttp://www.iastate.edu/~anthr_info/cikard/The CIKARD website was recentlyhonoured with a ‘Links2Go’ Award. Ourwebsite has been designated a key resourcefor information on environmental issues.CIKARD is pleased to provide a valuablelink in the information stream.

C a l l s

FOR INFORMATION

Best Practices

In the summer of 1998, UNESCO and Nuffic-CIRAN called for descriptions ofbest practices related to indigenousknowledge (IK). Best practices are ‘success-ful projects or policies aimed at improvingthe quality of life of individuals or groupssuffering from poverty or social exclusion’,according to the current definition. Thebest practices were to be included in anonline database maintained by UNESCO’sMOST programme (Management of SocialTransformations). The response was veryencouraging: a total of 27 best practiceswere selected for publication both online(see http://www/unesco/org/most/bpikreg/)and in print (no longer available).

The MOST Best Practices database isfull of examples of how indigenousknowledge can be put to good use todevelop cost-effective and sustainablestrategies for poverty alleviation andincome generation – in Africa, Asia, Europeand Latin America. One aim of the data-base is to make it easier for researchersand the international developmentcommunity to incorporate IK into theirwork – in project proposals, feasibilitystudies, implementation plans and projectassessments – and to take indigenousknowledge and practices into account inall activities affecting communities.

Today, we are seeing a growingdemand for information and examplesthat can serve as models for furtherproject development. There is a need formore content, for more cases. CIRAN andMOST would like to address this demandand enlarge the database with the additionof newly selected best practices. This iswhy we are asking for your help.

Please send us information aboutany projects or activities you know ofwhere indigenous knowledge has been putto good use to help to alleviate poverty in acost-effective way. We ask you please tosend this information on a form that hasbeen designed for this purpose. It isavailable on the Internet atwww.nuffic.nl/ciran/question.htmlorwww.unesco.org/most/bpikques.htm. Or you can request a printed copy of theform by writing to the address below.When we receive your completed form andthe required information, we will reviewthe case. If it meets the criteria for BestPractices, we will send it to an externalreferee. These referees will be recruitedfrom the international IK network. Youwill be informed as soon as possible of thefinal decision as to whether or not the caseyou submitted will be included inUNESCO’s MOST Best Practices database.

Deadline for the submission of newcases is 5 February 2001.




http://www.iastate.edu/~anthr_info.cikard/

http://www.iastate.edu/~anthr_info/cikard/

http://www/unesco/org/most/bpikreg/

Module

Recording and using IKCulture, gender, science and technologyIndigenous food security strategiesCase studies of local community resourcemanagementComparative indigenous healing systemsGender, justice and environmentComparative indigenous sports andrecreationComparative indigenous artIndigenous land and water managementsystemsComparative patterns of IK systemsIK, cultural biodiversity, conservation andsustainable developmentComparative indigenous approaches toecology, environment and education

Teaching level

UndergraduateUndergraduateUndergraduate and postgraduateUndergraduate

PostgraduatePostgraduatePostgraduate

PostgraduatePostgraduate

PostgraduatePostgraduate

Postgraduate

For more information, please contact:Professor H.O. Kaya, ProgrammesCoordinator, University of North-West,Private Bag X2046, Mmabatho, 2735 SouthAfrica.Tel.: +27-18-389 2453.Fax: +27-18-392 5775 or +27-18-381 5817.E-mail: [email protected]


Asian Studies, Kyoto University areplanning to organize internationalsymposium. The journal’s editors inviteresearchers, scholars, practitioners,observers, businessmen, policy-makers,donor agencies, and others to share theirexperiences and present the results oftheir studies, facilitative actions, policyimplementations or programmes at thisenvisaged symposium entitled Globalizationand local culture: a dialectic towards the NewIndonesia.

The symposium will be held on 18-21 July 2001 in Padang, the Province ofWest Sumatera, Indonesia. Its host will bethe Department of Anthropology, of theFaculty of Social and Political Sciences, atAndalas University in Padang.

The symposium will work further onthe conclusions of a workshop held inMakassar on 1-4 August 2000, whereparticipants analyzed the current crisis inIndonesia. It was found to be high timethat the multicultural features of theIndonesian nation are recognized andappreciated and that the rights and needsof the hundreds of local communities inthe island state are acknowledged.However, the recent turmoil in Indonesiaindicates a tendency towards separatism.The challenges Indonesia needs to dealwith now are how to maintain theexistence and rights of local cultures whilethe country is developing towards a New Indonesia, how to improve localcommunities in the context of a changingand developing society, and how to keepup with developments in neighbouringcountries and global cultures.

The symposium will feature severalpanels focusing on specific themes. One ofthe panels will examine the issue ‘Local

and global knowledge: its implications fornatural resource management’, particularlythe dialectic relationships between thevarious domains of knowledge and theconsequences these relationships have for people’s strategies. The organizersexpect that most of the cases presented atthe symposium will be from Sumatera andKalimantan, but other parts of Indonesia

historically black and disadvantageduniversities from the apartheid system.The university is launching a newaccredited undergraduate and post-graduate degree programme in Indigenousknowledge systems (IKS) from the year2001.

The programme is inter-disciplinary,involving modules from differentdisciplines such as sociology, informationsystems, statistics, agriculture, politicalscience, education, communication,geography, history, development studies,etc. The IKS programme at the Universityof North-West is the only accredited IKSprogramme by the government in SouthAfrica.

The Faculty of Human and SocialSciences of the university would like toestablish a centre of excellence in IKS.However, the university needs to buildhuman resource capacity in teaching andresearch in some of the modules in this newprogramme. Therefore, the coordinators of the programme would like to requestinterested academics, researchers andpost-graduate students (at least master’slevel) in related disciplines, who wouldlike to spend at least a semester (12 weeks)at the University of North-West, assistingthe staff in the teaching any of themodules listed below. The university offersaccommodation, office and researchfacilities to volunteer teachers.

FOR PAPERS

Globalization and local culture

The Jurnal Antropologi Indonesiais published by the Department ofAnthropology, University of Indonesia.This department in collaboration with theDepartment of Anthropology, University of Andalas; and the Center for South East

For more information, please contact:Karen Bakhuisen, Nuffic-CIRAN, P.O. Box29777, 2502 LT The Hague, the Netherlands.Tel. +31-70-4260 302.Fax: +31-70-4260 329.E-mail: [email protected]

For more information on MOST BestPractices and the criteria and selection procedure:www.unesco.org/most/bpindi.htm

FOR PARTICIPATION

National Biodiversity Strategyand Action

The Government of India hascommissioned the development of aNational Biodiversity Strategy and ActionPlan (NBSAP). India harbours an enormousdiversity of plants and animals and animpressive variety of habitats and eco-systems. This biological diversity offers themeans for meeting the basic requirementsof most of India’s population. It is thetreasure-house from which future needswill be met and where elements will befound that will form the basis of newknowledge and technology. But thisdiversity is seriously threatened by humanactivities and natural disasters. Uponanalysis, it is at the local level that boththe wealth of biodiversity and the threatsto it are most tangible. That is why thedevelopment of a national strategy andaction plan should start at the local level.The participation of women and men fromall walks of life, living in rural and urbancommunities, and working both withinand outside government, is essential toensure the wide ownership of the processwhich in turn will ensure the conservationof India’s biodiversity.

The goals of the NBSAP are to draftbiodiversity action plans at all levels byearly 2002 – local, regional, state, inter-state and national – and to empower localcommunities through the sustainable useof resources and the equitable sharing of benefits. Government agencies, NGOs and village communities are alreadycontributing to conservation. But there is aneed to consolidate and coordinate theseefforts and to launch new initiatives. If youhave information on biodiversity in India,if you have ideas for workshops or publichearings, or if you would like to develop alocal-level action plan or contribute in anyother way to the NBSAP process, pleasecontact us now.

Contact address: Ashish Kothari,Kalpavriksh, Coordinator, NBSAPTechnical and Policy Core Group, c/o C.Renuka, Biotech Consortium India Ltd.,Kundan House, 4th Floor, 16 Nehru Place,New Delhi - 110 019, India.Fax: +91-11621 9541.E-mail: [email protected]

FOR ASSISTANCE

Volunteer teaching in IKS

The University of North-West,Mafikeng, South Africa, is one of the





■ Global knowledge ■ Indigenous knowledge ■ Information technologies ■ Multiple intelligences

■ Interfacing global and indigenous knowledgein educational content and teacher education■ Interfacing global knowledge and IK

for learning■ Interfacing global knowledge and IK

in the curriculum■ Interfacing global knowledge and IK

in evaluation and assessment■ Interfacing global knowledge and IK

for teacher education and training■ Partnerships for applying information

technologies and global and indigenousknowledge in educational innovations■ The global and the local in

partnership■ IK and information technology in

partnership■ The learning and multiple

intelligences partnership■ The education-business partnership

The conference format will be varied.There will be keynote addresses, plenarypanels, roundtables, meetings of SpecialInterest Groups (SIGs), concurrent paperand poster sessions, and a youth forum.

The conference language will beEnglish. Special Interest Groups (SIG),formed spontaneously at the conference ,will meet on the afternoons of 13 and 14December. These meetings will runconcurrently with paper and postersessions, all of which are scheduled for 90minutes. Thus far SIGs are expected toform around the topics ‘ICT’, ‘IK’, ‘Thaiwisdom’, and ‘Education and business’.

For more information, please contact:the Acting Chief of ACEID, Sixth UNESCO-ACEID International Conference onEducation, UNESCO-ACEID, P.O. Box 967,Prakanong Post Office, Bangkok 10110Thailand.Tel. +66-2-391 0577 ext: 210.Fax: +66-2-391 0866E-mail: [email protected] http://www.unescobkk.org

PAST

Linguistic and interdisciplinary approaches as critical resources to development

Mysore (India)12-14 July 2000

To celebrate its 5th birthday, the Centre for Advanced Research on IndigenousKnowledge Systems (CARIKS) at Mysore,India, had organised an internationalseminar on Linguistic and InterdisciplinaryApproaches as critical resources toDevelopment, jointly with the Centre forCo-operative Research in Social Science(CCRSS) at Pune and the Central Instituteof Indian Languages (CIIL) at Mysore. Theseminar recommended the incorporationof Folklore Studies in the Social Sciencesand Development Studies. The goal of theseminar was to evolve a researchmethodology for the integrated study of

oral traditions and development. Theseminar was made possible by fundingfrom the Indian Council of Social ScienceResearch (New Delhi) and the CentralInstitute of Indian Languages (Mysore).

The keynote address was deliveredby Dr D.P. Pattanayak, former Director ofthe CIIL and founding-father of CARIKS. Dr Pattanayak discussed the prevailingconcepts of development and the problemsof their measurement. He stressed theneed for interdisciplinary study of mind,brain, cognition and perception which isessential for the understanding of Man. He stated that cultural and linguisticheterogenity is a critical resource fordevelopment. Heterogenity necessitatescommunication. In this context, languageis not only the medium of communication,but also the message, particularly in thecase of indigenous knowledge studies.Whether in oral or written form, instantand deferred communication are featuresof all communication.

Theme 1 ‘Linkages oral tradition anddevelopment’ was introduced by a positionpaper presented by Dr Jennifer Bayer (CIIL,Mysore). She made a strong case forfinding the missing link between researchand development. She showed how threelines of communication have to beimproved if development has to be fruitfulfor all, especially for the voiceless people.First of all, communication betweenresearch and researcher should beimproved through ‘shared participation’of the concerned; next, communicationbetween researchers of differentdisciplines through interdisciplinarystudies; and third, communicationbetween researchers and change agents,notably the State, through epistemologicalapproaches for understanding theinterface between the modern (state used)and indigenous knowledge.

The position paper for Theme 2:‘Critical analysis of oral tradition andspecific development questions’ waspresented by Dr Jan Brouwer (CARIKS,Mysore). He critically revisited somedevelopment projects for artisans ofKarnataka looking at them from the pointof indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). Hecompared the concepts behind the projectdesigns with the concepts behind thepractices of the beneficiaries. The artisans’oral tradition was one of the mainresources for his study. He stressed that anholistic approach is essential for success.

Theme 3: ‘Research methodology’was introduced by the position paperpresented by Dr Guy Poitevin (CCRSS,Pune). He emphasized the need to grounddevelopment processes on people’s ownintangible heritage of oral traditions.

The seminar was concluded with apanel discussion on the position papersand the reports presented by the sessionrapporteurs. The panel considered that thevarious levels of linguistic analysiscontribute directly or indirectly todevelopment; that the analysis of oraltradition complements the findings in

will be represented as well. For purposes of further analysis and discussion, theorganizers are seeking more cases forpresentation. These will help to deepeninsights and understanding of how thedialectic relationships between the twodomains of knowledge can be improvedfor the benefit of local people and theenvironment. It is hoped that new ideasand recommendations will be the result.

The symposium’s main languagewill be Indonesian, but contributions inEnglish are also welcome as both languageswill be used. The deadline for submittingabstracts is 28 February 2001. Selectedpapers will be published – with theauthors’ permission – in a special editionof Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia (vol. 26,2002) and in a book with the title ‘Localand global knowledge: its implications fornatural resource management’.

For more information please contact:Steering/Organizing Committee of theUniversity of Indonesia, Jurnal AntropologiIndonesia , Building B – Fl. 3, FISIP,University of Indonesia, Kampus UI –Depok,Depok 16424, Indonesia.Tel.: +62-21-7888 1032.Fax: +62-21-7888 7749.E-mail: [email protected];[email protected]

C o n fe re n c e s

COMING

Information technologies in educational innovation for development: Interfacing global and indigenous knowledge

Bangkok (Thailand)12-15 December 2000

UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Centre ofEducational Innovation for Development(ACEID) – in collaboration with the Officeof the National Education Commission ofThailand, the Hong Kong Institute ofEducation, and the Center for Learningand Teaching Styles, the Philippines – isorganizing the 6 thannual InternationalConference on Education. This year specialattention will be given to indigenousknowledge and its interface with globalknowledge. The purpose of the conferencewill be to address the role of informationtechnologies in educational innovationfor development and to explore theirimplications for the content of educationand teacher education.

The conference has three themes,each with sub-themes. Four subjects willcut across all the themes: communityparticipation, quality, equity, and sustain-ability. The themes and sub-themes are:■ Global knowledge, indigenous knowledge,

information technologies and multipleintelligences: towards a learning society


http://www.unescobkk.org

mailto:[email protected];



social sciences; that such knowledge andunderstanding can only be reachedthrough co-operative and interdisciplinaryresearch; and that a beginning ofdevelopment of an integrated researchmethodology for this purpose can now bemade. It was recommended to publish avolume on research methodology on thebasis of the seminar proceedings, and toplan a series of seminars focusing oncritical areas that the seminar identified.In order to bridge the rift between expertsand informants, it was recommended thatfuture research projects should includeparticipation of people concerned at theresearch level itself.

The seminar was a fine example ofcollaboration between governmental andnon-governmental research institutions.The organizers have to be complimentedfor their efforts which made thisinterdisciplinary meet an internationalsuccess.(Jan Brouwer, Director of the Centre for AdvancedResearch on Indigenous Knowledge Systems. E-mail: [email protected])

Ethnobiology, biocultural diversity, and benefits-sharing

7th International Congress of EthnobiologyAthens, Georgia (USA)23-27 October 2000

This was the 7th international congress of ethnobiology and the first time thecongress was held in the United States. In keeping with the tradition of pastcongresses, scientists, indigenous peoplesand activists met to hear about the latestresearch and to discuss pressing issuesaffecting indigenous peoples worldwide.Of particular note was a session led byGary Martin entitled ‘Innovative wisdom’,which dealt with the impact of localknowledge on science, conservation, anddevelopment. These issues are beingdebated in organizations such as theInternational Council for Science and theUnited Nations, especially with regard tothe Convention on Biological Diversity.Participants in the conference session wereasked to consider the implications of thesedebates and to discuss whether traditionalknowledge systems are partly scientific orat least compatible with global science.Other sessions examined the transmissionand acquisition of traditional ecologicalknowledge; the loss and persistence oftraditional ecological knowledge; benefits-sharing and bio-prospecting; prior informedconsent; health and traditional peoples;indigenous self-determination in plantgenetic resource use and conservation; and the Human Genome Project and itsimplications for indigenous peoples. In all, over 180 papers were presented byparticipants from over 35 countries.

The congress resulted in a whitepaper called the Athens Declaration,which presents ethical positions on thecontentious issues of bio-prospecting,indigenous intellectual property rights

interaction has been conducted in aBribrí community, also in Costa Rica.

■ to approach and actively network withindividuals and organizations whoshare Meralvis’s focus and are involvedeither in developing rural knowledge,conserving biodiversity, or studyingwildlife issues in Latin America andelsewhere. Meralvis will choose an openapproach aimed at continuity andmutual respect.

At present, Meralvis is only a verysmall organization. It has a staff of threepersons: Deborah Leal, a Brazilianveterinarian with a master’s degree inagroforestry, who has worked withcultures and traditional home-gardens inindigenous and rural communities;Fabricio Carbonell, a Peruvian agronomistwith a master’s degree in conservation andwildlife management, who began to workwith indigenous knowledge seven yearsago; and Isa Torrealba, a Venezuelanbiologist with a master’s degree in wildlifemanagement and further training inmanagement and project formulation,who has ten years of experience workingwith rural communities in CentralAmerica. All three are now residing inCosta Rica, which is considered to be agood place for developing Meralvis’s goals.Their vision is to promote Meralvis andmake it into a regionally recognizedorganization to which peasants as well asscientists and development workers canturn for help with community develop-ment projects and research dealing withwildlife. The ultimate goal is to achieveecologically sound biodiversity conser-vation in the subtropics.

As a new, virtual organization,Meralvis is managing to keep overheadand administrative costs very low. A website is of course crucial for achievingthe goals Meralvis has set, and that website is now under construction. Staff,contributors and sympathisers are lookingfor funds to make its completion possible.Meralvis is also looking for funds for thecontinuation of a project called ‘Fauna useand conservation by Central Americanindigenous people’.

For more information please contact:[email protected] or send a letter toMeralvis, P.O. Box 1854-3000, Heredia,Costa Rica.

Vi d e o s

Healers of Ghana. Film made by J. ScottDodds, Thomas Wallace, and David D. Ohl.Dialogues in Twi and English.Commentary in English. 58 min., USA(1993) 1996. Price and orderinginformation: USA only: USD 129 plus USD 10 for postage. Internationaldistribution through White Pine Films,

and benefits-sharing, and offers alternativesolutions. The conference proceedings willbe published by the University of GeorgiaPress in the summer of 2001. For moreinformation please contact the programmechair and editor, John R. Stepp, at theaddress below.(John R. Stepp, University of Georgia, Athens,Georgia, USA)

The next International Congress ofEthnobiology will be held in Ethiopia inthe fall of 2002. Additional details aboutthe congress and the International Societyof Ethnobiology are available athttp://guallart.dac.uga.edu/ISE.John R. Stepp, Department ofAnthropology, Baldwin Hall, University ofGeorgia, Athens, GA 30602-1619 USA.Fax: +1-775-305 5233.E-mail: [email protected]

Ne t wo r ks

MERALVIS

Meralvis (a Spanish acronym for‘Mejorando al desarrollo rural regional através de la conservación de la vidasilvestre’), also known as ImprovingRegional Rural Development throughWildlife Conservation, is a recentlyfounded virtual NGO formed by biologists,veterinarians, agronomists, rural civilengineers and agroforestry professionalsdevoted to applied research and ruraldevelopment in cooperation with peasantsand indigenous actors in Central America.Meralvis’s mission is to empower CentralAmerican rural communities through theinterchange and production ofinformation about current trends andissues in biodiversity and wildlifeconservation. Meralvis’s main goals are:■ to encourage consideration for wildlife

and biodiversity conservation in day-to-day practice by facilitatingworkshops, short courses, discussionand other ways of directly involving thekey actors in Central America, whichare the rural communities. Meralvis’swork with these people is based onrespect for the individual and for his orher group’s preferences and capacities,and respect for intellectual propertyrights. For example, a series of work-shops on the subject of chickenproduction was held between September1999 and June 2000 for Huétareswomen in Quitirrisi, Costa Rica.

■ to conduct scientific, participatoryresearch on topics pertaining to bio-diversity conservation and sustainablewildlife management, and to publicizethe findings at international conferencesand symposia. For example, a study has been done on the presence and useof wildlife in an indigenous Ngöbecommunity in Costa Rica, and a projectdealing with human and wildlife


http://guallart.dac.uga.edu/ISE


P.O. Box 75, Lone Rock, Iowa 50559 USA, E-mail: [email protected]. Price:USD 75 for NTSC copies, USD 100 in PAL,postage included. Produced by Films forthe Humanities & Sciences, P.O. Box 2053,New Jersey 08543-2053, USA. Toll-free tel.: +1-800-257-5126.Fax: +1-609-275-3767.

Old spirits, new persons: Rose, healer anddiviner in Western Kenya. Film made byProfessor of Anthropology Carla Risseeuwand Metje Postma. Dialogues in Kiswahili,Kiluyia, Kibukusu and English.Commentary and sub-titling in English. 43min., NL (1976, 1992) 1998. NLG 125excluding fee for postage. To order,contact: Carla Risseeuw, De Meij vanStreefkerkstraat 50, 2313 JP Leiden, theNetherlands. Tel. / fax: +31-71-5146 506. E-mail: [email protected].

If you order a film, please indicate which coloursystem is used in your country: PAL, SECAM or NTSC.

These are two video films about traditionalhealers in Africa: namely in Ghana andKenya.

The Ghana film claims to depict theunique relationship between traditionalBono tribal priests and practitioners ofWestern medicine. It was made mainly inthe town of Techiman, and would showthe efforts on both sides to understand,respect, cooperate with, and learn fromthe other’s healing methods. ‘Learning’should be the key word.

The film relates the success story ofan initiative taken by the staff of HolyFamily Hospital in Techiman, CentralGhana, north of Kumasi, where the Bonopeople live. The hospital staff invited localtraditional healers – including herbaldoctors, shrine mediators, mediatingpriestesses, Muslim healers, and broken-bone setters - to integrate the fundamentalsof hygiene and other modern rules ofprimary health care into their activities.The traditional healers were also taught to diagnose certain illnesses on the basis of symptoms. As a result of the initiative,the hospital staff has been relieved of some routine work and thus has moretime to perform more complex medicaltasks.

The film offers glimpses of sessionsconducted by traditional healers. Respectis shown for the holistic approach of these healers, but only one example isthoroughly illustrated. A bone setter treatsa man for a broken bone in his hand withthe help of wooden sticks as splints and amodern bandage. A doctor trained in theNetherlands speaks sympathetically aboutcooperation with traditional healers,especially in psychosomatic situations, butthe film nevertheless has a Western bias.

Statements seem to have beenaccepted without question. It is notconvincing, for example, when a university-trained Ghanian declares that he started

to believe in witchcraft after 15 years ofmedical anthropological research in thefield. And the claim is made in the filmthat the market in Techiman draws peoplefrom 70 different ethnic groups who speak90 different languages. No one would denythat the town is a melting pot, but thenumbers could well be exaggerated. And ifthe town is such a melting pot, onewonders whether the healers in the filmare all Bono or whether some of thembelong to other ethnic groups, and if theydo, one wonders if and how the knowledgeof the various healers is combined.

This is a general film that makespleasurable viewing because it is nice towatch people doing things, but I cannotimagine an educational situation in whichthis film could be useful.

The Kenya film portrays Rose, who becamea healer when she was in her twenties,after a long period of illness. The filmbegins in 1976, and we see Rose treating ayoung woman. The patient is a neglectedfourth wife possessed by the angry spirit ofa dead man. The treatment Rose gives heris long and looks painful and exhausting.I, as a Western spectator, cannot followeither the diagnosis or the treatment. ButRose herself is convincing and impressiveas she works for days and days to solve theproblem. We also see the activitiesbetween treatments. The longest part ofthe film was shot in 1992. Here we seeRose healing a young woman duringseveral sessions at the compound of thepatient’s family. The woman is sufferingfrom bad spirits and after she is freed ofthem she is trained to become a healerherself. Rose and her assistant engage inlong sessions to try to evoke in her theancestral spirits.

This film about Rose is a morepersonal and a better introduction to theworld of traditional African healing. But again, there is nothing we can learnfrom it from a technical point of view. It does not show us how traditionalhealing works in daily practice except toshow that the healer’s dedication and thepersonal attention the healer pays to thepatient are often curative.

Viewing and reviewing these twofilms confirmed my observation that itseems to be difficult to make a good,coherent film about science and othersystems of knowledge. Bits of knowledgeare shown, but the medium of film doesnot seem suited to the real transmission ofknowledge. Yet, especially in the field oftraditional knowledge systems andpractices, it would be so useful to be ableto learn by watching. But neither of thefilms reviewed here have achieved thisgoal. It is not clear to me how they couldbe used for educational purposes. We haveto respect the work of the filmmakers andthe amount of energy they have put intothe products, but it remains unsatisfactorymerely to watch people doing thingswithout really learning what they aredoing or why they are doing it. It would be

nice if knowledge could be transferredthrough this popular medium, but thesetwo films in any case have not shown thisto be possible. (Paul E. Bijvoet, Leiden, the Netherlands.)

P u b l i c a t i o n s

Barrera-Bassols, N. and J.A. Zinck(2000) Ethnopedology in a worldwideperspective: an annotated bibliography.ITC Publications No. 77. 636 pp. ISBN 90-6164-1772. NLG 50 plus postageand packaging. Discount for students whosend a copy of their student card. (Pleaseinquire about the exact price.)International Institute for AerospaceSurvey and Earth Sciences (ITC), P.O. Box 6,7500 AA Enschede, the Netherlands.Fax: +31-53-487 4400.

(See also IK&DM 8(2), July 2000, where thispublication was first mentioned under ‘Preview:Important new books’ on page 41.)

Ethnopedology is the study of localknowledge of soils. Narciso Barrera-Bassols,a Mexican geographer and the principalauthor of this bibliography, has beeninvolved in this field for a longer timethan most of us. He wrote on this topic ina Mexican journal back in 1988. He firstcontacted me in 1995 after I had publisheda short article on the methodologicaldifficulties of collecting local soiltaxonomies (see IK&DM 3 (1): 20-21, April1995). At the time, he was already makingplans to assemble the first comprehensivebibliography on ethnopedology. It was anadmirable and ambitious endeavour, aspublications on the topic tend to be scarceand difficult to locate. Five years and a lotof hard work later, the bibliography is here.

This reference book is a unique andinvaluable source for anyone studyinglocal knowledge of soils. It lists ethnopedo-logical references related to 61 countriesand no fewer than 217 ethnic groupsscattered over all the major continents. For most of the references, keywords and ashort abstract (of between one paragraphand one page) are provided. Useful intro-ductions to ethnopedology and to thematerial presented in the bibliographyhave been written by Victor M. Toledo andthe authors. Very handy are the five indicesat the end of the bibliography: by author,geographical area, agro-ecological zone,ethnic group, and theme. It is clear that aneffort was made to make the wealth ofmaterial as accessible as possible.

An important question to ask whenevaluating a bibliography is how completeit is. The short answer in this case is that itis far from complete. The long answer isthat it is probably as complete as it couldget without postponing publicationindefinitely. A bibliography on a subject asobscure in some respects as ethno-pedology will always remain a work in




tions proffered by the author throughoutthe work. To mention just one, his ‘claimthat the modern image of traditional Igboculture, also for the Igbo themselves, is toa large extent a Christianized image’ (p.170) is to my mind an overstatement. Hisuse of the concept of ‘Chukwu’ as thesupreme God in order to support his claimfails to withstand even a superficial test.The Aro Igbo and their deity (cult) Chukwu(hence Aro-Chukwu) surely predate theChristian missionary activities in Nigeria.

The work has a number of insightsand implications for indigenousknowledge systems. For instance the ideaof ‘autonomous village democracy’ (p. 193)could be useful in efforts to strengthenmodern democratic practice in Africansocieties. Similarly, the fact that the ‘Ozo’title could traditionally be conferred onlyon people recognized for integrity andhonest living could be adopted both by theChristian churches and by the politicaladministrators in power in order torestore the badly damaged moral fiber ofNigerian society. On the whole, the book isa good ethnography on Igbo ethnogenesis.(Professor Dan S. Obikeze, Department ofSociology and Anthropology, University ofNigeria, Nsukka – Nigeria)

Castner, James Lee; Stephen L.Timme and James A. Duke (1998) A fieldguide to medicinal and useful plants ofthe Upper Amazon. vi + 154 pp. ISNB 0-9625150-7-8. USD 35 plus shipping cost.Feline Press, P.O. Box 7219, Gainesville, FL 32605, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr James L. Castner is an adjunctprofessor of Biology at Pittsburg StateUniversity (Kansas, USA). He leads work-shops and tours to the tropics withRainforest Ventures and produceseducational and training materials incooperation with Feline Press. Stephen L.Timme is an associate professor of Botanyat Pittsburg State University. He is the Vice-President for Scientific Research ofthe Amazon Center for EnvironmentalEducation and Research (ACEER). Theethnobotanist James Duke is now retired,but much of his 30-year professional careerin the US Department of Agricultureinvolved researching the cancer-fightingproperties of plants.

Together they produced this easy-to-use guide for the layperson interested inplants that have medicinal uses and/orsome agricultural, economic, or culturalimportance. They had noticed that manyof the people visiting the Amazon eachyear have a special interest in medicinalplants and would also like to know moreabout the important products and cropsthat are grown in the region.

The result is a colourful bookdescribing 113 plant species and a greatvariety of traditional uses. It is a photo-oriented guide that can be carried in thefield and used by anyone wishing toidentify plants and compare their physicalcharacteristics. (The authors point out that

African history (Nigeria) from LeidenUniversity. Between 1993 and 1998 he wasemployed by Leiden University as aresearch trainee attached to the ResearchSchool CNWS. He also lectured part-timein the African studies programme. Following the standard form of a disser-tation, the book opens with a formalstatement of the problem. This is followedby a description of the study’s objectives,relevance, theoretical orientation, andmethodology, and a presentation of thefindings and conclusions. The authoradopted the social relations theory inpreference to the culture theory ofethnicity as his theoretical framework. His aim was to trace the developmentalprocess of Igbo ethnic identity from itsformative years in the 1900s to itsattainment of universal acceptance andmaturity in the 1960s. He pursued thisgoal with dedication and singleness ofpurpose using data generated from threemain sources, namely:■ documents (official and unofficial)

which include archival materials fromthe Church Missionary Society, London;the Colonial Office, London; RhodesHouse, Oxford; Nigerian NationalArchives; F.C Ogbalu’s private papers;and various books, journals, pamphlets,and newspapers;

■ formal interviews with 17 individualsfrom various parts of Nigeria andEurope;

■ site visits and informal discussions withindividuals and groups, including thereviewer.

Van den Bersselaar’s data analysisfollows the ethnographic tradition ofestablishing an analytic strategy,identifying indigenous categories, andrelating the indigenous categories to thekey research questions. Consequently, hisanalysis is both holistic and multi-dimensional, providing detailed narrativeinformation and in-depth descriptions aswell as explanations of events andrelationships. Focusing on two strategicethnic emblems - culture and language - hesystematically traces the public debates onthese subjects that took place during threeperiods: the colonial period, the period ofChristian missionary activities, and theperiod during which Nigerian partypolitics developed and the Igbo werepolitically mobilized. His major findingsand conclusions are the following: ■ Igbo identity emerged as part of the

colonial interaction. It reflects colonialnotions.

■ Various other local identities haddeveloped in the process. These werenot eradicated by the emergence of apan-Igbo identity.

■ The strength of Igbo identity lies in itsability to accommodate these localvarieties and thus bridge the gapsbetween aspects of identity that appearcontradictory and paradoxical and areseemingly irreconcilable (p. 17).

One does not need to agree with allthe views, interpretations and explana-

progress. There are still many small-scalepublications, reports and unpublishedmaterials out there that contain ethno-pedological information but were notincluded in the bibliography. (Readers who know of omissions are encouraged toreport them to the first author [email protected] or to write to him at: ITC,Soil Science Division, P. O. Box 6 – 192,7500AA Enschede, the Netherlands.) Frommy own experience studying ethno-pedology in Burkina Faso, I know that yearafter year one continues to accidentallystumble on relevant material. In a way this bibliography can be seen as a greatstimulus for filling in the many gaps inour knowledge of ethnopedology, in termsnot only of the references waiting to beidentified, but also the research that stillneeds to be done. The review in the bookclearly indicates the countries and ethnicgroups for which no references werefound, as well as the conceptual topicsthat require further exploration.

The one criticism I have of the bookis that it is actually two bibliographies inone. One covers ethnopedology in thenarrow sense of the word, and the otherlists publications on subjects that are, asthe authors call it, ‘of ethnopedologicalinterest’. This means they represent a wayof looking at local people and the naturalenvironment that is conducive to goodethnopedological research. Suchpublications were included in the bookmainly because of the authors’ preferencefor a holistic approach to ethnopedology.While I am in favour of a holistic approachthat includes attention for kosmos, corpusand praxis, I would not have minded if thesepublications, especially those not discussinganything related to soil, had been left out.On the other hand, for researchers anddevelopment workers in remote parts ofthe world who are without access toextensive, computerized university librarycatalogues, this well-indexed selection ofinteresting and sometimes ground-breaking publications ‘of ethnopedologicalinterest’ may be very useful.(Dr David Niemeijer, Environmental SystemsAnalysis Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected])

Bersselaar, Dimitri van den (1998) In search of Igbo identity: Language,culture and politics in Nigeria, 1900-1966.363 pp. ISBN none. Ph.D thesis with theResearch School CNWS, Leiden University,P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, theNetherlands. The dissertation edition issold out and will not be reprinted, buttalks are going on with a publisher about a slightly revised new edition. Meanwhile,the original edition, which is reviewedhere, is available in libraries in theNetherlands, Great Britain and Nigeria(Ibadan University Library; UNN NsukkaLibrary; National Archives, Enugu).Author’s e-mail: [email protected]

Born and raised in Schiedam, theNetherlands, the author holds a degree in





visitors to the ACEER and to the Explor-napo Camp outside Iquitos, Peru, will findmany of the species described in the guidegrowing in the ReNuPeru Medicinal PlantGarden or along the Medicinal Plant Trail.)The purpose of the guidebook, then, is toeducate and entertain in an informativeand enjoyable manner.

The book begins with an illustratedintroduction to botanical terminology andto such variables as leaf margin, shape,arrangement and type, and flower anatomyand type. This is followed by a usefulglossary of botanical terms, and adiscussion of selected Amazonian plants,such as virola, coca, strychnine, curare,and ayahuasca. The descriptions of the 113plant species and their uses complete thebook. The species are listed alphabeticallyaccording to their Latin names.

Although I think the authors havedone a wonderful job, I would have twocriticisms to make. The first concerns theselection of plant species. Not all of themare native to the Upper Amazon. Theauthors include such exotic species assugar cane, star fruit, turmeric, ginger,mango, air plant, breadfruit, coffee, andrice. Their selection is based on what theyconsider to be the most important andrepresentative plants of the UpperAmazon. I would have preferred greaterconcentration on species that areindigenous to the Amazon, certainly asregards the choice of species to beillustrated in colour.

The second criticism concerns theexclusion of the Peruvian curandero DonAntonio Montero Pisco as author. Why did this traditional scientist not rate thisstatus? He was born and raised in therainforest of the Peruvian Amazon. Hisskills with medicinal plants and herbalremedies came from his grandfather, who was a powerful shaman. In 1996 DonAntonio Montero Pisco started theReNuPeru Medicinal Plant Garden, wherehe and his sons now cultivate over 160species of useful and medicinal herbs,shrubs, and trees. Actually, he is thecurator of this botanical garden. In returnfor all his collaboration, the authors haveacknowledged him merely for ‘generouslysharing his knowledge’ with them andwith the rest of the world.

Finally, I would like to brieflymention a shortcoming. For some of thespecies there are no pictures of eitherflowers or fruits. The user must rely onverbal descriptions. This is a pity.

All in all, however, this field guide isvery useful for travellers, practitioners oftraditional medicine, naturalists, students,environmentalists, botanists, ethno-biologists, and anyone else interested inuseful plants.(Eraldo Medeiros Costa Neto, ethnobiologyresearcher, Feira de Santana State University,Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]://www.sbee.org.br)

Chi, Augustine Muam (1999) Co-management of forest in Cameroon: the

compatibility of government policieswith indigenous practices. PhD Thesis,University of Twente, Enschede, theNetherlands. 198 pp. ISBN: 90-365 1377 4.No more copies available. Readersinterested to obtain this publication by e-mail or in computer print may contact:Technology and Development Group,Secretariat (CT 18 09), University ofTwente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede,the Netherlands.Tel.: +31-53-489 3545.E-mail: [email protected]

In Cameroon, legislation in 1994 setthe stage for community forestry and co-management. But a central question hasremained: ‘What is the appropriatemanagement unit for community forests?’The legislation calls for the creation of amanagement council for each communityforest area.

Some scholars are questioning thelogic of the state’s mandated communityforestry management units. They thinkthat indigenous and traditional manage-ment units might work much better thanthose set up by the law. Others worry thattraditional management is by nature non-democratic, thus impeding social progress,or that traditional management has beenweakened in many localities by state andcommercial intrusions. This question has abearing not only for community forestsbut for the management of all commonproperty resources in central Africa where,by law, land and resources are owned bythe state, and where customary tenure andmanagement are not recognized or areambiguously recognized.

Augustine Muam Chi has written animportant study that addresses these keyquestions. I must point out, however, thatthis study is not a polished book but Chi’sdoctoral thesis at the University of Twentein the Netherlands. I am not even surehow one can obtain a copy, which isunfortunate because it is a study that allconcerned with forest policy in centralAfrica should read. (And it should betranslated into French!)

Chi’s central argument is thatindigenous forest management systemsexist in Cameroon under a variety of socio-political structures, and they are effective – far more effective than the state’s attempts to manage forests. He claims thatindigenous systems are popular with thecommunity and that ‘indigenousinstitutions can be equated to formal lawsbecause they belong to a system that isgoverned by ‘rule of law’.’ He bases thisargument on case studies from four sites:Bafut Kingdom and Kilum Mountain(communal forests in North West Province),So’o Lala Forest Reserve (governmentreserve in Centre and South Provinces),and Dja Wildlife Reserve (biospherereserve in East Province). He also examinestwo pilot projects in government reservesin the Central Provinces.

Chi bases his arguments not only onhis own evidence but also on the findingsof other studies of indigenous forest

management systems in Cameroon.Clearly, Chi knows his subject well.

His descriptions of the indigenousinstitutions are detailed and colourful. To portray their flexibility and ingenuity,he shows how the fons or chiefs of westernCameroon are able to keep external elitessuch as business people and forest officialsin line by giving them ‘titles’ and involvingthem in chiefly councils (Quifor). Thus co-opted into the system, these elites theninvest in the communities and obey thecouncil’s decisions. The evolution in themanagement of sacred groves is high-lighted.

Chi also describes the importance ofthe indigenous forestry knowledge that isincorporated into the managementpractices. At the So-o Lala site, for example,local experts described how certain trees –Atod, Ndum (Ceiba pentandra) and Ebaie – areprotected because their leaves provide arich mulch that enriches the soil and im-prove crop yields. Medicinal plants such asNdom (Pachypodathum standti), Esok (GarciniaLucinda), and Atoh are also protected.

Chi is not always optimistic. Heidentifies many threats not only to theforests in Cameroon but also to theindigenous institutions that managethem. These threats include migration,population pressure, commercialization,unmanaged logging and ambiguoustenure regimes. A major threat seems to bepoorly conceived conservation and forestryprojects, some of which he agonizinglydescribes. In the aftermath of one project,he agrees that ‘It is indisputable thatwhere participants and project personnelare poorly trained, the harvest is ill-timed,the wrong trees are cut, logging damage is excessive, and overcutting occurs, theresult is deforestation.’

The book will be of interest toanyone concerned with forest manage-ment and policy in central Africa, and toall students of indigenous forest manage-ment, decentralization and commonproperty management. Despite the numberof sites visited and the exhaustive biblio-graphic research, however, there will besome who ask whether the picture Chipresents really does represent the range ofindigenous forest management systems inCameroon. Many of the examples of strong institutions come from the morehierarchical societies of West Cameroon,where there is in fact very little forest.More biophysical evidence of conservation,as presented in Misreading the Africanlandscapeby Melissa Leach and JamesFairhead, would have helped to convinceskeptics of the strength of indigenousinstitutions. (Bernhard Venema reviewedthat book in IK&DM 6(3), pp. 30-31.)

Chi will have to deal with thesequestions in his next book. I also lookforward to the publication of journalarticles based on his thesis, and to Chi’sfuture studies of indigenous forestmanagement systems and how they copewith the fast-changing forestry sector inCameroon.



http://www.sbee.org.br


Anyone interested in the fate ofCameroon’s forests will have to read theWorld Resources Institute’s 1999 reportentitled Global Forest Watch Cameroon.Thisinstitute is also involved in forest policyreform and will be carrying out a majorstudy this year on the decentralization offorest management in Cameroon.Innovative Resources Management (IRM), aWashington-based NGO, is doingparticipatory mapping of forest resourcesat three sites in Cameroon. To find outmore about these activities, visit thewebsites of the Central African RegionalProgram on the Environment (CARPE) andIRM: http://carpe.umd.edu andwww.irmgt.com.(Diane Russell, PhD (anthropology), Advisor toCARPE and US Agency for InternationalDevelopment, Congo Mission; currently amaster’s student at Yale School of Forestry andEnvironmental Studies, USA. E-mail:[email protected]. CARPE partners workingin Cameroon – Jesse Ribot and J.G. Collomb(WRI), Nicodeme Tchamou (CARPE Regionaloffice), and Michael Brown (IR M) – providedcomments for this review.)

Corbeels, Marc; Abebe Shiferaw, andMitiku Haile (February 2000) Farmers’knowledge of soil fertility and localmanagement strategies in Tigray,Ethiopia. 23 pp. ISSN 1560-3520. WorkingPaper #10 in the series Managing Africa’sSoils. Sent free upon request to readers innon-OECD countries. Readers from OECDcountries are encouraged to download the papers from IIED’s website. Contact: IIED-Drylands Programme, 3 Endsleigh Street, London WC 1H ODD,United Kingdom. Fax: +44-207-388 2826. E-mail: [email protected] http://www.iied.org/downloadable papers

This publication primarily describeshow farmers in two villages classify soilsaccording to their fertility levels and,importantly, how farmers manage soilfertility. This publication will be ofinterest to anyone with a concern forsustainable land management. The authorsare researchers; two are at a university inTigray and one is with CSIRO in Australia.

This easy-to-read publication isstructured as follows. It begins with asummary in English and in French. Theintroduction then discusses the importanceof local knowledge and, in brief, themethodology used. The area of study isdescribed in section two.

The third section describes soilfertility and farmers’ perceptions of it. Dueto the limited and erratic rainfall of theregion, soil fertility in this case is mostclosely linked with the soil’s capacity tohold water. Three types of soil weredistinguished mainly on the basis of theirtopographical sequence. Bottomland soilswere the most productive. A local systemfor classifying soils was also described. Ittoo included crop productivity and topo-graphical sequence as the major criteria. Iwondered if the ‘local classification of soil

Accompanying video: Promoting farmerinnovation. Harnessing local environ-mental knowledge in east Africa. (26 min.)(Video 1), Will Critchley, Injene Eric,Duncan Willets, John Kinyua, RichardVaughan. USD15. To order, please sendcheque made payable to CDCS or RELMA(for the address, see above).

The members of the book’s editorial teamrepresent three different organizations.Will Critchley and Mineke Laman areattached to the Centre for DevelopmentCooperation Services, of the VrijeUniversiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.This centre offers technical support topartnership programmes for develop-ment. Sophie Lafleur works for the UnitedNations Development Programme inNairobi, Kenya. Roshan Cooke, JanetNjoroge, Verity Nyagah, Emannuelle Saint-Firmin and Tijan Jallow also work for theUnited Nations Development Programme,but specifically for the Office to CombatDesertification and Drought (UNSO). Thefirst three are based in Nairobi, the lattertwo in New York. UNSO promotessustainable human development in theworld’s drylands and supports the effortsof the affected countries to combatdesertification and mitigate the effects ofdrought. It adheres to a participatoryapproach, which takes the localknowledge of people in the dryland areasas an important starting point forintervention.

The book reports on developmentstaking place within a programme called‘Promoting Farmer Innovation’ (PFI),which is currently operating in threecountries of East Africa, namely Uganda,Tanzania and Kenya. The programme isbased on the premise that communitiesfacing resource scarcity have an incentivefor developing innovative resourcemanagement techniques. The strategyemployed in the PFI programme involvesthree steps: first, to identify and enlist thehelp of local people who have shownthemselves to be innovative with respectto resource management; second, to buildon these human resources through aprocess of research, monitoring, evaluation,experimentation, support and networking;and third, to engage the innovators intraining others, thus achieving widerdistribution of the innovations. Theprogramme involves cooperation betweenlocal farmers, extension officers and localresearchers.

The book is a cross between aworkshop report and a manual on PFI.Some of the background information onthe three current PFI projects may not beof much interest to readers who are notpart of the current programme. The partsof the book that will interest most readersinclude the discussion of the PFI methodsand the principles on which they arebased, the case studies illustrating theconcepts of the programme, and thepreliminary evaluation of the pros andcons of the PFI approach.The book is

fertility’ is a subset of the more generalsoil classification. More analysis of therelationships between the two classifica-tions would have been interesting.

A fourth section describes the localpractices for managing soil fertility. Themajor strategies discussed are fallowing,crop rotation, crop residues, manuring,mineral fertilizers, weeding, and terraces.Changes over time are described as well asconstraints on the use of animal manures.Farmers’ perceptions of the relationshipbetween tillage practices and soilproductivity are also described. The finalsubsection deals with factors affectingnutrient management. These includepolicies at the national level.

Farmers’ experimentation withdifferent manure sources is described insection five. The way the farmers rankedthe different manures correlated closelywith the results of nutrient analysis. Amore detailed description of this experi -mental process would have bettersupported the important conclusionsdrawn in section six about how farmerexperimentation can be improved.

Integrated soil fertility managementis emphasized as a concept that should beadopted by researchers and extensionists.The main point is that soil fertilitymanagement should not be separate fromoverall land management.

This publication, while interestingfor its descriptive merit, could have donemore to analyze and synthesize thedescriptions provided, particularly of theconstraints faced by farmers seeking toreverse local soil degradation. For example,to improve soil fertility by integratinglivestock and cropping systems seemed adaunting challenge given the constraintsdescribed. More discussion of strategies for overcoming constraints, including therole of researchers, would have beeninteresting. Nevertheless, this publicationcontributes to the overall body of know-ledge on local knowledge of soils,particularly the important and dynamicaspect of improving soil productivity.(Deirdre Birmingham, Ph.D., Executive Director,Georgia Organics, Inc., Alpharetta, GA 30022USA. E-mail: [email protected])

Critchley, Will, with Roshan Cooke,Tijan Jallow, Sophie Lafleur, MinekeLaman, Janet Njoroge, Verity Nyagah andEmmanuelle Saint-Firmin (eds) (1999)Promoting farmer innovation.Harnessing local environmentalknowledge in East Africa. WorkshopReport No.2. 130 pp. ISBN 9966-896-45-7.USD10. Please send cheque made payableto CDCS-International Cooperation Centre,Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1115, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands, orcontact: the Publications Officer, RegionalLand Management Unit (RELMA), ICRAFHouse, Gigiri, P.O. Box 63403, Nairobi,Kenya.Fax: +254-2-520 762.E-mail: [email protected] http://www.relma.org.


http://carpe.umd.edu



http://www.iied.org/downloadable


http://www.relma.org

particularly useful for developmentpractitioners who work in dryland areasand use a participatory approach. Thedescription of the PFI approach showsclearly how local knowledge forms a basisfor improved resource management. Sincethe approach has only recently been putinto practice, the book reports only on theearly stages of PFI. It will be good to seethis publication followed by a report onthe next phase of the programme, and tolearn whether innovation in resourcemanagement practices has indeed beenachieved on a wide scale in the drylandareas that are part of the programme.

The book is accompanied by a videowhich provides a vivid illustration of thetext in an appealing and accessible way.The principles of the programme and thesteps it entails are clearly explained,which makes the video useful to a wideaudience. The case studies make theprinciples come to life. Unfortunately,however, the case material concentratesmainly on the identification of innovatorsand their innovative practices. Little isshown of the process of experimentation,networking and dissemination. The localfarmers were primarily filmed explainingtheir practices. Not much attention wasgiven to how they became part of thechange process. The video conveyed thegreat enthusiasm surrounding theprogramme. A bit more information couldhave been given about its shortcomingsand the challenges it still faces.(Hilde Van Vlaenderen, Department ofPsychology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown,South Africa. E-mail: H.Van [email protected])

O’Donoghue, Rob; Lynette Masuku,Eureta Janse van Rensburg, and Mike Ward(eds) (1999) Indigenous knowledge in/asenvironmental education processes.EEASA Monograph No. 3. 114 pp. ISBN 1-874891-64-8. SAR 30 in South Africa; SAR44 for other countries in Africa; and USD20 for all other countries. All pricesinclude postage. Published by Environ-mental Education Association of SouthernAfrica (EEASA) in partnership with andsponsored by SADC – Regional Environ-mental Education Programme andWildlife and Environmental Society ofSouth Africa. To order, contact: Share-Net,P.O. Box 394, Howick 3290, South Africa.Fax: +27-33-3304 576.E-mail: [email protected]

The editors of this collection ofarticles include both academics andpractitioners. They share an interest inhow indigenous knowledge (IK) can beincorporated into environmentaleducation processes.

The book aims ‘to present a diversityof voices’ on the topic of IK environmentaleducation, with a focus on Southern Africa.It contains 18 highly varied documents,which include theoretical discussions aswell as examples of good practice.

There are seven examples of thepractical application of IK. Four of them –

‘Birds in African proverbs’, (page 3), ‘The tree of the king’, (p. 22), ‘Natureconservation: more than human survivalto the Zulu people’, (p. 39), and ‘IKS:traditional stories on the use ofindigenous plants’, (p. 81) – presentcultural expressions of IK in the form ofstories or proverbs. These could be usefulfor educators working with youngeraudiences, as they provide entertainingexamples of IK related to the environment.The other three – ‘Sweet water and earlyNguni people’, (p. 12), ‘Artemesia afra’, (p. 21), and ‘Traditional methods ofconserving medicinal plants in Zimbabwe’,(p. 56) – deal more with how to useindigenous methods and traditions: forwater recollection and protection, and forthe use and preservation of medicinalplants.

Two of the articles in the book standon their own. In ‘An intercultural dialogue’,(p. 73), a student of EnvironmentalEducation inteviews a renowned SouthAfrican biologist. Their interchangeprovides interesting reading and also agood example of how information can becollected and presented in interview form.The other is a list of Internet sites dealingwith IK (p. 111). This is a useful resourcefor the modern exchange of information.

The rest of the chapters areacademic articles on IK which to varyingdegrees combine research findings andapplications. A clear message regardingthe complexity of preserving and applyingIK in a modern context is communicatedin most of these documents. In ‘Dolphinsas people…’, (p. 5), Sarita Kendall remindsus of the dangers of separating IK from itscultural origins, and of extracting andexploiting knowledge. Kim Le Roux (p.14)takes a similar path as Kendall but focuseson ‘IK in environmental educationprocesses’. She raises questions regardingrecent definitions of IK and itsappropriation by such recent movementsas eco-feminism and community-basedenvironmental projects.

In a case study of the Tsolo village (p. 24), Mandisa Ngwane presents researchon how socio-cultural factors affect IKrelated to plant species. This study,although it is short on theoretical content,has methodological value for thoseinterested in qualitative research. Similarto Ngwane’s article is the article byNoluzola Mgxashe (p. 42), which is theonly contribution dealing with agri-cultural IK. Backson Sibanda presents asomewhat different case study of Tongacosmovision and IK (p. 56). This chapterincludes a critique of the CAMPFIREproject on the basis of the author’s ownresearch on the importance of cosmo-vision and spirituality in Tonga culture.Motteux and Nel (p. 49) present a casestudy of research using participatory ruralappraisal (PRA). It is a brief piece yet full ofcontent, and should prove a usefulexample for anyone interested in tryingout these techniques in their work. Theauthors comment on the limitations of

this research approach, something that islacking in the other three articlesdiscussed in this paragraph.

The last three articles are reviews,and contain the highest level of theoreticalcontent. Peter Raine’s work on ecologicalIK (p. 62), presents an in-depth discussionof the nature of spiritual values and ‘worldviews’ in relation to this type of IK. Hestresses the need to go beyond the mererecognition of different types of knowledgesystems, and to reach better under-standing and more respect between peoplewho have different perceptions. Hugo VanDamme (p. 84) presents a thoughtfuldiscussion on traditional medicine, health,and environmental education. His ideas onthe integration of IK with medicine andenvironmental issus encourage moreinterdisciplinary efforts in our dealingswith IK. The last paper, by O’Donoghueand Van Rensburg (p. 92) is an in-depthreview of ‘IK as environmental educationprocesses’ in Africa. This article will bemost useful to academics, since it providesa historical review of IK, examining avariety of controversial issues that rangefrom theoretical constructs to methodo-logical options. Highlights of the paperinclude the discussions on subjects such asthe ‘common-sensical’ nature of IK, theperception of IK as a dynamic componentof current socio-political process, and theresearcher’s role in the idealization ofhis/her own activities dealing with IK.

The book will be especially useful tothose involved in environmental edu-cation initiatives in developing countries,especially if they are engaged in develop-ment-oriented activities in the field. Someof the review chapters will be of value toacademic readers, but on the whole thebook might be inadequate for thoseconcerned with more theoretical debateson IK. In general, this volume is a goodexample of how to find a creative way tointegrate academic concerns with practicalapplications of IK in an environmentaleducation context. (V. Ernesto Méndez, Environmental StudiesDepartment, University of California, SantaCruz, USA. E-mail: [email protected]://www.agroecology.org/ernesto.html)

Granfelt, TiiaRiitta (ed.) (1999)Managing the globalized environment.Local strategies to secure livelihoods.192 pp. ISBN 1 85339 4513. GBP 14.95.Intermediate Technology Publications,103-105 Southampton Row, London WC 1B4NH, United Kingdom. Fax: +44-207-436 2013.E-mail: [email protected]

The chapters in this volume are basedon presentations given at the conferenceLivelihood from resource flows: Awareness andcontextual analysis of environmental conflict,which took place on 19-22 August 1996 inLinköping, Sweden. The conference wasorganized by the Research Programme onEnvironmental Policy and Society (EPOS),together with the Department of Waterand Environmental Studies.




http://www.agroecology.org/ernesto.html


As its title indicates, the book’s maintheses are that there is a complexrelationship between secure livelihoodsand sustainable resource management,and that the definition of livelihoodsecurity differs from one culture to thenext. The selection of essays is intended toillustrate the complexity of the local-global interaction in environmentalmanagement. The authors discuss thelinks between resource base, supply,management and needs satisfaction fromdifferent perspectives and in differentparts of the world. The essays also illustratethe impact of various factors on environ-mental management. These include valuesystems, entitlement patterns, governance,the production of knowledge and normsystems, and the role of institutions andtechnology development. The message thatstands out is the urgent need to combineperspectives at different levels and fromdifferent traditions and disciplines, and toacknowledge cultural differences in stylesof organization.

The book has ten chapters. The first,‘Life, livelihood, resources and security -Links, and a call for a new order’, is byAnders Hjort-Af-Ornäs and Jan Lundqvist.They discuss the complexities in therelationship between humans and natureand suggest that a focus on livelihood and resource flows is a good way ofapproaching the issues. In the secondchapter, O. Okechukwu Ibeanu analyzesthe situation of the Ogoni of Nigeria, who have become the symbol of ruralcommunities’ militant resistance to theenvironmental degradation and economic ruin that results from crude-oilproduction. The third chapter, by Peter J. Rogers et al., explores the theoreticalissues of environmental security,definitions of resources, unrest, and thelevels of conflict involved. He examines thecase of the people versus the parkauthorities of Tanzania’s Mkomazi GameReserve in order to discuss how such aconflict can be mitigated. The fourthchapter, by Maj-Lis Follér, views theprocess of globalization among ethnicgroups of Peru from the perspective ofhuman ecology. The fifth chapter, byChrister Norström, discusses the culturalvalues, norms and meaning reflected inthe way the Paliyans of South India utilizeavailable resources in the face of growingcompetition and expanding strategies. In the sixth chapter, Eduardo S. Brondízioanalyzes in terms of intensificationparameters a system of food productionused on the Amazon estuarine floodplains. The seventh chapter, by JannikBoesen et al., deals with the practices andorganizations by which water and land ismanaged in Tanzania’s Ruaha River basin.The eighth chapter, by Stefan Anderberg,attempts to open a discussion about therole of the flood perspective for linkingsociety and nature in environmentalresearch. The ninth chapter, ‘Environ-mental awareness, conflict genesis andgovernance’, by Goran Hyden, focuses on

the intellectual concerns associated withthe concept of security. Chapter ten, byUno Svedin, discusses the cultural values,norms and meaning related to how theenvironment is understood. These providethe framework for environmentalmanagement.

In conclusion, this reviewer has tostate that none of the ten chapters hasdirect relevance to indigenous knowledge.The word ‘local’ in the book’s title wouldseem to refer to the term ‘local knowledge’,which is becoming an increasinglypopular way to designate indigenousknowledge. When combined with ‘localstrategies’ and ‘local practices’, ‘localknowledge’ becomes equivalent toindigenous knowledge systems andpractices: that is, a local adaptation ofscience or other knowledge systems. In thebook, however, the term ‘local strategies’has been used only for the present contextrelating to social, ethnic, political andenvironmental issues in a given location.Still, from the point of view of sustainabledevelopment, the issues of securing asustainable livelihood and adoptingstrategies to combat poverty are important.The book therefore has a lot to offer toreaders who are interested in environ-mental management in a variety ofcontexts. (N.C. Shah, Coordinator CIKIHR, Retired Scientist(CSIR), Aliganj, Lucknow, India. E-mail:[email protected])

Hesse, Johann H. (1998) Thesustainability of animal traction farmingsystems in northern Ghana.Tropenökologisches BegleitprogrammPublication No. TÖB F-V/6e. 153 pp. ISBN 3-933984-11-4. DEM 10. (The book will besent free of charge to anyone in a GTZpartner country.) Deutsche Gesellschaft fürTechnische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ),Postfach 5180, 65726 Eschborn, Germany. Fax: +49-6196-79-6190.E-mail: [email protected]://www.gtz.de/toeb/scripts/publikationen/index.asp

The use of bullocks for soilpreparation was first introduced in Ghanain the early 1930s. After independence in1957, political priority was given to modernagricultural technologies and inputs, such as tractors and mineral fertilizers.But in the 1980s interest shifted back toanimal traction because it saves labourand avoids costly imports.

Hesse’s in-depth study seeks toprovide insight into the long-term develop-ment of farming systems that use bullocktraction. It compares data gathered byPanin in 1982-1983 with data from 1993-1994 that was gathered among the verysame households using similar fieldtechniques and methods of analysis.

By 1994 the population in northernGhana had grown by 3.9 per cent. As aconsequence of Ghana’s Economic RecoveryProgramme, the price of fertilizer andother farm inputs had risen relative tooutput prices, and the extension agencies

had stopped distributing these inputs. In1994, 14 of the 42 households that weresurveyed owned bullocks, whereas in 198230 households had had their own bullocks.Yet the total area ploughed by bullockshad increased. This was because morehouseholds now rented the animals.Bullock-owning households had olderhousehold heads, more family members,and a larger area to cultivate thanhouseholds that did not own bullocks.Households that rented bullocks had moreoff-farm income and seemed to cultivatetheir fields for additional cash incomerather than for subsistence purposes.

Hesse found that using bullockssaved labour (Panin found this too), butdid not raise crop yields (Panin found theopposite), partly because bullock ownersno longer applied fertilizer to their fields,and they tilled fewer ‘compound fields’(intensively cultivated fields close to thehouse) with the help of bullocks than theyhad done in 1982. Changes in relativeprices of inputs and outputs had madebullock ownership unprofitable by 1994.To increase their earnings, bullock ownerswould either cultivate more land them-selves or plough more land for others. The many factors involved make simplecomparison impossible. It is clear,however, that bullock traction does savelabour, which is why Hesse concludes thatresearch and extension on its use shouldbe continued.

This study demonstrates the needfor refined analysis to uncover thecomplexity of a situation. It shows thatanimal traction should be studied at thefield level, not at the farm-household level.This is because a household does notnecessarily use bullocks to plough all itsfields but may cultivate some with hoesand leave others untilled. But household-level analysis is necessary as well, in order to reveal why farmers make certaindecisions regarding the allocation ofresources. Furthermore, ‘adoption’ of atechnology does not necessarily mean‘ownership’; it can also mean ‘use’. Andany analysis must make careful distinc-tions between fields dealt with in differentways: tilled using bullock traction, tilledusing hoes, and untilled.

This book, which is based on Hesse’s1997 dissertation, is part of a series thatseeks to make applied studies available ‘in a generally comprehensible form.... toall organizations and institutions active indevelopment cooperation, and also to allthose members of the general public whoare interested in environmental anddevelopment-policy issues.’ It is un-fortunate that little was done to edit andsimplify the text of this comprehensivestudy. Readers have to work hard to under-stand the details. The style is academic and the text requires familiarity witheconomics, multiple regression and otherstatistical tools. There is no list of theabbreviations that pepper the text, andthere are some confusing errors. (Forexample, page 40 says that ‘sole legume



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yields on BT [bullock traction] fields arelower than that on NBT [non-bullocktraction] fields.’ This is contrary to thefigures in Table 5-4.) The executive summaryat the beginning and the detailed summaryat the end are very helpful, however. All in all, the study is a valuable contribution,furthering our understanding of the effectsof bullock traction in Africa. (Evelyn Mathias, Independent consultant,Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. E-mail:[email protected] )

INASP—the International Networkfor the Availability of Scientific Publica-tions (1998) The INASP-Health Directory1999. An international directory oforganizations working to improve accessto reliable information for healthcareworkers in developing and transitionalcountries. 162 pp. ISBN 0-9522989-8-8.Copies are sent free of charge in responseto requests from institutions, NGOs, andlibraries in developing countries. GBP 15inclusive packaging and postageelsewhere. INASP-Health, 27 Park EndStreet, Oxford OX1 1HU, United Kingdom.Fax: +44-1865-25 1060.E-mail: [email protected]://www.inasp.org.uk

The International Network for theAvailability of Scientific Publications(INASP) was established in 1992. In April1996, INASP-Health was launched, acooperative network for organizations andindividuals working to improve access toreliable information for healthcare workersin developing countries and countries intransition. Participation in INASP-Health isfree of charge. The network offers: (1)advice, references and liaison; (2) twomonthly workshops in the UK for networkparticipants and others; (3) needs andprovision database.

The INASP-Health directory isintended as a reference and networkingtool that can be used by anyone with aninterest in the provision of healthinformation. The directory has two parts.The first part focuses on organizationsthat provide health information. It has twosections, one on professional associationsand institutions, and one on providers offree or low-cost information. The secondpart lists organizations that support bookand library development.

The first section describes 45governmental, non-governmental and non-private organizations around the world.The detailed entries describe how each oneis helping to improve standards of healthcare. It has relevance for doctors, healthprofessionals, scientists and the public.The second section offers detailedinformation about 47 agencies andinstitutions around the world that provideinformation free or for a small fee (booksand journals on various aspects of health).This section will be especially valuable to those working to improve the health ofthe poor in vulnerable communities. It will also help biomedical scientists,clinicians, librarians and health

professionals in biomedical research andpublic health to build up their resources.

The second part of the directory isnearly twice the size of the first. It has foursections. ‘Book and library development:health’ describes 28 health-relatedprofessional associations worldwide thatare working to develop specific humanresources. Through training and theidentification of health priorities, and bystrengthening their own research capacity,these organizations help to increase theknowledge and skills of healthcareworkers and thus serve as catalysts forbetter health worldwide. The sectionentitled ‘Book and library development:general’ gives details on 23 organizationsthat publish scientific journals, alsoonline. They too are working to improvescience education around the world and tonarrow the knowledge gap betweenscientists. An especially interesting sectionis called ‘Distribution programmes’. It lists28 organizations involved in distributingcurrent and recent medical journals andteaching materials for use in primary,secondary and tertiary education. Thesecond part is concluded with ‘Fundingagencies’. It describes seven agenciesdevoted to improving research environ-ments and helping institutes to increasetheir capacities for health research.

This is a well documented and wellorganized book that contains the completeinformation which professional healthworkers, officials, researchers andscientists in developing and transitionalcountries are looking for. The listingsinclude, for example, the aim and purposeof the organization as well as the envisagedbeneficiaries at all levels. The editors,INASP-Health programme manager Dr NeilPakenham-Walsh and INASP director CarolPriestly, have succeeded in their effort tocollect and communicate information thatwill be of great value to health workers atmany levels. I feel this is a remarkablepublication - the first of its kind - and Isincerely congratulate the authors for theirnew venture and their fine piece of work.

I do have one suggestion forimprovement, however. It would havebeen easier for the readers if tables hadbeen used to present some of the details. (Dr S. Parvathi, Associate Professor, Departmentof Pomology, Tamil Nadu AgriculturalUniversity, Coimbatore, India. E-mail:[email protected] )

Lefèber, Yvonne, and Henk W. A.Voorhoeve (1998) Indigenous customs inchildbirth and child care. 106 pp. ISBN 90-232-3366-2. NLG 40. Van Gorcum &Comp BV, P.O. Box 43, 9400 AA Assen, theNetherlands. Fax: +31-592-379 552.E-mail: [email protected] http://www.vgorcum.nl.

Yvonne Lefèber is a Dutch medicalanthropologist who has done researchamong indigenous midwives in Ghana andseveral other African countries. HenkVoorhoeve, M.D., is guest reader at Leiden

University and a specialist in maternal andchild health. Their book contains a wealthof information about indigenous customsand beliefs regarding childbirth and childcare among peoples of various countries ofAfrica, Asia and Latin America. It is basedon anthropological and medical literatureas well as on the authors’ own experiences. The indigenous customs are describedunder four categories corresponding to thestages of the birth process: the antenatal,intrapartum, postpartum and postnatalperiods. A further distinction is madebetween uncomplicated (or ‘physiological’)and complicated (or ‘pathological’)conditions, defined according to Northernobstetric standards.

Two-thirds of the births occurring in ‘Southern’ countries are assisted bytraditional birth assistants, and the authorsunderscore the importance of these mid-wives and their knowledge to communitiesin the South. The authors suggest thatknowledge of indigenous customs couldalso benefit obstetrical practice in‘Northern’ countries, leading to a re-evaluation of ‘modern’ practices there - for example, the upright position of thewoman in labour, and the practice ofcarrying children in a bag close to the body.

The authors examine the variety ofindigenous customs and beliefs (somesimilar and others unique) surroundingchildbirth and child care and compareapparently similar practices in differentcultures. For instance, food is divided into‘hot’ and ‘cold’ in various cultures, but thedivisions are not always made along thesame lines.

The authors adopt a balanced viewregarding indigenous customs and beliefs.They neither idealize or romanticize themand embrace them all as good, nor rejectthem all as bad. They contextualize thecustoms and practices. When discussingthe medical implications of indigenouscustoms, they point out, for example, thatmedical methods developed in hygienichospital surroundings may not transferwell to the less hygienic environment ofindigenous communities in most tropicalcountries. They could even prove harmfulif they are brought in to replace indigenouspractices. The authors argue that thepositive aspects of indigenous customsshould be preserved by incorporating the knowledge associated with them intothe training of midwives, obstetricians and pediatricians in both North andSouth, while at the same time some of thepractices associated with modern medicineshould be widely adopted to promotematernal and child health.

The translation of the book fromDutch could have been better. It is tooliteral and the text is stilted in places (forexample, ‘transverse lie’, ‘fruit with thesize of a small apple’ (p. 11), ‘back massageis following now’ (p. 21)). Such construc-tions and spelling errors could have beenavoided if a competent editor had beenemployed. The quality of the book wouldhave been enhanced if it had been




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presented in a more flowing narrativestyle. Now it often remains at the level oflisting and summarizing practices. Also,everything is presented twice: eachdescription is immediately repeated in theform of a table. Perhaps it would havehelped to divide the book into two sections– the first section in a more narrative anddescriptive style and the second as anappendix containing the information inthe form of tables. On the whole, however,the book provides a goldmine of infor -mation illustrated with interesting casereports and photographs. It is likely to beuseful to health workers, particularly fromNorthern countries working in Southerncountries, as well as to cultural andmedical anthropologists.(Dr Jyotsna Agnihotri Gupta, lecturer atMaastricht University and research associate atLeiden University, the Netherlands. Seniorconsultant in the fields of gender, health anddevelopment. E-mail: [email protected])

Mangani-Kamoto, J.F. (1999)Indigenous silvicultural practices ofmiombo woodlands in Malawi. A case offive villages close to Chimaliro ForestReserve. 80 pp. ISBN none. M.Sc. thesis,Tropical Forestry, Department of Forestry,Wageningen University, the Netherlands.Not for sale. To obtain a photocopy of thisstudent’s report, please write to ForestryGroup, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 342, 6700 AH Wageningen, theNetherlands.Fax: +31-317-478 078.E-mail: [email protected]

Ms Judith Francesca Mangani-Kamotowas a student at Wageningen AgriculturalUniversity. This report, her master’s thesisin Tropical Forestry, is based on thepremise that indigenous knowledge is anintegral part of local communities and isactively being put into practice by localpeople. Ms Mangani-Kamoto believes thatindigenous knowledge needs to beacknowledged by the authorities andshould be capitalized on for the better useand management of forest resources.

The thesis makes interesting readingas it describes in clear detail the indigenouspractices common among local people for managing the miombo customarywoodlands and private lands. At theoutset, the author defines the problem asdeforestation, which is running rampantin the miombo woodlands for variousreasons, one of which is the conversion offorest to agricultural land. The body of thework focuses on the different categories offorest at the research sites, and on ananalysis of what each category offers thepeople in terms of production and services.Especially valuable are the detailedaccounts of local knowledge pertaining tothe regeneration and management of localtree species. Interestingly, the author hasfound that the communities really applytheir indigenous knowledge. Their silvi-cultural practices can be aptly described aspaleotechnic rather than neotechnic. Theircontinuation does not depend on external

inputs and can thus be described as having‘resilient permanence’.

Also of interest is the author’scomparison of government-managedforest reserves with forests controlled andmanaged by indigenous communities.According to the author, the onlysimilarity lies in the fact that both localpeople and professional foresters areplanting exotic trees. This is a new activityin the community-controlled customaryforests. But even though the activities arebasically similar, the practices used differmarkedly. Professional foresters relyheavily on purchased materials, includingboth nursery products for planting andartificial pesticides for protection andmaintenance. To carry out their workeffectively, they also rely heavily on thelegal framework. The indigenouscommunities, on the basis of their ownexperience and understanding of theenvironment, devise their own ways ofdoing things using available materials andfirst-hand knowledge. They tailor theirpractices to the needs they wish to seesatisfied by the forest: for example forpoles, firewood, or rope fiber.

Throughout the thesis the authorhas taken a balanced look at the practicesused in the two systems (professional vs.based on indigenous knowledge). In thediscussion she points out that indigenoussilvicultural systems have strengths andweaknesses. One weakness is the lack ofaccess to improved planting materials,whether exotic or indigenous, and the lackof exposure to good husbandry practices.The author argues that the knowledge oflocal people should nevertheless becapitalized on and blended with professio-nal silvicultural practices. The resultwould be a unique system, speciallydevised for the people of Malawi, whichwould enable them to use and at the sametime manage forest resources. Such asystem would represent progress based oncontinuity with the past.

This documentation of indigenousknowledge is impressive. It delves deeplyinto the systems and practices actuallycarried out by the people on the resourcesunder their jurisdiction. It ends with arecommendation that community lawsgoverning village forest areas and othercustomary woodlands should be recog-nized and legally adopted. Indigenousknowledge and practices could be thebuilding blocks of sustainable manage-ment if they are widely adopted by thegeneral population.

I would recommend the thesis toagroforestry students, extension agents,and forestry personnel as well as to anyoneelse who is interested in the pursuit ofindigenous knowledge.(Taito Nakalevu, Senior Research Officer, LandUse, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries andForests, Fiji Islands. E-mail: [email protected])

Mathias, E.; D.V. Rangnekar, andC.M. McCorkle (1999) Ethnoveterinarymedicine: alternatives for livestock

development. Proceedings of aninternational conference held in Pune,India, on 4-6 November 1997. Volume 1: Selected Papers. 304 pp. ISBN 81-87511-37-0. Volume 2: Abstracts.82 pp. ISNB 81-87511-37-0 IRS 100 for bothvolumes. Published by BAIF DevelopmentResearch Cooperation, BAIF Bhavan, Dr. Manibhai Desai Nagar Warje Malewadi(Bombay – Bangalore bypass highway)Pune 411 029, India.Fax: +91-212-366 788.Also available on the Internet athttp://www.vetwork.org.uk/

This publication presents papersfrom the first international conference onethnoveterinary medicine (4-6 November1997), which was held in Pune, India, atthe BAIF Development ResearchFoundation. The conference broughttogether over 200 people who play variousroles in ethnoveterinary medicine. Theycame from 20 countries of Asia, Africa,Europe and the Americas and representedboth non-government and governmentorganizations. They includedveterinarians, animal scientists, veterinarytechnicians, healers, pharmacologists,ethnobotanists, economists, extensionists,representatives of the private sector, andpolicy-makers. Approximately 17 per centof the participants were women. Some 90 papers and posters werepresented at the conference. The editorsselected 35 of these for publication,condensed and edited them, and groupedthem around five themes:■ Applied studies of ethnoveterinary

systems ■ Validation of ethnoveterinary medicine ■ Ethnoveterinary medicinal plants and

plant medicine ■ Application of ethnoveterinary medicine■ Education

These five parts constitute Volume 1,while Volume 2 (published immediatelyafter the conference) contains the abstractsof all the papers and posters presented atthe conference. This review willconcentrate on Volume 1.

A recurrent theme in this volume is the observation that while indigenousknowledge alone may not be a feasiblesolution to animal health problems,neither can Western knowledge aloneprovide sustainable solutions to theseproblems. So lasting solutions will resultonly from a combination of the best ofboth. As K. Kasonia and M. Ansay tell us,‘It is necessary to create opportunities for a dialogue between “modern” and“traditional” knowledge and to continuethe research of methods of improvementwithout destroying the diversity ofcultures which uphold this knowledge.’(Vol. 1. page 71)

To my view, the most useful sectionof Volume 1 is Part 1, in particular thosepapers where the role of ethnoveterinarymedicine is discussed in conjunction withthe modern systems. A good example ofthis so-called ‘techno-blending’ (the



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scientific community is now becomingaware of its importance. As to the lack ofstudies from Latin America, I could seeseveral factors influencing this. First of allis the simple fact that the conference tookplace in India, which is quite far fromLatin America. Moreover, it is not easynowadays to get funds from our institutionsto attend this kind of conference. Secondly,the conference’s official language wasEnglish, just one more limitation as ourmajor languages are Spanish andPortuguese. I think this explains thesituation, but I would like to make it clearthat there is a great need for people inLatin America who are interested inethnoveterinary medicine to urge therelevant institutions and funding agenciesto organize a similar internationalconference in this region. (Dr Consuelo Quiroz, VERSIK (VenezuelanSecretariat for the Promotion of Indigenous –Local – Knowledge for Sustainable Development)General Coordinator, Center for TropicalAlternative Agriculture and SustainableDevelopment (CATADI), University of The Andes,Trujillo, Venezuela. E-mail: [email protected])

Øygard, Ragnar, Trond Vedeld andJens Aune (1999) Good practices indryland management. xiii + 116 pp. ISBNnone. Temporarily out of stock, but reprintbeing made. First edition was distributedfree of charge by Noragric, the Library, P.O. Box 5001, N-1432 Aas, Norway.Produced with Noragric support andpublished by the International Bank forReconstruction and Development / TheWorld Bank, 1818 H.-Street, NW,Washington D.C. 20433, USA.PDF file available on the World Bankserver at www.worldbank.org/drylands

The last decade has seen increasingattention for community-based approachesto natural resource management, and asignificant paradigm shift in our under -standing of the ecological dynamics of aridand semi-arid rangeland ecosystems. Thissuccinct book, written by experiencedresearchers and consultants in the field ofpastoral development and published bythe World Bank, reviews and synthesizesseveral decades of development experiencein dryland regions. It focuses primarily onSahelian Africa, and recommends goodpractices based on lessons learned.

The book opens with an introduc-tion to the controversial concepts ofdesertification and degradation, takingcare to acknowledge the biased ways theseterms are sometimes applied. It reviewsthe conventional views of desertificationas well as recent thinking on non-equilibrium ecology and environmentalnarratives. The core of the book’s tenchapters are five chapters dealing withpastoralism, range management, and theWorld Bank’s response to pastoraldevelopment challenges (Chapters 3-4),dryland farming and technological change(Chapter 5), community-based naturalresource management (Chapter 6), anddrought preparedness and risk mitigation

(Chapter 7). The chapters on pastoralismand community-based resourcemanagement do an admirable job ofsummarizing and synthesizing currentthought and practical experience, whileavoiding oversimplification of ecologicaland intra-community dynamics and theinstitutional challenges of fostering thelocal management of resources. Amongthe key points to emerge from the reviewof past projects is the frequentincongruence between local people’spriorities and interests and those of donororganizations (e.g. social services andwater development vs. conservation ofresources).

The authors recommend that theWorld Bank integrate a concern fordrylands management into its CountryAssistance Strategies in order to moreeffectively address the interdependentproblems of poverty, environmentaldegradation, and local capacity-building.Likewise, the authors emphasize the needfor local participation throughout theentire process of research and develop-ment, from project inception onwards.The role of local and indigenous know-ledge is discussed in this context onseveral occasions. However, as is often thecase, the authors fail to move beyond therecommendation that local people’sknowledge be incorporated into projectdesign because ‘these people do, after all,have a tremendous store of knowledge onthe systems—as proved by their ability tosurvive in these harsh environments.’While undeniably true, such platitudes dolittle to help project managers figure outhow to tap into this knowledge and applyit to management and development.Concrete examples from past projectswould have been helpful here. This said,the book provides an excellent introduc-tion to a complex and politically-chargedfield of practice. I would not hesitate torecommend it to new professionals oranyone else embarking for the first timeon an arid lands development project fromthe shelter of academia’s ivory tower. Forold hands it nicely summarizes recentdevelopments in theory and practice andoffers insight into the current direction ofa major donor. (María E. Fernández-Giménez, Assistant Professorand Rangeland Extension Specialist, School ofRenewable Natural Resources, University ofArizona, Tucson, AZ 86721, USA. Email:[email protected].

Pichón, Francisco J., Jorge E. Uquillasand John Frechione (eds) (1999)Traditional and modern natural resourcemanagement in Latin America. 320 pp.ISBN 0-8229-5703-5. USD 19.95. Publishedby University of Pittsburgh Press, 3347Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. Order from: University of PittsburghPress CUP Services, Box 6525, Ithaca, NY 14851, USA.Fax: +1-607/277-6292.http://www.pitt.edu/~press/order.html

This book stems from a workshop

combination of traditional and modernknowledge) is the contribution by Katrienvan ’t Hooft (pages 25–29) dealing withfamily-level livestock keepers in Bolivia.Another topic I found especiallyinteresting in Part 1 is the role of womenin livestock management. Two articles thatstand out are the one by Raul Perezgrovason Tzotzil shepherdesses in Mexico (pages32-35) and the one by Sangeeta Rangnekaron women’s ethnoveterinary practices inthe western states of India (Gujarat,Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh). Botharticles argue that the key to successfuland sustainable development in animalhealth care and production is to make useof the specific knowledge and expertise ofthe women who have developed anintimate understanding of all aspects ofraising and keeping cattle and otheranimals. Sangeeta Rangnekar reports thatthe important role that women play inmanaging the health of livestock has notbeen generally recognized up to now, andshe recommends that women be trained tobecome para-veterinarians or para-extension workers and to use effectivecombinations of traditional and modernsystems. She also advises involvingknowledgeable women in the process ofdeveloping alternative approaches andvalidating claims implicit in traditionalmethods.

I think that Part 3, on ‘Ethno-veterinary medicinal plants and plantmedicines’, will be most useful to everyoneworking in this field. The listing ofbotanical names will make it easier for usto know which of the plants are alsopresent in our own localities, and willenable us to compare the ways these plantsare used in other parts of the world. A goodexample of such a comparison is presentedin R.L.S. Sikarwar’s paper ‘Less-knownethnoveterinary uses of plants in India’(pages 103–107). This author analyzed andcompared the uses of specific plants foundboth in Latin America and in India.

Volume 1 contains very helpfulannexes, including a summary of thehealers’ workshop and a list of resourceson ethnoveterinary medicine. Readers willcertainly find all of this very handy andinformative. There is no doubt that theconference organizers and the editors havedone a great job in assembling such alarge amount of information that up tonow has been rather diffuse, on a subjectthat for a long time has been ratherneglected.

Yet to end on a critical note, I wouldsay that there are two subjects missing inthe publication. These were also under-represented at the conference. I see inVolume I no information or contributionsdealing with ethnoveterinary education,and far too few studies dealing with LatinAmerica and other parts of the world. Thisis unfortunate but not really surprising,since ethnoveterinary medicine is stillundervalued and underused in develop-ment work in general, and ignored at theformal education level, even though the



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held by the World Bank in April 1995 todiscuss the interrelated problems ofpoverty and environmental degradation inrisk-prone agricultural areas. The aim wasto seek solutions other than the usual top-down development of high-tech,intensive agriculture. For this reason, theworkshop brought together experts whohad years of first-hand experience with thetheory and practice of natural resourcemanagement in Latin America and whoappreciate the potential role that in -digenous knowledge systems can play insustainable development. The workshopparticipants included the late D. MichaelWarren, the founder of CIKARD whoplayed such a crucial role in establishingthis journal and the entire IK network. Hiscontribution to the workshop is presentedas Chapter 7.

The book has four parts. Part 1consists of only one chapter, by editorsPichón and Uquillas. They define theproblem under the title ‘Rural povertyalleviation and improved natural resourcemanagement through participatory tech-nology development in Latin America’srisk-prone areas’.

Part 2 deals with theoretical andpractical issues that must be addressedbefore the problem can be dealt with.More specifically, this part examines thevaluable role that geographic data canplay as needs and opportunities for ruraldevelopment are being assessed. From theperspective of systems analysis, it is arguedthat national resource management musttake into account the biophysical, socio-cultural and economic features of a ruralarea, all of which interdependent andaffected by other sectors. The use ofgeographic information systems (GIS) isencouraged as a way of making complexdata understandable and accessible to allstakeholders. Part 2 closes with thepresentation of a framework designed tocreate more effective interaction betweenindigenous and scientific knowledgesystems, and with a discussion of howscientific knowledge systems will have toaccommodate local knowledge systems ifsystems of agriculture and naturalresource management are ever to beimproved.

Part 3 presents various case studiesin three chapters focusing on how localorganizations, farmers and other prac-titioners can be drawn into agriculturalresearch and into the development oftechnologies for sustainable resourcemanagement. One of the case studiespresents a particularly promising approachto institutionalizing the participation offarmers in adaptive research.

The last part of the book examinesindigenous or local knowledge systems. It evaluates trends in the availability ofinformation about traditional methods formanaging resources and developingagriculture, and it reviews the ways inwhich this information is being sharedworldwide. Examples are given of howindigenous knowledge can contribute to

alleviating rural poverty and fosteringsustainable agriculture and naturalresource management.

The book approaches the issues froma combination of angles. It consistentlyargues that more can be achieved in therisk-prone areas of Latin America and theCaribbean region by blending scientificand local knowledge than by using thetechnologies of either knowledge systemalone.

Missing from the book, however, are specific examples of how the variousstrategies and approaches have provensuccessful. Nevertheless, the book isexcellent for purposes of reference, andshould be read by all developmentpractitioners—above all by those who up tonow have offered only scientific solutionsto the problem. (Maria Corazon Y. Mendoza, Dasmarinas, Cavite,Philippines. E-mail: [email protected])

Posey, Darrell Addison (ed.) (1999)Cultural and spiritual values of bio-diversity. A complementary contributionto the global biodiversity assessment.750 pp. ISBN 1-85339-394-0. Published byIntermediate Technologies Publicationsfor and on behalf of the United NationsEnvironment Programme. The book isavailable free from UNEP, P.O. Box 30552,Nairobi, Kenya. Intermediate TechnologiesPublications sells them. Price includingpostage and packaging GBP 40.25. Ordersto USA: Stylus Publishing, P.O. Box 605,Herndon, VA 20172-0605, USA. Orders restof the world: IT Publications, 103/105Southampton Row, London WC1B 4HH,United Kingdom, Fax: +44-207-436 2013.E-mail: [email protected] full text of the publication is availableat UNEP web page:http://www.unep.org/Biodiversity/unep/pdf

This impressive, 750-page new bookpresents a huge sample of the manydifferent perspectives that exist on thesocial and cultural carriers of biologicaldiversity. It was commissioned by theUnited Nations Environmental Programmeas a complement to the Global BiodiversityAssessment (GBA). Publication of this bookreflects the recognition that biodiversityexists, above all, in places inhabited byman. To quote the preface by compiler andeditor D.A. Posey, ‘Indeed, human beingsare an integral part of biodiversity, notmerely observers and users of componentsof biological diversity.’ All over the world,it is indigenous or traditional peoples whoare the keepers of biodiversity. The bookprovides a global review of the diversity ofhuman and social values that have beenaccorded to biological diversity.

Cultural and spiritual values ofbiodiversity covers almost all topics relatedto biodiversity and indigenous ortraditional peoples, ranging from theinextricable link between culture andnature, via linguistic diversity and theterritorial rights of indigenous peoples, totraditional ecological knowledge and

human health. Four instructive chaptersare devoted to the cultural aspects ofconserving biodiversity while managingnatural resources in a large variety ofworking environments and ecosystems:agriculture and soil, mountainous areas,forests and trees, and aquatic and marineresources. There is a chapter on religiousvalues and world views related to ecology,with an appendix of faith statements. The last chapter (12) reviews legal aspectsand the regulation of rights, and offers acritique of the IPR agreements currently inuse. The conclusion includes some generalrecommendations on biodiversity conser-vation, confirming that a human pers-pective and the involvement of people areneeded to achieve this.

The book contains scientific treatisesand essays, but it also contains a variety of other formats including case studies,poems, songs, and personal testimonies.All are equally enlightening. Likewise, themany contributors represent not only thescientific community and policy-makingand executive circles, but also theindigenous or traditional world in all of itsrich variety. This makes the book as awhole as diverse and colourful as the topicit deals with.

Cultural and spiritual values ofbiodiversity is a book that can be read by apublic ranging from scientists andpractitioners to anyone else interested inor concerned about biodiversity andindigenous peoples. Thanks to thepleasant layout and the relatively shortlength of the very many individualcontributions, this book is the idealcompanion for reading over a long periodof time. The only limit to its usefulness isthe language, which is English. A Spanishedition would be welcome. (Peter R.W. Gerritsen, rural sociologist and social forester, Manantlán Institute for Ecologyand Biodiversity Conservation, Mexico. E-mail: [email protected])

Rajan, R.T. (ed.) (1999) Biodiversityand ethnopharmacology. 128 pp. ISBNnone. Price in India INR 100 (postageincluded); abroad: USD 25 (airmail postageincluded). Published by Dr R.T. Rajan forthe Ethno Studies & DevelopmentNetwork, SOLAI Program, Christianpetp.o., Vellore - 632 059, India. Fax: +91-522-326 489.E-mail: [email protected]

This book is the outcome of thepresentations given at the regionalseminar on biodiversity and ethnopharma-cology held at the SOLAI central office inVellore, on 21-23 January 1999. The bookcontains 25 articles in three sets. The firstset of seven discusses the importance ofconserving biological diversity and thevalue of ethno-medicine and other ethno-practices. It is argued that biologicaldiversity must be preserved if sustainabledevelopment is to be achieved, and thatloss of biodiversity would have a seriouseffect on ethnopharmacological practicesand traditional medicine. It is therefore



http://www.unep.org/Biodiversity/unep/pdf


cannot happen. This is the second themeof the book.

And herein lies the nature of thiscollection: it is an inherent testimony tocultural genocide. While so much thought,dedication and hard work has gone intothese and other projects around the world,linguistic and cultural diversity is beingextinguished at a rate faster than revital-ization efforts can keep up with. The deepsadness I felt in reading this book comesfrom the realization that for manyindigenous peoples, time has already runout and their languages are gone forever.

The collection is accessible to anyreader with an interest in indigenouslanguages and their preservation andrevitalization. It offers sound advice andpractical suggestions on where to beginwith indigenous language revitalization. Itcould save interested readers from makingthe time-consuming mistakes that canliterally make the difference between thelife and death of a language.(Dr Zane Ma Rhea, National Centre for Gender &Cultural Diversity, Swinburne University ofTechnology, Melbourne, Australia. Email: [email protected]://www.swin.edu.au/corporate/ncgcd)

Roothaert, R.L. (2000) The potentialof indigenous and naturalized foddertrees and shrubs for intensive use incentral Kenya. Doctoral thesisWageningen University, the Netherlands.172 pp. ISBN 90-5808-158-3. Limitednumber of copies available. No charge.Contact Ms Tiny van Aalderen, Library,Wageningen University and ResearchCentre, P.O. Box 9101, 6700 ABWageningen, the Netherlands.Fax: +31-317-484 761 (att. Ms Van Aalderen)E-mail: [email protected]

This doctoral thesis reports on aprogramme of collaborative researchinvolving the International Centre forResearch in Agroforestry (ICRAF,Wageningen) and two Kenyan institutes. It combines indigenous and scientificknowledge pertaining to fodder trees andshrubs that grow in the Embu-MbeereDistrict on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Itincludes studies of how farmers select anduse indigenous fodder trees and shrubs, anon-farm evaluation of woody speciesselected for fodder, and on-site studies ofthe nutritive value of these species and ofthe extent to which they are fed to live-stock and selected by foraging livestock.

There were some surprising results.It was found that farmers in the areasstudied regarded and used no fewer than161 indigenous and exotic species of treesand shrubs as fodder. This is far more thanthe two or three species, such as Lucaenaleucocephalaand Calliandra calothyrsus,which are widely recommended for thispurpose. Some of the lesser-known speciesgive better yields and higher quality foragethan the widely advocated species. Forexample, Lantana camara, which is knownin other areas as a fairly noxious weed, iseaten by cattle and goats in the areas

Reyhner, Jon, Gina Cantoni, RobertN. St Clair and Evangeline Parsons Yazzie(eds) (1999) Revitalizing indigenouslanguages.xx + 140 pp. ISBN 0-9670554-0-7.USD 10 plus postage and handling (USD 3within the USA; USD 10 internationalmail). Center for Excellence in Education,P.O. Box 5774, Northern ArizonaUniversity, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011-5774,USA. To order contact Josie Allred, OfficeSpecialist, Fax: +1-520-523 1929.E-mail: [email protected] full text of the book is also availableon the website of Teaching IndigenousLanguages, athttp://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/RIL_Contents.html

This edited collection of paperspresented at the Fifth Annual StabilizingIndigenous Languages Symposium (held inMay 1998, in Louisville, Kentucky) is, ineffect, a testimony of cultural genocide.The focus is on languages once spoken byNative Americans.

The 21 authors have a commonpurpose: to discuss the obstacles faced by those who are trying to revitalizeindigenous languages, and to explore theopportunities that exist for positive action.Some of the authors are specialists inindigenous languages, others are teachersor community activitists. Some are them-selves speakers of an indigenous language.

The introductory chapters byRehyner and Littlebear are easily under-stood by the general reader. The collectioncombines theoretical papers with practical examples of revitalization efforts.The theoretical discussions cover languagelearning and acquisition, the problem ofindigenous communities’ lack of interestin revitalizing their own languages, the impact on a person’s ‘indigeneity’ when they learn their own language inschool, and the impact of technology onindigenous language and identity. Variousmethods and models are discussed:Language Revitalization Methodology,Total Physical Response Storytelling, theArikara Language Project, the LanguageProficiency Method, and the use ofcomputers to stabilize languages bydeveloping online dictionaries.

Although the collection focuses onattempts to revitalize Native Americanlanguages, many readers will recognizethe specific concerns and disappointmentsdescribed by the authors. These arecommon problems faced by everyoneinvolved in the struggle to revitalizeindigenous languages, no matter whichlocal community they are part of.

Rightly, the authors make a strongcase for the critical role that indigenouslanguage plays as a powerful carrier ofindigenous knowledge. They argue thatwithout the language, the knowledge islost. Littlebear argues, for example, thatindigenous language holds the key tocommunicating at profound physical,psychological and spiritual levels. Withoutthe preservation of indigenous languages,sustainable community development

important to increase popular awarenessof the way that biodiversity and ethno-pharmacology are related.

The second set of 15 articlesdescribes a variety of studies and projectsundertaken in Tamil Nadu. The topicsinclude the conservation of biodiversitythrough the watershed approach tosustainable development; the communityconcept of transferring technology forbiodiversity conservation; the chemicaldiversity of plants as a result of variationin geographic origin, seasons and parts;the properties of herbal products used torepel mosquitoes in different ways; andthe chemical properties and indigenoususes of 40 plants that grow in theVedharanyam reserve forest of TamilNadu. There is also an essay on four wellknown indigenous plants - King of Bitters(Andrographis paniculata Nees); thumbai(Leucas aspera); turmeric (Curcuma longa),and Holy or Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum) -which are used to treat the bites ofpoisonous snakes and scorpions; a discus -sion of the ethno-botany, medicinal useand religious practices associated withstolons (Cynodon dactylon), which is a sacredgrass of Hindus; and an account of thegrassroots campaign to create environ-mental awareness that has been going onfor the last 14 years in Kodaikanal and hasalready reached 43,000 persons.

The third set of articles is in theTamil language. As readers might know,there are 250 languages in India. Tamil isspoken in Tamil Nadu. This reviewerknows only Hindi and Kumaoni, which isthe dialect of the central Pahari. When Ireceived the book for review and saw thescript in which some of the articles werewritten, I could not even identify thelanguage. So I enlisted the help of Dr R.T.Rajan, who sent me the titles, authors andabstracts of the three articles. The infor-mation I am now passing on to Monitorreaders is based on these abstracts. To me,the most interesting Tamil article seems tobe that of Dr K.K. Krishnamurthy, whopresents 14 adages representing popularwisdom on such subjects as land selection,the reclamation of saline and alkalinesoils, soil fertility, and weather fore-casting. Proverbs in the Tamil languagedescribe natural signs that precede rain,for example. Many societies throughoutthe world have preserved knowledge ofthis type. It would be interesting to seesuch knowledge verified and compared. The second article in the Tamil languagepresents the chronological history of theSidha system of medicine. The third onediscusses the medicinnal uses of ninetypes of gemstones, and the last one dealswith practices by which ancient Tamilsociety conserved biodiversity. Readerswho wish to know more about thesearticles articles or to obtain abstracts inEnglish should contact Dr Rajan directly,at the address above.(N.C. Shah, Coordinator CIKIHR, Retired Scientist (CSIR), Aliganj, Lucknow, India. E-mail : [email protected])



http://www.swin.edu.au/corporate/ncgcd



http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/RIL_Contents.html

postage: PKR 400 in Pakistan, USD 20 indeveloping countries other than Pakistan,and USD 25 in the North. For orders,contact Shirkat Gah - Women’s ResourceCentre, 68, Tipu Block, New Garden Town,Lahore, Pakistan.E-mail: [email protected];[email protected].

This book is based on extensiveresearch on women and law in the Muslimworld. The project was started in 1992under the Women and Law (W&L) programmein Pakistan and has been conductedfurther by the Shirkat Gah Women’sResource Centre. Almost 50 years of caselaw in the Pakistani superior courts (1947-1992) have been reviewed, the proceedingsof the central legislature have beenexamined with an eye to women’s parti-cipation, and field work has been con-ducted on the customary practices andstrategies of women’s movements inPakistan.

The book has three parts, startingwith ‘The political and legal context’. Part2, ‘Implementation: laws and practices’,reflects the general focus on women as itexamines laws pertaining to marriage,dowry, divorce, custody, guardianship andinheritance. This part also discusses penallaw, such as the laws on qisas (a retributionfor murder and bodily injury: e.g., ‘an eyefor an eye’) and dyat (blood money payableto the heirs of a murder victim). Part 3,‘Women’s activism’, discusses selectedaspects of women’s movements.

Part 1 discusses at length thepractices and culture surrounding theapplication of law in Pakistani society. Thewriters claim that various legal problemsstem from the fact that the Pakistani legalsystem is a heterogeneous system withthree completely different sets of laws:customary practices, Islamic law, and statelaw. Each of these is based on differentnorms. The constitution of Pakistandeclares that Islam shall be the statereligion, and that state and religion cannotbe conceptually separated. The sameprinciple applies to the state and otheraspects of life in Pakistan.

Part 2 deals with the day-to-daypractice of applying family law, which isthe area in which most women’s cases arefound. The Federal Syariat Court and theSyariat Appellate Court both have thepower to investigate whether a particularlaw conforms with Islam. If they find a lawcontrary to Islam, they can strike it down.At the implementation level, this hardlyever works out in a way that does justice to gender rights. Most judges in Pakistanicourts are ulamas, appointed by thegovernment and notorious for theirmisogynistic views. They are unlikely everto interpret Islamic laws in a mannerfavourable towards women’s rights.

Very much the same situation isevident in criminal courts, where the jigrasystem (jury system) prevails. This systemin fact represents the interests of the maleelite of the area. Men who murder femalerelatives whom they suspect of having

Overseas Development Institute, theInternational Institute for Rural Recon-struction, and World Neighbours, and held in July 1995. Although the book drewon experiences of 70 people, the editorsmanaged to avoid the usual route ofpublishing workshop proceedingsconsisting of a selection of individual,often disconnected papers. Instead theyreworked the workshop material into anintegrated text that offers the reader aninvaluable introduction to farmer-ledextension.

The book is well-structured,balancing theoretical background withpractical examples. It provides enjoyablereading as well as being a practicalmanual for practitioners in agriculturalextension.

The book starts with a workabledefinition of farmer-led extension, afterwhich it competently sketches the socio-political and ecological backdrop againstwhich the emergence of farmer-ledextension should be viewed. Subsequentlya variety of farmer-led initiatives indifferent parts of the world are presentedand analyzed in terms of principles,methods, roles of different stakeholders,and issues and problems. This comparativestyle offers the reader a range of optionsfor operationalizing the concept of farmer-led extension, and helps the extensionpractitioner to understand the need toadapt the concept to local conditions. Thebook is clearly based on material derivedfrom people with a wealth of experience inthe farmer-led approach. This showsparticularly in the chapters dealing withthe problems of farmer-led extension, theimportance of assessment and evaluation,and the need to scale up initiatives. Thesechapters provide useful insights andguidelines based on the pros and cons ofvarious aspects of the approach.

This is a great handbook foragricultural extension workers and ruraldevelopment organizations in general. Itsucceeds in combining several objectivesinto one competently written book. Itmakes an eloquent plea for sustainableand participatory agricultural practiceswhile at the same time providing a manualfor farmer-led practice, an overview ofexamples of farmer-led activities aroundthe world, and a critical evaluation of thefarmer-led approaches.

The book has been used by NGOs invarious parts of the world and by severalaid agencies. It has also inspired academicsin fields ranging from agriculture to thesocial sciences. I have used the book as asource for my course on local knowledgeand natural resource management.(Hilde Van Vlaenderen, Department ofPsychology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown,South Africa. E-mail: [email protected])

Shaheed, Farida; Sohail AkbarWarraich, Cassandra Balchin, and AishaGazdar (eds) (1998) Shaping women’s lives.Laws, practices and strategies in Pakistan.512 pp. ISBN none. Price excluding

studied, where the farmers appear to valueit highly as a fodder shrub. This showshow site-specific the use of trees andshrubs can be.

Another interesting finding is theclose correlation between farmers’preferences and laboratory analyses. Thissuggests that laboratory analyses are notalways necessary for evaluating foragequality.

As is generally the case with feedingtrials, measurements did not include milkyields or animal growth. Conclusions arebased on the measurement of feed intake,chemical analyses to measure digestibility,and calculations using models. On thisbasis it was found that with respect tointake and energy supply, the best natural -ly occurring plants could almost matchthe commercial mix of concentrates fed todairy cattle. And with respect to proteincontent, they were better. The high foragevalue of the cassava tree and mulberry alsodeserves mention.

A thesis is meant to prove that thecandidate can work and write in ascientific manner. It therefore does notprovide a broad, comprehensive overviewof the subject, nor does it offer a long listof practical recommendations. Further -more, the frequently used Dutch thesisformat—with most chapters written asindependent papers for publication injournals—makes repetition within thebook unavoidable. However, the languageis not complicated and the methods andfindings are clearly expressed. For organi-zations (especially NGOs) involved inplanning and implementing agroforestryprojects with a livestock component, thispublication offers plenty of valuable ideasand should be widely read.(Wolfgang Bayer, Consultant in livestock andforage husbandry, Göttingen, Germany. E-mail:[email protected])

Scarborough, V.; S. Killough, D.A.Johnson, and J. Farrington (eds) (1997)Farmer-led extension. Concepts andpractices. 228 pp. ISBN 1-85339-417-3. GBP 12.95. Intermediate TechnologyPublications Ltd., 103-105 SouthamptonRow, London WC1B 4HH, United Kingdom.Fax: +44-20-7-436 2013.E-mail: [email protected]

Many developing countries arecurrently grappling with questions aboutthe future role of the public agriculturalextension system. In some of thesecountries the decision has already beenmade to privatize the public extensionservice, a strategy promoted by inter-national funding agencies such as theWorld Bank, whilst in other developingcountries the search for suitable alter -natives continues. Against this background,the book is a timely contribution to thedebate on how best to assist large numbersof poor rural people who rely heavily onagriculture for their survival.

The book is based on the outcomesof a workshop on farmer-led extensionwhich was jointly organized by the


mailto:[email protected];




extra-marital sexual relationships can beacquitted on the grounds of ‘grave andsudden provocation’, as recently happenedin the case of Muhammad Younis versusthe State despite evidence to the contrary.

At the same time, however, the bookdocuments the progress achieved in thefield of hudood law (the law on adultery).Pakistani courts have outlawed the rajampenalty (stoning to death) and now putboth parties who are suspected ofcommitting adultery on trial - male andfemale. Significantly, this progress hasresulted not from greater rationality onthe part of judges, but is more likely dueto public pressure.

Apart from downright discrimina-tion, women in Pakistan suffer from theirown ignorance of legal matters. Mostwomen in Pakistan have little access toinformation about either state laws orcultural practices elsewhere in the country.The practices of their own communitiesare an absolute standard for them, andthere is no court of appeal in sight. In-forming and empowering women are there -fore major goals, as is reported in Part 3.

In short, all aspects of life in Pakistanare conducted in conformity with Islam, areligion that historically has sanctified thesubordination of women. There is also agender bias in law enforcement which isbased on the paternalistism that prevailsin Pakistan. Before the court, it is nominalor legal equality that counts, rather thanreal or social equality. International lawsand laws emanating from internationalagreements are regarded as secular lawshaving no connection with the Quran orHadits and therefore not posing a threat tothe moral fabric of society.

This situation discriminates againstwomen, but is not unique to Pakistan. Itexists in other countries where Muslimlaw, state law and customary practices areenforced simultaneously.

Are there any solutions in sight? Todeal with the gender problem in Pakistan,parameters other than religion should beconsidered, suggests Shabiuddin Ahmad,the judge in a case reported in Part 1 ofthe book (p. 25). This would start elimin-ating discrimination against women.Shirkat Gah suggests (p. 305) that women’spolitical participation must be changedpermanently. Women must achieve greaterautonomy through a combination oflobbying and effective political leadership.The contributors also suggest (pp. 71 and73) that women should be given moreaccess to information about existing legalsystems.

To the suggestions in the book, thereviewers would add that certain verses inthe Quran, particularly those concerningwomen, should be reinterpreted. Forinstance, the male’s position as leader(qowam, as stated in Surat An-Nissaa,Article 34) should be interpreted in thesense of encouragement rather thandomination. This solution is being putforward by Muslim women activistsaround the world. We would like also to

refer readers to Equal before Allah, writtenby Fatima Mernissi, a Pakistani Muslimactivist who now lives in the USA. Theneed for this kind of reinterpretation hasalso been discussed at several internationalsymposia and workshops on gender issues.

Readers will enrich themselvesreading this publication full of informationon issues so close to Muslim women all overthe world, especially in developing countries.(Dr Komariah Emong Sapardjaja, et.al.,Padjadjaran University Law School, Bandung,Indonesia. E-mail: [email protected])

Suryadinata, Leo (ed.) (1997) EthnicChinese as Southeast Asians. 308 pp. ISBN 981-3055-50-2. USD 57.40 plus cost ofpostage. Institute of Southeast AsianStudies (ISEAS), 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace,Pasir Panjang Road, Singapore 119596.Fax: +65-775-6259.E-mail: [email protected]

This book is edited by Leo Suryadinata,associate professor in the Department ofPolitical Science, National University ofSingapore. It is the result of a regionalworkshop convened against the backgroundof international developments since Chinaintroduced its open-door policy. Sincethen, many Chinese entrepreneurs outsideChina have begun to invest in mainlandChina. Attention has again turned to theChinese in other parts of the world andwriters have started to use the term‘overseas Chinese’. This mainland-China-centric view has confused the position andidentity of the Chinese in Southeast Asia. If Southeast Asian Chinese continue to beseen as ‘Chinese overseas’ rather than asSoutheast Asians, it could have seriouspolitical consequences.

At the workshop, such topics asethnicity, migration, business, and inter-national relations were discussed, as wellas the way that ‘indigenous’ SoutheastAsians perceive the ethnic Chinese wholive in their countries. Representatives oftwo groups were invited: scholars ofChinese origin and scholars of ‘indigenous’or non-Chinese origin. The volumecontains the edited presentations plus aregional study incorporating a variety ofperspectives on common themes relatingto the question of Chinese identity in sixASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, thePhilippines, Singapore, Thailand andVietnam) plus Myanmar.

The book is well documented. Itsinterest lies mainly in the differencesrevealed by the case studies, most of whichtake an historical perspective. At the sametime, it seems that a common pattern ofconflicting relations has developed overtime. This is characterized by differentphases.

Different policies and integrationpatterns are described and discussed:assimilationist, accomodationist, andpluralistic. An appendix on the role ofwomen in shaping Chinese identitycompletes the book.

The book’s main general findingsare the following:

■ Investments are made in China not outof any feeling of allegiance but ratherbecause the country is seen to offergood business opportunities. In fact,most Chinese feel quite integrated intotheir host countries. Chineseness istherefore mainly an asset that facilitatescommunication and trust for businesspurposes, and not a feeling of belongingor a desire to enlarge China’s politicalrole in the region.

■ Westernization in the region isprogressively weakening all sorts oftraditional cultures, including that ofthe ethnic Chinese. For the Chinese,this is compounded by assimilationistpolicies specifically aimed at weakeningtraditional Chinese institutions.

■ Patterns of integration differ widelyfrom one country to the next. In general,whereas first-generation Chineseusually feel related to the motherlandand build up traditional institutions,later generations usually integrate intothe host country and no longer identifywith China. In countries such asMyanmar and the Philippines, mixedmarriages are currently facilitatingintegration.

■ Ethnic Chinese are not everywhere ahomogeneous urban group employedin business. In several countries theyhave very different patterns ofresidence and activity. This is especiallytrue in countries where migrationand/or integration took place a longtime ago, as in the Philippines.

■ The main traditional institutions arefor purposes of economic support orcultural preservation – schools, forexample. The Triads in Thailand provideanother example. In all countries,ethnic Chinese are usually organizedand preserve their identity in their owndistricts (Chinatown). Such institutionsare becoming less and less relevant,however.

The book is permeated by a generalfeeling of optimism about the futurerelationship between ethnic Chinese andtheir host countries, although in a fewcountries there might be reason for worryabout how wealth will be distributed. Theeconomic role played by the Chinese isgenerally appreciated by the host countriesand Chineseness could turn out to be anasset. But history in the region has alreadyshown a variety of patterns, making itdifficult to predict what will happen.The book will appeal particularly toreaders interested in issues relating toidentity, migration, and internationalpolitics in Southeast Asia.(Paolo Segalla, Development Consultant,Casalmaggiore, Italy. E-mail: [email protected])

Voeten, Margje M. (1999) Living withwildlife: coexistence of wildlife andlivestock in an East African savannasystem. Tropical Resource ManagementPapers No. 29. 160 pp. ISBN 90-6754-578-3.NLG 40; for readers in developingcountries free upon request. Wageningen



University and Research Centre,Department of Environmental Sciences,Tropical Nature Conservation andVertebrate Ecology Group, Bornsesteeg 69,6708 PD Wageningen, the Netherlands. Fax: +31-317-484 845.E-mail: @alg.kb.wau.nl

This doctoral thesis addresses animportant environmental issue in the EastAfrican savanna: the relationship betweenwildlife management and the keeping ofdomestic animals. This is characterized byboth competition and complementarities.Because the chapters of the thesis arewritten as separate papers, there is someunavoidable overlap between them.Altogether, the papers present the resultsof a study of vegetation quality anddynamics under grazing. The author haslooked at what zebras, wildebeests (gnus)and zebu cattle actually eat.

The author does not pretend topresent and analyse indigenous know-ledge, but she does challenge the commonscientific belief that the diets of domesticanimals and wildlife are complementary,i.e. that wildlife prefer to eat what thelivestock hardly touch and that thereforethe two can easily coexist. A very largeoverlap was found between the diets of thewildlife species and the zebu cattle. Theanimals forage on the same grass species.The author argues that the severalthousand years that cattle have existed inEast Africa has not been long enough fortrue complementarity in diets to haveevolved. Complementarity was found to belimited to a spatial dimension, as thewildlife species can graze in areas whichcannot be used by the zebu cattle becausewater is too scarce. If the wildlife and thecattle graze in the same area, however,they compete for food.

Another finding is that mobility isabsolutely necessary for the wildlife speciesbecause they cannot cover their dietaryneeds year-round at any one of the sitesstudied. The author concludes that it isdoubtful whether livestock husbandry canbe sustainable in the long run at the sitesstudied and advocates wildlife ranchinginstead.

Being an academic thesis, thelanguage in the book tends to be scientific,but for those interested in the subject itmakes for very good reading.(Wolfgang Bayer, Consultant in livestock andforage husbandry, Göttingen, Germany. E-mail: [email protected])

PREVIEW: IMPORTANT NEW BOOKS

The appearance of important newpublications is reported here, and thebooks are briefly described. We haverequested review copies, which will besent to experts for their opinionsregarding the books’ practical usefulness.The reviewers’ comments will bepublished in a subsequent issue of theIndigenous Knowledge and DevelopmentMonitor.

IIRR, PLAN and SCF (2000)Indigenous knowledge and practices inmother and child care: experiences fromSoutheast Asia and China. 355 pp. ISBN 0-942717-87-2. PHP 300; USD 15 excludingpostage. Published by InternationalInstitute of Rural Reconstruction, PLANInternational, and Save the ChildrenFederation, Inc. For orders, contact: IIRRBookstore, IIRR, Y.C. James Yen Center,Silang, Cavite 4118 Philippines.Fax: +63-46-414 2420.E-mail: [email protected]

After four years of preparation, aworkshop on indigenous knowledge andpractices related to mother and child carewas conducted at the InternationalInstitute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR),Silang, Cavite, Philippines, 3-16 April 2000.The workshop was guided by a multi-disciplinary steering committee whosemembers are committed to the recording,preservation, adaptation and promotion ofbeneficial indigenous knowledge (IK),beliefs and practices. Fifty-one participantsfrom seven countries worked closely witha production team of editors, artists anddesktop publishers to produce a referencebook for use by extension workers, fieldstaff and middle-level managers ofcommunity development projects.

The book features practices, strategiesand issues with programmatic implications.(It is not just an anthropological docu-mentation of practices.) Each paperdescribes a set of indigenous knowledge,beliefs and practices and examines severaltopics from a development perspective. It is intended to help developmentpractitioners to understand and appreciateindigenous practices in the context ofSoutheast Asia and China and to developIK sensitivity: in other words, to affirm thevalue accorded to IK across cultures inSoutheast Asia.

There are ten major chapters. Thesecond chapter is the longest. It featuresideas and practices regarding maternal andnewborn care in various cultural settings.The editors say that the papers weredifficult to group as they tend to overlap.This made the steering committee decideto narrow them down to maternal andnewborn care and otherwise to clusterthem by country. The book offers 18 papersfrom six countries: China, Indonesia,Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines andThailand. Among the topics dealt with inthe other chapters are child-feedingpractices; child-protection practices;traditional toys and games; circumcision,marriage and sex rituals, and (in Chapter10) methods, approaches and strategies forthe retrieval, documentation and use ofindigenous knowledge. The papers in thischapter were written by external develop-ment workers and not by the IK prac-titioners themselves. Thus they are basedon the programme implementor’sperspective and focus on how IK can beintegrated into community work.

The book ends with a call for feed-back and help in order to improve the

present book and to provide material for anew volume featuring other cultures andgeographical areas.

We b s i te s

In this feature we recommend websitesthat deal with the subjects treated in thisissue of the Indigenous Knowledge andDevelopment Monitor. CIRAN’s informationspecialists have searched the Internet forrelevant, useful pages. Sometimes the sitesoffer background information; other timesthe information is supplementary.

Babassu palm

What is babassu oil and why is itimportant? Intermediate Technologiesoffers the STEP website designed forteachers who want to integrate sustainabledevelopment into their teaching. STEP inprovides a global educational experiencewhich delivers the ‘know how’ you need toencourage students to explore technologyfor sustainable development. Attractivelyarranged website full of basic informationon babassu oil. ‘What is babassu oil andhow is it made?’ ‘Who makes babassu oil?’‘Country information’, etc.http://www.stepin.org/babassu_oil.htm

Local poultry management

Best Practice: Chicken shed model. InCosta Rica, villagers enthusiastically set upand run this project themselves, usinglocal plants to house and feed chickens.The shed is very important, built as it iswith abundant and easy-to-manage localmaterials: cane, live posts, and the bark ofthe pejiballe. Local building techniquesrequire very few nails, making the buildingeasy to maintain and viable even for thepoorest of the poor. No special tools areneeded. Everything can be done with just amachete (the local working knife) and ahammer.http://www.unesco.org/most/bpik25.htm

Traditional meteorological principles

‘Everything is written in the sky!’ Theresearch reported on in this Monitor hasalso been published as an article in EubiosJournal of Asian and International Bioethics 9(1999), 170-6. ‘Everything is written in thesky!: Participatory meteorological assess-ment and prediction based on traditionalbeliefs and indicators in Saurashtra’, byP.R. Kanani with Astad Pastakia.http://zobell.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/EJ96/ej96g.html

Ethnotaxonomy of soils

Bibliography and selected abstracts ‘Indigenous knowledge for the classifica-

mailto:@alg.kb.wau.nl


http://www.stepin.org/babassu_oil.htm

http://www.unesco.org/most/bpik25.htm

http://zobell.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/EJ9

tion, management and conservation ofsoil’ is an online bibliography compiled byRobert K. Niles in 1997 and updated in1999. The bibliographic index has threeparts - Indigenous Knowledge, Ethno-pedology, and Region - each of which isdivided into subsections. The index iscross-referenced with the citations andselected bibliography, and, where possible,direct links are given to online versions ofthe documents. Mr Niles can be reached atNatural Resource Ecology Laboratory,Colorado State University, Fort Collins80523, USA, e-mail:[email protected]://www.nrel.colostate.edu:8080/~bobn/rkn.3b.SOIL.TEK.05.RKN.html

‘The Mossi indigenous soil classificationin Burkina Faso’ is an article by Basga E.Dialla that was published in theIndigenous Knowledge and DevelopmentMonitor in 1993. It is the article describingan indigenous system of soil classificationto which the Tanzanian researchers refer.Local farmers identify different soil typeson the basis of soil properties such astexture, colour, consistency, geographicallocation, drainage and fertility. Four majorclasses of soil are also distinguished on thebasis of their suitability for growingspecific crops. http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/ikdm/1-3/articles/dialla.html

Pigeon pea pod borer

‘New pest of pigeon pea’ Front-page articlein India's national newspaper ‘The Hindu’on 20 January 2000, reporting that cropyields of pigeon pea are low because ofinsect attack. http://www.the-hindu.com/2000/01/20/stories/ 08200008.htm

ICRISAT homepage offers ‘Research fordevelopment’ with up-to-date informationon the various programmes and regions. It also offers ‘Partnerships’, includingfarmers’ feedback. http://www.cgiar.org/icrisat/Index.htm

ICRISAT's ecofriendly gift to checkchickpea pod borer is a short notice onexperiments with four methods forprotecting chickpea crops from podborers. The method making use of thenuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) provedthe most economical and ecologicallyfriendly.http://www.cgiar.org/icrisat/text/pubs/satnews/gpub7g.html

Medicinal plants

Medicinal Plants and Local Communitiesis a project designed by the EnvironmentLiaison Centre International in order toenhance the use of medicinal plants forimproving human health in Africancommunities. The project builds ontraditional medicine. The website describesthe project – which is being conducted in

four countries of West, Central andSouthern Africa (not Nigeria) – andoutlines its methodology, products andactivities. An online database of medicinalplants is under construction. http://www.elci.org/medicina.htm

Ethnoveterinary Medicine

VETAID homepage VETAID ‘HealthyAnimals - Healthy People’ is a non-profit,overseas development organizationworking to reduce poverty and increasefood security among people dependent onlivestock. The website offers news, projectinformation, publications, videos, etc.dealing with animal healthcare. It alsooffers free subscriptions to its onlinenewsletter.http://www.vetaid.org/contents/index.htm



http://www.nrel.colostate.edu:8080/~bobn/

http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/ikdm/1-3/

http://www.the-hindu.com/2000/01/20/

http://www.cgiar.org/icrisat/Index.htm

http://www.cgiar.org/icrisat/text/pubs/satn

http://www.elci.org/medicina.htm

http://www.vetaid.org/contents/index.htm

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There is a growing appreciation of the importance of local and indigenous knowledge for thesustainable use of natural resources. However, concerns are being voiced by citizen groups andindigenous communities about how indigenous knowledge is being appropriated by large

commercial interests. There are fears that communities and the public will be denied access to both the knowledge

and the biological materials, either through high prices or the refusal of patent holders to share them.At the heart of the problem lies the World Trade Organization’s agreement on trade-relatedintellectual property rights (TRIPS). Article 27.3b allows member countries to exclude the patenting ofplants, animals and ‘essentially biological processes’, but makes it mandatory for them to patentmicroorganisms and ‘microbiological processes’. Moreover, members must patent plant varieties orotherwise protect them through an effective sui generis system.

Critics note that these distinctions were made by certain developed nations in order to enabletheir big corporations to patent genetically modified organisms (including plants and animalscontaining genetically engineered materials), and even naturally occurring microorganisms. TRIPS isfacilitating the worldwide patenting of biological materials, which would negatively affect the health,food security, and livelihoods of farmers and indigenous peoples. The control of knowledge andproducts by corporate interests through IPRs would curtail the access of consumers to medicines andfoods, through higher prices, and even erode the age-old practices by which local farmers save andshare seeds and other materials.

Criticism is mounting among citizens’ groups and the governments of developing countries. InAugust 1999, the Group of African Countries within the World Trade Organization (WTO) criticizedthe ‘artificial distinctions’ between plants and animals on the one hand and microorganisms on theother hand, and between ‘essentially biological processes’ and ‘microbiological processes’. The Africangroup proposed a review of TRIPS in order to ‘clarify that plants and animals as well asmicroorganisms and all other living organisms and their parts cannot be patented, and that naturalprocesses that produce plants, animals and other living organisms should also not be patentable.’They also suggested that a clarification be made that TRIPS allows countries to institute a sui generissystem to: (1) protect the innovations of indigenous communities; (2) continue traditional farmingpractices, such as saving and exchanging seeds; and (3) prevent anti-competition practices whichthreaten food security in developing countries.

In September 2000, at a TRIPS Council meeting at the WTO, Kenya proposed that article 27.3b beamended to ‘prohibit or exclude from patentability all biological and living organisms’ and ‘anyprocesses making use of, or relating to, such biological and living organisms.’ It added: ‘Thisprohibition or exclusion is justifiable on legal, scientific, developmental, moral and ethical grounds.’

The governments of several other developing countries have expressed support for the Africangroup’s position. Hundreds of NGOs around the world have signed a letter of support and joined acampaign to stop the patenting of all life forms. Many NGOs and experts also believe that there mustbe a mandatory worldwide prohibition against patenting biological materials.

Such a position will be opposed by corporate interests, who hope to profit from such ‘bio-piracy’, and the governments of developed countries will be against amending the TRIPS agreement.But the logic of the need for drastic changes to TRIPS will gain ground. Indeed it must, if we areserious about the need to recognize, appreciate and protect indigenous and local knowledge.


Indigenous knowledge versus TRIPSand IPRs

by Martin Khor

Martin Khor is the director of the Third World Network, which consists of citizen groups in the developingworld involved in development and environment issues. He can be contacted at [email protected]


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