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Traditional knowledge in scienceBy: Prof. Lance Hill Little research has been undertaken on the dynamic process by which knowledge is accumulated in PNG societies or the cognitive strategies underlying this process. To paraphrase Levi Strauss (1966) "... the making of pots, fishing for Nautilus or dolphins, the making of salt or the construction of irrigated gardens must all involve a good deal of observation, experimentation, active and methodical research, and a desire for knowledge for its own sake." Characteristics of knowledge bases - summary
Components of traditional knowledge - modified from Agrawal, 1995
Issues and concerns 1. Traditional knowledge erosion is rapidly occurring in the face of western style education and development. Accelerating factors include:-
2. Coupled with this is a patchy documentation, lack of recognition of the value of traditional knowledge and creative strategies for its incorporation into current education and development practice. 3. The under evaluation of subsistence (and the knowledge base it is based upon) in the national accounts. National Statistical Office estimates take no account of food production, firewood, the cost of house construction and maintenance, and the cost of canoe production. 1991 valuation was K600 million. This is probably a gross under-evaluation. Current knowledge is inadequate to quantify the subsidy value traditional value traditional resource utilisation underpins the economy. The costs of TK loss has major policy implications.
4. Property rights PNG is a party to a member of a number of international and regional organisations (WTO, WIPO, APEC), a signatory to various agreements, conventions and treaties (eg GAT, biodiversity, trips) but currently lacks intellectual property legislation, other than the copyright act. however, our membership of some of these require the country to enact legislation. However , these regimes are problematic in protecting traditional property rights. Some problem areas include :
5. Tentative solutions It is clear PNG will have to develop an intellectual property rights legal regime keeping in mind that
Following discussions at the recent intellectual property rights seminar it is suggested a way forward might involve :
The application would need to be both internal and external. Mechanisms will need to be developed for brokering agreements on the behalf of governmnent, community advocacy groups etc. The IPR seminar had the opportunity to share approaches being undertaken in the Phillippoines [sic], Peru and other parts of the world. these provide a comparative perspective from which to move forward. Sensitive and reciprocal relationships in sharing knowledge need to be established between outside researchers and local community participants for each adds a new dimension to their world view. Olewale and Sedu summed it nicely: "we have indicated that we have a good traditional knowledge and older people know a lot about the biology of these animals. we want to work with scientists, but we do not want to see money wasted on finding out things we already know. we can provide this information if we are asked. ...We are not saying we know everything. ... but we, the village people and you, the scientists must co-operate and share knowledfge because we want to learn also. (Olewale and Sedu, 1982) Note - Owing to time constraints, Prof. Hill was unable to provide a detailed paper for the Seminar. However, attention is drawn to the significant collection of material in Morrison, Geraghty, Crowl eds. Science of Pacific Island Peoples. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, 1994. 4 volumes Traditional knowledge in scienceBy: Prof. Lance Hill Authorization has been given by the author to reprint the following material on PNGBUAI.COM web site: | Technology & applied sciences area | Top of page | PNGBUAI.COM home page | Site search engine | The above artilce: is Copyrighted © 2000 by Lance Hill,
University of Papua New Guinea PNGBUAI.COM Papua New Guinea to return to technology section click here This is a prototype web site ©2000 pngbuai.com You can contact site administration team by email.
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