Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and Modern Western Ecological Knowledge: Complementary, not Contradictory

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge is often dismissed as ‘traditional and outdated’, and hence irrelevant to modern ecological assessment. This theoretical paper critically examines the arguments advanced to elevate modern western ecological knowledge over indigenous ecological knowledge, as well as the sources and uses of indigenous ecological knowledge. The central argument of the paper is that although the two systems are conceptually different, it would be fallacious to regard one as superior to the other merely because they are premised on different worldviews.

Key words: Worldview, indigenous ecological Knowledge, western ecological knowledge, African Philosophy

Thought and Practice: A Journal of the Philosophical Association of Kenya (PAK)
New Series, Vol.3 No.2, December 2011, pp.35-47