First Words
“Knowledge is inherent in all things” (Luther Standing Bear 1933).
Luther Standing Bear's observation that knowledge inheres in all things openly expresses what many indigenous knowledge systems presuppose, and what, by being presupposed, shapes several of their distinctive features. The inherency of knowledge, and the inclusiveness of its scope, are reflected in what is taken to be primary or fundamental – in what knowledge is held to be knowledge of. They are also reflected in a web of prescriptions and proscriptions that guide the process of knowing. In both respects, indigenous knowledge systems stand in contrast to their counterparts originating within the West (a location more ideological than geographic).
We can only begin with our own assumptions, with what is taken for granted in what follows. And that is that knowledge systems are diverse and their value is contextual. Oppressive relations of power, however, have shaped their histories and continue to inflict the...
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Links to Relevant Websites
American Indian IKS Internet Resource Index: http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/indices/NAknowledge.html
Alaska Native Knowledge Network: http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/ http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/publications/handbook/integrating.html
AAAS: Handbook on Intellectual Property and TEK: http://shr.aaas.org/tek/handbook/
Indigenous Peoples’ Restoration Network: http://www.ser.org/iprn/default.asp
Indigenous Environmental Network: http://www.ienearth.org/
Indigenous Knowledge Resources: Americas: http://www.ik‐pages.net/browsetree.asp?item_id=002.004.&allarticles=true
Seventh Generation Fund: http://www.7genfund.org/index.html
Indigenous Knowledge Listserv: http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Listserv/Indigenous_Knowledge_13238.html
Native Tech Internet Resource: http://www.nativetech.org/
Infography: Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge Systems: http://www.infography.com/content/620138698080.html
Native Eyes Indigenous Studies: http://www.iaia.edu/nep2/index.php
Indigenous Knowledge Management Software http://www.archimuse.com/mw2003/papers/hunter/hunter.html
Science and Development Network – Indigenous Knowledge: http://www.scidev.net/dossiers/index.cfm?fuseaction=dossierfulltext&Dossier=7
Science and Development Network – Intellectual Property: http://www.scidev.net/dossiers/index.cfm?fuseaction=dossierItem&Dossier=8
Indigenous People's Biodiversity Network: Declaration on Biodiversity: http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/report/english/ipbn.htm
Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism: http://www.ipcb.org/ http://www.ipcb.org/publications/other_art/bsinabs.html
Development Gateway: http://topics.developmentgateway.org/indigenous?goo=1744
Original ICSU Study Group Report: http://www.icsu.org/2_resourcecentre/RESOURCE_list_base.php4?rub=7
Joint ICSU & UNESCO version of Study Group Report: http://www.icsu.org/Gestion/img/ICSU_DOC_DOWNLOAD/65_DD_FILE_Vol4.pdf
UNESCO: 1999 Budapest Declaration: http://www.unesco.org/science/wcs/eng/declaration_e.htm
UNESCO: Science‐Agenda Framework for Action: http://www.unesco.org/science/wcs/eng/framework.htm
UNESCO: Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: http://portal.unesco.org/sc_nat/ev.php?URL_ID=1945&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201
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Whitt, L. (2008). Knowledge Systems of Indigenous America. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9418
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