300065 Cultures and Knowledge (S) (SoSe 2011)

The course aims to explore culture-specific forms of intellectual and practical knowledge in different world regions. It further intends to critically address the appropriation and utilization of “traditional knowledge” in a globalized context (bio-prospecting, patenting, biodiversity management) as well as the issue of intellectual property rights from an anthropological perspective.

The course will start by discussing (and questioning) the contrast between “scientific” and “local” / “traditional” knowledge. It will engage with the Anthropology (Sociology) of Knowledge and explore the way modern science is culturally produced. It will also enquire about the concepts of rationality and truth in relation to particular forms of knowledge.

The course will then take up case studies from different world regions and thoroughly examine the structure as well as various fields of local knowledge. I will ask how knowledge is cognitively and practically employed in a particular culture and life world; how it is passed on and how it is diversified according to gender, age, or status. Examples of local knowledge to be discussed are: worldview and philosophy, systems of classification, astronomy and navigation, environmental knowledge, medical knowledge, knowledge of risk prevention. The basic aim is to present (and help understand) local knowledge in its specific context: how it is effective as a cultural source enabling people to interpret their world and act in it.

The course further offers the opportunity to critically reflect on power relations between scientific and local knowledge. It will refer to contemporary ongoing processes of appropriation of local knowledge, exploring how local knowledge becomes a commercial resource and is utilized by outsiders. The focus will be laid on bio-prospecting (biopiracy?), patenting, the TRIPS agreement and the issue of intellectual property rights – with reference to specific industries and fields of research like the pharmaceutical industry, medicine and agro-business.

Local knowledge also plays a role of increasing importance in the context of development. Development agencies (e.g. the World Bank) argue that blending “local” and “scientific” knowledge is a way to obtain regional sustainable development. The course will take up this issue and discuss the ways local knowledge is used as a catalyst of development; in particular it will look at participatory management of natural resources and biodiversity.

The course will also raise the issue of self-determination and social advancement of local communities. It will address the crucial question, how a local population can maintain or re-gain control over its knowledge and make it useful in the process of self-determined development.

Literaturangaben

Selected Bibliography

Bicker, Alan, Paul Sillitoe, and Johan Pottier (eds.). 2004. Investigating Local Knowledge: New Directions, New Approaches. Aldershot, Hants, England and Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Dei, George J. Sefa u.a. (eds.). 2000. Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts. Toronto, Buffalo, London: An OISE /UT Book published in assoc. with University of Toronto Press.
Geertz, Clifford. 1983. Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. New York: Basic Books.
Gibson, Johanna. 2005. Community Resources: Intellectual Property, International Trade and Protection of Traditional Knowledge. Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Hollis, Martin, and Steven Lukes (Eds.). 1982. Rationality and Relativism Oxford Basil Blackwell.
Knorr Cetina, 1999, Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge, Cambridge, Mass.; Harvard University Press
Latour, Bruno. 1993. We have never been modern. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
—. 1999. Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies. Cambridge, Mass., London: Harvard University Press.
Latour, Bruno, and Steve Woolgar. 1979. Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts. Beverly Hills; London: Sage Publications.
Pickering, Andrew (Ed.). 1992. Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Semali. Ladislaus, M, and Joe L Kincheloe (Eds.). 1999. What is Indigenous Knowledge? Voices from the Academy. New York and London: Falmer Press.
Shiva, Vandana. 1997. Biopiracy : The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, Boston, MA South End Press.
—. 2001. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. London: Zed Books.