Based on the "tradition transmitted to indigenous peoples" based on the scientific discovery new approach is effective?

byThierry Leclerc

One reason for the great evolution of mankind is "to use fire", but in the northern part of Australia "Birds hunting with fireIt was confirmed that there existed. Although this phenomenon "discovered" by researchers, Aborigines in northern Australia knows this phenomenon from ancient times, researchers seem to have conducted research based on Aboriginal tradition.

When Scientists "Discover" What Indigenous People Have Known For Centuries | Science | Smithsonian
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-science-takes-so-long-catch-up-traditional-knowledge-180968216/

There was also a time when it was believed that animals using tools are believed to be only human beings, but recent studies have shown that cases of animals using tools are successively discovered. In order to capture termites, chimpanzees insert "twigs" into ant alba, "ant fishing", octopus carry coconut broken in half and use it as their hideout place. However, the discovery that "birds use fire" gave scholars extremely great shocks.

Mark · BondaWith Mr.Robert GosfordMr. and colleagues' research team carried three kinds of birds of prey, "Milvus migrans (Tobi)", "Haliastur sphenurus (fenakitobi)" and "Falco berigora (Chairo Fayebusa)" which live in the northern part of Australia carry branches with fire , I discovered that I was sprinkling small animals that were feeding. It was known that birds catch animals escaping by fires, but the fact that birds actually use wooden burners to spread fire has surprised Western scientists.

However, the phenomenon "birds hunt using fire" is well known to Aborigines in northern Australia, and the tribal rituals and customs also adopted the motif of "fire bird" . Despite knowing the Aboriginal tradition in Western people, it has been treated as just superstitious as "birds can not hunt using fire". Mr. Bonta and Mr. Gosford, who discovered the phenomenon that birds use fire, researched forwardly on Aboriginal tradition and discovered the existence of birds using fire based on Aboriginal tradition. Rather than truncating the tradition transmitted to indigenous peoples as non-scientific, we used it in Western scientific research as "there must be reasons for tradition."


A case of birds using fire gives scientists from all over the world the idea of ​​"can traditional indigenous knowledge be applied to scientific new discovery?" Likewise, as an example of making use of the tradition transmitted to indigenous peoples to scientific research, Inuit's traditional knowledge is used in climatology research on the observation of sea ice to learn the change of past sea ice conditions Thing.

However, despite the fact that indigenous knowledge is effective for scientific research, many scientists avoid avoiding the indigenous knowledge into research. When these knowledge is in line with scientific verification, it is supplementarily used as "This phenomenon was also known to indigenous people", but the tradition differs from "scientifically believed" If they are, they are truncated as mere legends or myths. The tradition of "birds that use fire" has also been believed as a simple tradition until the discovery of this time is announced.

Smithsonian.com"But it is true that only science is truly objective and quantifiable, progressing human knowledge, traditional knowledge is not right to truncate otherwise Traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples is me Will not they provide an entrance to acquire knowledge about the world? ", It is said that traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples may deserve scientific thinking.

byRon Knight

As a pattern that the latest science has overtaken the knowledge of indigenous peoples, Canadian indigenous peoplesKwakitr tribeAnd other cultivation activities of shellfish carried out by the indigenous peoples of North America. The Kwakiutr tribe made a terrace surrounded by rocks in the ocean, and that he was farming shellfish in it. This method greatly improves the yield of shellfish and at the same time it also protects marine resources. The resource management system that indigenous people have done hundreds of years ago has been ahead of the modern day's resource conservation activities.

It also occurred between the American Army and the North American Indigenous Peoples that occurred in 1876Battle of Little Big Horn,Lakota tribeWhenCheyenneIt is also a case where the oral thoughts transmitted to it were more accurate than the records left by the US Army immediately after battle. The discovery of archaeological evidence such as the belongings of the military left in the battlefield and the remains of soldiers due to the fire that occurred in the site of the battlefield in 1984 caused more records of indigenous peoples than the biased white people It turned out to be correct. However, unless actual evidence is found, the historians also said that indigenous peoples' records would not be recognized as correct.

byTom Driggers

Traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and Western knowledge may seem at first glance, but that it is constantly verified through iteration and verification, reasoning and prediction, empirical observation and recognition of pattern events I am in common. Traditional knowledge is sometimes impossible to demonstrate and physical evidence is often absent, so it is not too much emphasis. However, the knowledge of indigenous peoples has "context dependence" which is not found in western knowledge, which may lead to insight hard to discover from western science. The long experience and the context gained from observation sometimes have reached conclusions that took a leap outside the scope of scientific forecasting.

The case of the tradition of 'birds that use fire' which was transmitted to Aborigines and the case of this "new discovery" are the possibility of further progress of human knowledge by combining the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples with Western scientific knowledge Smithsonian.com says it was also important in showing it.