Indigenous knowledge (IK) has become a popular subject in the last decade. IK has been recognized by global institutions as a valuable source for scientific innovation and significant in promoting development for poorer communities. However, little attention has been paid to how communities themselves particularly conceptualize IK and how they situate this knowledge in everyday life context. This paper summarizes perceptions of IK from 20 rural communities in the Ghanzi (4) and North-East (16) districts in Botswana. Our findings indicate that IK cannot be defined by contrasting it to other knowledge systems. Rather, IK is abstract and concrete, individual and collective, specific and holistic in a dialectical manner. This inherent “unity of opposites” promotes constant change of IK. Applied to the challenge of linking IK to development, community perceptions inform us that a dialectical process-oriented approach to IK is necessary to harness it for a sustainable development and meaningful education of indigenous people in Botswana.
AgrawalA. (1995). Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge.Development & Change, 26, 413–439.
2.
AgrawalA. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and the politics of classification.Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishers.
3.
AgrawalA. (2004). Indigenous and scientific knowledge: Some critical comments.IK Monitor, 3(3), 1–9.
4.
AikmanS. (2011). Educational and indigenous justice in Africa.International Journal of Educational Development, 31, 15–22.
5.
BavikatteK., & JonasH. (Eds.) (2009). Bio-cultural community protocols.Natural Justice/UNEP.
6.
BerkesF. (1993). Traditional ecological knowledge in perspective. In InglisJ. T. (Ed.), Traditional ecological knowledge: Concepts and cases (pp. 1–9). Ottawa, Canada: IDRC.
7.
ChambersR., PaceyA., & ThruppL. A. (Eds.) (1989). Farmer first: Farmer innovation and agricultural research.London, England: Intermediate Technology Publications.
8.
CreswellJ. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
9.
DaneF. C. (1990). Research methods.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
10.
EllenR., ParkerP., & BickerA. (Eds.). (2000). Indigenous environmental knowledge and its transformations.Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Critical Anthropological Perspectives.
11.
FettermanD. (1989). Ethnography step by step.London, England: Sage Publications.
12.
HaysJ. (2007). Education, rights and survival for the Nyae Nyae Ju\'hoansi: Illuminating global and local discourses (Unpublished doctoral thesis). State University of New York, NY.
13.
HaysJ. (2009). Learning indigenous knowledge systems. In CooperL., WaltersS. (Eds.), Learning/Work - Turning work and lifelong learning inside out (pp. 194–207). Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press.
14.
KolawoleO. D. (2005). Mainstreaming local people's knowledge and implications for higher education in the South.South African Journal of Higher Education, 19, 1427–1442.
15.
LevinsR., & LewontinR. (1985). The dialectical biologist.Cambridge, MA: Harvard College.
16.
MarobelaM. N. (2010). The state, mining and the community: The case of Basarwa of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana.Labour, Capital and Society, 43(1), 138–154.
MbaiwaJ. E., NgwenyaB. N., KgathiD. L. (2008). Contending with unequal and privileged access to natural resources and land in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 29, 155–172.
19.
McGregorD. (2004). Traditional ecological knowledge and sustainable development towards coexistence.Ottawa, Canada: IDRC.
20.
MorganD. L., KruegerR. A. (1993). When to use focus group and why. In MorganD. L. (Ed.), Successful focus groups: Advancing the state of the art (pp. 3–19). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
21.
MosothwaneM. (2007). The role of indigenous/local knowledge in sustaining environmental quality and its implications for environmental education teaching.Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 4(6), 725–738.
22.
NyamnohF. B. (2003). Chieftaincy and negotiation of might and right in Botswana democracy.Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 21(2), 233–250.
23.
Nyati-RamahoboL. (2008). Minority tribes in Botswana: The politics of recognition. Briefing Papers. London, England: Minority Rights Group International.
24.
Odora-HoppersA. C. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and the integration of knowledge systems: Towards a philosophy of articulation.Claremont, South Africa: New Africa Books.
25.
OsakiM. (2001). Reconstructing the recent history of the G/vi and G//ana bushmen.African Study Monographs, Suppl., 26, 27–39.
26.
ReesJ. (1998). The algebra of revolution - The dialectic and the classical Marxist tradition.London, England: Routledge.
27.
SemaliC. M., & KincheloeJ. L. (Eds.). (1999). What is indigenous knowledge - Voices from the academia.New York, NY: Garland Reference Library of Social Sciences, Falmer Press.
28.
SenB. (2005). Indigenous knowledge for development: Bringing research and practice together.International Information & Library Review, 37, 375–382.
29.
SillitoeP. (1998). The development of indigenous knowledge: A new applied anthropology.Current Anthropology, 39(2), 223–252.
30.
SillitoeP. (2010). Trust in development: Some implications of knowing in indigenous knowledge.Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16, 12–30.
31.
SillitoeP., & MarzanoM. (2009). Future of indigenous knowledge research in development.Futures, 41, 13–23.
32.
SrinivasanR. (2004). Knowledge architectures for cultural narratives.Journal of Knowledge Management, 8(4), 65–74.
33.
TanakaJ. (1980). The San: Hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari.Tokyo, Japan: University of Tokyo Press.
34.
TlhalefangG., & OduaranA. (2006). An exploration of indigenous values influencing learning systems of the Basarwa in Botswana.WINHEC Journal. Retrieved from http://www.win-hec.org/docs/pdfs/Oduaran%20final.pdf
VaughnS., SchummJ. S., & SinagubJ. (1996). Focus groups interviews in education and psychology.London, England: Sage Publications.
37.
WarrenM. D. (1991). Using indigenous knowledge in agricultural development. World Bank Discussion Papers. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
38.
WerbnerR. (2004). Reasonable radicals and citizenship in Botswana: The public anthropology of Kalanga elites.Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
