Traditional Knowledge

Traditional knowledge is the indigenous knowledge preserved by divergent local communities amassed through traditional and current daily activities. The foundations of this knowledge are embedded in communicating to community and its social, economic and cultural participations in local arena.

The word “Traditional knowledge” is defined in literature as: Traditional knowledge is a cumulative body of knowledge, know-how, practices and representations maintained and developed by peoples with extended histories of interaction with the natural environment. These sophisticated sets of understandings, interpretations and meanings are part and parcel of a cultural complex that encompasses language, naming and classification systems, resource use practices, ritual, spirituality and worldview.”

Traditional knowledge flourishes inside particular cultural groups or communities over a supposed span of periods and within recognized environmental and social arrangements. Simultaneously, these communities have received and moulded components form other knowledge organizations. The professionals of traditional knowledge seem to consider people, animals and other constituents of the universe as interlinked by a nexus of social relations and obligations. Traditional knowledge suffices the framework for many facets of day to day livelihoods and occupations. For instance:

1. Hunting, fishing and gathering
2. Preparation, conservation and distribution of food
3. Agriculture and husbandry
4. Location, collection and storage of water
5. Coping disease and injury
6. Interpretation of meteorological and climatic phenomena
7. Manufacture of clothing and tools
8. Construction and maintenance of shelter
9. Orientation and navigation on land and sea
10. Management of ecological relations of society and nature
11. Adaptation to environmental/social change

 However, these are conventional methods of our ancestors handed down to our generations after generations and these must be preserved to continue the maintenance and sustenance of our races.