science and indigenous knowledge
“Science: a body of knowledge based on facts led by systematic experimentation, and analysis, and the formulation of general principles” (Geddes and Grosset, 2007) vs. “Indigenous knowledge: is an area of study that focuses on the ways of knowing, seeing, and thinking that are passed down orally from generation to generation” (Geddes and Grosset, 2007). Science and indigenous knowledge for me are two nouns that seem to mean the same thing but putting the two definitions next to each other, it’s remarkable that they’re genuinely two different things and how did I say so? Well, that is in terms of how ideas are formulated, how factual the knowledge itself is and what is the role of religion there.
1) SYSTEM OF FORMULATING IDEAS / PRINCIPLES
a) In terms of Science – “The Law of Conservation of Energy”, “Kinetic Molecular Theory”, “The Laws of Motion”… these are just three of the multitude of scientific laws we contemplate about here in Science. They may all sound casual to us since they’ve been taught since Elementary but I tell you, these should not be just taken for granted because the scientists who “discovered” them went through long nights of tedious works before these works become ubiquitously accepted and taught scientific laws. The “Scientific Method” for instance is a systematized procedure done by the scientists to study those works
b) In terms of Indigenous Knowledge – There’s no scrupulous system of formulating ideas for ideas people know are just technically acquired through experiences or based on tradition, they even have “superstitions”.
For instance, you knew that when you drop something downwards it will fall to the ground. How do you knew? Because you’ve dropped things before and those things did fall to the ground and that’s how you knew it. That’s indigenous knowledge, it’s gained through experiences. But to use Science to explain the reason behind it is Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, and it’s not the type gained just by experiences.
1) SYSTEM OF FORMULATING IDEAS / PRINCIPLES
a) In terms of Science – “The Law of Conservation of Energy”, “Kinetic Molecular Theory”, “The Laws of Motion”… these are just three of the multitude of scientific laws we contemplate about here in Science. They may all sound casual to us since they’ve been taught since Elementary but I tell you, these should not be just taken for granted because the scientists who “discovered” them went through long nights of tedious works before these works become ubiquitously accepted and taught scientific laws. The “Scientific Method” for instance is a systematized procedure done by the scientists to study those works
b) In terms of Indigenous Knowledge – There’s no scrupulous system of formulating ideas for ideas people know are just technically acquired through experiences or based on tradition, they even have “superstitions”.
For instance, you knew that when you drop something downwards it will fall to the ground. How do you knew? Because you’ve dropped things before and those things did fall to the ground and that’s how you knew it. That’s indigenous knowledge, it’s gained through experiences. But to use Science to explain the reason behind it is Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, and it’s not the type gained just by experiences.