Anthropology of Knowledge

Crick, Malcolm

doi:10.1146/annurev.an.11.100182.001443

Cited by 69 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…Through many journals, collected from multiple journalists in a wide variety of situations, we witness cultural understandings evolving, tacking back and forth, sometimes folding back on themselves or breaking down in confusionbut over time, even in the course of a single discussion, collective definitions have shifted. This observation is in agreement with the insights put forward by anthropologists and sociologists of science, who point out that knowledge is always partial, plural, and provisional, but that at any given moment there is agreement about some things (Schutz 1964;Crick 1982;Lambek 1993;Schmaus 1984;Longino 2002). At least in our setting, rural Malawi, and about an important issue like AIDS, which is problematic, frightening, salient, and challenging, people are not passive.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Hearsay Ethnography: A Method for Learning About Responses to Health Interventions

Watkins

Swidler²,

Biruk³

2010

Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Hearsay Ethnography: A Method for Learning About Responses to Health Interventions

Watkins

Swidler²,

Biruk³

2010

Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing

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“…Anthropologists insist that knowledge is fluid; they seek to understand how knowledge changes and what factors mediate that process [24, 25]. When culture is defined as ‘shared knowledge’ [26–30], knowledge, like culture, can be viewed as adaptive: “It seems likely that the range of diversity in individual versions of the ‘common’ culture is not simply a social imperfection, but an adaptive necessity: a crucial resource that can be drawn on and selected from in cultural change” [31], p.88). These approaches to knowledge would suggest that local knowledge is often highly functional, ensuring individual and community well-being [32, 33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The determinants of dietary diversity and nutrition: ethnonutrition knowledge of local people in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

Powell

Kerr

Young

et al. 2017

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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BackgroundDiet and nutrition-related behaviours are embedded in cultural and environmental contexts: adoption of new knowledge depends on how easily it can be integrated into existing knowledge systems. As dietary diversity promotion becomes an increasingly common component of nutrition education, understanding local nutrition knowledge systems and local concepts about dietary diversity is essential to formulate efficient messages.MethodsThis paper draws on in-depth qualitative ethnographic research conducted in small-scale agricultural communities in Tanzania. Data were collected using interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation in the East Usambara Mountains, an area that is home primarily to the Shambaa and Bondei ethnic groups, but has a long history of ethnic diversity and ethnic intermixing.ResultsThe data showed a high degree of consensus among participants who reported that dietary diversity is important because it maintains and enhances appetite across days, months and seasons. Local people reported that sufficient cash resources, agrobiodiversity, heterogeneity within the landscape, and livelihood diversity all supported their ability to consume a varied diet and achieve good nutritional status. Other variables affecting diet and dietary diversity included seasonality, household size, and gender.ConclusionsThe results suggest that dietary diversity was perceived as something all people, both rich and poor, could achieve. There was significant overlap between local and scientific understandings of dietary diversity, suggesting that novel information on the importance of dietary diversity promoted through education will likely be easily integrated into the existing knowledge systems.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13002-017-0150-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…A deep philosophical interrogation of what it means for human beings to 'know' is well beyond the objectives of this paper, and more detailed anthropological discussions of knowledge exist elsewhere (Crick 1982;Cohen 2010). However it is important to note some key elements of knowledge and knowledge making as they pertain to this analysis, and the points below act as signposts of the broader context to the more detailed discussion of knowledge making and modelling which follows.…”

Section: Knowledgementioning

confidence: 97%

‘Knowledge Making’: Issues in Modelling Local and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge

Barber

Jackson

2015

Hum Ecol

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Modelling, particularly computer-based modelling, is increasingly used in political, managerial, and scientific contexts to enable and justify decisions. Technocratic decision makers also aspire to understand and incorporate local knowledge, albeit at times only superficially. We analyse one consequence of this situationongoing attempts to formalise, synthesize and integrate local and/or indigenous knowledge into models. Field experience of knowledge projects with Indigenous Australians underpins our analysis, but we primarily discuss a priori and general issues: the political and ethical context of such projects; knowledge making as terminology; key characteristics of (scientific) models; local capacity, participation, and representation; and examples of computer-based tools for knowledge representation. Such formal abstractions will always be controversial, but demand for them seems likely to continue. To improve interdisciplinary understanding of what might be entailed by genuine attempts to meet that demand, our paper provides signposts to and analysis of important features of local ecological knowledge modelling.

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Anthropology of Knowledge

Cited by 69 publications

References 85 publications

Hearsay Ethnography: A Method for Learning About Responses to Health Interventions

Hearsay Ethnography: A Method for Learning About Responses to Health Interventions

The determinants of dietary diversity and nutrition: ethnonutrition knowledge of local people in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

‘Knowledge Making’: Issues in Modelling Local and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge

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