The Words We Use and The Worlds We Build

Abstract

The Words We Use and The Worlds We Build

Ethnobiology Phase VI: Decolonizing Institutions, Projects, and Scholarship

“…One step toward decolonizing ethnobiology scholarship is awareness of the language used when writing about work with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. In the influential book Pedagogy of the Oppressed , Freire (1970) stated that language is never neutral; it is crucial that ethnobiologists look for ways to avoid diminishing, overgeneralizing, or exoticizing Indigenous peoples and their knowledge systems (Alves and Albuquerque 2010; Duncan 2018; McClatchey 2005). For example, “discovering Indigenous uses” or “lost plants” can imply that knowledge does not exist if it is not published in an academic venue, even if it is well-known to the source communities.…”