They'rehere—I canfeelthem: the epistemic spaces of Indigenous and Western Knowledges

Abstract

Indigenous Knowledges (IK) are continually contrasted with Western positivist sciences. Yet the usual conception of IK-as a translatable knowledge about things-renders incomprehensible its discussion as a spiritual or ethical practice. A practice taking place within what we call an epistemic space. A moose hunting event can demonstrate how IK is produced through the epistemic spaces within which hunting is performed. Part of the performance is becoming-animal; as practiced by Koyukon Athabascans, a moose hunt reproduces the social relations between hunter and prey, spiritual relations that demonstrate an ontology and ethics seemingly distinct from those of the Western wildlife sciences founded upon Enlightenment humanism. Yet such 'Western -Indigenous' dichotomies falsely indicate entirely separable spaces within which to produce accounts of reality. Instead, this account of a moose hunt demonstrates an assemblage of actors within one space, who together become more than the authors' individual positions and selves, and becomes an event. We additionally argue that more faithfully representing this assemblage requires changing the form of the usual academic paper. Thus tacking between a narrative and theoretical approach that switches from each of our first-person points of view, we aim to depict how knowledge of one hunting event becomes assembled.

Beyond ritual and economics: Maasai lion hunting and conservation politics

“…Maasai also perceive lions as capable of positive behaviours, such as protecting women and children, and have stories of rewarding such behaviours accordingly (Goldman et al, 2010). This process of humanizing relations with animals may contrast with Western scientific ways of knowing and managing wildlife but has been well documented in the literature on indigenous people (Goldman, 2007;Nadasdy, 2007;Watson & Huntington, 2008), and can offer important insights for wildlife conservation (Nadasdy, 2003).…”

Understanding First Nations rights and perspectives on the use of herbicides in forestry: A case study from northeastern Ontario

“…Not only do First Nations share information in a more oral-aural experiential manner, their traditional knowledge may also be considered at several levels in a knowledge-practice-belief complex (Berkes 2008), making it difficult to pin down a single definition for any given concept (McGregor 2009). This situation contrasts with the western approach where knowledge is represented by facts measureable in time and space within the empirical realm, with spirit and connection disregarded (Watson and Huntington 2008). The challenges of using the contemporary written approach to explain concepts within a traditional First Nations worldview are also exemplified in something seemingly as simple as authorship.…”

“…Admittedly, it can be challenging to use the contemporary written approach to capture and share the perspectives of First Nations people (Murray andRice 1999, Watson andHuntington 2008). Not only do First Nations share information in a more oral-aural experiential manner, their traditional knowledge may also be considered at several levels in a knowledge-practice-belief complex (Berkes 2008), making it difficult to pin down a single definition for any given concept (McGregor 2009).…”

“…The decision is expressed as what perhaps the western materialistic world would mislabel as intuition, but it is more akin to a sixth sense or an identity with "becoming" nature (Ross 2006, Watson andHuntington 2008). In addition, worlds beyond what we experience physically can play a role through, for example, dreams or miteewiwin (Omushkego Cree term for what is loosely captured in the term "shamanism" or perhaps more precisely in the term "medicine society") and the use of the koosaapachikan (Omushkego Cree term for spirit lodge or "shaking tent") (Bird 2005(Bird , 2007Deloria 2006, Atran andMedin 2008).…”

Political ecology of asymmetric ecological knowledges: diverging views on the eucalyptus-water nexus in the Taita Hills, Kenya

“…Trust is hard to build. First, the bureaucrats' distrust of local knowledge as a source of legitimate evidence combined with dominant explanations based on professional knowledge, enhances the superiority of western natural science, a powerful myth which has been criticized and is often unjustified (Agrawal 1995;Watson 2013;Watson and Huntington 2008). This is especially harmful at the context where local peoples' confidence in their own cultural traditions and knowledge is already weakened due to long-term cultural oppression that has led to a general feeling of having 'lost control over both "tradition" and "modernity"' (Smith 2008, 12).…”