Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge

This book presents theoretical and methodical discussions on local knowledge and indigenous knowledge. It examines educational attainment of ethnic minorities, race and politics in educational systems, and the problem of losing indigenous knowledge. It comprises a broad range of case studies about specifics of local knowledge from several regions of the world, reflecting the interdependence of norms, tradition, ethnic and cultural identities, and knowledge. The contributors explore gaps between knowledge and agency, address questions of the social distribution of knowledge, consider its relation to communal activities, and inquire into the relation and intersection of knowledge assemblages at local, national, and global scales. The book highlights the relevance of local and indigenous knowledge and discusses implications for educational and developmental politics. It provides ideas and a cross-disciplinary scientific background for scholars, students, and professionals including NGO activists, and policy-makers.

Offers a unique perspective on the cultural and ethnical dimensions of knowledge generation from an interdisciplinary perspective

1. Cultural and Ethnic Dimensions of Knowledge: An Introduction.- 2. The School System as an Arena of Ethnic Conflicts.- 3. Race, Politics, and Geography in the Development of Public Schools in the Southern United States.- 4. Spatial Traditions of Knowledge and Education-Ethnic Groups in the United States Reconsidered.- 5. Educational Inequalities Reflecting Sociocultural and Geographical Embeddedness?-Exploring the Place of Hispanics and Hispanic Cultures in Higher Education and Research Institutions in New Mexico, the United States.- 6. Local Cultural Resource Knowledge, Identity, Representation, Schooling, and Education in Euro-Canadian Contexts.- 7. The Knowing in Indigenous Knowledge: Alternative Ways to View Development, Largely from a New Guinea Highlands' Perspective.- 8. Local Knowledge as a Universal Social Product: A General Model and a Case from Southeast Asia.- 9. Local Knowledge and Global Concerns: Artificial Glaciers as a Focus of Environmental Knowledge and Development Interventions.- 10. Political Economy, Power, and the Erasure of Pastoralist Indigenous Knowledge in the Maghreb and Afghanistan.- 11."Masawa-bogeokwa si tuta!": Cultural and Cognitive Implications of the Trobriand Islanders' Gradually Lossof Their Knowledge of How to Make aMasawaCanoe.- 12. Beyond Merry-Making: Customs of Indigenous Peoples and the Normative Functions of Ceremonies in Precolonial Igbo Societies.- 13 Knowledge, Behavior, and Culture: HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.