Indigenous Knowledge System and Development

Indigenous knowledge is unique to a particular culture and civilization. Indigenous knowledge as potential resource for rural community. Building on local knowledge, the basic component of any country’s information structure, is the first step to assemble such capital. Sharing knowledge with the poor is the most effective when we also solicit knowledge from them about their needs and circumstances. Indigenous knowledge is sometimes used to include the agricultural knowledge of local farmers or settler.

Indigenous knowledge and local knowledge are often used interchangeably. Indigenous knowledge is a long term knowledge. It has the predictability capacity. It has passed from generation to generation throughout human civilizations. They have acquired their knowledge and skills over many generations and have developed sophisticated methods for managing their environment and social relations. The indigenous knowledge is the local people’s knowledge and therefore this knowledge system can be used in resource management, systems of irrigation and drinking water control, appropriate energy development and pasture management.

Indigenous knowledge provides the basis for problem solving strategies for local societies, especially the poor. It represents a significant component of global knowledge on development issues. Indigenous knowledge is an underutilized resource in the development process. Understanding indigenous knowledge can increase receptiveness to consumers. Indigenous knowledge is an imperative part of the survives of the poor. It is an essential part of the local ecology. Indigenous knowledge is the ideal outcome of a successful transfer and dissemination. 

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Local Institutions Building for Sustainable Development

Local institutions are very helpful to organize the disadvantaged and dis-empowered to work for social justice and defensible development. If we reassure and sustenance organizations of local people, it enables them to play an answerable role in development with proper knowledge and utilization of the local resources.

In the community level, community based organizations are formed and developing as a self-governing institutions. They have been intensely functioning to know the goals of sustainable development in the community level by focusing on various ecological managements, monetary growth and community growth works by means of using participatory approaches of development. Local institutions helps to develop the capacity to plan and implement integrated local natural resources management. Local institutions helps to reduce the pressure on natural forests by operating income group deeds, saving and credit systems, private agroforestry systems, community plantation, etc.

Therefore we can say that indigenous people or community based institutions are as old as the community themselves. Indigenous institutions are mostly culture specific. All indigenous institutions are primarily community based and characterized by homogeneity in its composition in terms of ethnic groups. 

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Rural Livelihood Diversity in Developing Countries

Livelihoods are also about creating and embracing new opportunities. A livelihood is considered to consist of the possessions, actions, and privileges that enable people to make a living. Possessions may consist of natural resources, aptitudes, information, assistance, and employment opportunities. It is important to realize that assets are not only natural resources, such as land-living, marine, fisheries, crystals, but they may also include social, political, human, physical and financial dimensions. Actions are things that people do to gain a living and these will usually be based on available assets. Activities may be based on acquired information and assistance, thus education and training has a prominent position in a sustainable livelihoods approach to sustainable development. Information and assistance may also be acquired through traditional, cultural processes. Entitlements refer to those things that people may rely upon because of legal or customary rights. It may include the mutual the mutual support structures that are often included with village life in many different cultures. It brings all relevant aspects of people’s lives and livelihoods into development.

Rural livelihood is defined as the process by which households construct a diverse portfolio of activities and social support capabilities for survival and in order to improve their standard of living. Having alternatives for income generation can make the difference between minimally viable livelihoods and destitution. The diversity of livelihoods is an important feature of rural survival but often overlooked by the architects of strategy. In this sense, diverse living systems are less susceptible than expanded ones. A livelihood is environmentally sustainable when it maintains or enhances the local and global assets in which livings depends. It may include the mutual the mutual support structures that are often included with village life in many different cultures. It brings all relevant aspects of people’s lives and livelihoods into development.

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Culture and Traditions in Development: Ethical Vision and Policy Directions

Traditions is rooted in any culture and it is very difficult to over pass those traditions during implementation of any development projects. Tradition is a part of a culture in society and hence to consider traditions and traditional knowledge while formulating development projects is essential. Traditions guide local people in every aspect of their life. Innovations, means to development, occur in every society, simpler or complex, primitive or advanced. Culture and traditions are major determinants of development. However, every culture and traditions do not help in development. Culture is one of the major factors that influence development.

The fundamental connection between culture and ethics is ethical considerations are product of particular cultures. Cultures fifer from society to society and also within a society. In a society people with different cultures live. So, when we make development projects and report it to the local people, it is difficult to access and predict the type of response our messages and actions will produce because our society is composed with multicultural people. Everyone has dignity and self-respect in their society and culture. Everyone wants some level of dignity, respect and a feeling of worth. It is our contention that an ethical stance gives this respect to every human beings. So, development workers must give worth this respect to every human beings.

All people have right to be equal and equal right to be different. All cultures have some similarities in their cultures. A complete and honest intercultural ethic grants similarities and recognizes differences. Culture essentially is a business of evolving values and norms in a free and open atmosphere. Hence, all groups of people having their own culture are to be integrated in the development process. 

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Culture and Civilization with its Behavioral Aspects

Civilization includes all the materialistic developments of the world which are the products of human advancements. It includes material or concrete things used by human being such as house, household commodities, and different kind of apparatus, instruments, weapons, pots and any means of conveniences. Both civilization and culture are changing but the rate of change of civilization is much faster than culture. Civilization, the comfortable condition of modern society, passes from one society to another easily but culture, the value, attitude and beliefs of a society takes a long time to change. Civilization has precise standard of measurement but not culture. The products of civilization are more easily communicated than those of cultures. Culture and civilization are interdependent to each other.

Behavior of man reflects his culture as culture has great influence in humanoid beings life. Culture includes performance learned intentionally or unintentionally through different formal and informal modes – that exert influence directly or indirectly on the individual in a society. Culture is one particular kind of observable behavior which behavior is the rest of observable behavior. We should study culture in behavior, not in of it. Culture as a constitutive part of development. Culture factors influence economic behavior. Both culture and civilization are man-made. One is for ease and luxury and other is for his pleasure and delight.

Development today does not refer to the economic development, but the overall development of society and its people. People cannot exist in isolation, they live in groups, compete with each other and interact in many ways. There are also different symbols which reflect the development of individuals and civilization. The cryptograms may be different in different civilization but there are different symbols which are used to reflect different aspects of society. Culture can help a country in economic development. The cultural factors influenced by religion are the principle obstacles to modernization. 

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Culture and Development Process in Rural Development

Study of anthropology, as well as development, culture is one of the major dimensions of development. Culture is one of the major branches in anthropology and without considering cultural aspects, no development projects can be successful. Culture and development together studies the role of culture on human beings and their development. This is the study of role of culture on development action of human beings in group and vice versa. Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and prominence. Culture is manifested in melody, fiction, image and statuette, cinema and film and other things.

Most of the human behavior comes from learning and communicating with other socialized being. Human beings acquire some characteristics and become social by associations with other people. Culture may be started as embodiment of customs, traditions, spirits, views, feasts, delusions, organizations, etc. Culture consists of mode of life created by man and includes all the arts and artifacts resulting from symbolic interaction among men. A particular culture consists of the mode of life characteristics of a particular society. Culture is a process and involving culture in development implies the shift from goal oriented planning with open ends and branching goals. 

Culture is an essential dimension of development. The core of culture is a system of knowledge and a set of shared ideas. It catalyze local level development through communities using their diverse social, cultural and economic resources. Diversity strategies of human development and capacity building for knowledge based dynamic societies. It helps to support their cultural norms and values for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Culture includes behavior learned consciously or unconsciously through different formal and informal modes that exert influence directly or indirectly on the individual in a society. Everyone knows that people may specify a norm or rule for proper behavior in particular circumstances in fact not everyone. Every man/society believes that their culture is superior then other’s culture. 

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Development Discourse assemblage with Social Science

There is increasing recognition of social science knowledge in development discourse. In recent times, social science has been significantly observed as a discipline capable of making major contributions to an understanding of what hinders and facilitates the development practice. Prior to that date, there was a prodigious impact of economics in the development programs and policies. There was completely absence of Anthropologists and Sociologist within the development community. Much of past beliefs about the exercise of non-economic social sciences become now out of date or vanishing. Discourse subsume performs and provisions, with very factual possessions. The progression discourse is dynamically interrelated with development practice, affecting the actual design and implementation of projects.

Considering development as discourse has raised important question about the nature of development knowledge and its interface with other representations of reality. Development is just taken as an organizing discourse, Anthropologists views the development discourse as inconstant, and they can service to transmute growth discourse from within. They preach that growth dissertation is liable to change than being monolithic and static. The discourse can be changed and new practices and knowledge can be and are introduced. The discourse is also far more diverse and challenged. Development discourse is fundamental to how the world is represented and controlled by those power and social science has much to say about it.   

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