Cultural Dimension of Development : Indigenous knowledge systems

After nearly fifty years of international development, increasing attention is being paid to the potential of indigenous knowledge, which is usually considered in relation to one particular domain - agriculture, forestry, health, veterinary science etc.

This volume includes forty-six papers, from a wide variety of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, geography, agricultural sciences and others.

Contributors come from academia and from international organisations.

There are twenty-seven case studies and six general conceptual papers.

The main conclusions from this impressive array of expertise is that local people do know a great deal about their environment, in which they have often lived for generations; and this knowledge must be taken into account in the planning and implementation of development, if this is to be acceptable to the people, and effective.

These essays provide powerful evidence in support of these two propositions.