PUTTING FIRST THINGS FIRST: WHY IT’S ABOUT INTEGRATING WESTERN SCIENCE INTO TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND

There are two reasons for putting first things first: most importantly, to contest claims to cultural supremacy; and to delineate the boundaries between traditional knowledge systems and mainstream science that define those liminal spaces of transformation between those two states.

Liminal spaces are places of ambiguity and uncertainty, of anxiety and hope, as both tribal and mainstream scientists are suspended in what Victor M. Turner has called the “betwixt and between.” But if those liminal spaces are to be seen as interstitial passageways between fixed states that present opportunities for scientific synthesis and hybridity (without assuming or imposing hierarchy), this presentation argues that the ambiguity and uncertainty must be shared by both indigenous and mainstream scientists.

The presentation will demonstrate, that to a large degree, liminality imposes a much heavier burden on the indigenous scientists because, in the main, their place in traditional knowledge systems is often more ill-defined than is their place in mainstream science. For the indigenous scientist, liminality is thus a personal as well as an institutional challenge.

Accordingly, to negotiate those interstitial passageways between traditional knowledge systems and mainstream science, the indigenous scientists must not only know from whence they came and where they are going, they must also build or enhance those tribal systems that can integrate the knowledge produced in those liminal spaces while simultaneously building the tribal systems that establish the indicia by which their authority to navigate those liminal spaces on behalf of the tribe is accorded and recognized. The challenge for scientific research institutions and agencies then, is to move beyond STEM, diversity, professional development programs and find ways to help build or enhance the tribal systems and institutions that can integrate the knowledge produced in those liminal spaces. The presentation suggests means by which these challenges can be met.