Akan epistemology holds that wisdom is distributed and never owned

Evidence

Read from the cited source. Read from Rattray, Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales. When Anansi smashed the pot of wisdom (selection 3), the wisdom scattered. This companion tale follows what happened next: people found small bits of wisdom in surprising places — a woman with a hard problem found wisdom in her cooking-pot; a hunter who could not find his prey found wisdom in a bird’s call; a child found wisdom in his grandmother’s smile. The tale closes: ‘No one place has all wisdom. Look everywhere. Listen to everyone. The pot broke on purpose.’ — , A Year of World Stories, 3781

Categorization

• DEFINE: Encapsulates the Akan theory of knowledge as distributed, partial, and democratic.
• XREF: Relates to the reader’s interest in distributed knowledge, breakdown of generalist knowledge, and expert authority. — connects to: Knowledge is paradigmatic and never exists as bare data — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 744; Deep wisdom may lie in maintaining wonder rather than accumulating answers — , A Year of World Stories, 10898

Broader Connections

• Knowledge is paradigmatic and never exists as bare data #corroborates (0.60) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 744
• Deep wisdom may lie in maintaining wonder rather than accumulating answers #qualifies (0.50) — , A Year of World Stories, 10898