Indigenous and Western knowledge converge but must be translated into mechanistic language

Evidence

Science and traditional knowledge may ask different questions and speak different languages, but they may converge when both truly listen to the plants. To relate the story the ancestors told us to the academics in the room, however, we needed to use scientific explanations expressed in the language of mechanism and objectification: “If we remove 50 percent of the plant biomass, the stems are released from resource competition. The stimulus of compensatory growth causes an increase in population density and plant vigor. In the absence of disturbance, resource depletion and competition result in a loss of vigor and increased mortality.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 580

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle on translation as the core act of integrative writing — the same finding spoken in two idioms, and which idiom gets heard.
• XREF: Mirrors the Eco-Justice pedagogy braiding method and the polyad’s listening-as-method thread: both knowledge systems must ‘listen to the plants’ before they can converge. — connects to: Indigenous oral records can span centuries beyond Western scientific statistics — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1615; Western botany frames plants as objects while Indigenous science treats them as subjects — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 150; Western science vocabulary defines the boundaries of what it can know — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 176 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Full understanding requires both scientific and indigenous ways of knowing #corroborates (0.92) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 37
• Indigenous languages encoded moss distinctions that English collapses into one word #exemplifies (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 423
• Western ontology and African vitalogy can engage in reciprocal dialogue #exemplifies (0.82)
• Non-Western knowledge systems hold totality and heterogeneity together, not apart #expands (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 619