Science’s truth monopoly blocks recognition of Indigenous knowledge

Evidence

Getting scientists to consider the validity of indigenous knowledge is like swimming upstream in cold, cold water. They’ve been so conditioned to be skeptical of even the hardest of hard data that bending their minds toward theories that are verified without the expected graphs or equations is tough. Couple that with the unblinking assumption that science has cornered the market on truth and there’s not much room for discussion. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 558

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ch10’s theme that Western botany frames plants as objects while Indigenous science treats them as subjects — the epistemological exclusion traces back to this framing choice. — connects to: Ecojustice educators must honor indigenous knowledges without appropriating or speaking for them — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1568; Accusations of romanticizing can mask a refusal to credit Indigenous ecological knowledge. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1581; Indigenous oral records can span centuries beyond Western scientific statistics — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1615 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Full understanding requires both scientific and indigenous ways of knowing #contradicts (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 37
• Indigenous and Western knowledge converge but must be translated into mechanistic language #contradicts (0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 580
• Monopoly over knowledge means controlling the paradigm, not just data #expands (0.80) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 743
• The truth of ideas is independent of their social origins #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 210