K

related to the Siddhānta-Tattvaviveka, one a regular Kamala¯kara commentary on the work, called Tattvavivekodāharan. a, and the other a supplement to that work, called Śes.āvasanā, in which he supplied elucidations and new K. V. SARMA material for a proper understanding of his main work. He held the Sūryasiddhānta in great esteem and also wrote a Kamalākara was one of the most erudite and forward- commentary on that work. looking Indian astronomers who flourished in Varanasi Kamalākara was a critic of Bhāskara and his during the seventeenth century. Belonging to Mahar- Siddhāntaśiroman. i, and an arch-rival of Munīśvara, a ashtrian stock, and born in about 1610, Kamalākara close follower of Bhāskara. This rivalry erupted into came from a long unbroken line of astronomers, bitter critiques on the astronomical front. Thus Ranga- originally settled at the village of Godā on the northern nātha, younger brother of Kamalākara, wrote, at the . banks of the river Godāvarī. Towards AD 1500, the insistence of the latter, a critique on Munīśvara’s Bhangī family migrated to Varanasi and came to be regarded as method (winding method) of true planets, entitled . . . reputed astronomers and astrologers. Kamalākara Bhangī-vibhangī (Defacement of the Bhangi), to which . studied traditional Hindu astronomy under his elder Munīśvara replied with a Khand.ana (Counter). Munīś- brother Divākara, but extended the range of his studies vara attacked the theory of precession advocated by to Islamic astronomy, particularly to the school of Kamalākara, and Ranganātha refuted the criticisms of his Ulugh Beg of Samarkand. He also studied Greek brother in his Loha-gola-khan. d.ana (Counter to the Iron astronomy in Arabic and Persian translations, particu- Sphere). That in turn was refuted by Munīśvara’scousin larly with reference to the elements of physics from Gadādhara in his Loha-gola-samarthana (Justification Aristotle, geometry from Euclid, and astronomy from of the Iron Sphere). These kinds of astronomical and Ptolemy. He wrote both original treatises and commen- intellectual battles were typical of the philosophical and taries on his own works and those of others. religious disputes which were common in ancient India. Kamalākara’s most important work is the Siddhānta- Tattvaviveka, written in AD 1658. The work which is See also: ▶Astronomy in India, ▶Ulugh Beg, divided into 15 chapters and contains over 3,000 ▶Astronomy in the Islamic World, ▶Sūryasiddhāntha, verses, faithfully follows the Sūryasiddhānta in the ▶Precession of the Equinoxes ▶Bhāskara, ▶Munīś- matter of parameters, general theories, and astronomi- vara cal computation. However, in certain matters Kamalā- kara made original contributions and offered new ideas. Though he accepted the planetary parameters of References Sūryasiddhānta, he agreed with Ptolemaic notions in Dikshit, S. B. Bhāratiya Jyotish Sastra (History of Indian the matter of the planetary system. He presented Astronomy). Trans. by R. V. Vaidya. Pt. II. History of geometrical optics, and was perhaps the only traditional Astronomy During the Scientific and Modern Periods. author to do so. He described the quadrant and its Calcutta: Positional Astronomy Centre, India Meteorologi- application. He proposed a new Prime Meridian, which cal Department, 1981. . is the longitude passing through an imaginary city Dvivedi, Sudhakara. Gan. aka Tarangin. i: Lives of Hindu called Khalādātta, and provided a table of latitudes Astronomers. Benares: Jyotish Prakash Press, 1933. ā and longitudes for 20 important cities, in and outside Loha-gola-khan. d.ana of Rangan tha and Loha-gola- samarthana by Gadādhara. Ed. Mithalala Himmatarama India, on this basis. Kamalākara was an ardent advo- Ojha. Varanasi: Sañcālaka, Anusandhāna Sam. sthāna, 1963. cate of the precession of the equinoxes and argued Pingree, David. Jyotih. śāstra–Astral and Mathematical Liter- that the pole star also does not remain fixed, on account ature. Vol. VI, fasc. 4 of A History of Indian Literature. Ed. of precession. Kamalākara wrote two other works Jan Gonda. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1981. 1160 Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics

Siddhānta-Tattvaviveka. A Treatise on Astronomy by Bhat.t.a Venvāroha and Sphut.acandrāpti both contain an Kamalākara, with Śes.avāsanā by the same author. Ed. efficient computational procedure to calculate the true Sudhakara Dube. Benares: Benares Sanskrit Series, 5 vols. – longitude of the Moon every 36 min. Those books and 1880 1885: Revised by Muralidhara Jha, Benares: Krishna ā Das Gupta for Braj Bhusan Das & Co, 1924–1935. Agan. itagrahac ra are conceptually not major works. However all the later astronomer–mathematicians from Kerala attribute the path-breaking results in the infinite series for the inverse-tangent, sine and cosine functions Kerala School of Astronomy and many innovations in astronomical calculations to him. He is also hailed as Golavid (master of Spherics). and Mathematics Parameśvara of Vatasseri (AD 1360–1455), a student of Mādhava, was a prolific writer, authoring about 30 works. Emphasising the need for revising the M. S. SRIRAM planetary parameters through observations, he thor- oughly revised the Parahita system and introduced the After Bhāskara II (b. AD 1114), the most significant Dr. ggan. ita system. Apart from Dr. ggan. ita, the other contributions to mathematics and astronomy in India important works of Parameśvara are Goladīpikā came from Kerala, in the southwestern part of India. in three parts, Bhat.adīpika, a commentary on Kerala has had a continuous tradition of astronomy and Āryabhat.īya, Mahābhāskarīyabhasya and Siddhānta- mathematics from much earlier times. Sarma has listed dīpikā, a super-commentary on Govindaswamin’s nearly 750 independent works on astronomy, astrology Mahābhāskarīyabhās.ya, and Grahan. aman. dana on and mathematics including minor works by 110 authors eclipses. He was one of the astronomers to discuss in in the Kerala tradition. detail the geometrical model of planetary motion Vararuci (date unconfirmed), who is credited with the implied in the conventional calculational procedures authorship of 248 Candravākyas (sentences for compu- in Indian astronomy in his Siddhāntadīpikā and tation of the moon’s longitude) by the manuscript Goladīpikā. tradition, is considered to be the father figure in the No full-fledged work of Dāmodara, son and disciple astronomical tradition of Kerala. Āryabhat.īya (ca. AD of Parameśvara is known, but he is quoted at several 499) of Āryabhat.a which set the tone for all further work places by his famous pupil, Nīlakan.t.ha Somayāji or on mathematical astronomy in India, appears to have Somasutvan (AD 1445–1545) of Trkkantiyur. Nīlakan- . .. . become popular in Kerala soon after its composition. In t.ha’s Tantrasangraha ranks along with Āryabhat.īya of fact, out of the 20 or so available commentaries on Āryabhat.aandSiddhāntaśiroman. i of Bhākaracārya as Āryabhatīya, as many as 12 are from Kerala. The one of the major works which significantly influenced all . . astronomical parameters in Āryabhat.īya were revised by further work on astronomy in India. In Tantrasangraha, a group of astronomers who had gathered in the religio- Nīlakan.t.ha introduced a major revision of the traditional educational centre of Tirunavay in northern Kerala in AD Indian planetary model. There are also important 683–684. Haridatta in his Grahacāranibandhana enun- innovations in mathematical techniques especially ciated the revised system called Parahita-gan. ita.Many related to the series expansion of the trigonometric later works refer to the Parahita system. functions and systematic and exact treatment of spherical Laghubhāskarīya and Mahābhāskarīya of Bhāskara I, astronomy problems. . which expounded the Āryabhat.an school in detail, In addition to Tantrasangraha,Nīlakan.t.ha composed were also popular in Kerala. Govindasvāmin (AD 800– many other works. Āryabhat.īyabhās.ya, composed late 850) wrote an elaborate commentary on Mahābhāskar- in his life, is perhaps the most elaborate commentary on . īya and his student Śankaranārāyan.a (AD 825–900) Āryabhat.īya. He himself calls it a Mahābhās.ya (from wrote one on Laghubhāskarīya. Udayadivākara (elev- mahā, great and bhās.ya, commentary), which is amply enth century), who wrote a detailed commentary titled justified considering the wealth of information in it. Sundarī on Laghubhāskarīya, also probably hailed Apart from the detailed explanation of mathematical from Kerala. This work contains a method for solving results and procedures, it discuses the geometrical quadratic indeterminate equations or Varga – prakr. ti model of planetary motion, eclipses, and even some and ascribes it to Jayadeva. It is in fact the same as the “physical” concepts like the planets’ being illuminated famous Cakravāla algorithm, expounded in detail later by the Sun. Some of his other major works are by Bhāskara II in his Bījagan. ita. Suryadeva Yajvan Golasāra on spherical astronomy, Siddhānta-darpan. a, (AD 1191–1250) wrote detailed commentaries on both in which he presents the planetary parameters as Āryabhat.īya and Laghumānasa of Manjulācarya. verified through his own observations, Candracchāyā- The Kerala tradition entered a new phase with ganita on ‘shadow’ problems, and Grahananirnaya on . . . . Mādhava of Sangamagrāma (AD 1340–1425). His lunar and solar eclipses. Jyotīrmīmāmsā of Nīlakan.t.ha Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics 1161 has a unique place in the history of Indian astronomy, mayāji’s (AD 1660–1740) Karan. apaddhati provides as it is the only work which focuses on epistemological rationale for astronomical algorithms. Sadratnamālā of . issues concerning the science of astronomy and Prince Śankara Varman (AD 1800–1838) is a compen- mathematics. It falsifies the claim of many scholars dium of the Kerala school of mathematics and that Indian astronomy, in contrast to the Greek astronomy. The tradition continued up to modern times tradition, did not have a scientific methodology worth with works incorporating some of the results of modern the name. It strongly emphasises the role of observa- positional astronomy. tions and experimentation in revising astronomical Apart from these major works, there are several short parameters. Sundararāja, a contemporary of Nīlakan.t.ha texts which interpret and discuss specific formulae and hailing from Tamilnadu, sought clarifications on many procedures associated with specific topics. These texts topics in astronomy from Nīlakan.t.ha, the answers to have the words Yukti or nyāya (rationale) attached to their whichformedtheworkSundararāja-praśnottara, as titles. Examples are Grahan. a-nyāya-dīpikā on the com- stated by Sundarāja himself in his Vākyakaran. a. putation of eclipses by Parameśvara and Gan. ita-yuktayah. Clearly, it is a work different in nature from texts and by an anonymous author. There are also a large number of commentaries. The manuscripts pertaining to this work works devoted to astrology. Many of them are in the have yet to be traced. Kerala tradition but by non-Keralite authors. Jyeśt.hadeva (ca. AD 1500–1610) of the Parakroda There is great emphasis on observation in the Kerala or Paron. n. ot.t.u family, was also initially a pupil of school. In his Siddhāntadīpikā, Parameśvara refers to Dāmodara and received instructions from Nīlakan.t.ha the numerous eclipses observed by him over a long Somayāji later. In his Gan. ita-Yuktibhās.ā (Rationale of period. In his Āryabhat.īyabhās.ya, Nîlakan.t.ha observes Mathematics and Astronomy), popularly known as that Parameśvara revised the planetary parameters in Yuktibhās.ā composed around AD 1530, we see an his Dr. ggan. ita after observing eclipses and planetary elaborate and systematic exposition of the rationale of occultations for 55 years. In his Jyotirmīmāmsā he mathematics in Part I and of astronomy in Part II. Though argues: . K it claims to explain the contents of Tantrasangraha and provide the rationale for the calculational procedures in it, One has to realise that the five siddhāntas had it is really an independent work (especially part I). It is a been correct at a particular time. Therefore, one unique work in Indian astronomy/mathematics for two should search for a siddhānta that does not show reasons (1) it is exclusively devoted to proofs and discord with actual observations (at the present demonstrations, including the infinite series for π and time). Such accordance with observation has to be trigonometric functions, and explanations for all astro- ascertained by (astronomical) observers during nomical calculational procedures current at that time and times of eclipses etc. When siddhāntas show (2) it is written in Malayalam, the local language of discord, that is, when an earlier siddhānta is in Kerala. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the title of discord, observations should be made of revolutions the book, Yuktibhās.ā (the language which is spoken is etc. (which would give results in accord with actual called Bhās.ā). A Sanskrit version of the text is also observations) and a new siddhānta enunciated. available, but it is clearly a rough translation into Sanskrit . of the Malayalam original. Śankara Vārier of Trikkutaveli (AD 1500–1560) was a disciple of Nīlakan.t.ha Somayāji, Major Contributions and as he himself stated, was also deeply influenced by Astronomy . Jyeśthadeva. He is the author of two commentaries on In his Tantrasangraha,Nīlakantha introduced a major . . .. Tantrasangraha,namelyLaghuvivritti (in prose), and a revision of the traditional Indian planetary model. He far more elaborate Yuktidīpikā (in verse). He is also the arrived at a unified theory of planetary latitudes and a author of a major portion of the commentary on Līlāvatī better formulation of the equation of centre for interior called Kriyākramakarī which was completed by Mahi- planets (Mercury and Venus) than was available, either samangalam Nārāyan.a. Yuktidīpikā and Kriyākramakarī in the earlier Indian works, or in the Islamic or European are also devoted to proofs and demonstrations, and there traditions of astronomy until the work of Kepler. In his are similarities between the treatment of various topics in other works Golasāra, Siddhāntadarpan. a and them and in Yuktibhās.ā. Āryabhat.īya bhās.ya,Nīlakan.t.ha outlined the geometri- Citrabhānu (AD 1475–1550), the author of cal picture of planetary motion that follows from his Karan. āmrta was also a disciple of Nīlakan.t.ha, whereas model. According to this picture, the five planets Acyuta Piśarat.i (AD 1550–1621) of Trkkan.tiyūr was a Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn move in student of Jyeśt.hadeva. It was Acyuta who discussed eccentric orbits inclined to the ecliptic around the mean the “Reduction to ecliptic” in detail in his Sphutanir- Sun, which in turn goes around the earth. This is similar n. ayatantra and Rāśigolasphutāniti. Putumana So- to the model of Tycho Brahe (AD 1583). Nīlakan.t.ha’s 1162 Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics

Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics. Fig. 1 Nīlakan.t.ha’s geometrical model of planetary motion for (a) an exterior planet, and (b) an interior planet. In each case, M, which is in the direction of the aphelion (the point in the orbit of a planet, comet or other celestial body that is farthest from the Sun), is the centre of the eccentric orbit.

“heliocentric” planetary model is depicted in the Kniyākramakarī), and the sine and cosine functions accompanying figure (Fig. 1). (Yuktibhās.ā, Yuktidīpikā). In modern terminology: The discussion on physical distances of planets in 3 5 . x x the last chapter of Tantrasangraha indicates that Tan 1 x ¼ x þ þ; 3 5 Nīlakan.t.ha meant it to be a physical model. Para- meśvara anticipated many of the ideas of Nīlakantha 3 5 .. Sin ¼ þ þ; regarding the geometrical picture of planetary motion 3! 5! in some of his works. The model is discussed in detail 2 4 in Yuktibhāsā also. Cos ¼ 1 þ þ: . . ! ! In Tantrasangraha, we have a discussion of the 2 4 instantaneous velocities of planets, including the ā correct expression for the derivative of the inverse – As noted earlier, these are all ascribed to M dhava. sine function. There is a systematic treatment of Geometrical proofs for the above are to be found in ā ā spherical astronomy problems with exact spherical Yuktibh s. . When x = 1, the inverse tangent series trigonometry formulae and with applications to the reduces to determination of time from the shadow, Lagna (orient C 1 1 ¼ ¼ 1 þ ; ecliptic point), eclipses, exact angular separation 4D 4 3 5 between the centres of the solar and lunar disks, and elevation of lunar cusps. There is emphasis on methods where C and D are the circumference and diameter of rather than mere computational algorithms, in contrast a circle. with the other Tantra texts in Indian astronomy. All the Earlier, Nīlakan.t.ha had noted the irrational character spherical astronomy results are proved in detail in of π in his Āryabhat.īya bhās.ya. Yuktibhās.ā. The above series for π is slowly convergent. A The Moon moves in an orbit inclined to the ecliptic, systematic procedure to calculate π with a finite and as noted earlier, Acyuta Piśarat.i provided the number of terms and a suitable “remainder” or expression for the correction to the orbital longitude of “correction” term is discussed in Yuktibhās.ā with the the Moon to reduce it to the ecliptic. Interestingly, final result: – Tycho Brahe (AD 1546 1601) who discussed the 2 1 1 n þ 1 “reduction to the ecliptic” for the first time in the ¼ 1 þþð1Þn 1 þð1Þn : ð 3 þ Þ European tradition, was a contemporary of Acyuta. 4 3 2n 1 4n 5n

Mathematics When n = 50, this leads to a value of π correct to The crowning achievements of the Kerala school in 11 decimal places. In Sadratnamālā (AD 1823) of . mathematics are the infinite series expansion of the Śankara Varma, the value of π is given as inverse-tangent function (Yuktibhās.ā, Yuktidīpikā and 3.14159265358979324, which is correct to 17 decimal Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics 1163 places. This value was probably obtained using the Āryabhat.īya with the Commentary Bhatadīpikā of Para- same procedure, with the correction term evaluated to a mādiśvara. Trans. Ed. H. Kern, Leiden. 2nd edn. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers, 1990. higher degree of accuracy. ā ā ī ā ā π Candracch y gan. ita of N lakantha Som y ji.Trans.Ed. It is possible to obtain a fast convergent series for K. V. Sarma. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute, by incorporating the correction terms from the 1976. beginning itself. Two of the fast convergent series for Drggan. ita of Parameśvara. Ed. K. V. Sarma. Hoshiarpur: π mentioned in Yuktibhās.ā in this context are Vishveshvaranand Institute, 1963. 1 1 1 1 Gan. ita yuktayah. Ed. K. V. Sarma. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvar- ¼ þ þ; anand Institute, 1977. 5 5 5 5 16 1 þ 4:1 3 þ 4:3 5 þ 4:5 7 þ 4:7 Gan. ita-Yuktibhās.ā. Trans. Ed. K. V. Sarma. and with 3 1 1 1 explanatory notes by K. Ramasubramanian, M. D. ¼ þ þ : Srinivas, and M. S. Sriram. 3 vols. Shimla: Indian Institute 4 4 33 3 53 5 73 7 of Advanced Study, 2005 (in press). Goladīpikā of Parameśvara, with Autocommentary. Trans. Use of the sine-series to compute the sine of an K. V. Sarma. Madras: Adyar Library and Research Centre, arbitrary angle to a high degree of accuracy with the aid 1957. ā ī ā of simple mnemonics is found in Yuktdīpikā. Golas ra of N lkantha Somay ji. Trans. K. V. Sarma. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute, 1970. The differential of the sine (cosine) function is Grahacārambandhana, a Parahita Manual by Haridatta. Ed. proportional to the cosine (sine) function. These K. V. Sarma. Madras: Kuppuswami Sastri Research differentials are used with confidence in various applica- . Institute, 1954. tions to problems in astronomy in Tantrasangraha and Grahanamandana of Parameśvara. Trans. K. V. Sarma. Yuktibhās.ā. The correct expression for the differential of Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute, 1965. the ratio of two functions involving sine/cosine functions Grahananyāyadīpikā of Parameśvara. Trans. K. V. Sarma. is given in Acyuta’s Sphutanirnayatantra. Integration Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute, 1966. . Jyotirmīmāmsa of Nīlkantha Somayāji. Ed. K. V. Sarma. procedures to calculate the area and volume of a sphere Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute, 1977. K are also given in Yuktibhās.ā. The area and circumradius of Karanapaddhati of Putumana Somayāji. Ed. P. K. Koru. a cyclic quadrilateral in terms of the sides are some of the Cherp, Kerala: Astro Press, 1953. . other topics discussed in Yuktibhās.ā. Laghubhāskarīya with the Commentary by Śankaranārāyana. Another characteristic feature of Kerala mathematics Ed. P. K. Narayana Pillai. Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, 162, 1949. is the geometrical demonstration of many algebraic and . Līlāvatī of Bhāskarācārya with Kriyākramakarī of Śankara arithmetical results. Multiplication, division, squaring, ā ā ā ā and N r yana. Ed. K. V. Sarma. Hoshiarpur: Vishvesh- etc. are all illustrated geometrically in Yuktibh s. . An waranand Institute, 1975. advanced example is the geometrical proof of Mahabhāskarīyam with Govindaswamin’sVyākhyā and Siddhāntadīpikā of Parameśvara. Ed. T. S. Kuppanna n2ðn þ 1Þ2 13 þ 23 þþn3 ¼ Sastri. Madras Government Oriental Series, No. 130, 1957. 4 Raśigolasphutāniti According to Acyuta. Trans. K. V. Sarma. ’ Ā ī ā Hoshiarpur: Vishveshwaranand Institute, 1977. in Nilakan.t.ha s ryabhat. yabh s.ya. Sarma, K. V. A Bibliography of Kerala and Kerala-based astronomy and astrology, Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand See also: ▶Nyāya Institute, 1972. Siddhāntadarpana. Trans. K. V. Sarma. Hoshiarpur: Vish- veshwaranand Institute, 1977. References Siddhāntaśiromani of Bhāskaracārya. Ed. Muralidhara Chaturvedi. Varanasi: Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Primary Sources 1981. Āryabhat.īya of Āryabhat.a. Trans. Ed. K. S. Shukla and K. V. SphutacandrāptiofMādhava. Trans. K. V. Sarma. Hoshiarpur: Sarma. New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, Vishveshwaranand Institute, 1973. 1976. Sphutanirn. ayatantra of Acyuta. Ed. K. V. Sarma. Hoshiarpur: Ā ī ā ī Vishveshwaranand Institute, 1974. ryabhat. ya with the Bh sya of N lakan. t.ha Somasutvan, . Part I Gan. ita pāda. Trans. Ed. K. Sāmbaśiva Śāstri. Tantrasangraha of Nīlakantha Somasutvan with the Com- Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, 101. Trivandrum: Govern- mentary Laghuvivritti of Vārier. Ed. S. K. Pillai. Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, 188, 1958. ment of Travancore, 1930. . Ā ī ā ī Tantrasangraha of Nīlakantha with the Commentaries ryabhat. ya with the Bh sya of N lakantha Somasutvan, Part . II Kalakriyāpāda. Trans. Ed. K. Sāmbaśiva Śāstri. Yuktidīpikā and Laghuvivritti of Śankara. Ed. K. V. Sarma. Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, 110. Trivandrum: Govern- Hoshiarpur: Vishveshwaranand Institute, 1977. ment of Travancore, 1931. Vakyākarana. Ed. T. S. Kuppanna Śastri and K. V. Sarma. Āryabhat.īya with the Bhāsya of Nīlakantha Somasutvan, Part Madras: Kuppuswamy Sastri Research Institute, 1964. III Golapāda. Trans. Ed. S. K. Pillai. Trivandrum Sanskrit Venvāroha of Mādhava of Sangamagrama. Ed. K. V. Sarma. Series, 185. Trivandrum: University of Kerala, 1957. Tripunitira: Sanskrit College, 1956. 1164 Kitora burial mound

Yuktibhās.ā (Part I). Ed. H. H. Ramavarma (Maru) Tampuran progress and might yield changes in details, readers are and A. R. Akhileswara Iyer (with notes in Malayalam). directed to the asterisked websites in the references for Thrissur: Mangalodayam Ltd, 1948. photographs, taken from small cameras which were inserted into the tomb, and related illustrations. Secondary Sources Bag, A. K. Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India. Delhi: Chowkhambha Orientalia, 1979. Balachandra Rao, S. Indian Mathematics and Astronomy, The Mound and the Tomb Some Landmarks. Rev. 3rd ed. Bangalore: Bharatiya Vidya Kitora’s date of ca. 700 makesit a rather late burialmound Bhavan, 2004. since most of those in Japan were constructed during the Hayashi, T., T. Kusuba and M. Yano. The Correction of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries AD. Although it had been Madhava Series for the Circumference of the Circle. – replaced by nearby Fujiwara in 694 (until 710), Asuka Centaurus 33 (1990): 149 74. had served as the capital city throughout the seventh Joseph, G. G. The Crest of the Peacock: The Non-European Roots of Mathematics. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton century, and Kitora seems to have been built in the University Press, 2000. aftermath of a period of significant Korean influence on Katz, V. J. Ideas of Calculus in Islam and India. Mathematics higher learning and its applications in Japan. It is not yet Magazine 68 (1995): 163–74. clear who was buried in the Kitora tomb, but it might Paramesvaran, S. The Golden Age of Indian Mathematics. reasonably be assumed that he or she was from a family of Kerala: Swadeshi Science Movement, 1998. importance during or toward the end of Asuka’sprimacy. Mukunda Marar, K. Proof of Gregory’s Series. Teacher’s Magazine 15 (1940): 28–34. The burial mound stands 3-m high, is conical in Rajagopal, C. T and M. S. Rangachari. On Medieval Kerala shape, and archeologically is classified as a circular Mathematics. Archives for History of Exact Sciences 35.2 mound with its diameter at the base being 14 m. Inside (1986): 91–9. it is an essentially rectangular stone tomb that measures Ramasubramanian, K., M. D. Srinivas and M. S. Sriram. approximately 220 × 103.2 × 126.6 cm, with the ceiling Modification of the Earlier Indian Planetary Theory by the disrupting the geometry by having a centered flat part Kerala Astronomers (ca. 1500 AD) and the Implied of 63.1-cm width that is flanked on either side by small Heliocentric Picture of Planetary Motion. Current Science 66 (1994): 784–90. slopes that make the walls along the length of the tomb Sarasvati Amma, T. A. Geometry in Ancient and Medieval stand at 111.1-cm high (Fig. 1). Other than the celestial India. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999 (revised edition). map and murals which are discussed subsequently, the Sarma, K. V. A History of the Kerala School of Hindu chamber is devoid of any artifacts and apparently was Astronomy. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute, 1972. raided centuries ago. Shukla, K. S. Acarya Jayadeva, the Mathematician. Gan. ita. Vol. 5. Lucknow: Bharat Gan.ita Parishad, 1954. Srinivas, M. D. Indian Approach to Science: The Case of The Celestial Map Jyotihsastra. P.P.S.T. Bulletin 19 and 20: 2000. Sriram, K. Ramasubramanian and M. D. Srinivas eds. 500 Volume2, Book 2 (1994) of The History of Cartography . Years of Tantrasangraha: A Landmark in the History of series demonstrates that East Asia has a rich heritage Astronomy. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, in celestial cartography, and the foundations for this 2002. regional or “Chinese” tradition were laid centuries Subbarayappa, B. V and K. V. Sarma. Indian Astronomy: A before Kitora was constructed. Chinese astronomy Source-Book. Bombay: Nehru Centre, 1985. involved the likes of observing celestial phenomena, compiling catalogs of stars, and making diagrams of the night sky, all of which contributed to improvements in scientific knowledge that was applied in such fields Kitora Burial Mound as calendar-making, government, and prognostication. Important cartographic features included the celestial equator, the plane of the ecliptic, the line of constant SIMON POTTER visibility (within which were the circumpolar stars, i.e., those which could always be seen), the line of Inside the Kitora Burial Mound at Asuka, Nara constant invisibility (beyond which no stars could ever prefecture, in Japan is a tomb that dates to ca. AD 700 be seen), the 28 lunar lodges that tracked the path of the and has a celestial map and murals of cosmological moon through its monthly cycle, and other constella- significance. Both the map and the murals bear evidence tions which were not directly associated with the moon. of scientific and artistic diffusion from China to Japan Although the earliest celestial maps cannot be tracked via the Korean peninsula, but the map has the added down, it is known that astronomy and other sciences significance of being the oldest extant celestial map that is such as medicine spread to the Korean peninsula and, currently known to be scientific in spirit and, more or less, from there during a period of peninsular instability complete. Since research on the map and murals is still in from the mid-sixth century, to the western part of Kitora burial mound 1165

Kitora Burial Mound. Fig. 1 The dimensions of the chamber containing the star map and murals inside the Kitora Burial Mound (drawing by the author).

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Kitora Burial Mound. Fig. 2 The main circles of the Kitora star map (drawing by the author). the Japanese archipelago. The route of diffusion was photographs to be 18 cm (constant visibility), 42.5 cm southward from the northern kingdom of Koguryŏ to (equator), and 64 cm (constant invisibility), while the Paekche, the weakest of the three independent Korean offset ecliptic is also about 42.5 cm. Outside the kingdoms, which transmitted knowledge to Japan western and eastern edges of the circle of constant through specialists and books in a time of political invisibility, but just touching it, are, respectively, an orb trouble. This background is useful for establishing an for the moon and another for the sun (Fig. 2). intellectual premise to argue that the celestial map Two of the circles have significant errors, both of inside Kitora was not a product of independent which might be explained by the circumstances faced innovation in Japan, something which may also be by the craftsmen. One is that the circle of constant said of its murals as well. invisibility is smaller than it ought to be (about 67 cm) The Kitora map includes the four circles mentioned based on the radii of the circle of constant visibility and above as well as constellations which may be traced to the equator, and this probably was due to an attempt to China. Both the circles and the stars were formed by fit all of the map within the 63.1 cm, flat part of the chiseling into the stone, with the grooves of the circles ceiling since only a part of the outer circle and the entire having been filled with cinnabar and the holes for the lunar and solar orbs are on the slanting parts. The stars evidently with gold leaf, and the disposition of the ecliptic has two errors, one being that it is circular circles and stars suggests that an azimuthal or zenithal rather than an oblate circle slightly larger than the equidistant projection was employed. The diameters of equator as it should be on the zenithal equidistant the three concentric circles have been estimated from projection (and therefore does not correctly display the 1166 Kitora burial mound equinoxes), and the other being that it is offset toward Although the Kitora enterprise has been dated to the northwest rather than toward the northeast. Whereas ca. 700, dating the celestial map which served as its the first is most likely attributable to a drawing compass model has been difficult to do. One of two estimates having been used, the latter could be adduced to the places the date of observation in the latter half of the workmen having confused the cardinal directions fifth century, when P’yŏngyang was a capital city, yet while transferring the model diagram to the ceiling. there is little confidence in this mainly because the If the circle of constant invisibility had been drawn in celestial north pole does not coincide with the center of correct proportion to the other concentric circles, it the concentric circles. The other estimate, derived by would be possible to derive a reasonably accurate considering the positions of the stars according to their estimate for the terrestrial latitude of observation of the right ascensions, suggests ca. 65 BCE as a possibility, sky shown in the Kitora map. Despite this and other but is not reliable because of insufficient data, differing problems regarding the placement of the stars, a less values according to which stars are used, and errors that reliable estimate based on the radii of the circle of can be attributed to the workmanship and/or the constant visibility and the equator was calculated to photographs used for study. Despite their roughness, be about 38°24′ north, which might be simplified these estimates could be pointing at a synthetic map in to between 38° and 39°. For the Japanese archipelago, which a graticule for the P’yŏngyang area was these latitudes lie in central Tōhoku and suggest superimposed on a distribution of stars according to a that the Kitora map shows the sky as it might have Chinese catalog or survey from the first century BCE, been viewed from present-day Yamagata and Miyagi the inconsistencies having been of little or no concern prefectures, a frontier region of Japanese rural to the compiler(s). settlement around 1,300 years ago. For comparison, Such a synthetic, incorrectly layered map could Asuka itself lies at 34°30′ north, yielding a difference conceivably have been put together in the heyday of of about 4° or 450 km in latitude. P’yŏngyang, and the best evidence which might be cited Because 38°–39° is considerably to the north of to support this idea is a verbal reference on a late the Japanese cultural hearth in the Nara Basin and fourteenth-century circular star map to its own alleged corresponds to an area within the archipelago that hardly model, a stone engraving which was sunk in the Taedong interested the Japanese at the time, it would seem that the River in AD 670 when Koguryŏ fell to Silla. At least one Kitora map was based on observations made elsewhere rubbing of the map had been made before the stele was and, therefore, on an imported star map that served as its sunk because the inscription on the Ch’ŏnsang Yŏlch’a model. The ancient major Chinese centers of Cháng’ān Punya ji Do (Map of the Sphere with Images in the (now at Xī’ān) and Luòyáng lie between 34° and 35° Heavens and the Line of Lodges), another stele made in north, the same as the Nara Basin, and Dūnhuáng and 1395–1396 and reengraved approximately 300 years Āsītǎnā which have Táng dynasty (AD 618–907) celestial later, relates this history. Other documentary evidence diagrams or maps inside archeological sites are, respec- supports this as well as the idea that celestial diagrams in tively, at about 40° and 43° north, while a capital city prior general had existed in Koguryŏ, and calculations from to 510, Píngchéng at present-day Dátòng, was also at the engravings of the Ch’ŏnsang Yŏlch’aPunyajiDo approximately 40° north. On the Korean peninsula, the indicate that it could have been based on an original with only cultural center north of 36° at the time was stars surveyed roughly 2,000 years ago, that is possibly P’yŏngyang, which at 39° north had served as the capital around the same time as the suspected model for the of Koguryŏ from AD 427 until its absorption by Silla in Kitora map. The biggest problem in linking the Kitora 668. It is therefore suspected that the original map from map with the Ch’ŏnsang Yolch’a Punya ji Do, however, which that inside the Kitora tomb was derived aimed or is that a detailed comparison reveals that they differ pretended to show the sky at or near P’yŏngyang.1 considerably from each other, perhaps to the point that they used different models. ’ŏ ŏ ’ 1 Detailed star maps such as the Ch nsang Y lch a The calculations in previous research have assumed that the Punya ji Do and a Chinese circular map at Sūzhōu that ratio of the radii of the circle of constant visibility and the equator is correct. Another line of reasoning might be that was engraved in stone in AD 1247 have been useful for the circle of constant invisibility is in correct proportion to identifying the lunar lodges and other constellations, one of the other circles, and the calculations for latitude many of which are given away by the red lines that would yield approximately 39°30′ if it were correct vis-à-vis connect stars. Although a complete picture cannot be the circle of constant visibility (meaning that the equator derived because of damage to the ceiling over time, ′ would be slightly too large) or approximately 44°30 if it the reasonably good assessment of the southern half of were correct vis-à-vis the equator. Although the latter calculation would put the latitude for the circles in the Gobi the map that has been made argues that the map was or in northernmost Koguryŏ, the former helps support the engraved with an appreciation of scientific detail and hypothesis of the P’yŏngyang area having been meant by the an intention to get the important stellar information circles. reasonably correct. Notable is the distribution of the Kitora burial mound 1167

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Kitora Burial Mound. Fig. 3 The distribution of the identified and possibly identified lunar lodges in the Kitora star map. Of the two smaller diagrams, that on the left shows the distribution of the stars according to the photographs taken and that on the right divides the sky into quadrants, within each of which are supposed to be seven lunar lodges (drawing by the author). identified and possibly identified lunar lodges, which to Chinese cosmology. One set in particular, that of the demonstrates that they were positioned within their four spirit-beasts which originated in China, is useful proper directional quadrants, seven to each, with all evidence of the diffusion of continental art into a seven of the south having been identified despite Japanese cultural hearth and, in terms of esthetics, can the possibility of two of them having been switched be used to argue for a high probability of Korean (Fig. 3). Other constellations such as Gunshi (Army immigrants and/or their descendants having worked Town), Bunshō (Written Prosperity), Taibien (Big on the Kitora project. Faint Fence), and Hokutoshichisei (Seven Stars of The four spirit-beasts – a term derived from the the Northern Ladle) have also been identified by the Chinese characters that comprise the Japanese word patterns created by the lines that connect their stars, and shinjū – are also known as the four spirits (shijin)which their placement is correct in a relative context. Analysis are often described as tutelary or protective deities of the of the lunar lodges and other constellations has also north, east, south, and west. Their Japanese names revealed that they and, vis-à-vis the geometry of the are, respectively, Genbu (Black Warrior; actually a turtle constellations, their stars are larger than usual, while and snake entwined), Seiryū or Seiryō (Blue Dragon), the errors made in positioning them were greater than Suzaku or Shujaku (Red Bird), and Byakko (White those on the Ch’ŏnsang Yolch’a Punya ji Do and other Tiger), and all four still exist on the appropriate walls celestial maps that were used for comparison. inside the Kitora tomb. Three had previously been found inside the Takamatsuzuka Burial Mound, about 1 km north of and contemporaneous with Kitora, but The Murals because its southern wall had been damaged by a break- Two sets of illustrations have been discerned on the in, it could only be surmised that Suzaku must have been walls inside the Kitora tomb, and both are easily traced painted on that wall to complete the set. The discovery of 1168 Kitora burial mound

Suzaku inside Kitora supports this idea; it generated a correspond with night (the sun never entered the fair amount of excitement within the community of art northernmost sky in the Chinese world), the hours for historians and others interested in ancient culture because the rabbit are 5–7 a.m. when the sun comes up in the it was the first time that the complete set of spirit-beasts eastern sky, the horse overlaps midday from 11 a.m. to had been found inside a Japanese tomb. 1 p.m. when the sun is due south and at its highest, and Perhaps the more interesting set of murals appears to the cockerel or bird symbolizes sunset in the west have been 12 smaller creatures drawn in threes on the between 5 and 7 p.m. four walls below the spirit-beasts. Because of deteriora- tion of the walls, this set is no longer complete and educated guesses have been made from examining Korean Provenance photographs of remnants of the murals based on their Both the science and the art with scientific implications location. The first to have been examined is on the inside Kitora may be traced ultimately to ancient China, eastern wall, not far from the northern, and appears to be yet the evidence argues not only for one or more a person with the head of an animal that has been inferred countries on the Korean peninsula as the agent for to be a tiger. Other markings have been observed, notably cultural transmission, but also for the strong probability two along the northern wall that occupy positions which that migrants from the peninsula and/or their descendants suggest that the heads would have been those of a mouse were directly involved in the Kitora project. The and an ox (Fig. 4). An interesting point about what estimated latitude for stellar observation, mentioned remains of these illustrations is that this is the first time previously, contributed to this line of thinking and that the 12-animal set has been found to have been surmising that the star map might be related to that noted painted on tomb walls anywhere. in the inscription for the Ch’ŏnsang Yŏlch’a Punya ji Do These animals belong to the 12-animal Chinese zodiac as having been lost during the seventh-century turmoil which popularly gets linked to a cycle of 12 years, but between the Korean kingdoms. Examination of the they also have directional and temporal equivalents murals, however, has provided more depth to argue for which are of greater importance here. Along the northern Korean provenance, as the following briefly notes. wall of the tomb the boar or pig (north–north–west), An important lead in the early investigations was the mouse (north), and ox or cow (north–north–east) would fact that both a celestial diagram and murals of the four be expected to be shown; along the eastern would be spirit-beasts were found inside the tomb, something the tiger (east–north–east), rabbit (east), and dragon that was far more common in Koguryŏ than in the (east–south–east); along the southern would be the Chinese or even the other Korean states. Although there snake (south–south–east), horse (south), and sheep is no known celestial map with the scientific spirit of (south–south–west); and along the western would be that inside Kitora that either predates or is contempora- the monkey (west–south–west), cockerel or bird (west), neous with it, that on the ceiling of the Takamatsuzuka and dog (west–north–west). Each of these animals, in tomb having been a square diagram without any of the the same sequence, corresponds with a 2-h block of time scientific circles, archeological evidence from contem- which makes sense in a geographical context so that, porary and later tombs suggests that there was no for example, the animals along the northern wall specific model for such celestial diagrams. In the case of the murals of the four spirit-beasts, though, there were similar drawings inside earlier tombs in Koguryŏ as well as inside Takamatsuzuka at Asuka to use for artistic comparison. When those and other murals inside Takamatsuzuka were discovered in 1972 – 11 years before Genbu, 26 before Byakko and Seiryū, and 29 before Suzaku were discovered inside Kitora – experts from northern and southern Korea were quickly invited to examine them, and the reasonable probability of Korean influence on them cannot be discounted, which may also be said to be true for the spirit-beasts inside Kitora because of the similarities between the three that are found in both tombs at Asuka. Further suggestive evidence of a Korean provenance for the murals inside Kitora is that influential artists of seventh-century Japan Kitora Burial Mound. Fig. 4 The location of three were settlers from the Korean peninsula, who most likely markings which were probably murals of figures with brought models which could have been used for the heads of animals that symbolize geographical direction and murals, and their descendants. Speculation has notably 2-h blocks of time (drawing by the author). focused on an artist known as Kibumi and his school. Knowledge systems in China 1169

See also: ▶Astronomy in Japan, ▶Time in China, Potter, Simon R. Professor K. Miyajima’s Research on the ▶Time in Korea Celestial Diagram Inside the Tomb of the Kitora Burial Mound at Asuka, Nara Prefecture: From a Recent Japanese-Language Monograph on Old Japanese Star Maps. Saitama Daigaku Kiyō:Kyōyōgakubu (Journal of References Saitama University: Faculty of Liberal Arts) 37.1 (2001): Asuka Hozon Zaidan [Asuka Preservation Foundation], publ. 81–106. Asukafū [The Wind (Way, Style) of Asuka]. Vol. 80. Tokushū: ---. Addendum to the Annotated Translation About the Star Kitora Kofun & Man’yō no Sekai [Features: The Kitora Map Inside the Kitora Burial Mound. Saitama Daigaku Burial Mound and the World of the Man’yōshū (Collection Kiyō:Kyōyōgakubu [Journal of Saitama University: of 10,000 Leaves)]. Asuka: Asuka Hozon Zaidan, 2001. Faculty of Liberal Arts] 38.1 (2002): 177–203. Chon Ho Chon. Kitora Tomb Originates in Koguryo * Renshaw, Steve and Saori Ihara. Takamatsu Zuka Kofun: Murals (1997). ▶http://210.145.168.243/pk/035th_issue/ An Ancient View of the Sky from a Tomb in Asuka, Japan 98032502.htm (accessed through the website for Lee Wha (1996). ▶http://www2.gol.com/users/stever/asuka.htm. Rang). ---. Astronomy in Japan. Astronomy Across Cultures. Ed. Chu Yon Hon. Kōkuri no Hekiga Kofun [Burial Mounds Helaine Selin. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer with Murals in Koguryŏ]. Ed. Arimitsu Kyōichi. Trans. Academic Publishers, 2000. Nagashima Kimichika. Tōkyō: Gakuseisha, 1990. * ---. Kitora Kofun: A Detailed Astronomical Star Chart in an Harley, J. B. and David Woodward, ed. The History of Ancient Japanese Tomb (2002). ▶http://www2.gol.com/ Cartography. Vol. 2, Book 2. Cartography in the users/stever/kitora.htm. Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies. Chicago: ---. Astronomy in Japan: History, Science, Culture (2004). University of Chicago Press, 1994. ▶http://www2.gol.com/users/stever/jastro.html. Keally, Charles T. Kofun Culture (2002). ▶http://www.t-net. Senda, Minoru. Asuka: Mizu no Ōchō [Asuka: A Water ne.jp/keally/kofun.html. Dynasty]. Tōkyō:Chūō Kōron, 2001. Lee Wha Rang. The Forgotten Glory of Koguryo. ▶http:// Stephenson, F. Richard. Chinese and Korean Star Maps and www.kimsoft.com/KOREA/kogu.htm. Catalogs. The History of Cartography. Vol. 2, Book 2. Miyajima, Kazuhiko. Japanese Celestial Cartography Before Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian the Meiji Period. The History of Cartography. Vol. 2, Societies. Ed. J. B. Harley and David Woodward. Chicago: K Book 2. Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast University of Chicago Press, 1994. 511–78. Asian Societies. Ed. J. B. Harley and David Woodward. Takamatsuzuka, Hekiga Kan [Takamatsuzuka Mural Hall Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. 579–603. (=Museum)], ed. Takamatsuzuka Hekiga Kan: Kaisetsu ---. Kitora Kofun Tenmonzu to Higashi Ajia no Tenmongaku [The Takamatsuzuka Mural Hall (=Museum): An Expla- (The Celestial Map in the Kitora Burial Mound and East nation]. Asuka: Asuka Hozon Zaidan, 2000. Asian Astronomy). Higashi Ajia no Kodai Bunka (Ancient Tiger-Man Image Found in Tomb. The Daily Yomiuri Culture(s) of East Asia) 97 (Autumn 1998): 58–69. (Jan. 23, 2002): 3. ---. Kitora no Seikū (The Sky of Stars in Kitora). Sinica Tokai University Research Information and Center. Mural [(Things) Chinese] (Sep. 1998): 80–7. Paintings of Kitora Burial Mound (1998). ▶http://www. ---. Nihon no Koseizu to Higashi Ajia no Tenmongaku tric.u-tokai.ac.jp/news2/ekitora1.html. (Old Star Maps in Japan and East Asian Astronomy). * Tokai University Research and Information Center and Jinbungakuhō [Reports in the Humanities (Published by Nippon Hoso Kyokai [Japan Broadcasting Corporation]. the Jinbungaku Kenkyūjo – Research Institute for the Video Image Analysis of Kitora Kofun, Nara (2002). Humanities – at Kyōto University)] 82 (1999): 45–99, esp. ▶http://www.tric.u-tokai.ac.jp/isite/ewhatkitora.html. 52–64 and 98–9. Wilson, Fiona. Rare Tomb Mural Uncovered. The Art ---. Kitora Kofun: Gakujutsu Chōsa Hōkokusho [The Kitora Newspaper.com (2002). ▶http://www.theartnewspaper. Burial Mound: A Written Report on the Scholarly com/news/article.asp?idart=5574. Investigation]. Asuka-Mura Kyōiku Iinkai [Board of Education of Asuka Village], publ. Asuka-Mura Bunkazai Chōsa Hōkokusho [Written Reports on Scholarly Investi- gations of the Cultural Assets of Asuka Village], Series 3 (Mar. 1999): 51–63. Knowledge Systems in China ---. Kitora Kofun Tenjō Tenmonzu: Kore made ni Wakatta Koto [The Celestial Map on the Ceiling of the Kitora Burial Mound: What Is Known up Until Now]. Asuka Hozon Zaidan [Asuka Preservation Foundation], publ. YANG DI-SHENG Asukafū [The Wind (Way, Style) of Asuka]. Vol. 80. Asuka: Asuka Hozon Zaidan, 2001. The science and technology developed in China often ---. Kofun ni Hokkyoku Gosei wa Hitsuyō ka: Kitora Kofun led the world before the fifteenth century. Statistics of no Tenmonzu ga Shimesu Mono [Are the Five Stars of the significant discoveries in the world from the sixth century North Pole Necessary in Old Burial Mounds? What BCE to the nineteenth century AD show that before the the Celestial Map Inside the Kitora Burial Mound Shows]. Nara Shinbun [Nara Newspaper] (May 2001). year 1500, discoveries made in China comprised more Nakayama, Shigeru. A History of Japanese Astronomy: than half of the total (Guo Jianrong and Guo Guangyin Chinese Background and Western Impact. Cambridge, 1987). Then, the percentage dropped rapidly, and in the Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1969. nineteenth century it became less than 1%. 1170 Knowledge systems in China

The mode of development of science in China is, the huntian (celestial sphere), and the xuan ye (infinite roughly speaking, a slowly progressed “mode of empty space) hypotheses, she never produced any accumulation.” It is not full of ups and downs like geometric cosmological models similar to Ptolemy’sor the Western saddle-shaped “mode of revolution”. Copernicus’. Chinese mathematics characteristically In contrast to the West, Chinese scientific and took practical use as its aim and centered around calcula- technological achievements mainly belonged to the tion. Its earliest representative work is Jiuzhang Suanshu technical and empirical type. The Chinese were less (Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Arts) written in the inclined to use theoretical and experimental methods. Western Han dynasty. Ancient Western mathematics was The four best known inventions – compass, gun- mainly geometry; ancient Chinese mathematics was powder, paper, and printing – when they came to mainly algebra. Today, when computing technique once Europe, exerted a great influence on the West. again is the primary concern of so many mathematicians, The most developed sciences in ancient China were the practical value of ancient Chinese mathematical astronomy, mathematics, medicine, agronomy, and other inclination becomes more and more obvious. related branches. This was determined by the needs of The development of modern science and technology the agricultural Chinese society. makes people realize that it is a double-edged sword; The characteristics of the development of science it can bring benefits as well as destruction. Therefore, its and technology in China were formed by factors that development must be controlled ethically and politically, existed before the Christian era. At that time Chinese under strict management and control. In this respect, culture was already very different from Greek culture. Chinese value orientation is a very significant model. There were both a different value orientation and a In regard to ways of thinking, Chinese tradi- differentway of thinking, which had long-term influences tional philosophy has always inclined to an organismic over the directions of the development of Chinese society view of nature. Chinese philosophers regarded heaven, and Chinese science and technology. earth, and man as a united whole. This was fundamen- In regard to value orientation, the highest goal for tally different from other ways of thinking, as there Chinese ancient thinkers was in searching for the harmony was no distinction between Object and Self. French and balance in one’s mind, and in the relationship between thinker L. Levi-Bruhl (1857–1939) misunderstood ManandMan, Manand Society,and Manand Nature. The when he considered the chinese way of thinking core of the Confucian thought is ren (loving people). primitive. The Chinese idea of the unification of Therefore, the only important criterion for learning is heaven and man mainly emphasizes that humans are usefulness for humanity’s purpose; other factors do not only a part of heaven (nature); the Way of Heaven and matter at all. In this regard, it is very different from the Way of Man are one and the same. Humans should ancient Greece, where study was for knowledge’s sake be in a harmonious existence with nature, and these two only and without any practical intention. should not be opposed to each other. Huishi was the only exception among Chinese Chinese philosophy also claims that heaven, earth, ancient thinkers. But thinkers from all the other schools and everything else are constituted by a pair of such as Confucians, Daoists, Mohists, and Legalists contradictions. Chinese philosophers use two symbols, uniformly criticized him, and they suppressed him. yin and yang, to represent this pair of contradictions. This contributed to the fact that the ancient Chinese Yinyang is a unity of contradictions. There is an were strong in technological achievements and rela- antagonistic as well as a complementary and containing tively weak in theoretical ones. Even though the relationship between them. There is yang in yin and Mohists discussed almost all the problems contained there is yin in yang. They can convert to each other in classical logic, they never made a single step toward under certain conditions. Therefore, in order to achieve formalization or axiomization. Therefore, they never harmony in nature, the stability of a society, and a long came up with their own axiomatic system. The main rule with eternal peace, as well as the health of reason for this was that logic, at that time, did not seem individuals, “the doctrine of the mean” has to be to have any practical use. applied to keep a dynamic balance between yin and The Chinese also developed mathematics to a very yang. The philosophy advocates that nothing should be high level. For example, in the Shushu Jiuzhang overdone, and all actions should be done appropriately. (Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections) compiled by This way of thinking is different from the dichotomy in Qin Jiushao in 1247, there was a method of solving high two-valued logic (A or Ã), in which every proposition is degree equations. However, the Chinese never devel- either true or false. Its symbolic representation is the oped axiomatic systems similar to Euclidean geometry. yinyang fish taiji pattern (Fig. 1). Therefore, despite the fact that China had the most A mechanistic mode of thought has never been complete, most systematic astronomical records in the dominant throughout Chinese history. This organismic world at that time, and that she was rich in cosmological way of thinking affected the development of Chinese constructions, such as the gaitian (hemispherical dome), science to a very large degree. It can be found in ancient Knowledge systems of Aboriginal Australians: Questions and answers arising in a databasing project 1171

History of Chinese Scientific Thinking. Zhejiang, China: Education Publishing House, 1992. Needham, Joseph. The History of Chinese Scientific Technol- ogy. Selected Works of J. Needham. Chinese ed. Liaoning, China: Science and Technology Publishing House, 1986. Knowledge Systems in China. Fig. 1 Two-valued logic Scientific Traditions and Culture; On the Causes for the and the yinyang fish taiji pattern. Falling Back of Modern Chinese Scientific Technology. Proceedings of a Conference. Shanxi, China: Science and Technology Publishing House, 1983. Chinese cosmology, astronomy, medicine, agronomy, Wu Wenjun. On the Study of the History and the Present and social theories. It contributed tremendously to Situation of Chinese Mathematics. Journal of Natural keeping peace and stability during the Middle Ages. Dialectics 4 (1990). However, at the same time it restrained the growth of Yang Disheng. Chinese Traditional Thinking Way and capitalism, and served as one of the most important Sciences. Philosophical Research 11 (1989a). reasons that prevented China from having a scientific ---. The Traditional Ideas of the Value in China and Science. Research in History of Chinese Philosophy 37 (1989b). revolution. ---. A Brief Study About the Ancient Chinese Dialectics According to the Chinese traditional view, the origin Thought and Its Contribution to the Whole World. Chinese of the universe is the result of the changes of yin and Culture Monthly 124 (1990). yang. Imbalances of yinyang caused natural disasters like earthquakes, as well as social disturbance. The yinyang theory is also the theoretical foundation of Chinese medicine. It considers the human body as a Knowledge Systems of Aboriginal whole. If a body loses its balance of yin and yang, the person becomes sick. The task of a medical doctor is to Australians: Questions and Answers use every method to help the patient to resume this Arising in a Databasing Project organismic dynamic balance. However, Chinese medi- K cine is not a two-value system; it is a multiple-value system, totally different from the Western medical HELEN VERRAN system. But these two can go hand in hand and complement each other, thereby enriching the treasury Why Use a Databasing Project to Tell About of our medical knowledge. an ‘Other’ Knowledge Tradition like that of The Chinese traditional way of thinking is an organis- Aboriginal Australians? mic one which emphasizes integrity and perceivability, There are many reasons for being interested in ‘other’ and allows fuzziness. It is, relatively speaking, weak at peoples and their knowledge. A general or removed analytical thinking and it does not value axiomatic interest about ‘others’ often arises out of curiosity. systems. Generally it is not good for macrocosmic Satisfying that curiosity can put into perspective our descriptions in the area of physics, especially mechanics. selves, our times and places, our cultures and accepted However, it is closer to the microcosmic world of modern ways of going on. There are many different ways of science, such as the area of quantum mechanics, or to knowing. Recognising some differences and simila- descriptions of cosmological, artificial intelligence, and rities between knowledge traditions helps to see the social systems. The return from accuracy back to strengths and limitations of our own ways. fuzziness is one of the main indications of contemporary Sometimes there are more specific reasons for science. Nowadays many scientists realize that this learning and puzzling about other knowledge tradi- Chinese way of thinking could indeed bring helpful tions. In this article I consider knowledge traditions of inspirations to the progress of modern science. Aboriginal Australians comparatively, by referring to a particular contemporary way of ‘doing knowledge’. See also: ▶Mathematics in China, ▶Algebra in China, The aim of the project I write out of is to devise some ▶Yinyang, ▶Medicine in China, ▶Calculation: Chi- specific forms of databasing that might be useful for nese Counting Rods, ▶Liu Hui and the Jiuzhang Aboriginal people. You can find out more about this Suanshu, ▶Environment and Nature in Chinese project at ▶http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/. This Thought, ▶Qin Jiushao, ▶Acupuncture contribution takes the form of questions and answers that are frequently asked about Aboriginal Australian References knowledge traditions in the context of such projects. Guo Jianron and Guo Guangyin. On the Effects of The databasing project involves the intersection of Chinese National Psychology and Tradition on the Cultural two quite different knowledge traditions. The intersec- Development of Scientific Technology. Central Nationali- tion ‘reveals’ both technoscientific knowledge tradi- ty Institution Journal (1987). tions and Aboriginal Australian knowledge traditions. 1172 Knowledge systems of Aboriginal Australians: Questions and answers arising in a databasing project

Engagements of various sorts must occur inan Aboriginal part of what is at stake in a project like Aboriginal digital databasing project, and studying that process is databasing. When we want to compare and contrast helpful from the point of view of comparatively learning knowledge traditions we need to think about and discuss about Aboriginal Australian knowledge traditions. the various sorts of re-framings we need to do so that we can usefully juxtapose knowledge traditions. How Can Asking About Knowledge in the Context of a Databasing Project Help in Understanding What Are the Terms We Can Use in Discussing Aboriginal Australian Knowledge Traditions the Various Sorts of Re-Framing We Need to Do in General? so that We Might Compare and Contrast Many Aboriginal communities in northern Australia are Knowledge Traditions? interested in using digitising technologies – computers, In using and making knowledge there are some framings video and still cameras, audio recorders, and written that people are very aware of. There are others that are texts – to generate digital items that can contribute to the deeply hidden. For example all knowledge traditions various forms of collective memory in Aboriginal have experts in various fields and disciplines. Access to communities. Just as in the sciences, collective memory expert knowledge must be managed. There is ‘outer’, in its various guises is important in using and making ‘inner’ and ‘secret’ knowledge, and institutional ways knowledge in Aboriginal knowledge traditions. of managing access to those levels. The institutional When it comes to actually doing the work of arrangements involved in using and making knowledge assembling a collection of digital objects that might be express theories about what knowledge is in that useful to an Aboriginal community however, several knowledge tradition. The social arrangements involved aspects of how to do it immediately become problematic. in working a knowledge tradition embody the ways that For example, what sorts of things digital objects are in an knowledge is justified as true. ‘Epistemic’ is the general Aboriginal context of knowing turns out to be surprising- term we use to name this aspect of knowledge. Discussing ly puzzling and difficult to predict. How a database might and considering the management of these institutiona- be organised so that it could be useful to Aboriginal lised structurings and re-framings is epistemology. These people as they do their knowledge in their own ways, terms come from the Greek word for knowledge, using their own forms and structures, is likewise not at all epistēme.The-ology bit of the term means ‘to study’. clear in the beginning. Needing to think through those There are also divisions and definitions that questions helps to understand knowledge traditions knowledge users and makers are far less aware of. generally, and Aboriginal Australian and technoscientific Becoming sensitive to this level of difference can be knowledge traditions in particular. crucial in successful working together of disparate knowledge traditions. These structural differences are Why Use the Term ‘Knowledge Traditions’ Rather embedded in language use and in the ordinary gener- than ‘Knowledge Systems’ When Discussing alising we do when we use numbers. Here people are Databasing of Aboriginal Knowledge? working at the level of assumption; things are usually just taken for granted as people go on together. In Both ‘systems’ and ‘traditions’ are metaphors, working working disparate knowledge traditions together peo- images of how we understand knowledge using and ple must bring these assumptions and what they take knowledge making. ‘Tradition’ comes from the Latin for granted out into the open. Often, especially in the word tradere, ‘to give’. Traditions emphasises human beginning, that is not comfortable. Philosophers name communities ‘doing’ their knowledge, giving across this profound level of framing the ontic (referring to the generations and to other knowledge communities. existing reality) level. Ontology is the study of what ‘Systems’ come from the ancient Greek term systēma there is. ‘Ontic’ and ‘ontology’ come from the ancient meaning ‘set’. Systems imply a concern with bound- Greek term onto- a form of the verb form eimi or ‘am’ aries and focus on framings and separations. It in English, part of the verb ‘to be’. emphasises the structures of knowledge. In using traditions I am not denying the importance of structure in knowledge. The practical difficulties that can How Do Epistemic Differences Arise When People arise in working disparate knowledge traditions together Try to Work Technosciences and Aboriginal are often caused by differences in the ways things are Knowledge Traditions Together? framed and structured. In using ‘knowledge traditions’ One of the many reasons for researching Aboriginal I mean to draw attention to the fact that all human databasing is the need to manage epistemic differ- communities have complex and varied ways of dealing ences that emerge when environmental scientists and with such issues in their practices of knowledge using Aboriginal land owners try to work together to conserve and making. The ways that framings and re-framings are biodiversity. In northern Australia perhaps the most managed when knowledge traditions work together is valuable tool for ecological management is firing the Knowledge systems of Aboriginal Australians: Questions and answers arising in a databasing project 1173 bush. By maintaining a sophisticated regime of firings, a There are no possibilities for an Aboriginal way of complex mosaic of dynamic ecological successions is judging a firing to be a valid expression of knowledge to achieved. Aborigines have been doing this in Australia have salience in science. In the same way it is literally for millennia. Science, which has been working with inconceivable that scientific validation could legitimate Australian nature for only a little over 200 years, seems in Aboriginal traditions. The epistemic differences are to be much less successful at achieving complex unresolvable as such. dynamic mosaics. And besides, much of the land in Yet perhaps digitising technologies can help us northern Australia is owned by Aboriginal Australians get around this problem. It is possible to imagine who have a right to work their lands according to the assembling digital objects during planning, execution standards of their own knowledge traditions. and evaluation of firing. Audio files can capture what A firing is judged as a valid and efficacious instance is said, and still images, movies, and spoken commen- of the knowledge tradition of Aboriginal Australians in taries might also be gathered, along with the food- several ways. These are epistemic concerns. Theories stuffs, and/or the measurements, as Aborigines and of knowledge determine the forms of witnessing and scientists go about their tasks of planning, execution, evaluating any instance of applying and engaging and witnessing firing episodes. knowledge. In Aboriginal knowledge traditions it is Imagine storing these digital items in a structure free most important that particular knowledge authorities digital matrix. In databasing terms this implies that participate in specific roles in the planning and there is no distinction between data and metadata. If we execution of the firing. Expressions of knowledge are want to go further we could imagine two quite dif- not valid unless this condition is met. ferently configured interfaces by which the set of Firing of any particular place must always begin in a digitised objects might be interrogated. One interface specific spot and proceed in certain ways, through a can express the epistemic concerns of science, the other series of contiguous particular named spots in the can be configured in a way that embeds the epistemic landscape. The names of a series of contiguous spots in concerns of Aboriginal Australian knowledge tradi- K the landscape must be publicly and collectively recited tions. To do this of course the two sets of epistemic before a firing begins. The knowledge authorities are standards must be translated into digital interfaces. those who know which spots are where, and the In each case, in becoming database interfaces, the directions in which the various sequences of names epistemic standards take up new forms of institutiona- move across the land. In addition it is important that lisation. In actuality of course, those sorts of transla- particular items of food are gathered in the process of tions require a lot of work and resources. firing and distributed to appropriate persons in the correct relative amounts. This distribution of various foods collected from the multiple micro-ecological How Do Ontic Differences Arise When People Try zones that constitute the area fired expands the number to Work Technosciences and Aboriginal of people who can attest a firing episode as legitimate. Knowledge Traditions Together? A particular firing will imply that people are moving Different knowledge traditions make very different through places where it is recognised that particular assumptions about what there is. One set of clues we foods are found. Being able to present the appropriate can get about this level of difference lies in the grammars food items to others is a form of proof that the firing of different languages. Grammars are deeply embedded in was valid. These institutionalised forms of proof and and express the ontic. Another set of clues can be witness go along with epistemology which sees that true winnowed out by considering the everyday forms of knowledge can only be performed and enacted in place. generalising we find working in a knowledge tradition. We These forms of Aboriginal witnessing and evaluating can look at what is involved in using numbers for example. an episode of firing are very different from the ways In the case of Aboriginal Australian communities we need epistemic concerns are institutionalised in environmental to consider the generalising that makes up their very science. There, scientists plan their firings with maps that different form of mathematics. You can read about this in allow areas to be delineated. They collect observations my other entry in this encyclopaedia ‘The Mathematics of on the fire and its effects on vegetation and assemble the Aboriginal Australia’. Yet another set of clues can be results in scientific papers that are published, reports that found in the stories that peoples tell about the origins of other environmental scientists might read. These reports the worlds they know and the things that comprise it. This attest and witness the efficacy of the firing. These forms is generally called the metaphysics of a knowledge express an epistemology which understands knowledge tradition. That is the subject of my next question. as representing an ‘out-there’ reality. Imagine a scientist watching an old Aboriginal man Nowadays when it comes to managing Australia’s demonstrating the process of making fire by rubbing northern savannas to promote a robust biodiversity two sticks together. The old man has chosen sticks from through firing, there are two incommensurable standards. bushes that look very different. He uses one as a base 1174 Knowledge systems of Aboriginal Australians: Questions and answers arising in a databasing project and cuts a notch in the middle. He uses the other stick They emphasise and recognise only the diverse involve- like a drill bit. Seating it in the notch he twirls it very ments of the groups who have variable interests at stake in fast between his palms. Gradually a pile of hot sawdust a collective episode like a firing. The singularity achieved accumulates and when it is smoking he tips this in different kin groups working together in a single smouldering pellet into a nest of shredded bark which purposeful episode is taken for granted background in when blown on breaks into flame. any reporting. Aborigines do not assume that places Enthusiastic and interested, the scientist asks the exist in the here-and-now as single whole things. Places names of the two bushes from which the fire making might achieve a form of ephemeral singularity when a sticks were plucked. It is quite clear to him that the firing or some other such collective activity occurs – if plants are very different – they belong to different all the correct people are present and things are done in biological families. He is genuinely shocked when the a correct manner. Those ephemeral unities of actual old man insists that they are really the same. While existence are achieved re-enactments of an originary the old man accepts that the plants might look different, act of creation by spiritual ancestors. he insists that what is important is that logically they As scientists see things, reports of firings given by are ‘the same one’. The old man and the scientist have Aborigines fail to attend to the place as a whole. In contrast been confronted with an ontic difference. Aborigines feel that scientists fail to credit properly the Is this ontic difference resolvable? Yes, but only by multiplicities that inhere in place. This is another instance opportunistically assuming the existence of a third of ontic difference. It too, with care and caution, can be translating domain. This move involves an ontology worked around well enough for Aborigines and scientists that is both and neither Aboriginal and scientific. But to feel confident in going on together. this is not a meta-ontology. It is not an ontic domain which supervenes and contains the other two. On the contrary, it is an infra-ontology, an inside connection. It How Are Aboriginal Accounts of the Origins of takes enough of what matters ontologically to Abor- Knowledge Different to Technoscientific igines when they are dealing with firings, and enough Understandings of Origins of Knowledge? of what matters to scientists when they are engaged in As well as issues of epistemology, such as theories of doing their prescribed burns. Learning how to do this knowledge and truth, and issues of ontology, commit- in on-the-ground situations is not easy because it ments to particular sorts of things being in the world involves working with contradictions in disciplined and issues of metaphysics, such as originary stories, are ways. Particularly for scientists it is difficult, because involved in working disparate knowledge traditions contradiction is usually outlawed in science. together. The metaphysics of Aboriginal Australian ‘Same and different’ are constituted through differ- knowledge traditions is very different to that of the ent framings in science and Aboriginal knowledge technosciences. They have very different accounts of traditions. It often shocks people when they experience the origins of knowledge. this form of difference. Another similar sort of expe- In Aboriginal Australian traditions knowledge is rience is often associated with differences around taken as already always in the land. However, ‘whole and part’. Recognition of this sort of difference knowledge needs the correct circumstances for true can also emerge when Aborigines and scientists try to expression. In Aboriginal Australian knowing, there is learn each others’ firing regimes. no given or a priori separation of places and persons Scientists assume that a thing like a habitat is an entity who belong to that place. Knowledge is in the land and found in nature. While there may be many attributes and in people by virtue of their belonging to the land. characteristics which could be the subject of quite The origin of knowledge/place/persons is often different scientific disciplines – pedology, botany, named in English as ‘The Dreaming’. This is a hydrology – the habitat itself is just a single given transcendental time parallel to the secular time of the object. Many different representations of this given, ordinary here-and-now. From The Dreaming the crea- whole thing might be made, and they tell of the various tive impulse for the world arose and continues to arise. parts of a single whole thing. The differences between This creative impulse of The Dreaming emerges from the experiences of the separate groups of scientists are the complex collective lives of a multiplicity of beings, downplayed and backgrounded. This being so, when both human-like and non-human in form. Entities that scientists report their burning of an area, they tell their can be known in Aboriginal Australian knowledge are activities in accordance with the assumption that they are framed primarily as here-now expressions of The about a single entity. They go to great pains in the Dreaming. Knowledge and the spiritual life of religion introduction and conclusion of their reports to show that are not separate in Aboriginal traditions, so all things all the separate experiences of the scientists really relate have an intrinsic spiritual dimension. to one thing – the habitat under observation. As well as an ultimate division between the eternal But when Aborigines report their episodes of burning, Dreaming and the secular here-and-now world of they completely fail to attend to the place as a whole. everyday individual experience, there is a subsidiary Knowledge systems of Aboriginal Australians: Questions and answers arising in a databasing project 1175 division between the world’s two sides. There is can ‘doing ceremony’ which mobilises information exhaustive division of both the secular domain and The embedded in the land. Dreaming, into formal opposites. Amongst the Yolngu Databasing can be understood as a way of doing Aboriginal clans in northeast Arnhem Land for outside collective memory with digitised materials. example, these two sides or moieties are named Yirritja Images made with digital cameras – video and still, audio and Dhuwa. Everything is either Dhuwa or Yirritja. files, and written texts typed up on a computer can record Knowledge in the ordinary world of the secular is something that might be re-presented later in another the outcome of Dhuwa Dreaming knowledge and forum in such a way as to help those involved in some Yirritja Dreaming knowledge working together to endeavour to remember in a helpful way. Seeing things generate true expressions of The Dreaming. Knowl- this way reminds us of the importance of developing edge in the here-and-now is justified as a true some protocols around generation of digital objects. expression of The Dreaming if relevant knowledge authorities of the opposed moieties with interests in What Are the Knowledge-Making Sites in the particular set of issues at hand, witness and attest a Aboriginal Australian Knowledge Traditions? How particular expression of The Dreaming as valid. In the technosciences, while many practitioners Are They Similar to or Different from Knowledge- might profess religious belief, Islamic, Buddhist, or Making Sites in the Technosciences? Christian for example, these spiritual commitments are Aboriginal knowledge-making centres around ceremo- not embedded in the forms of technoscientific nies, some of which might involve firing episodes. In knowledge. The entities of technoscience do not pos- much the same way technoscientific knowledge- sess an intrinsic transcendental element. Knowledge of making pivots around the workings of laboratories the world is taken as distinct from the world itself. and field sites. Just as there are many and varied types Knowledge is a representation. Knowledge is about the of laboratories, so too there are many different sorts world and the origin of knowledge is the human mind of ceremonies in Aboriginal life. These are religious K which knows the world. There is some disagreement ceremonies, but they are not repeated rituals. No two over whether the ultimate structure of knowledge ceremonies are identical in Aboriginal life. Each is reflects the structure of the human mind, or the concerned with spiritual practice and knowledge structure of the world. Most philosophers agree that it making with respect to particular times and places is some form of combination of both. and groups of people. In the sciences there is a fundamental division of We can describe scientific knowledge making in people as knowers and things (including places) as laboratories and field sites through elaborating the known about. Things known are matter that extends in specific sorts of social institutions involved, the space and time and is situated in an empty space–time material routines that are crucial in knowledge making, frame. In a secondary or derived way abstract things and the literary texts and literacies involved. But to like numbers are understood by analogy to primary give a complete picture we need also to include the material things. True knowledge about those material paradigms, theories, or imaginaries in which these and abstract things is taken as accumulating through the processes make sense. These same headings can be application of proper scientific method. Knowledge is used to describe the workings of Aboriginal ceremony justified as true if it can be shown to have been and the knowledge making that occurs in them. Just produced in valid ways. as the entities that emerge from laboratories and field sites remake their worlds, so do the entities that emerge from the ceremonies of Aboriginal Australian life. Aboriginal Knowledge is Taken as in the Land Itself. How Can Knowledge be Stored in the Land and in Databases Too? Ritual and Ceremony Are Parts of Aboriginal How can we understand Aboriginal people when they Knowledge. How Can You Recognise the Role of say ‘knowledge is in the land?’ How can science learn Ritual and Ceremony When Knowledge is Stored how to take that claim seriously? The land is a set of in Databases? sites with meaning embedded, with information there In ritual and ceremony Aboriginal knowledge autho- in place. But those meanings, necessarily organised in rities use many diverse sources of information. In some way, are accessible only to those who have been ceremony, dance, painting, song and story need to be sensitised and trained in the right traditions. performed correctly and under the right auspices to One way to think about databasing in an Aboriginal become knowledge making. context is to understand a computer as a simplistic and Often people see databases as ‘archives’. But in this ‘outside’ version of one of those meaning full sites in project we are not seeing them as tiny digitised land. ‘Doing databasing’ can contribute to the remem- museums. We are asking if databasing can become a bering/forgetting that is inherent in community life, as useful additional experience. Can digitised information 1176 Knowledge systems of Aboriginal Australians: Questions and answers arising in a databasing project feed into, complement and extend the already well- way, we think of it as somehow inconsistent, perhaps developed ways that information is handled and managed even incompatible, with computers. in Aboriginal communities to support Aboriginal people Traditional cultures are contemporary forms of life in doing their knowledge? Under what conditions might just as modern cultures are. They are rich in modes of databasing become a useful form of managing informa- innovation as well as having ways for preservation of tion? These are empirical questions and Aboriginal cultural forms. We can understand traditional cultures people are the ones who must drive the process to come as involving non-modern forms of identity. They have up with answers. ontologies that make modern assumptions about knowledge and knowing look strange. Digitised infor- mation arranged in ways that make sense and are useable Aborigines Have Local Knowledge But Databases by those working within non-modern cultures can surely Are Universal. How Is Local Knowledge Consistent be devised. As long as we do not make assumptions with Having Databases? based on modern ways of using digital objects, if we The notion of databases as somehow universal proceed in open ways, empirically researching how knowledge assumes two things. First it takes for indigenous people actually use digitising technologies, granted the existence of ‘facts’–little pieces of there is the possibility of strengthening traditional forms knowledge referring to a single reality. And second it of cultural innovation with computers. assumes that if you could only get enough of them Traditional forms of passing knowledge from an together in one place, facts would eventually link up older generation to a younger one often involves young into one complete system of knowledge. In many and old being in the same place at the same time doing traditions of Indigenous knowledge (and in many things together, talking about it. It involves a process of sciences) both assumptions are seen as wrong. re-imagining it together, finding new forms in which to Anyone who thinks about the notion of universality express the understandings in sharing them. for very long will see that facts are always generated We often find that indigenous communities want to and ‘made solid’ in specific places and times by assemble collections of digitised items for specific particular groups of people. Knowledge is always done reasons. They want to be able to intervene in a specific in specific ways. It is a commonplace that it is actually context in a particular way. Assembling digitised items very difficult to get things to link up. It is sometimes in these projects becomes a site, a time and place where very difficult actually to link working databases – for young and old, with their varying competencies work example those that have been assembled in doing together. Databasing can become an impetus for young biodiversity. Data are just as diverse as biological and old to work together in ways that can empower and organisms are. educate the young while recognising older people as We found this when we started searching for databases knowledge authorities. in northern Australia that included ‘indigenous knowl- edge’. A database is a form of local knowledge. It is a collection in digitised form of data items that have been What About Protecting Intellectual Property? Can generated using very specific local methods. Databases Not Easily Lead to Indigenous Peoples Of course Aborigines have local knowledge. All Losing Control over the Natural and Cultural knowledge is local. It remains true that sometimes with Resources Their Groups Own? prodigious collective effort some, or even many, local Protecting collective intellectual property is important knowledges can be linked. Sciences often are good at in all ‘closed’ knowledge economies. Aboriginal linking up their local knowledges, although sometimes societies are no different from American corporations it is very difficult to get different sciences to work in this. The issue is one of controlling who knows and together. Sometimes and in some places scientific how much they know. Strategic revealing and hiding is knowledge and Aboriginal knowledge can be usefully involved. linked. Modern companies protect their intellectual property with patent laws, by various technical means, and by selectively authorising and commissioning various How Could Elements of Traditional Culture be knowers. Aboriginal clans have equally effective means Strengthened by Encouraging Aboriginal People to of managing the strategic revealing and hiding of Use Digitising Technologies? intellectual resources. A problem arises if we think of traditional Aboriginal There are two rather separate elements that need to knowledge as ‘anti-modern’, the opposite of modern be considered in thinking about intellectual property culture. Then we will begin to think of traditional cultures and indigenous knowledge with respect to collections as stuck in the past and want to put them in a museum and of digitised items that point to natural and cultural close the exhibit case. Understanding ‘traditional’ in that resources. Knowledge systems of the Incas 1177

The first relates to forms of management for these prescribed burns of science can be identified. The on-the- collections that express indigenous ways of doing ground activities that enable strategic linking can be intellectual property. Workable ways of respecting identified. Each firing can begin to make some sense in the different clan ownership of various elements, and other knowledge tradition through the use of a metaphys- recognising differential individual access need to be ically explicit translating zone. found. Our stance at this point is to restrict our research to secular contexts. We avoid engaging with knowledge See also: ▶Environment and Nature that is sacred and religious. Second, maintaining col- lections of digitised material in ways that protect the collections appropriately to avoid piracy from outside References interests is important. Christie, Michael. Aboriginal Knowledge on the Internet. Ngoondjook 19 (2001): 33–51. ---. Computer Databases and Aboriginal Knowledge. Interna- tionalJournalofLearninginSocialContexts1 (2005): 4–12. Can We Articulate Some General Principles for Verran, Helen. Logics and Mathematics: Challenges Arising Thinking About Engaging Disparate Knowledge in Working Across Cultures. Mathematics Across Cul- Traditions? tures: The History of Non-Western Mathematics. Ed. Helaine Selin and Ubiritan D’Ambrosio. Dordrecht: Genuine recognition of difference can be painful. It Kluwer, 2000. 55–78. involves beginning to doubt our own knowledge ---. Transferring Strategies of Land Management: Indigenous traditions as sources of absolute certainty and see them Land Owners and Environmental Scientists. Research in as having limits. Accepting that every knowledge Science and Technology Studies’, Knowledge and Society. tradition is inherently and systematically partial is Ed. Marianne de Laet. Vol. 13. Oxford: Elsevier/JAI, 2002a. 155–81. challenging. It is sometimes difficult to accept the ---. A Postcolonial Moment in Science Studies: Alternative profound significance of difference and at the same time Firing Regimes of Environmental Scientists and Aboriginal K persevere in learning about ‘the other’ and in consider- Landowners. Social Studies of Science 32.5–6 (2002b): 1–34. ing how our familiar ways of knowing might engage Watson Verran, Helen and David Turnbull. Science and Other with other ways of knowing. Very often we approach Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Handbook of Science and other knowledge traditions thinking that they are just an Technology Studies. Ed. Sheila Jasanoff, Gerald Markle, odd or unusual version of the ways we know. That is a James Petersen and Trevor Pinch. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995. 115–39. form of inauthenticity. Website: Indigenous Knowledge and Resource Management The odd aspect of seriously engaging with the other in Northern Australia. ▶http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik. is that in order to recognise difference in knowledge traditions we need to ‘make strange’ our own. In part that is what I have tried to do in these questions and answers, telling of some of the issues that arise when Knowledge Systems of the Incas Aborigines and scientists work together. Beginning to explore how digitising technologies might contribute, I engaged in a process of ‘strangification’.I‘made R. TOM ZUIDEMA strange’ the epistemological assumptions of science, revealing them by setting them alongside another way On the fourteenth of November, 1533, Francisco of ‘witnessing’ valid expressions of knowledge asso- Pizarro and a small Spanish army entered the town ciated with an alternative account of truth. To make of Cajamarca. On the next day they took Atahuallpa, strange our own knowledge traditions we must begin to the last Inca king, prisoner after he had come to their open up questions of metaphysics. encounter with a large army. It was the first and the last Eventually we must find ways to do a form of time that the Spaniards received a glimpse of the ‘experimental metaphysics’. This way we make both independent Inca state which had conquered an empire sides strange with respect to each other. An experimental into southern Colombia and northern Argentina and metaphysics is a framing of issues of difference that takes Chile. Perhaps the empire had already been weakened elements of both metaphysical systems to develop what by the civil war that Atahuallpa had won over his we might call an ad hoc hybrid translation borderland. brother Huascar, the crowned king. While in prison, This can help us begin to accept the limits of our own ways Atahuallpa had Huascar killed, and after some months of being certain about what we know – our own types in Cajamarca the Spaniards executed Atahuallpa. But of epistemic standards. It can also provide a way to more than these events, it was the possession of imagine how we might connect in partial, strategic, and superior arms, including horses, and the help of native opportunistic ways. Some entities that might be usefully troops choosing their side, that allowed the Spanish linked in partial ways – like Aboriginal firings and the army to cross the country almost without resistance and 1178 Knowledge systems of the Incas to enter the capital of Cuzco a year later. Here they set much their own. Certain types of male tunics show up Manco Inca as a puppet king. Less than two years highly standardized geometric patterns. Others include later Manco Inca fled Cuzco and withdrew to the a wide variety of square designs, tucapus that in their eastern slopes of the Andean mountains where heavy distribution as possible signs with meaning are forest made it difficult to defeat him and his successors. reminiscent of a writing system, although only for a In 1572, thirty-six years later, the last Inca king, Tupac few tucapus are there clues to their interpretation. None Amaru, was captured and executed in Cuzco. It was the the less, a careful comparison with written sources end of Inca resistance, and the viceroy Francisco de on the use and iconography of Inca textiles can help us Toledo could consolidate a colonial government that to establish this art as an independent, pre-Hispanic ruled until the early nineteenth century when the source of documents on aspects of Inca culture. Andean countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, The colonial chroniclers provide us with the only Argentina, and Chile declared their independence. written knowledge of Andean culture at the time of the Some of the first Spaniards that described their Spanish conquest. Beginning with Betanzos and Cieza, participation in the conquest of the Inca empire they organize their material in a historical framework. included in their accounts valuable information about Thus they tell how Manco Capac, the first Inca king, its people. But only after some 20 years did the first came out of a cave some 50 km south of Cuzco with chronicles appear, by Juan de Betanzos [1551],1one of three brothers and four sisters and founded the future the first Spaniards to learn the Inca language of capital. At the time of his writing, the conquered people Quechua well, and Pedro Cieza de Leon [1551]. These in the valley of Cuzco still remembered their pre-Inca give an integrated view of Inca culture, referring to past. From here the Incas first conquered surrounding aspects of history, social and political organization, valleys and gave their kingdom an administrative agriculture and husbandry, and religion. Although structure recognizing the old local lords as lower- much of this information derived from the memory ranked members of their own nobility. This nobility of Inca nobles in Cuzco, it was not based on direct consisted of different ranks defined according to observation of a thriving culture with all its rituals and criteria of kinship to the reigning king and queen; thus feasts. Moreover, Andean civilization never developed the local lords were defined by the chroniclers as “Incas a system of writing, recognized by the chroniclers as by privilege”. Like the Inca nobility, they themselves such, through which we would be able to hear the were exempt from contributing labor to Cuzco but their independent voices of its peoples on what they thought subjects were not. Moreover, they and their subjects about their cosmos, their gods and goddesses, and participated in the ritual organization of the town. From their myths and rituals, without being directed by the this base the empire was conquered. questions of representatives (administrators, lawyers, When the Spaniards were still in Cajamarca, they had priests) of Spanish domination. Almost all the some inkling about the enormous extent of the Inca documentation needed for Inca administration was empire but no idea how it was obtained and who had recorded on knotted cords with numerical information been the successive conquerors. On their arrival in organized in bundles, called quipus. Hundreds of these Cuzco, they reconstructed the last two royal successions quipus have been found in graves on the desert coast of before the Spanish conquest. Twenty years later a certain Peru. Most are from Inca times but some are from the consensus was arrived at of the earlier dynasty. But as earlier Wari culture, demonstrating a different system this list of kings was not based on historical records, its of knots and chords. We can study the sophistication reconstruction conformed more to a pattern of western of Inca mathematics, analyze some of the information, than of indigenous ideas about royalty, succession, mostly on bureaucratic and economic but also on ritual conquest, and history. One of the most arduous tasks matters, as released by quipu specialists through of research deals therefore with the questions of Spanish prodding, and be aware of additional informa- evaluating how the Spaniards reconstructed the con- tion on the Inca past and culture memorized by the quest of the Inca empire, how their Inca informants specialists. But most of this research is still in its presented this conquest to them, and how the conquered infancy (Ascher 1981). peoples, especially those outside the original kingdom, Other promising sources of information on Inca understood how this Inca domination had occurred. culture are the many textiles that survived in coastal Betanzos, Cieza, and others after them, especially graves, were conserved in heirlooms from colonial Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa [1572], placed as the times, and were represented in colonial art. The Incas central person in the epic of Inca conquests the ninth inherited sophisticated techniques of weaving from king, called Pachacuti Inca. Cuzco had been attacked earlier cultures, but the style of their art was very by the kingdom of the Chancas during the reign of his father, Viracocha Inca. As the latter fled from town, 1 Square brackets after the name of an old author indicate the Pachacuti Inca defeated the enemies and was crowned date of writing or of first publication. king even though he had not been designated as crown Knowledge systems of the Incas 1179 prince. He rebuilt the city, reorganized the people who constructed the myth of a creator god coming from Lake lived in its valley, elevating in rank those who had Titicaca or Tiahuanaco, called Tunupa, around the lake helped him in the defense and lowering others, and he and Viracocha in Cuzco. In the sixteenth century three established different institutions of government. Thus different languages were spoken: Aymara that extended he divided the valley into districts based on the system to the west of Cuzco and near Lima, Puquina, and Uru. of agricultural irrigation; he organized a system of Puquina was probably the most important language at worship of those ancestral mummies that he decided to the time of Tiahuanaco, and Uru may have been there recognize as such; he assigned administrative posts to and in the high plains of Bolivia even earlier. But since relatives and other nobles; and he established the colonial times Uru was retained mostly by people with a calendar of state celebrations. fishing and hunting economy, and Puquina died out. The story of Pachacuti Inca has all the characteristics Today, Aymara is mostly spoken by people living south of a foundation myth and with its help we can get an and east of Lake Titicaca. understanding of how the histories of the Incas before Most of our historical information on Aymara culture and after this king were constructed in colonial times. derives from colonial administrative documents. Memories of earlier times were organized according Among these are, however, two of the most important to the ancestral system, wherein a ranking order ones for research on local government and economic of mummies was used to establish a dynastic order. organization in the Andes at the time of Spanish But the dynastic sequence after Pachacuti Inca cannot conquest. The first, from 1567, describes the former be taken without critical examination either. The kingdom of the Lupaca south of Lake Titicaca. Its many conquests of the Inca empire toward Colombia economy was based not only on highland crops grown and Chile and Argentina were said to be accomplished there but also on crops from distant valleys down on the mostly by Pachacuti Inca’s son, Tupa Yupanqui, and Pacific coast. Instead of obtaining these lowland crops grandson, Huayna Capac. (The latter died some seven through trade it had sent its own people to grow them. years before the Spaniards arrived). But the Inca The second document, from 1568–1570, concerns a K informants to Spanish questioning recognized that former kingdom north of the lake; here cultivation of some rulers after Pachacuti Inca had been suppressed coca in the lower valleys east of the Andes had been from the official list of kings. Thus it is very possible important. that the history of Inca conquest was not as short as In conquering Chimu and Lake Titicaca, the Incas suggested. Here the memories of the conquered peoples had concentrated their rule near former centers of can help us to arrive at a more realistic picture of power. In other cases they established new provincial Andean history. capitals away from such centers. The most important Intensive documentary research beginning some 50 and best researched example of this kind is the city years ago on various local kingdoms integrated into the of Huanucopampa in central Peru near the eastern Inca empire allows us to get some idea of their cultural slopes of the Andes. It formed part of a chain of and institutional differences and their ties to earlier provincial capitals going north from Cuzco, including peoples whose art and archaeology we study. Perhaps Vilcas Huaman, Bombon, Huanucopampa, Cajamarca, the most important kingdoms that the Incas conquered Tumibamba (present day Cuenca in Ecuador) and were those of the Chimu on the north coast of Peru and Quito. Huanucopampa was perhaps the largest of all. It around Lake Titicaca. All had had a prestigious history is also best preserved, as its location on a high plateau of their own. The Chimu had built a kingdom along did not attract later Spanish settlement. Huanucopampa the coast from about the valley of Lima to near the expresses in an admirable way the basic ideas of Inca present-day border of Peru with Ecuador. Their capital town planning. Around a huge rectangular plaza the of Chanchan had been the largest city in South four quarters of town were organized, each with its own America. They were the descendants of the Mochica pattern of social activities. In the center of the plaza people (ca. AD 0–700) whose pottery with realistic stood the Ushnu. Chroniclers describe the Ushnu in the painted scenes established one of the high points of plaza of Inca towns as a platform or pyramid near a Andean arts. The Chimu are the only kingdom on which small round structure of stone where offerings of corn we have some dynastic information from before the beer were pledged to the Sun god, the ancestors, and Spanish and even Incaic conquests. Recently, much work the forces of the underworld. Cuzco had such a ritual has been accomplished reconstructing their culture and complex but the platform was probably a temporary politicalorganization(Moseleyand Cordy-Collins1990). structure used only during special feasts. But in Around Lake Titicaca the cultures of Pucara (ca. 200 Huanucopampa the large platform was built of stone BCE–AD 400), north of the lake, and Tiahuanaco and could have served also during military parades. On (ca. AD 200–900) south of it once flourished. The the east side of the plaza and aligned with the Ushnu impressive stone ruins of their ceremonial centers stood the palace of the Inca governor. The king played an important role in Inca mythology. Chroniclers probably resided here when passing through town. It 1180 Knowledge systems of the Incas contained three courtyards, as one chronicler also Of particular interest is the imperial (re-)organization describes for a royal palace in Cuzco. Thus we can of the acllas, the “chosen ones.” Girls were selected in assume that Inca and non-Inca subjects could enter the local organizations according to set criteria of beauty first and largest courtyard, that only nobility entered the and assigned tasks, like weaving and making corn beer, second courtyard, and that the family of the governor or in houses built for that purpose. From there they could the king had exclusive access to the third and smallest be reselected and sent to provincial capitals and even courtyard to which were attached their living quarters. to Cuzco. Their organization touched on almost all There was a straight road leading from the plaza to the aspects of Inca culture. Ranking was expressed in an inner court and the various gates through which visitors idiom of age-classes, and these applied also to men had to pass still stand, each crowned by two stone lions from their time of initiation and marriage to the time facing one another like on the lion gate of Mycenae. that they turned over their social obligations to their Above the town, on its outskirts, can still be seen the sons. Some acllas were married off by their curaca, an hundreds of storehouses for the tribute brought by the Inca governor or the king, either as a principal or as people of the province of Huanucopampa. Two a secondary wife, or were dedicated to a role in extensive documents from 1562 describe in detail the Inca religion. When, with the Spanish conquest this demographic composition of this province and the organization fell apart, one way acllas were dealt with contributions that its villages had to make to the state. was by converting them to nuns. But their roles were Huanucopampa and its province have provided us with not really comparable to those of nuns, because this the best opportunity for research on the organization of female organization with the queen at its head in most an Inca province and its economy. respects paralleled the male hierarchy. The concept Many documents now being studied allow us to of aclla also played a central role in the imperial reconstruct the local sociopolitical situations in Inca organization of sacrifice, the capac hucha, as this times. Regular forms of organization, like those consist- practice had grown out of the calendrical organization ing of moieties and of three or four local groups, reveal of local rituals in Cuzco. Children were selected as patterns of regional variation which have survived in acllas and dedicated to various but always specifically many places. Although the social functions of these recorded purposes. Thus they were sacrificed, includ- organizations may have changed after almost half a ing couples of a boy and a girl. In their own locality, millennium, they retain their ritual importance. A form sacrifice might be for the purpose for obtaining good of state organization that could be combined with the pottery clay. In far-away places sacrifices commemo- ones already mentioned consisted of bringing together rated important events, such as winning a battle. In families in numbers of 10, 50, 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000, Cuzco it was part of a great state ritual, either for the 10,000, and finally 40,000, the latter number expres- time of planting, of the December solstice or of sing an ideal way of organizing an Inca province. In a the harvest. Aclla sacrifice was the culminating act similar way, the population of Cuzco itself consisted of in an organization of rituals that crystallized the ten panacas and ten ayllus, the first referring to the cosmological values of Inca government. relatives of the king who administered these groups. Inca religion forms an integral part of Andean Panacas and ayllus played a crucial role in the religion in general as observed in various parts of calendrical rituals of the capital. the empire. Because of the importance of Cuzco as With the Inca conquests of the empire, the adminis- imperial capital and the intellectual interest of the trative model of Cuzco was replicated in the organiza- Spanish in its history, we are also well-informed about tion of the whole empire. For instance, the four quarters Inca religion. However, for reasons of colonial history of town, the suyus, were extended into the four we also have extensive accounts of myths, rituals, and provinces of the empire. Inca nobles and lords of religion in the mountain provinces of Huarochiri and the Incas-by-privilege became imperial administrators Cajatambo, central Peru, where in the early seventeenth (tucricuc) supervising local lords (curacas) who century the Spaniards believed they observed a themselves governed their territories like the king in resurgence of indigenous beliefs that they tried to Cuzco. But curacas, or their representatives or sons, eradicate. While the original belief systems in Cuzco also had to visit Cuzco. Periods of four months’ or a and the two other provinces may not have been that year’s residence in town are mentioned, but we do not wide apart, the circumstances of their recording were known how regularly they were repeated. A specially very different. Chroniclers in Cuzco, among whom important time for such visits was after harvest, when there were well-educated people, came to the Inca past lords came with their tribute and presents for the Inca through their own curiosity and were informed by Inca king. He consulted with them about their governments nobles. Initially, both parties may have looked for a and discovered who did not want to comply with his common intellectual basis. However, the religious obligations. Presents that the king received from one expressions in Huarochiri and Cajatambo were seen province were awarded by him to the lords of another. as a rebellious return to pagan beliefs in villages after Knowledge systems of the Incas 1181 more than 80 years of teaching that Christianity was the bringing Christianity long before the Spaniards did. only true religion. I will deal here with the problem of According to this colonial reinterpretation, Viracocha studying Inca religion, although many myths and was the creator god of the Incas. But his mythology rituals may have been recorded in Huarochiri and became embedded also, in fragmentary form like that Cajatambo in a form closer to pre-Hispanic reality. of other gods, in the legendary history of kings. Stories Unlike the situation of extensive pantheons in Aztec were told of the eighth king, Viracocha Inca, that were and Maya religions and of illustrations of gods, more fitting for his namesake the god Viracocha, and goddesses, and priests dressed as such in pre-Hispanic in a similar vein his son Pachacuti Inca was associated and early colonial codices and chronicles, the Spa- with the Thunder god. In fact, one chronicler niards described only a few gods and goddesses for the recognizes these relationships as such when he says Incas, and even those were not visualized in any way in that each king took as his name of nobility that of his god. Inca art. Nevertheless, documents and chronicles are Pachamama was the great goddess of the earth, but again replete with names of sacred places in the form of no stories of her exploits are told. The myths of some Inca mountains and rocks, lakes and springs, and all other queens are more interesting, considered in their roles as kinds of natural and man-made objects with ritual ancestral deities. Probably, the attention to Pachamama significance. Foremost were three male gods, the Sun, was mostly developed in early colonial times. the Thunder, and Viracocha and one female god, Of more immediate interest for the study of Andean Pachamama, the “mother earth.” The ruling king was religion are the numerous sacred places, the huacas, considered to be the son of the Sun, but from Cuzco we mentioned in various local documents. Sometimes have no mythical description of the latter’s actions. The myths are told about them as actors like humans. Two Thunder god was seen in various parts of the country as indigenous chroniclers from the early seventeenth an active mountain god, but in Cuzco only indirect century give us extensive hierarchies of huacas of references to his deeds occur. The god Viracocha seems more than local importance, although our sources tell to have corresponded to a type of mythical figure, us little about their possible organization. In about K known elsewhere in the Andes under various names. 1560, however, the Spaniards had become aware that in The myth of the god Coniraya in Huarochiri, there Cuzco the cult of the huacas was organized according compared to Viracocha, has perhaps best preserved this to a highly sophisticated scheme of directions as seen pre-Hispanic image. He pursues a woman along a river from the temple of the Sun in the town. Families each down to the Pacific Ocean. Here she escapes as he took care of the cult of a particular huaca and larger cannot follow her any further. Along the way and social groups were associated with the huacas along through various acts that present him as a trickster, one direction, the ceque, or with groups of ceques. The he defines the interests of people in their land for organization of the ceques served various social cultivation, water for irrigation, and wild animals purposes. For instance, the topographical description for use in rituals. An original way of representing of the valley was of interest for land distribution in Viracocha in Cuzco, although found in a late chronicle, agriculture, irrigation, husbandry, and mining, espe- is as a force of nature, a giant, who during a month of cially in terms of quarries of stone used for building heavy rain comes down the Villcanota river near purposes. Through the ceque system a formal description Cuzco, flowing from the southeast to the northwest, can be given of Cuzco’s political organization including threatening to destroy it. But Betanzos and Cieza its calendrical organization of state rituals as defined in describe Viracocha as a god who brought forth from the terms of its system of astronomical observation. Polo de island of Titicaca (the rock of the cat), in the lake of the Ondegardo, the chronicler who discovered the ceque same name southeast of Cuzco, the sun, the moon and system in Cuzco, mentions that other villages, towns, the ancestors of different peoples. Viracocha sends and provinces of southern Peru and Bolivia also had their these underground to their local places of origin, from ceque systems. Some interregional ceques are described, where they reemerge to establish local government. of use in the imperial system of capac hucha sacrifice that Viracocha himself also travels northwest, following the suggests a hierarchy and network of ceque systems. Villcanota river near Cuzco, but continues until he Ceque systems were recorded on quipus. They supported arrives at the sea in Ecuador. There he disappears, not an Andean way of reflecting in an abstract way on into the sea but over it toward the horizon. This version cultural values. of the myth was well adapted to the imperial interests of Andean civilization did not direct its interests toward the Incas and may have also received a colonial the use of writing like Mesoamerican civilization did. reinterpretation because of the Spanish interests of Thus the intellectual aspects of Inca culture are difficult including Peru in a universal empire. Soon the exploits to grasp. But so much can still be studied of early Andean of Viracocha were also phrased in terms of those of two practices through those of their descendants, as in early apostles, Saint Bartholomew or Saint Thomas, techniques of agriculture and weaving that it will become who had been said to have traveled through the country possible to define the originality of Andean civilization. 1182 Knowledge systems in India

See also: ▶Quipu, ▶Textiles, ▶Mummies, ▶Calendar, Vedas). The four Upavedas were (1) Āyurveda, literally ▶City Planning, ▶Stonemasonry, ▶Irrigation, ▶Time “The Science of Life,” which constituted the medical system; (2) Arthaśāstra, which constituted state craft References and political theory; (3) Dhanurveda, literally, archery, but practically constituting the art of warfare in its Ascher, Marcia and Robert Ascher. Code of the Quipu. A ā Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture. Ann Arbor: varied aspects, and (4) G ndharvaveda, constituting University of Michigan Press, 1981. music, drama, and the fine arts. Hemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. London: Abacus, Similarly, the knowledge systems required for under- 1972. standing, interpreting, and applying the Vedas were . Kendall, Ann. Everyday Life of the Incas. New York: G. P. organized into six branches called Vedāngas, literally ’ Putnam s Sons, 1973. “the limbs of the Vedas,” with the Vedas personified in a MacCormack, Sabine. Religion in the Andes. Vision and ā . ā Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. Princeton, New human form. The six Ved ngas are Vy karana (Gram- Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991. mar), Chandas (Metrics), Śiks.ā (Phonetics), Nirukt.a Masuda, Shimada, Izumi and Craig Morris, eds. Andean (Etymology), Kalpa (Ritual), and Jyotis.a (Astronomy Ecology and Civilization. An Interdisciplinary Perspective and Mathematics). . on Andean Ecological Complementarity. Tokyo: University These Vedāngas were essential, since the Vedashad to of Tokyo Press, 1985. be understood correctly (needing etymology and Morris, Craig and Donald E. Thompson. Huánuco Pampa. grammar), pronounced and chanted accurately (needing An Inca City and Its Hinterland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1985. metrics and phonetics), and used properly in various Moseley, Michael E. and Alana Cordy-Collins eds. The contexts (needing ritual), and the times for these Northern Dynasties. Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor. performances had to be computed correctly, requiring Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and the knowledge of computation of the flow of time and of Collection, 1990. planetary movements (needing astronomy and mathe- Pärssinen, Martti. Tawantinsuyu. The Inca State and Its matics). Even though the Śāstras originally evolved in Political Organization. Helsinki: Suomen Historiallinen Seura, 1992. the context of the Vedas, they also developed an Urton, Gary. The History of a Myth. Pacariqtambo and the independent identity and their own corpus of literature Origin of the Incas. Austin: University of Texas Press, and applications that extended well outside the 1990. originally formulated requirements of the Vedic context. Zuidema, R. Tom. Reyes y Guerreros. Ensayos de Cultura In later periods the list of Śāstras became much Andina. Ed. Manuel Burga. Lima: Fomciencias, 1989. larger and the area covered was much wider. For ---. Inca Civilization in Cuzco. Austin: University of Texas example, in his famous text Kámasūtra, the author Press, 1990a. ā ā ---. At the King’s Table. Inca Concepts of Sacred Kingship in V tsy yana provides a list of 64 arts with which any Cuzco. Kingship and the Kings. Ed. Jean-Claude Galey. scholar should be familiar. London: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1990b. 253–78. Since the various branches of Indian knowledge ---. Guaman Poma and the Art of Empire: Toward an systems are extremely diverse, we will focus upon a Iconography of Inca Royal Dress. Transatlantic Encounters. few that can best illustrate some characteristic different Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth Century. Ed. features. These are (1) the fact that linguistics occupied Kenneth J. Andrien and Rolena Adorno. Berkeley and Los a seminal place even for exact sciences (unlike Western Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. 151–202. knowledge systems); (2) the nature of theorization and theory building in Indian tradition; (3) the algorithmic nature of Indian computation, and (4) the sociology of Knowledge Systems in India organization of knowledge –the “classical” and the “folk” streams and their interrelation. In any scientific discourse it is essential to achieve A. V. BALASUBRAMANIAN precision and rigor. In the Western tradition, the geometry of Euclid is considered the paradigm of an Traditionally all knowledge in India has been traced to the ideal theory, and various other branches of knowledge Vedas.TheVedasareconsideredtobedivinerevelation. tried to emulate Euclid by setting out their knowledge on They were organized into four major branches: R. gveda, the basis of a formal axiomatic system. In contrast, in Yajurveda, Sāmaveda, and the Atharvaveda. Various Indian tradition, an attempt was made to use natural other branches of knowledge grew up as auxiliaries that language and to refine and sharpen its potential by were to be developed in order to interpret and put to technical operations so that precise discourse was practical use the material of the Vedas. possible even in natural language. This is so, particularly There were a total of 14 Śāstras or branches of in Sanskrit, where we find that even the most abstract knowledge: the four Vedas, the four Upavedas . and metaphysical discussions regarding grammar, (auxiliary Vedas), and the six Vedāngas (parts of the mathematics, or logic are still written in natural Knowledge systems in India 1183 language. In Indian knowledge systems, it is the science facilitate the accurate construction of various types of of linguistics that occupied the central place which, in sacrificial altars of the Vedic ritual, these sūtras lay the West, was occupied by mathematics. down the basic geometrical properties of plane figures like the triangle, the rectangle, the rhombus, and the circle. Basic categories of the Indian astronomical Linguistics tradition were also established in the various Vedān. ga Linguistics is the earliest of Indian sciences to have Jyotis.a texts. been rigorously systematized. This set an example Rigorous systemization of Indian astronomy begins for all the other Indian sciences. Linguistics is with Āryabhat.a (b. AD 476). His work Āryabhat.īya is a systematized in As.t.ādhyāyī – the text of Sanskrit concise text of 121 aphoristic verses containing grammar by Pān.ini. The date of this text is yet to be separate sections on basic astronomical definitions settled with any certainty. However, it is not later than and parameters; basic mathematical procedures in 500 BCE. (The dates mentioned here are those based arithmetic, geometry, algebra, and trigonometry; meth- on Western scholarship. An indigenous Indian dating ods of determining the mean and true positions of the and chronology in this matter have yet to be estab- planets at any given time; and descriptions of the lished.) In the As.t.ādhyāyī,Pān.ini achieves a complete motions of the sun, moon, and planets along with characterization of the Sanskrit language as spoken at computation of the solar and lunar eclipses. After his time, and also manages to specify the way it Āryabhat.a there followed a long series of illustrious deviated from the Sanskrit of the Vedas. Given a list of astronomers with their equally illustrious texts, many the root words of the Sanskrit language (dhātupatha) of which gave rise to a host of commentaries and and using the aphorisms of Pān.ini, it is possible to refinements by later astronomers and became the generate all the possible correct utterances in Sanskrit. cornerstones for flourishing schools of astronomy and This is the main thrust of the generative grammars of mathematics. Some of the well-known names belonging today that seek to achieve a purely grammatical to the Indian tradition are Varāhamihira (d. AD 578), K description of language through a formalized set of Brahmagupta (b. AD 598), Bhāskara I (b. AD 629), derivational strings. It is understandable that until such Lalla (eighth century AD), Muñjāla (AD 932), Śrīpati attempts were made in the West in the recent past, to the (AD 1039), Bhāskara II (b. AD 1115), Mādhava Western scholars the Paninian aphorisms (sūtras) (fourteenth century AD), Parameśvara (ca. AD 1380), looked like nothing but some artificial and abstruse Nīlakan.t.a (ca. AD 1444), Jyes.t.hadeva (sixteenth formulations with little content. century AD), Gan.eśa, and Daivajña (sixteenth century Science in India seems to start with the assumption AD). The tradition continued right up to the late that truth resides in the real world with all of its eighteenth century, and in regions like Kerala, original diversity and complexity. Thus for the linguist what is work continued to appear until much later. ultimately true is the language as spoken by the people. The most striking feature of this tradition is the As Patañjali, a famous grammarian who wrote a efficacy with which the Indians handled and solved commentary on Pān.ini’s Grammar emphasizes, valid rather complicated problems. Thus the Śulbasūtras utterances are not manufactured by the linguist, but are contain all the basic theorems of plane geometry. already established by practice in the world. Nobody Around this time Indians also developed a sophisti- goes to a linguist asking for valid utterances, the way cated theory of numbers including the concepts of zero one goes to a potter asking for pots. Linguists do make and negative numbers. They also arrived at simple generalizations about language as spoken in the world, algorithms for basic arithmetical operations by using but these are not the truth behind or above the reality. the place-value notation. The reason for the success of They are not the idealization according to which reality the Indian mathematician lies perhaps in the explicitly is tailored. On the other hand, what is ideal is real, and algorithmic and computational nature of Indian mathe- some part of the real always escapes our idealization of matics. The objective of the Indian mathematician was it. It is the business of the scientist to formulate these not to find “ultimate axiomatic truths” in mathematics, generalizations, but also at the same time to be attuned to but to find methods of solving specific problems that the reality, to be conscious of the exceptional nature of might arise in astronomical or other contexts. The Indian each specific instance. This attitude seems to permeate mathematicians were prepared to set up algorithms that all Indian science and makes it an exercise quite different might give only approximate solutions to the problems at from the scientific enterprise of the West. hand, and to evolve theories of error and recursive procedures so that the approximations might be kept in check. This algorithmic methodology persisted in the Astronomy and Mathematics Indian mathematical consciousness until recently, so that Indian mathematics finds its beginning in the Ramanujan in the twentieth century might have made his Śulbasūtras of the Vedic times. Purportedly written to impressive mathematical discoveries through its use. 1184 Knowledge systems of indigenous America

A¯ yurveda: The Science of Life who belongs to a particular country or a region, herbs The third major science of the classical tradition is from the same region are most wholesome.” Āyurveda, the science of life. Like linguistics and The fact that it is the particularity of the context that is astronomy this finds its early expression in the Vedas, the overriding consideration and that Sastric (i.e., especially the Atharvaveda, in which a large amount of scientific) principles are to be considered as precepts early medicinal lore is collected. Systemization of and guidelines and not applied in a mechanical or Āyurveda takes place during the period from the fifth legalistic manner is clearly stated in many classical texts. century BCE to the fifth century AD in the Caraka “AVaidya who comprehends the principles of Rasa,etc. Sam. hitā, Suśruta Sam. hitā and the As.t.ān. ga San. graha,the would discard treatment if not wholesome to the patient in so-called Br. hat-trayee texts which are still popular today. a given situation, even if it is prescribed in the texts; on the This is followed by a long period of intense activity during contrary he would adopt treatments that are helpful to the which attempts are made to refine the theory and practice patient, even if they do not find a mention in the texts.” of medicine. This process of accretion of information and It is also interesting to note what the texts of refinement of practice continued right up to the beginning Āyurveda say about folk knowledge. The Caraka of the nineteenth century. Sam. hitā states that “the goatherds, shepherds, cow- herds and other forest dwellers know the drugs by name and form.” Similarly, the Suśruta Sam. hitā states “one Folk and Classical Traditions can know about the drugs from the cowherds, tapasvis, There exists a vast amount of knowledge which hunters, those who live in the forest and those who live represents the wisdom of thousands of years of by eating roots and tubers.” observation and experience. While in any given area This is an overview of Indian knowledge systems and (such as medicine) there may be a body of experts or does not go into the details of achievement in a variety of learned professionals, knowledge also prevails in more areas, particularly those pertaining to material sciences. diffuse or scattered forms. In Indian tradition, it seems Our attempt is to highlight basic characteristics of these to be a general principle running through all types of knowledge systems, particularly in those respects where learning that knowledge can and does prevail in various they differ from their modern counterparts. forms and also gets communicated in many ways. The general picture that emerges seems to be that the See also: ▶Mathematics in India, ▶Astronomy in “classical texts” in any area of learning may set out India broad general principles as well as their application in a given context, say a particular region of the country. References But in various different contexts or regions, knowledge gets expressed based on the given situation, and the Balasubramanian, A. V. and M. Radhika. Local Health generalities get adopted, modified, or even overridden Traditions: An Introduction. Madras: Lok Swasthya Parampara Samvardhan Samithi, 1989. sometimes based on the specificity. This can perhaps ā best be illustrated in the case of medicine, where Cardona, G. P n. ini: A Survey of Research. The Hague: Mouton, 1976. classical medical texts themselves deal with this issue. Sivaramakrishnan, K. The Politics of Fire and Forest Regener- A classical text of Āyurveda such as Caraka Samh. itā ation inColonial Bengal. Environment and History. 2 (1996): expounds general principles of drug action on the six 145–94. factors: Dravya, gun. a, Rasa, Vīrya, Vipāka, and Prab- Srinivas, M. D. The Methodology of Indian Mathematics and its hava. It also discusses remedies for several diseases and Contemporary Relevance. PPST Bulletin-S 12 (1987): 1–35. lists specific drugs. These may get modified to suit local conditions. In any recipe for a drug, one can substitute a nonprincipal component with an equivalent, which may be listed in the text or selected on the basis of the Knowledge Systems of Indigenous principle of Rasa, Vīrya, etc. From time to time America traditional physicians produce texts and manuals which set out prescriptions for drugs in any given area based on what is available and suitable to the requirements of that LAURELYN WHITT area. For example, the text Rājamr. gan. ka lists 129 recipes, and in his foreword the editor states that it is a compilation First Words that must have been made by a vaidya (physician) from “Knowledge is inherent in all things” (Luther Tamil Nadu, since it contains recipes based on herbs Standing Bear 1933). readily available in Tamil Nadu. Such recipes are not only easier to formulate, but they are also more suited to the Luther Standing Bear’s observation that knowledge area, in accordance with Caraka’sdictum,“For a person inheres in all things openly expresses what many Knowledge systems of indigenous America 1185 indigenous knowledge systems presuppose, and what, If knowledge inheres in all things, it can only properly by being presupposed, shapes several of their distinc- be educed or drawn forth. So coming to know another tive features. The inherency of knowledge, and the entity or process is best approached as an eductive inclusiveness of its scope, are reflected in what is taken process that turns on establishing certain relations with to be primary or fundamental – in what knowledge is it. Coming to know it well involves strengthening held to be knowledge of. They are also reflected in a and sustaining those relations. So knowledge within web of prescriptions and proscriptions that guide the indigenous knowledge systems is always knowledge process of knowing. In both respects, indigenous of relations; it is not individual entities or processes knowledge systems stand in contrast to their counter- which are primary or basic, but the relations that hold parts originating within the West (a location more between and among them. Indigenous knowledge, ideological than geographic). Battiste and Henderson (2000) note, is “the expression We can only begin with our own assumptions, with of the vibrant relationships between the people, their what is taken for granted in what follows. And that is ecosystems, and the other living beings and spirits that that knowledge systems are diverse and their value is share their lands.” Relatedness, or affiliation, is best contextual. Oppressive relations of power, however, understood in its primary – genealogical – context. have shaped their histories and continue to inflict the One of its clearest and simplest expressions is in the present, in ways that obscure or override this diversity. Lakota invocation mitakuye oyasin (“I am related to all As a result, the existence and value of indigenous that is”). It is reflected as well in the Andean concept of knowledge systems, in the Americas and elsewhere, an ayllu – a group of related persons, human, and has been systematically denied. In the origin stories of nonhuman, who live in a particular place: “Ayllu refers the dominant culture, indigenous peoples have super- not only to relationships between human beings but to stitions, myths, or belief systems based on ignorance. the relationship between all members of the Pacha… They do not have knowledge systems. they are all relatives and are at once children, parents, These stories no longer have the force they once did. and siblings” (Rivera 1995). K There are two reasons for this. The first is that the Those seeking knowledge must first elicit, or solicit, dominant knowledge system has begun to falter in then sustain relations with whatever it is they hope ways that are obvious even within the West. While to know. As Deloria (1992) states, the “principle of some have seen this as a matter of inadequacy or relatedness always remained the critical interpretive incompleteness, others believe the problem lies deeper. method of understanding phenomena.” Because knowl- The second is that indigenous peoples across the planet edge is a matter of establishing connections with other are presently engaged in various and vigorous projects entities, or of recognizing bonds that already exist, the of recovery: of language and land, of law and process of knowing is dynamic, interactive. Both sovereignty, and of knowledge and value systems. parties are actively engaged in knowing as well as in We will touch only lightly on the first two of these, but being known. Since most things are held to be animate, linger on the third. Indigenous peoples, in the Americas rather than inanimate, they are fully capable of and elsewhere, are intent on restoring and protecting engaging in relationships, of entering into relations their knowledge systems. And they are using many with human beings. Knowledge of them is not, as the different approaches and every means available to do dominant knowledge system would tend to have it, a this. This story of resistance and recovery is essential to unilateral process, the result of an active knowing understanding not only the politics of indigenous subject working upon a passive object that is known. knowledge systems, but also their substance, and their Within indigenous knowledge systems, coming to vital role in the world. know other entities is always a bilateral, and most It is a story we attempt to relate here by drawing on as often a multilateral, process. This involves and many different voices as possible, mindful that “writing encourages an awareness of interdependency: “Only things up gives authority to a particular view and a through interdependence could the human beings particular writer… writers are insulated from the disci- survive. Families belonged to clans, and it was by pline imposed on purveyors of knowledge in an oral clan that the human being joined with the animal and culture – from the collective analysis and judgment of a plant world. Life on the high, arid plateau became community, each of whose members share equal viable when the human beings were able to imagine authority to interpret reality” (Castellano 2000). themselves as sisters and brothers to the badger, antelope, clay, yucca, and sun. Not until they could – Relatedness and the Inherency of Knowledge find a viable relationship to the terrain the physical landscape they found themselves in – could they “In each place they lived, they learned the subtle, emerge” (Silko 1996). but all important, language of relationship” (Cajete Another implication of Standing Bear’s comment that 2000). knowledge inheres in all things is that knowledge is not 1186 Knowledge systems of indigenous America an exclusively human project. Other than human entities Indigenous construing of knowledge as relatedness, as are capable of knowing, of making and maintaining a matter of appreciating how we are bound to other relations; if they were not, we would not be able to know entities and processes, makes integration with them them. Moreover, if alternative ways of knowing the possible, desirable and necessary for survival. Our fates world were not possible for us, the scope of human and futures are understood to be conjoined with theirs. knowledge would be severely constrained. Indigenous Knowing them commits us to cohering and cohabiting knowledge systems place considerable value and with them. Indigenous knowledge systems enable such significance on gaining access to the perspective of the coherence, such holding and living together. To other than human. By expanding “our understanding of acknowledge affiliational ties with other entities in the sense of being relatives,” Deloria (1992) observes, the natural and social worlds is to acknowledge that and “We discover that plants, birds, and animals often gave how our lives are linked together with theirs. Connec- specific information to people.” tion or affiliation with them makes survival possible, Indigenous accounts of knowledge as a process of and because we are so connected our survival can relating and of acknowledging relatedness, of making only be mutual. We are allied and responsible for one connections and sustaining bonds with other entities, another. allow great latitude in what can be known and how one This leads to an understanding of sovereignty that comes to know. They embrace “the relational potenti- diverges markedly from those that have prevailed ality of all peoples and all creation” (Williams 1997). within the West. Sovereignty is held to be relational, Their commitments to epistemological pluralism and rather than absolute; it is conditioned by responsibility nonanthropocentrism, to coming to know the world and respect. It is also applicable to all entities, human through perspectives that are diverse and not restricted or not. Relations of domination and assimilation have to that of the human, run counter to those of the no place within such a concept of sovereignty; self- dominant knowledge system. They are at odds too with determination is held to be compatible with, and the idea that knowledge requires separating the knower constrained by, mutual interdependence. The Gus- from the known in order to capture the one way the Wen-Tah, the Two Row Wampum Treaty Belt hat the world really is, independently of the human beings who Iroquois presented to the United Nations, visually know it. As Momaday (1976) comments, nature is not expresses this view of relational sovereignty. Accord- something apart from the human, but the element in ing to it, differing peoples may be allied and which the human exists. interdependent, yet retain their full distinctiveness If human beings are in fact inextricably bound up in and ability to live according to their own laws, customs relations – to one another and to the entities and and ways: “We shall each travel the river together, side processes in the natural world – what is vital is by side, but in our own boat. Neither of us will steer the understanding those relations, knowing how our other’s vessel” (Penner 1983). The same vision of a behavior threatens them and how we can best sustain relational sovereignty in which power and agency are them. Indigenous knowledge systems do not purport to constrained by responsibility and respect, was ex- offer knowledge in the sense of universal truth, or of pressed by a delegate to the United Nations Working accurate accounts of the one way the world really is Group on Indigenous Populations: “We need to independently of us. Their virtue is that they enable begin to think of self-determination in terms of survival, by helping us realize relatedness, the role and peoples existing in relationship with each other…[T] contribution which all entities make, and how those he right of a people to self-determination is not a roles may best be preserved and continued. right for peoples to determine their status without consideration of the rights of other peoples with whom Sovereignty, Responsibility, and Respect they are presently connected and with whom they will continue to be connected in the future. For we must Yet within the Aboriginal community a paradox realize that peoples, no less than individuals, exist and seemingly exists. In no other place did the indi- thrive only in dialogue with each other. Self-determi- vidual have more integrity or receive more honour nation necessarily involves engagement with and than in the Aboriginal community. The indivi- responsibility to others…” (Scott 1996). Sovereignty, dual’s ability as a unique entity in the group to so construed, is accountable. It enables and endorses become what she or he is ultimately meant to collective survival but is inconsistent with domination be, was explicitly recognized. There was explicit and assimilation. recognition of the individual’s right in the Human power and agency are thus limited in collective to experience his or her own life. No fundamental ways by the relationships that bind us to one could dictate the path that must be followed other entities, as Coffey and Tsosie (2001) suggest. (Ermine 1995). Knowledge of other beings involves acknowledgement Knowledge systems of indigenous America 1187 of them, that is, respect for their role in and Stories have long figured as indispensable aspects of responsibilities to the alliances that bind us together. indigenous legal and political knowledge practice. As In other words, to know is to value. The processes of Williams (1997) observes, “Indian diplomats recognized knowing and valuing are integrated in indigenous that making connections with others was a most knowledge systems; they mutually inform, and are difficult process. Successful treaty-making required informed by, one another. This is evident in the fact that the use of great acts of the imagination so that the two one of the primary virtues within indigenous value sides could come to see themselves as related in their systems, respect, is as much a cognitive virtue as an needs and sufferings as fellow human beings… this is ethical one. Knowledge that is not conditioned by why a treaty was told as a special kind of story, a way of respect cannot be had, nor can there be respect in the imagining a world of human solidarity where we regard absence of understanding. Among the Iroquois, respect, others as relatives.” The integrative power of stories, or the “wish-to-be-appreciated,” is the “fundamental the way they help us initiate and maintain relations shared perception – the first principle – of existence. As with others who may appear different from us, is long as everything is appreciated for what it does and especially needed to guide human interaction with the what it shares to sustain the cycles of Creation, the world other than human world. Stories are related to convey will be in balance and life will continue” (Barriero the behavioral constraints that should guide us if we 1992). The Anishinabe concept of minobimaatisiiwin are to act responsibly, if we are to understand and (the good life) expresses a similar notion. “Implicit in respect the role of other entities and their unique minobimaatisiiwin,” LaDuke (1992) notes, “is a contin- contribution to the natural world we share. Many uous habitation of place, an intimate understanding of different peoples have many different stories about the relationship between humans and the ecosystem and what happens when someone, human or otherwise, of the need to maintain this balance.” It describes, “how violates these constraints. you live your life according to natural law, how you The significance of stories within indigenous behave as an individual in relationship with other knowledge systems lies as much in the telling as in K individuals and in relationship with the land and all the what is told. The intergenerational transmission of things which are animate on the land” (LaDuke 1997). In knowledge from elders is both a responsibility and a this manner, indigenous knowledge systems offer gift. Stories are only told in the context of particular accounts of knowledge “intended to incite humans to relationships and are a means of maintaining and act in such ways as to ensure the protection and nurturing those relationships. Part of the responsibility reproduction of all creatures in the universe” (Holmes of telling stories lies in determining when and to whom 2000). they should be told. Elders often decline to have their words printed or Story: Experience and Imagination in Indigenous to be videotaped because they insist that what they Knowledge Systems have to say must be communicated in person. Aboriginal people know that knowledge is power “There is a story connected with every place, and that power can be used for good or evil. In every object in the landscape” (Silko 1996). passing on knowledge the teacher has an obliga- tion to consider whether the learner is ready to use Since knowing other entities involves sustaining knowledge responsibly.…Teachers who allow relations with them that acknowledge mutual respon- these things relinquish the possibility of adjusting sibilities and respect, knowledge is so intimately tied to their teaching to the maturity of the learner and experience and imagination as to be inconceivable thereby influencing the ethical use of knowledge without them. Stories are acts of the imagination that (Castellano 2000). enable us to enact and re-enact experience. They do so, typically, by focusing on characters who establish As vehicles of experience, stories relate empirical relations with one another, and respond to one another knowledge about the relations that connect us to the in various ways. One source of their richness as world and to one another, and about how those relations pedagogical vehicles is their facility in demonstrating can be well or adversely affected. Such knowledge is how knowing and valuing implicate, and are implicated the product of careful observations, spanning genera- in, one another. Another is that they permit us some tions, of how entities in particular places are interrelat- access to the perspectives of other beings, often those ed and of the complex dynamics of their relationships. very different from ourselves. We come to know them While it is temporally “deep” or historically replete, it is by relating ourselves to them, by imaging what it is like also spatially located or endemic knowledge – to be them, and to experience the world – including intimately bound to the land, to specific places and ourselves – through them. the entities located there. It is, thus, presentational 1188 Knowledge systems of indigenous America rather than representational knowledge: its continua- knowledge has become threatened lie embedded tion, its transmission, its possibility turn vitally upon in the crux of the colonial infrastructure (Simpson the presence of the natural world and on the kind of 2004). experiences that world offers. With the aid of such depoliticization, and often under The need to walk on the land in order to know it is the guise of humanitarian concern, powerful Western a different approach to knowledge than the one- institutions – corporate, academic, and legal – have dimensional, literate approach to knowing. Per- joined together to “save” indigenous knowledges sons schooled in a literate culture are accustomed by documenting them before they disappear. The to having all the context they need to understand a disappearance of indigenous peoples, their cultures, communication embedded in the text before and languages, by contrast, is assumed to be inevitable. them… Persons taught to use all their senses – to Thus are the rich contexts that constitute living absorb every clue to interpreting a complex indigenous knowledges reduced to texts. “Documenting dynamic reality – may well smile at the illusion and digitizing Indigenous Knowledge is a seemingly that words alone, stripped of complementary benign way of appearing to recover Traditional Indige- sound and colour and texture, can convey nous Knowledge while at the same increasing access to meaning adequately (Castellano 2000). the knowledge and vastly increasing the potential for its exploitation” (Simpson 2004). It is in this sense that knowledge inheres in the world; It is a process that is both extractive and assimila- it is caught up in experience and cannot be extracted tive. What is held to be of value is removed and from its context. The value of knowledge, so construed, processed, made over in the image of knowledge as the ultimate test of its validity, “is whether it enhances formulated within the dominant knowledge system, by the capacity of the people to live well” (Castellano methods which “seek to remove knowledge from the 2000). person, its proper place (location), and the process from which it is embedded… its context” (McGregor The Politics of Knowledge: Resistance 2004). Indigenous agricultural and medicinal knowl- and Recovery edge, along with traditional medicines, plant genetic resources and the cell-lines of the peoples themselves, “If we do not resist, we will not survive. Our are “discovered,” processed in laboratories, legally resistance will guarantee our children a future” transformed into private intellectual property, rendered (LaDuke 1997). as commodities and placed for sale. A pattern that began with indigenous land and tangible resources, Knowledge has not become politicized; it always has continues now with indigenous knowledge. The been so. Indigenous knowledge systems explicitly response to these developments from indigenous recognize this by their responsiveness to the normative communities, elders, activists, and scholars has been aspects of knowledge, to how human power and agency twofold: (1) a fierce resistance to and critique of such must be constrained if relations of affiliation with other ongoing imperialism coupled with (2) a wide-ranging entities are to be acknowledged and maintained – effort to recover and preserve indigenous knowledge relations that enable our mutual, and multigenerational, systems and all that they inhere in – language, land, survival. Yet the ideology of Western science, wedded and culture. as it is to the thesis of value-neutrality, insists that The resistance begins with an insistence that this issues of power do not enter into knowledge making, contemporary phase of colonization be recognized or shape the dynamics of knowledge systems. The for what it is. Since the way in which knowledge is relations of domination and assimilation that character- conceived has ethical and political implications, ize imperialism – whether in its historical or contem- knowledge systems must be assessed in those terms. porary variants – are thus neither acknowledged nor The tendency to abstract, isolate, and immunize the acknowledgeable. various “extractive” projects of the dominant knowl- And so the endangered status of indigenous edge system has been subjected to vigorous critique. knowledge systems is recognized, but responsibility Indigenists have insisted on contextualizing recent for it, complicity in it, is denied. research initiatives like the Human Genome Diversity Critical analysis of why Indigenous Knowledge is Project and the Genographic Project, both historically threatened rarely moves beyond simplistic asser- in terms of the impact of earlier comparable research tions that ‘Elders are dying’ or the assumption as well as currently in terms of how such research that IK systems are more vulnerable… because is situated within powerful social alignments that they are oral… The answers to how and why our perpetuate inequities. They have mounted strong Knowledge systems of indigenous America 1189 advocacy internationally, within both political and legal aspects of our Indian way of life and culture, fora, for the inclusion of broader human rights especially those that describe man’s connection standards in scientific research. Individual tribes and with nature, the Great Spirit and the order of tribal members have initiated lawsuits to protect genetic things” (Taylor 1992). materials and resources. Throughout these struggles, Efforts are also underway to revive spiritual ceremonies extraordinarily effective use has been made of modern and protect the land and ecosystems that sustain communication technologies to exchange informa- indigenous peoples themselves. “The ecologies in tion, to generate solidarity and to ensure publicity and which we live are more to us than settings or places; exposure. Organizations like the Indigenous Peoples they…do not surround Indigenous peoples; we are an Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB) is representative of integral part of them and we inherently belong to them” these efforts by indigenous peoples across the globe. (Battiste and Henderson 2000). The IPCB provides educational and technical support What is at stake in all of this is more than continued “to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their physical existence. “Survival for Indigenous peoples… genetic resources, indigenous knowledge, cultural and is an issue of preserving Indigenous knowledge human rights from the negative effects of biotechnolo- systems in the face of cognitive imperialism. It is a gy” (▶www.ipcb.org). global issue of maintaining Indigenous worldviews, Resistance has spawned numerous projects of languages and environments…a matter of sustaining recovery. In article after article, indigenous scholars spiritual links with the land” (Battiste and Henderson and activists speak of “an Indigenous renaissance,” of 2000). Determined to replace the politics of disap- how native peoples are “taking control of their destiny,” pearance with the politics of debate and dialogue, of the “revitalization of aboriginal societies.” Evidence indigenous people, and communities worldwide are for this is plentiful and promising. It includes a range pursuing these and other strategies of resistance and of initiatives to take control of education through recovery (Shiva 1993). “Disappeared” knowledge curricular development and the creation of tribally systems are political acts, ones of omission as much K controlled programs and schools. These consist of as commission, and assumptions that the disappearance various measures to restore indigenous languages, such of indigenous knowledge systems, languages and as language immersion programs and internet classes. peoples are somehow inevitable often lie behind both. The connection between language preservation and The indigenous response has been that nothing in this knowledge preservation is often underscored. is foreordained. It is in our power to prevent further Our native language embodies a value system loss. “It was not inevitable that Western knowledge about how we ought to live and relate to each would conquer Indigenous knowledge, or that our other… It gives a name to relations among kin, to ways of life had to end. At any point in history we roles and responsibilities among family members, could have worked jointly toward conditions that to ties with the broader clan group… There are no would facilitate the return of Indigenous ways of English words for these relationships… if you being while appreciating the knowledge that supported destroy our languages you not only break down those ways. Even now this is not an impossible task” these relationships, but you also destroy other (Wilson 2004).

Extra 1: Indigenous American Knowledge of communicating meaning or of transmitting knowledge and culture, Transmission whether through language, image, implicit relationship, structure, procedure or performance. Thus, in its most broadly inclusive sense, Native American societies have utilized various forms and the term “knowledge bearing text” may refer to story, dance, calendar, technologies of representation and achievement in order to execute, map, architecture, textiles, hunting and farming practice, rock art, preserve, and transmit knowledge of many kinds across time and trails, spaces, stone placement or any other form in which knowledge space. Knowledge-bearing objects, from the near and distant past, may be fixed, discerned or performed. are still found embedded in the landscapes of the Americas. One important dimension of this approach is the assumption that Knowledge as embodied in objects, texts, images, and practices indigenous knowledge traditions cannot be subsumed in particular may also be found in great abundance in museum collections of language texts, whether written or spoken, or in single objects, such material culture and, most importantly, in the modern lives of as a maps and quipus, or in environments, altered and constructed, Native American peoples, sometimes openly shared with the world or in performance, such as agricultural practice or dance. Rather, and sometimes confined to the kiva or other sacred tribal spaces. knowledge is only fully apprehended by exploring connection, Some workers in Indigenous Studies have followed the lead of relationship, kinship, and reciprocity. In Indigenous America, all other disciplines (such as Cultural Studies), broadening the knowledge is ecological – a multiplicity of narratives, local “ ” “ ” theoretical notion of the text to include any object of study practices, artifacts, and ontologies taken together with their which has a semiotic or tacit component. This is a recognition that intersections and interactions, physical and cultural. indigenous knowledge may be found in any cultural artifact capable 1190 Knowledge systems of indigenous America

Extra 2: International Resolutions and UNESCO: Report on Endogenous Development and the Declarations Transfer of Knowledge Extracts from: Domination Over the last quarter century, there has been no shortage of or Sharing? (1981) documents, issued by a range of international organizations What sort of transfer of knowledge would it be that had as its and conferences, which recognize the intellectual stature and purpose or consequence the stifling of the culture of such groups or continuing social validity of indigenous modes of thought. These peoples, that sought to impose uniformity upon them by forcing reports, resolutions and declarations usually emphasize the them to adopt a model or systems devised and developed by an elite integrity and value of traditional knowledge while also attempting or a dominant nation? to bring indigenous knowledge and modern science into a more This was the failing of colonialism. The danger is the same productive, and at the same time more socially equitable, working today… we introduce them to ways of life, techniques and relationship. economic imperatives which have the effect of destroying their Efforts to achieve such a reconciliation are manifest across a traditions, imprisoning them in a new state of dependence, broad spectrum of social practices, such as agriculture, health care, preventing them from making their own distinctive contribution. and environmental and resource management, raising important Thought should be given to the desirability for each country to and difficult issues in relation to sustainable development, equity in determine the models, the systems of representations and values resource governance, knowledge access and control, intellectual and the technical knowledge that have been supplanted by those property rights, the maintenance of biological and cultural imposed from abroad. Some ancient practices… are proving diversity, and more. essential to further progress. Evidence of this is to be found in Such matters have remained a major concern of UNESCO, such different fields as agriculture, physical education, medicine, which has commissioned, over a period of time, a number of art and philosophy…. Everywhere the curtain is being lifted on reports on knowledge, culture and development, all of which have civilizations which, only yesterday, were still despised by the taken strong positions opposing past policies of cultural assimila- West…. The objective is not merely to preserve the national tion, policies which have been viewed, almost universally by heritage but… the rehabilitation of traditional forms of knowledge indigenous peoples, as culturally destructive and even genocidal. and, above all, of the potentialities which have been stifled by the The rhetoric and content of these reports can be seen in the brief pressure of the dominant countries or groups. extracts given below from two major UNESCO documents What is the possible starting point for this innovative effort?… On appearing in 1981 and 1995. the one hand, traditional education transmits knowledge and systems More recent UNESCO declarations have explored forging new of representations and values that are peculiar to a society or group but links between indigenous knowledge systems and Western techno- does not prepare the ground satisfactorily for the receipt of knowledge scientific knowledge. In a 1999 Declaration adopted by the World from abroad. On the other hand, models of education imported from Conference on Science in Budapest (jointly sponsored by UNESCO dominant countries detract, deliberately or otherwise, from everything and the International Council for Science (ICSU), this position was that has its origin in the basic culture, while encouraging those developed in some detail. (See extract below) dominated to seek the particular type of education which, in their eyes, Such initiatives as that taken at the Budapest conference, while is the only avenue to advancement in the new society. If the transfer of widely welcomed, have generated serious tensions on both sides of knowledge is to offer any opportunity for endogenous creative the knowledge divide. For example, when the ICSU General activity, it must be fed with resources from within. Assembly was asked to ratify the above Declaration, major doubts were voiced, suggesting that unqualified approbation of indigenous UNESCO: World Commission on Culture and knowledge was likely to encourage the advocates of pseudos- ciences, like astrology and intelligent design. The GA resolutions Development Extracts from: Our Creative Diversity then “reaffirmed its support for the values and methods of (1995) verifiable science” while recognizing that the “relation between Cultural ethnocide is the process whereby a culturally distinct traditional knowledge and modern science is both important and a people loses its identity… as the use of its language and social and highly complex political and sociological question that cannot be political institutions, as well as its traditions, art forms, religious addressed in a few lines of a wide ranging document.” practices and cultural values, is restricted… The challenge today for These developments led the ICSU to set up a Study Group to nations committed to cultural pluralism and political democracy, is prepare a report giving the question more thorough examination. to develop a setting that ensures that development is integrative… The Study Group report was issued in 2002 in two different formats and inclusive. This means respect for value systems, for the both of which strongly reassert the original thrust of the Budapest traditional knowledge that indigenous people have of their society Declaration, while providing guidelines for distinguishing between and environment, and for their institutions in which culture is indigenous knowledge and the pseudosciences. The Study Group grounded. report also gives limited recognition to the importance of reversing If the communities of the world are to improve their human the trend for the “gradual weakening and disappearance of development options they must first be empowered to define their traditional knowledge.” (See below for links to both of these futures in terms of who they have been, what they are today and documents.) what they ultimately want to be. Every community has its roots, its Finally, it is must be noted that these Resolutions and physical and spiritual affiliations reaching back symbolically to the Declarations have brought few significant benefits to indigenous dawn of time, and it must be in a position to honor them. It is cultures around the world. Indeed, some scholars have taken the crucial that a people’s understanding of its values, beliefs, and other position that such documents, however well intentioned, have cultural patterns be developed – in the first place by the people simply expedited the exploitation of these peoples. directly concerned. Knowledge systems of indigenous America 1191

Through centuries of living close to nature, indigenous peoples of their impact. Local communities and other relevant players throughout the world have acquired detailed knowledge of their should be involved in these projects. environment and its natural resources…. Equally, ecological 33. Governments, in co-operation with universities and higher concerns are embedded in their very struggles for survival, identity, education institutions, and with the help of relevant United Nations autonomy, and in many cases democratic rights and governance. organizations, should extend and improve education, training and Who decides the fate of tribal culture and nature? facilities for human resources development in environment-related sciences, utilizing also traditional and local knowledge. Special efforts in this respect are required in developing countries with the UNESCO: World Conference on Science – Budapest co-operation of the international community. Extracts from: The Declaration on Science and the 3.4 Modern science and other systems of knowledge 83. Governments are called upon to formulate national policies that Use of Scientific Knowledge allow a wider use of the applications of traditional forms of learning Version adopted by the Conference (1 July 1999) and knowledge, while at the same time ensuring that its 26. That traditional and local knowledge systems as dynamic commercialization is properly rewarded. expressions of perceiving and understanding the world, can make 84. Enhanced support for activities at the national and international and historically have made, a valuable contribution to science and levels on traditional and local knowledge systems should be technology, and that there is a need to preserve, protect, research, considered. and promote this cultural heritage and empirical knowledge, 85. Countries should promote better understanding and use of 38. There is also a need to further develop appropriate national traditional knowledge systems, instead of focusing only on legal frameworks to accommodate the specific requirements of extracting elements for their perceived utility to the S&T system. developing countries and traditional knowledge, sources, and Knowledge should flow simultaneously to and from rural products, to ensure their recognition and adequate protection on the communities. basis of the informed consent of the customary or traditional 86. Governmental and nongovernmental organizations should owners of this knowledge. sustain traditional knowledge systems through active support to the societies that are keepers and developers of this knowledge, their ways of life, their languages, their social organization and Extracts from Science Agenda-Framework for Action the environments in which they live, and fully recognize the Version adopted by the Conference (1 July 1999) contribution of women as repositories of a large part of traditional 2.2 Science, environment and sustainable development. knowledge. K 32. Modern scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge should 87. Governments should support cooperation between holders of be brought closer together in interdisciplinary projects dealing with traditional knowledge and scientists to explore the relationships the links between culture, environment and development in such between different knowledge systems and to foster interlinkages of areas as the conservation of biological diversity, management of mutual benefit. natural resources, understanding of natural hazards and mitigation See Figs. 1–5.

Knowledge Systems of Indigenous America. Fig. 2 Human and Elk at Chevlon Canyon, Arizona, USA (Photo by Knowledge Systems of Indigenous America. Fig. 1 Christopher Angeloni). Geometric Figures, Tsankawi Cave Dwellings, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico (Photo by Wade Chambers). 1192 Knowledge systems of indigenous America

Knowledge Systems of Indigenous America. Fig. 3 Cosmological Panel petroglyph on sandstone, central Utah, USA (Photo by Christopher Angeloni).

Knowledge Systems of Indigenous America. Fig. 5 Hunting panel on sandstone at Nine Mile Canyon, Utah, USA (Photo by Christopher Angeloni).

Cajete, Gregory. Native Science. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers, 2000. Castellano, Marlene Brant. Updating Aboriginal Traditions of Knowledge. Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts. Ed. George J. Sefa Dei, Budd L. Hall, and Dorothy Goldin Knowledge Systems of Indigenous America. Rosenberg. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, Fig. 4 Bighorn at Capitol Reef National Monument, Utah, 2000. 21–36. USA (Photo by Christopher Angeloni). Chambers, David Wade and Richard Gillespie. “Locality in the History of Science: Colonial Science, Technoscience and Indigenous Knowledge.” Osiris 15 (2000): 221–40. References Chambers, David Wade and Helen Watson (with the Yolngu Community at Yirrkala). Singing the Land, Signing the Barriero, Jose. The Search for Lessons. Akwe:kon IX.2 Land. Geelong: Deakin University Press, 1989. (1992): 18–39. Coffey, Wallace and Rebecca Tsosie. Rethinking the Tribal Battiste, Marie. Enabling the Autumn Seed: Toward a Sovereignty Doctrine: Cultural Sovereignty and the Decolonized Approach to Aboriginal Knowledge, Lan- Collective Future of Indian Nations. Stanford Law & guage and Education. Canadian Journal of Native Policy Review 12 (2001): 191–210. Education (1998) 22.1: 16–27. Deloria, Vine. Relativity, Relatedness and Reality. Winds of Battiste, Marie and Sa'ke'j Youngblood Henderson. Protect- Change 7.4 (1992): 34–40. ing Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage. Saskatoon, ---. Spirit and Reason. Golden CO: Fulcrum Publishing, Saskatchewan: Purich Publication, 2000. 1999. Knowledge systems of indigenous America 1193

Ermine, Willie. Aboriginal Epistemology. First Nations Identity. Ed. Michael Green. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. Education in Canada. Ed. Marie Battiste and Jean Barman. 223–71. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, Whitt, Laurie Anne, Mere Roberts, Waerete Norman, and 1995. 101–12. Vicki Grieves. Belonging To Land: Indigenous Knowledge Grinde, Donald. Iroquois Political Theory and the Roots Systems and the Natural World. Oklahoma City University of American Democracy. Exiled in the Land of the Free. Law Review 26.2 (2001): 701–43. Ed. Oren Lyons and John Mohawk. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Williams, Robert. Linking Arms Together: American Indian Light Publishers, 1992. 227–80. Treaty Visions of Law & Peace 1600–1800. New York: Harry, Debra. The Human Genome Diversity Project and Its Oxford University Press, 1997. Implications for Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Woman II Wilson, Waziyatawin Angela. Indigenous Knowledge Re- (1995): 30–1. covery is Indigenous Empowerment. American Indian Holmes, Leilani. Heart Knowledge, Blood Memory, and the Quarterly 28. 3 and 4 (2004): 359–72. Voice of the Land: Implications of Research Among Hawaiian Elders. Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts. Ed. George J. Sefa Dei, Budd L. Hall, and Links to Relevant Websites Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg. Toronto, ON: University of American Indian IKS Internet Resource Index: ▶http://www. Toronto Press, 2000. 37–53. hanksville.org/NAresources/indices/NAknowledge.html Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism. ▶http:// Alaska Native Knowledge Network: ▶http://www.ankn.uaf. www.ipcb.org. edu/ ▶http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/publications/handbook/ James, Keith. Ed. Science and Native American Commu- integrating.html nities. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2001. AAAS: Handbook on Intellectual Property and TEK: La Duke, Winona. Traditional Ecological Knowledge and ▶http://shr.aaas.org/tek/handbook/ Environmental Futures. Colorado Journal of International Indigenous Peoples’ Restoration Network: ▶http://www.ser. Environmental Law and Policy 5 (1994): 127–48. org/iprn/default.asp ---. Voices From White Earth: Gaa-waabaabiganikaag. Indigenous Environmental Network: ▶http://www.ienearth. People, Land and Community. Ed. Hildegarde Hannum. org/ New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. 22–37. Indigenous Knowledge Resources: Americas: ▶http://www. ---. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. ik-pages.net/browsetree.asp?item_id=002.004.&allarticles K Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. =true McGregor, Debbie. Coming Full Circle: Indigenous Knowl- Seventh Generation Fund: ▶http://www.7genfund.org/index. edge, Environment, and Our Future. American Indian html Quarterly 28.3 and 4 (2004): 385–410. Indigenous Knowledge Listserv: ▶http://www.africa.upenn. Momaday, N. Scott. Native American Attitudes to the edu/Listserv/Indigenous_Knowledge_13238.html Environment. Seeing With a Native Eye. Ed. W. Copps. Native Tech Internet Resource: ▶http://www.nativetech.org/ New York: Harper & Row, 1976. 79–85. Infography: Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge Systems: Penner, Keith. Indian Self-Government in Canada: Report ▶http://www.infography.com/content/620138698080. of the Special Committee. Ottawa: Government of html Canada.1983. Native Eyes Indigenous Studies: ▶http://www.iaia.edu/nep2/ Rivera, Julio Valladolid. Andean Peasant Agriculture: index.php Nurturing a Diversity of Life in the Chacra. Regeneration Indigenous Knowledge Management Software ▶http://www. in the Andes. Ed. F. Apffel-Marglin and J. V. Rivera. archimuse.com/mw2003/papers/hunter/hunter.html Interculture XXVIII.1 (1995): 18–53. Science and Development Network – Indigenous Knowl- Scott, Craig. Indigenous Self-Determination and Decoloniza- edge: ▶http://www.scidev.net/dossiers/index.cfm?fuseac- tion of the International Imagination: A Plea. Human tion=dossierfulltext&Dossier=7 Rights Quarterly 18(1996): 814–20. Science and Development Network – Intellectual Property: Shiva, Vandana. Monocultures of the Mind. New Jersey: Zed ▶http://www.scidev.net/dossiers/index.cfm?fuseaction= Books, 1993. dossierItem&Dossier=8 Silko, Leslie Marmon. Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Indigenous People’s Biodiversity Network: Declaration on Spirit. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Biodiversity: ▶http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/report/ Simpson, Leanne R. Anticolonial Strategies for the Recovery english/ipbn.htm and Maintenance of Indigenous Knowledge. American Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism: ▶http:// Indian Quarterly 28.3 and 4 (2004): 373–84. www.ipcb.org/ ▶http://www.ipcb.org/publications/other_ Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Re- art/bsinabs.html search and Indigenous Peoples. New York: Zed Books, Development Gateway: ▶http://topics.developmentgateway. 1999. org/indigenous?goo=1744 Standing Bear, Luther. Land of the Spotted Eagle. 1933. Original ICSU Study Group Report: ▶http://www.icsu.org/ Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1978. 2_resourcecentre/RESOURCE_list_base.php4?rub=7 Taylor, Eli. Cited in Towards Rebirth of First Nations Joint ICSU & UNESCO version of Study Group Report: Languages. Assembly of First Nations. Ottawa, ON: ▶http://www.icsu.org/Gestion/img/ICSU_DOC_DOWN- Assembly of First Nations Education Secretariat, 1992. LOAD/65_DD_FILE_Vol4.pdf Waters, Anne. Ed. American Indian Thought. Boston, MA: UNESCO: 1999 Budapest Declaration: ▶http://www. Basil Blackwell, 2004. unesco.org/science/wcs/eng/declaration_e.htm Whitt, Laurie Anne. Indigenous Peoples and the Cultural UNESCO: Science-Agenda Framework for Action: ▶http:// Politics of Knowledge. Issues in American Indian Cultural www.unesco.org/science/wcs/eng/framework.htm 1194 Knowledge systems: Indigenous knowledge of trees and forests

UNESCO: Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: over the economically and culturally sound develop- ▶ http://portal.unesco.org/sc_nat/ev.php?URL_ID=1945& ment of communities, based on self-sustained agricul- URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201 ture in Third World countries (Brokensha et al. 1980). Columbia University CIESIN Agriculture IKS: ▶http://www. ciesin.org/TG/AG/iksys.html Ever since then, it has predominantly been discussed UNESCO: Indigenous Knowledge: Best Practice: ▶http:// with regard to the development of appropriate new www.unesco.org/most/bpikpub.htm#ik agricultural techniques, rather than the application of existing traditional ones that were once part and parcel of a self-sustaining mode of production (Warren et al. 1995). “Indigenousness” refers to something that origi- Knowledge Systems: Indigenous nates locally in natural surroundings and is performed by a native community. It emerges in the form of an ethnic Knowledge of Trees and Forests community’s perceptions and experiences within their environment and continues as a process of observation and interpretation in relation to the locally acknowledged KLAUS SEELAND,MIHIR K. JENA everyday rationalities and transcendental powers. Indig- enousness constitutes a context of local social perfor- Trees and forests act as indicators of cultural phenomena mance that makes sense between people who share a when interpreted in the context of a society. Their socio- common rural habitat, language, and knowledge, be it cultural interpretation indicates specific social needs exoteric (open to all) or esoteric (secret knowledge). and cultural values, while stimulating culturally distinct Indigenous knowledge of trees and forests is a very economic and technological processes. Methodologi- important part of human life experience in a distinct and cally, it is difficult to understand what trees and forests unique local setting. The local context is perceived as the mean in a particular culture, as they are descriptive universal framework in which knowledge matters, and terms, not analytic ones. They invoke aesthetic and is an authentic representation of being. This context is religious perceptions, botanical and silvicultural class- comprised physical facts and social interactions among ifications, and economic valuations. The indigenous people in the surroundings they perceive as their perspective is always an amalgamation of these percep- material world, and it combines with spiritual beliefs. tions and valuations, which characterizes the develop- Indigenous knowledge of trees and forests is not taught ment of the local culture (Harrison 1993; Bahuchet 1993) formally, but is an inherited or individually acquired and even culture in general. configuration of knowledge, skills, know-how, and Forests represent a legacy and are a testimony to the practical experience that grows inside this encapsulated evolution or migration of biological species, flora and world. It is bound to the environmental context and is fauna, in various societies. Forests, trees, and their acquired from and makes use of the local surroundings. products are managed by indigenous people, who are The acquisition of indigenous knowledge is generally knowledgeable about local consumption, in largely self- guided by utilitarian considerations. It is neither shared sustained rural communities often located in remote equally among all of the inhabitants of a locality nor is areas. To make use of these resources and manage them, it a standardized and comprehensive account of what indigenous knowledge of trees and forests encompasses is known; it varies, sometimes tremendously. Often locally available renewable natural resources and social gender-specific knowledge separates what is known and spiritual energies. At the same time, scientifically among people of the same area into different worlds. based commercial forestry has a specialized profes- Indigenous knowledge is applied at the level of sional knowledge of how to manage forest resources, human senses – such as seeing, touching, and feeling – predominantly the production of timber for a market as well as by remembering natural phenomena. To our economy. The dilemma in dealing with forests and their knowledge, there is no published record of indigenous products is that the commercial and indigenous ap- people being interested in the traditional or local proaches each serve different interests of people living knowledge of another forest dwelling community. in different social worlds. What “forest” and “knowl- Knowledge for the sake of knowledge mostly does not edge of forests” mean to members of any culture are exist in an indigenous community; curiosity – about reflections of their worldview and traditions, which vary flora, fauna, or other natural phenomena that do not have according to their different stages of economic and any practical value – is rare. technological development. This knowledge goes There is always a fundamental basis of inherited beyond technical (i.e. botanical) knowledge, hunting knowledge in every community, representative of the skills, wood harvesting know-how, or non-timber forest society in its typical geographical and climatic product usage. surroundings, that is individually interpreted, modified, More than two decades ago, indigenous technical and passed on for generations. The experience and knowledge became an important topic in the debate knowledge of a people’s ancestors are generally passed Knowledge systems: Indigenous knowledge of trees and forests 1195 down orally to the younger generations, but increas- do not have a distinct shape and they are virtually ingly often this transmission is limited by cultural indistinguishable from one another. During the later change. Indigenous knowledge of trees and forests stages of growth, however, new structures (organs) consists of a rather solid fund of knowledge, although evolve. Animals and human beings, in contrast, have the pace at which environmental conditions change structural (organ) limitations, and over time their may vary, becoming slower or quicker in the wake of organs age but do not change. In short, at birth the social and cultural evolution. Devaluation of indige- plants are all alike, but at later stages of growth they nous knowledge can have many causes: intruding develop different characteristics and thus become alternative lifestyles, new modes of production, and distinct plants. The phenomenon of the birth of plants degradation of important natural resources, as well as is known as sate (emerging from the earth) and the birth forest dwellers’ being displaced into territories un- of animals and human beings is pdite (coming out of known to them or their world’s being affected by laws genital organs). and modernisation from outside. The changes observed in the lifespan of plants are The world of a forest dwelling community is an described in the Kui language. Planting or dibbling a encompassing natural and social entity, a configuration seed in the earth is known as penka mete, when the of related natural and spiritual phenomena that gives germinating seed breaks through the upper soil layers it cultural meaning to a particular location (Ballée 1994; is known as tana genjite, and when it emerges from the Descola 1994;Jenaetal.2002). These entities are linked, soil it is known as kana aate. The stage when foliage for example, by language, using identical terms as appears is termed aaku gate. The growth of shoots is metaphors for the same objects or symbols. Employing peda late, and the emergence of inflorescence, a tree’s certain plants or animals or natural phenomena to floral axis, tula parite. The flowering stage is called represent supernatural, religious phenomena make up a punga pute, while the shedding of petals is known as common context or a sacred landscape. punge dumbite. Padasi kadgai ate refers to the early A tree or forest is – in any society, and particularly in fruiting stage. Padasi juri ate refers to the fruit K traditional non-Western societies – a matter of defini- maturation stage. Finally, the fruit drying stage is tion based on cultural values and perceptions. For known as padasi bachite, and the bursting of fruit to instance, trees are venerated and deified as sacred scatter seeds is known as penka ate. phenomena in animistic cults. Or they are worshipped The Kuttia Kondh claim that the different stages as representations of deities in more complex religions from penka mete to penka ate describe the life cycle of based on Holy Scriptures and an extensive icono- a plant/tree, from the pre-germination to the post- graphy, as, for example, in Hinduism, where tulsi germination phase. Trees are bound to a certain locality (Ocimum basilicum L.) is considered a sacred “tree” and, therefore, appear to be constant. The Kuttia people in which the Hindu god, Vishnu, resides. In other believe that trees are formed more than once within cultures, they are perceived as beautifying elements in a their life cycle, however, and that consequently what landscape or garden or simply as biomass or an distinguishes plants from animals/humans is that, economic commodity. In still other cultures, trees are relative to a specific locality, the former are believed predominantly viewed in terms of their functions, such to go through a sequence of lives, while the latter live as providing shade or shelter. In many forest dwellers’ only one life from birth to death. cultures there is kinship among humans, plants, and The life cycle of a plant is dependent upon water. animals, either in the form of clan totems that regulate According to the Kuttia Kondh, water is the most the social structure of a community or of symbolic fundamental element necessary for a plant’s survival. The marriages between humans and plants or animals. Rituals skin (palla)andtheplant’s internal water transportation in which forest plants and animals play a significant role system (lenja) keep the water in the plant. If lenja is not are based on the nature-based cosmogony of a forest working, palla can still absorb water; but if palla is dwelling community. Forests can be hunting grounds, absent, the water absorbed by lenja evaporates. The wild gardens or swidden patches amidst the primeval Kuttia Kondh believe that any abnormality occurring in forest, foraging grounds, sacred groves or some combi- the plant is due to a failure of the water transport system; nations of uses for indigenous communities. for example, the drying up of a tree or parts of a tree The following example involves the Kuttia Kondh comes from inadequate water absorption. Paskadi is a (Jena et al. 2006), a forest dwelling tribe in Orissa disease caused by the irregular swelling of parts of a (India). The Kuttia Kondh perception of the life cycle plant as a result of a blockage in the water supply to the of a tree is quite close to that of natural science. affected areas. Bachine refers to the drying up of a plant The Kuttia Kondh are aware of the life cycle of a due to the lack of a water supply from the roots. Kita tree, because of the different changes that occur during bachine is the drying of one part of the plant, and its growth, described as a sequential process. At the pakodake bachine pakodake silali refers to the drying of time of birth, unlike human beings and animals, plants one lateral half of it while the other part remains alive. 1196 Knowledge systems: Indigenous knowledge of trees and forests

Their understanding of the relationship between ( jerandi), many different varieties of bird, jungle fowl, water and palla is demonstrated by a technique known peacock, rabbit, deer (kateri), and the occasional bear. as “girdling”, which is used by the tribe to kill a tree. The Kuttia Kondh believe that the larger snakes favour The Kuttia do not fell large trees. Instead, they use a the coolness of the bati. The snakes feed on mice and labour-saving technique that involves the removal of a fowl. The pangolin and porcupine are known to create ring of bark at the tree base. The tree dies after a few underground burrows. days. The death of trees and plants following the removal of the palla is known as mara grudu sate, Umda (Grove) literally meaning “tree full dead”. Eju (water), daki (the This term is used to describe a patch of forest surrounded root base), and palla give plants and trees jella (life by rocky or barren land. Umda is commonly found on force). Eju is a metaphor for jella, which is believed to hilltops noted for their rocky, stony ground. The move up and down in the infant stage of plants. Eju is vegetation in such surroundings generally is comprised thought to become stationary at daki when the plants Ficus benghalensis, Ficus religiosa,andFicus scandens attain maturity. It is thus considered that palla and jella (which are naturally dominant) along with Terminalia are mutually supportive and cannot survive without tomentosa, Buchanania lanzan, Shorea robusta, Pter- each other. The tree survives or perishes according to ocarpus marsupium, and Acacia pinnata. The term the relationship between jella and palla. umda, however, is not restricted to this particular Now let us look at how the same community territory. Other small patches of forest found in non- classifies its forest world. The type of natural vegetation rocky areas containing a wide variety of small trees and growing on the hilltops has a particular significance for plant species (ladenga) at the centre of an open space the Kuttia Kondh. They regard their hill god (Soru are also called umda. penu) as being solely responsible for the distribution of such vegetation. They believe that the god of the forest, usually named after a hill, bases his decision about the Tuleni (Burial Ground) type of tree species that will grow there on the locality. It The term tuleni refers to an area of forest used by the is claimed that he favours a tall tree on a hilltop for his Kuttia Kondh as a burial ground. A remote patch of abode, where he can enjoy the first touch of virgin rain. land is chosen as a suitable site, as it is not clear This provides an excellent vantage point for observing whether the spirits of the dead roaming the tuleni will the lives of the villagers living at the foot of the hill. He be malevolent or benevolent, and all forms of human uses the network of tree creepers to move from one interference should be limited. As a result, visitors to place to another inside the forest, meeting the other the tuleni are rare. Among the different plant species penus and discussing the welfare of the Kuttia Kondh. growing here, the sal tree (Shorea robusta) is given He allows the growth of the grass at the base of the trees special status, as it is believed to be the abode of the to make the forest floor softer so that divine beings can Dukeli penu (god of ancestral spirits), the god most roam around freely. closely associated with the tuleni. Because firewood collection, tree felling, and the harvest of resins and edible products are activities that have traditionally Bati been, and still are, prohibited within these areas, the sal The term bati has several meanings. Bati is the most trees have remained virtually undisturbed. The dead are common name for the forest, yet the term also refers to considered to be forest dwellers (kambanate) and bushy vegetation, including undergrowth, shrubs, taking anything from the tuleni is considered to be creepers, and herbs that lie between the foothills and synonymous with depriving the ancestral spirits of the hill slope areas. The Kuttia Kondh consider this to be food on which they subsist. The Kuttia Kondh are forest in its primeval state. They also believe that the aware that so much as picking a leaf or snapping a twig spreading branches of the trees (kena) inside the bati inside the tuleni is taboo. There are three exceptions to provide space for small plants to flourish (ningine). this general rule. First of all, certain medicinal plants Their perception of the bati is that its vegetation grows that are considered highly effective remedies for quickly in soft soil (dea vira) that has an abundant particular diseases are rarely collected in the tuleni by water supply (a supply which is greater than that of the anyone other than the medicine man (Kutaka), who has kambani, as its rainfall is supplemented by water runoff the Dukeli penu’s permission to use certain herbs and from the hilltop). The fertility of the bati is also roots. Secondly, the funeral rites conducted by the enhanced by the many fast growing species which, village priest (Jani) involve breaking a brush stick to after atrophying, add to the fertility of the soil. offer to the dead person; then with permission from the The enormously varied fauna inside of the bati dead person’s spirit, others can break brush sticks. includes snake (rachu), such as the python (masi), Thirdly, the wood used for cremation is collected inside monitor lizard (boda), porcupine (saju), pangolin the tuleni, because wood from other areas is forbidden Knowledge systems: Indigenous knowledge of trees and forests 1197 inside the tuleni. These taboos are believed to have certain amount of political independence. The use of existed since the times of the earliest settlements, and local indigenous knowledge of trees and forests spares gradually certain myths have evolved concerning these forest dwellers from being turned into clients of the lone virgin patches of wilderness. The fear felt by the state administration, at least not the elder ones; right or Kuttia Kondh has ensured that such restrictions are wrong, they stick to their own traditions and customs upheld, which in turn guarantees the preservation of (Seeland and Schmithüsen 2000). In periods of de- vegetation inside the tuleni. regulation and decreased administrative capacity, an A large variety of animals roam in this forest, such as independent, self-sufficient social performance is very deer, mouse deer, porcupine, sambar (Cervus unicolor), important. and boar. Yet hunting inside the tuleni, although not The recent history of the expropriation of tribal prohibited, is rare. On these occasions, the Kuttia societies by post-colonial nations is, in most cases, a Kondh hunt during daylight hours and as a group, depressing account of environmental colonialism, rather than individually, for fear that ghosts and spirits where ethnic sections of young developing nations may infect them with a fatal illness. During burial or are pauperized and expelled from their territories. They cremation ceremonies, the village attendants pray to often vanish with the forests they used to live in. The Dukeli penu so that he will provide them with sufficient knowledge of forest dwellers and poor peasants thus game, even on a hunting expedition that takes place becomes the legacy of a cultural heritage and tradition during the mourning period (Dasah) between the third that shaped the face of the forests. It is from here that and seventh day after a death. If Dukeli penu is satisfied some of today’s cultures originate. with their prayer, the hunt is a success. The attempt at integrating indigenous knowledge of The villagers rarely move the location of the tuleni, trees and forests into the development process of a for they believe that by doing so they disturb the spirits society in transition would be naïve the society not to of their ancestors. The few circumstances that force recognize the massive political obstacles confronting it. them to abandon a site include an outbreak of a plant Contemporary environmental problems attempt to K disease, the spread of certain parasite creepers (Gach- find solutions which are an up-to-date match to them chi), and forest fire (to which the sal species is especially (Seeland and Schmithüsen 2003). Although it may susceptible). The leasing of forest patches by govern- sound odd to some people, the traditional indigenous ment departments to outsiders is also another reason for knowledge of past generations can be a valid match for their abandonment of the tuleni. The Kuttia Kondh are today’s problems. Not only does it contain environ- required to ask permission from the Dukeli penu before mental knowledge in a technical sense, it also holds the deserting the site. The tuleni is not associated with any accumulated wisdom of cultural traditions that have particular location, although it must be situated on a hill messages for those who are ready to listen to them. or in a forest and kept at a reasonable distance from any Although they lack the political bargaining power settlement. essential today, indigenous resource users and their knowledge may survive and be helpful in times of administrative deregulation and facilitate responsi- Katani (Hill Forest) ble management of resources in the regions where In Kui, the language of the Kuttia Kondh, the term they live. “wild” (boti ne ajine) has a number of definitions in reference to a description of the forest. In general, See also: ▶Timber in Japan however, the wilder a forest, the greater the growth of vegetation and the presence of animals. According to the Kuttia Kondh’s definition, a forest is particularly References wild when the concentration of trees is dense enough to prevent the penetration of sunlight (ujada). They also Bahuchet, Serge, comp. Situation des populations indigènes believe that trees compete among themselves as to who des forêts denses humides. Paris: CNRS, Laboratoire de Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale, 1993. can grow closest to the sky (wani). The term Katani Ballée, W. Footprints of the Forest. Ka’apor Ethnobotany – also means “wild”, and here it refers to wild vegetation, The Historical Ecology of Plant Utilization by an rather than to the presence of certain species of plants or Amazonian People. New York: Columbia University Press, animals. The Katani is a “four storied forest”.The 1994. ground cover consists of wild grass (randa) and herbs, Brokensha, David W., D. M. Warren, and Oswald Werner, ed. the second storey is comprises bushes, and the third and Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Development. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1980. fourth floors are or have bati and kambani,respectively. Descola, Ph. In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in What seems to be the most relevant appeal of Amazonia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. indigenous knowledge of trees and forests emerging Harrison, Robert P. Forests: The Shadow of Civilization. out of the principles of a local subsistence economy is a Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993. 1198 Knowledge systems: Local knowledge

Jena, M. K., et al. Forest Tribes of Orissa. Vol. 1: The people (Hacking 1992). Much of that work can be seen Dongaria Kondh. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 2002. as strategies and techniques for creating the equiva- ---. Forest Tribes of Orissa. Vol. 2: The Kuttia Kondh. New lences and connections whereby otherwise heteroge- Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 2006. Seeland, K. Indigenous Knowledge of Trees and Forests in neous and isolated knowledges are enabled to move in Non-European Societies. Nature is Culture. Indigenous space and time from the local site and moment of their Knowledge and Socio-Cultural Aspects of Trees and Forests production and application to other places and times. in Non-European Cultures. Ed. K. Seeland. London: In this view, all knowledge systems from whatever Intermediate Technology Publications, 1997. 101–12. culture or time, including the contemporary technos- Seeland, K. and F. Schmithüsen, ed. Man in the Forest. Local ciences, are based on local knowledge. However within Knowledge and Sustainable Management of Forests and the master narrative of modernism, local knowledge is Natural Resources in Tribal Communities in India. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 2000. an oxymoron. Exploring this contradiction and the ---. Indigenous Knowledge, Forest Management and Forest manifold meanings of local requires a brief excursion Policy in South Asia. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 2003. into postmodernism as well as some of the arguments Warren, D., L. Slikerveer, and D. Brokensha, ed. The underpinning the sociology of scientific knowledge. Cultural Dimension of Development. Indigenous Knowl- Though postmodernism eludes definition and is more edge Systems. London: Intermediate Technology Publica- likely a stage of modernism than a marked epistemo- tions, 1995. logical break, there has been a recent coalescence of Selected Websites for Further Reading and References strands of thought in a wide variety of areas that have ▶http://www.iifm.org/databank/ef/ethnoforestry.html questioned the assumptions underlying modernism. ▶http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/rainforest/malon.html Postmodernism is most frequently equated with the collapse of the concepts of rationality and progress held to accompany the emergence of the postindustrial society and is consequently concerned with the rejection of universal explanations and totalizing theories. But Knowledge Systems: Local Knowledge perhaps the strand that is most truly pervasive in the constellation of reformulated approaches to understand- ing the human condition is the emphasis on the local. DAVID TURNBULL In physics, ecology, history, feminist theory, literary theory, anthropology, geography, economics, politics, The concept of local knowledge has recently come to and sociology of science, the focus of attention has the fore in the field of the sociology of scientific become the specific, the contingent, the particular. This knowledge, where it is a common empirical finding is the case whether it is a text, a reading, a culture, a that knowledge production is an essentially local population, a site, a region, an electron, or a laboratory. process. Knowledge claims are not adjudicated by Within this diversity of uses of local there seem to be absolute standards; rather their authority is established two broad and rather different senses being used. On the through the workings of local negotiations and judg- one hand there is the notion of a voice or a reading. The ments in particular contexts. This focus on the localness voice may be purely individual and subjective or may of knowledge production provides the condition for the be a collection of voices belonging to a group, class, possibility for a fully fledged comparison between gender, or culture, but in all cases the notion captures the ways in which understandings of the natural world one of the basic characteristic elements of post- have been produced by different cultures and at different modernism, courtesy of deconstruction, that all texts times. Such crosscultural comparisons of knowledge or cultures are multivocal and polysemous. That is they production systems have hitherto been largely absent have a multiplicity of meanings, readings and voices from the sociology of science. A necessary condition and are hence subject to “interpretive flexibility” (Collins for fully equitable comparisons is that Western contem- 1985). On the other hand, local is used both in the more porary technosciences, rather than being taken as explicitly geopolitical sense of place and in the experien- definitional of knowledge, rationality, or objectivity, tial sense of contextual, embodied, partial, or individual. should be treated as varieties of such knowledge A range of disciplines from meteorology to medicine systems. Though knowledge systems may differ in their now recognize the necessity of focusing on the particular epistemologies, methodologies, logics, cognitive struc- conditions at specific sites and times rather than losing tures, or in their socioeconomic contexts, a character- that specificity in unlocalized generalizations. istic that they all share is their localness. Hence, in so The sociology of scientific knowledge is one of far as they are collective bodies of knowledge, many the most classically post of all modernisms and is of their small but significant differences lie in the work therefore an area in which the local is also a thematic involved in creating assemblages from the “motley” presence which is only now coming into focus. Some of differing practices, instrumentation, theories, and philosophers of science have come to re-evaluate the Knowledge systems: Local knowledge 1199 role of theory and argue that scientists practicing in the Emphasizing the local in this way necessitates a re- real world do not deduce their explanations from evaluation of the role of theory which is typically held universal laws but rather make do with rules of thumb by philosophers and physicists to provide the main derived from the way the phenomena present them- dynamic and rationale of science as well as being the selves in the operation of instruments and devices. source of its universality. Karl Popper claims that all Similarly philosophers and sociologists of science alike science is cosmology and Gerald Holton sees physics have recognized for some time the lack of absolute as “a quest for the Holy Grail,” which is no less than the standards and the role of tacit knowledge in technos- “mastery of the whole world of experience, by cientific practice, and have sought to display the subsuming it under one unified theoretical structure” context in which the practice of science is manifested as (Allport 1991). It is this claim to be able to produce craft skills and collective work. However the recogni- universal theory that Western culture has used simulta- tion of the social and material embodiment of skills and neously to promote and reinforce its own stability and work in the cultural practice of individuals and groups to justify the dispossession of other peoples. It consti- has only recently coalesced into the general claim that tutes part of the ideological justification of scientific all knowledge is local. Knowledge, from this construc- objectivity, the “god-trick” as Donna Haraway calls it; tivist perspective can be local in a range of different the illusion that there can be a positionless vision of senses. “It is knowledge produced and reproduced in everything. The allegiance to mimesis has been severely mutual interaction that relies on the presence of other undermined by analysts like Richard Rorty, but theory human beings on a direct, face-to-face basis” (Thrift has also been found wanting at the level of practice, 1985). It is knowledge that is produced in contingent, where analytical and empirical studies have shown it site, discipline, or culture specific circumstances cannot provide the sole guide to experimental research (Rouse 1987). It is the product of open systems with and on occasion has little or no role at all. The heterogeneous and asynchronous inputs “that stand in conception of grand unified theories guiding research no necessary relationship to one another” (Pickering is also incompatible with a key finding in the sociology K 1992). In sum scientific knowledge is “situated knowl- of science: “consensus is not necessary for cooperation edge” (Haraway 1991). nor for the successful conduct of work.” This sociologi- Perhaps the most important consequence of the cal perspective is succinctly captured in Leigh Star’s recognition of the localness of scientific knowledge is description: that it permits a parity in the comparison of the production of contemporary technoscientific knowledge Scientific theory building is deeply heteroge- with knowledge production in other cultures. Previously neous: different viewpoints are constantly being the possibility of a truly equitable comparison was adduced and reconciled… Each actor, site, or node negated by the assumption that indigenous knowledge of a scientific community has a viewpoint, a systems were merely local and were to be evaluated for partial truth consisting of local beliefs, local the extent to which they had scientific characteristics. practices, local constants, and resources, none of Localness essentially subsumes many of the supposed which are fully verifiable across all sites. The limitations of other knowledge systems compared with aggregation of all viewpoints is the source of the western science. So-called traditional knowledge robustness of science (Star 1989, 46). systems have frequently been portrayed as closed, pragmatic, utilitarian, value laden, indexical, context Theories from this perspective have the characteristics dependent, and so on. All of which was held to imply of what Star calls “boundary objects”; that is they are that they cannot have the same authority and credibility “objects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local as science because their localness restricts them to the needs and constraints of the several parties employing social and cultural circumstances of their production. them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity Science by contrast was held to be universal, nonindex- across sites.” Thus theorizing is itself an assemblage of ical, value free, and as a consequence floating, in some heterogeneous local practices. mysterious way, above culture. Treating science as local If knowledge is local we are faced with a problem: simultaneously puts all knowledge systems on a par and how are the universality and connectedness that typify renders vacuous discussion of their degree of fit with technoscientific knowledges achieved? Given all these transcendental criteria of scientificity, rationality, and discrete knowledge/practices, imbued with their con- logicality. Now the multidisciplinary approaches to crete specificities, how can they be assembled into understanding the technosciences which together con- fields or knowledge systems; or in Star’s terms “how stitute the sociology of scientific knowledge can be is the robustness of findings and decision making made more fully anthropological by the addition of a achieved?” Ophir and Shapin ask, “How is it, if knowledge new subdiscipline called comparative technoscientific is indeed local, that certain forms of it appear global in traditions. domain of application?” The answers, considered here, lie 1200 Knowledge systems: Local knowledge in a variety of social strategies and technical devices that and Fischer we are at an experimental moment where provide for treating instances of knowledge/practice as totalizing styles of knowledge have been suspended similar or equivalent and for making connections, that is in “in favour of a close consideration of such issues enabling local knowledge/practices to move and to be as contextuality, the meaning of social life to those who assembled. enact it and the explanation of exceptions and Research fields or bodies of technoscientific knowl- indeterminants.” In this emphasis on the local we are edge/practice are assemblages whose otherwise dispa- postparadigm. rate elements are rendered equivalent, general, and However we should not be too easily seduced by the cohesive through processes that have been called apparently liberating effects of celebrating the local “heterogeneous engineering” (Law 1987). Among the since it is all too easy to allow the local to become a “new many social strategies that enable the possibility kind of globalizing imperative” (Hayles 1990). In order of equivalence are processes of standardization and for all knowledge systems to have a voice and in order to collective work to produce agreements about what allow for the possibility of intercultural comparison and counts as an appropriate form of ordering, what counts critique, we have to be able to maintain the local and as evidence, etc. Technical devices that provide for the global in dialectical opposition to one another. This connections and mobility are also essential. Such dilemma is the most profound difficulty facing liberal devices may be material or conceptual and may include democracies now that they have lost the convenient foil maps, calendars, theories, books, lists, and systems of of communism and the world has Balkanized into recursion, but their common function is to enable special interest groups by genders, race, nationality, or otherwise incommensurable and isolated knowledges whatever. By moving into a comparatist mode there is to move in space and time from the local site and a grave danger of the subsumption of the other into moment of their production to other places and times. the hegemony of western rationality, but conversely Some of these devices have been revealed relatively unbridled cultural relativism can only lead to the unproblematically through direct observation. Others proliferation of ghettos and dogmatic nationalisms. We are less susceptible to investigation and analysis, being cannot abandon the strength of generalizations and embodied in our forms of life. One way to catch a theories, particularly their capacity for making connec- glimpse of these hidden presuppositions and taken for tions and for providing the possibility of criticism. At granted ways of thinking, seeing, and acting, is to the same time we need to recognize reflexively that misperceive, to be jolted out of our habitual modes of theory and practice are not distinct. Theorizing is also a understanding through allowing a process of interroga- local practice. If we do not recognize this joint dialectic tion between our knowledge system and others. Such of theory and practice, the local and the global, we will an interrogative process of mutual intertranslation not be able to understand and establish the conditions can enable us to catch sight of the cultural glasses we for the possibility of directing the circulation and wear instead of looking through them as if they were structure of power in knowledge systems. It is in the transparent. light of this recognition that I want to consider the ways This challenging of the totalizing discourses of in which the movement of local knowledge is science by other knowledge systems is what Foucault accomplished in different knowledge systems and their had in mind when he claimed that we are “witnessing consequent effects on the ways in which people and an insurrection of subjugated knowledges” and corre- objects are constituted and linked together; that is their sponds to an emphasis on the local that has emerged in effects on power. The essential strength of the anthropology at least since Clifford Geertz’s Interpre- sociology of scientific knowledge is its claim to show tation of Cultures. In his critique of global theories and that what we accept as science and technology could in his emphasis on “thick description” Geertz pointed be other than it is. The great weakness of the sociology out that cultural meanings cannot be understood at of scientific knowledge is the general failure to grasp the general level because they result from complex the political nature of the enterprise and to work toward organizations of signs in a particular local context and change. With some exceptions it has had a quietist that the way to reveal the structures of power attached to tendency to adopt the neutral analyst’sstancethatit the global discourse is to set the local knowledge in devotes so much time to criticizing in scientists. One way contrast with it. of capitalizing on the sociology of science’sstrength Equally there is the pervasive recognition char- and avoiding the reflexive dilemma is to devise ways in acterized as postcolonialism that the West has struc- which alternative knowledge systems can be made to tured the intellectual agenda and has hidden its own interrogate each other. presuppositions from view through the construction of Considerable advances in understanding the move- the other. Nowhere is this more acute than in the ment of local knowledge have been made possible assumption of science as a foil against which all other through Bruno Latour’s insightful analysis. For Latour knowledge should be contrasted. In the view of Marcus the most successful devices in the agonistic struggle are Knowledge systems: Local knowledge 1201 those which are mobile and also “immutable, present- made technically reliable and reproducible, but perhaps able, readable, and combinable with one another.” most importantly the physical space for such empirical These immutable mobiles are the kinds of texts and knowledge had to be created. images that the printing press and distant point Hobbes, of course, was right: experimental knowl- perspective have made possible. These small and edge is artifactual. It is the product of human labor, of unexpected differences in the technology of represen- craft and skill, and necessarily reflects the contingen- tation are on his account the causes of the large and cies of the circumstances. It is because craft or tacit powerful effects of science. That which was previously knowledge is such a fundamental component of completely indexical, having meaning only in the knowledge production that accounts of its generation, context of the site of production, and having no means transmission, acceptance, and application cannot be of moving beyond that site, is standardized and made given solely in terms of texts and inscriptions. A vital commensurable and representable within the common component of local knowledge is moved by people in framework provided by distant point perspective. Hence their heads and hands. Harry Collins, a sociologist of that which has been observed, created, or recorded at science, has argued that this ineradicable craft compo- one site can be moved without distortion to another site. nent in science is ultimately what makes science a At centers of calculation such mobile representations social practice. Because knowledge claims about the can be accumulated, analyzed, and iterated in a cascade world are based on the skilled performance of of subsequent calculations and analyses. experiments their acceptance is a judgment of compe- Latour’s account has been augmented by the work of tence not of truth. An example of the centrality of craft Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer in the Leviathan skill is the TEA laser, invented in Canada by Bob and The Air Pump (1985). They have shown that Harrison in the late sixties, which British scientists experimental practice in science is sustained by a range attempted to replicate in the early seventies. “No of social, literary, and technical devices and spaces that scientist succeeded in building a laser using only we take for granted but which had to be created information found in published or other written K deliberately to overcome the fundamentally local and sources” and furthermore the people who did succeed hence defeasible character of experimentally derived in building one were only able to do so after extended knowledge claims. In the seventeenth century, the personal contact with somebody who had himself built problem for Robert Boyle, one of the earliest experi- one. Now TEA lasers are blackboxed and their mentalists, was to counter the arguments of his production is routine and algorithmic. But in order to opponent Thomas Hobbes about the grounding of true become routinized, Harrison’s local knowledge had to and certain knowledge which they both agreed was be moved literally by hand. essential in a country riven by dissent and conflicting Joseph Rouse (1987, 72) in considering the contem- opinion. Reliable knowledge of the world, for Hobbes, porary production process of scientific knowledge has was to be derived from self-evident first principles, and summarized the implications of this understanding of anything that was produced experimentally was inevi- science: tably doomed to reflect its artifactual nature and the Science is first and foremost knowing one’s way contingencies of its production; its localness would about in the laboratory (or clinic, field site etc.). deny it the status of fact or law. Boyle recognized the Such knowledge is of course transferable outside cogency of these arguments and set out to create the the laboratory site into a variety of other situations. forms of life within which the knowledge created at But the transfer is not to be understood in terms of one site could be relayed to and replicated at other sites. the instantiation of universally applied knowledge In order for an empirical fact to be accepted as such claims in different particular settings by applying it had to be witnessable by all, but the very nature of bridge principles and plugging in particular local an experimental laboratory restricted the audience of values for theoretical variables. It must be witnesses to a very few. Boyle, therefore, had to create understood in terms of the adaptation of one local the technology of what Shapin calls virtual witnessing. knowledge to create another. We go from one local For this to be possible three general sorts of devices knowledge to another rather than from universal or technologies had to be developed. Socially groups theories to their particular instantiations. of reliable witnesses had to be formed. Naturally in the seventeenth century they were gentlemen. These According to the historian of science Thomas Kuhn gentlemen witnesses had to be able to communicate the way a scientist learns to solve problems is not their observations to other groups of gentlemen so that by applying theory deductively but by learning to they too might witness the phenomena. This required apply theory through recognizing situations as similar. the establishment of journals using clear and unadorned Hence theories are models or tools whose application prose that could carry the immutable mobiles, experi- results from situations being conceived as or actually mental accounts, and diagrams. The apparatus had to be being made equivalent. This point is implicit in the 1202 Knowledge systems: Local knowledge recognition that knowledge produced in a laboratory Western science has succeeded in transforming the does not simply reflect nature because nature as such is world and our lives in ways that no other system has. seldom available in a form that can be considered The source of the power of science on this account lies directly in the lab. Specially simplified and purified not in the nature of scientific knowledge but in its artifacts are the typical subject of instrumental analysis greater ability to move and apply the knowledge it in scientific laboratories. For the results of such an produces beyond the site of its production. However at artificial process to have any efficacy in the world the end of the twentieth century we can now perceive beyond the lab, the world itself has to be modified to that there is a high cost to pay for science’s hegemony. conform with the rigors of science. A wide variety of Much of that cost in terms of environmental degrada- institutional structures have to be put in place to achieve tion and ethnocide is due not so much to the totalizing the equivalences needed between the microworld nature of scientific theories but to the social strategies created inside the lab and the macroworld outside in and technical devices science has developed in order for the knowledge to be transmittable. The largest eliminating the local. and most expensive example of this is the Bureau of The task of resisting and criticizing science may Standards, a massive bureaucracy costing six times the now be addressed by reconsidering the causes of its R&D budget. Without such social institutions the dominating effects. Without the kinds of connections results of scientific research are mere artifacts. They and patterns that theories make possible we will never gain their truth, efficacy, and accuracy not through be able to perceive the interconnectedness of all things. a passive mirroring of reality but through an active Without the awareness of local differences we will lose social process that brings our understandings and reality the diversity and particularity of the things themselves. into conformity with each other. Thus, rather than rejecting universalizing explanations The result of the work of Latour, Collins, Shapin, what is needed is a new understanding of the dialectical Star, Hacking, Rouse, and others has been to show that tension between the local and the global. We need to the kind of knowledge system we call Western science focus on the ways in which science creates and solves depends on a variety of social, technical, and literary problems through its treatment of the local. Science devices and strategies for moving and applying local gains its truthlike character through suppressing or knowledge. It is having the capacity for movement denying the circumstances of its production and that enables local knowledge to constitute part of a through the social mechanisms for the transmission knowledge system. This mobility requires devices and and authorization of the knowledge by the scientific strategies that enable connectivity and equivalence, that community. Both of these devices have the effect of is the linking of disparate or new knowledge and the rendering scientific knowledge autonomous, above rendering of knowledge and context sufficiently similar culture, and hence beyond criticism. Equally problem- as to make the knowledge applicable. Connectivity and atic is the establishment of the standardization and equivalence are prerequisites of a knowledge system equivalences required in order that the knowledge but they are not characteristics of knowledge itself. produced in the lab works in the world. The joint They are produced by collective work and are facilitated processes of making the world fit the knowledge by technical devices and social strategies. Differing instead of the other way round and immunizing devices and strategies produce differing assemblages scientific knowledge from criticism are best resisted and are the source of the differences in power between by developing forms of understanding in which the knowledge systems. local, the particular, the specific, and the individual are In conclusion, it has been argued that Western not homogenized but are enabled to talk back. science, like all knowledge in all societies, is inherently local, and furthermore other non-Western societies have developed a variety of social and technical devices for References coping with that localness and enabling it to move. Allport, P. Still Searching for the Holy Grail. New Scientist Some of them are technical devices of representation – ’ 132 (1991): 51 2. like the mason s templates, and the Incan ceques and Collins, Harry. Changing Order: Replication and Induction quipus. Some of them are abstract cognitive constructs, in Scientific Practice. London: Sage, 1985. like the Anasazi and Incan calendars, and the Microne- Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews sian navigation system. All of them also require social and Other Writings 1972–77. New York: Pantheon Books, organization, rituals, and ceremonies. All of them have 1980. proved capable of producing complex bodies of Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books, 1973. knowledge and in many cases have been accompanied Hacking, Lan. The Self-Vindication of the Laboratory by substantial transformations of the environment. The Sciences. Science as Practice and Culture. Ed. Andrew major difference between Western science and other Pickering. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. knowledge systems lies in the question of power. 29–64. Knowledge systems of the Olmec 1203

Haraway, Donna. Symians, Cyborgs and Women: The refers to art not as a category of objects made to be Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books, admired, but the related knowledges of science, art, 1991. philosophy, and wisdom. Hayles, Katherine. Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science. Ithaca: Cornell Between 1000 and 400 BCE, Mesoamericans made University Press, 1990. small stone figurines that could be transported across Latour, Bruno. Visualisation and Cognition: Thinking With linguistic zones to convey the new knowledge. By Eyes and Hands. Knowledge and Society 6 (1986): 1–40. Law, John. Technology and Heterogeneous Engineering: The Case of Portuguese Expansion. The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Ed. W. Bijker, T. Hughes, and T. Pinch. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1987. 111–34. Marcus, G. E. and M. M. J. Fischer. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Ophir, Adi and Steven Shapin. The Place of Knowledge: A Methodological Survey. Science in Context 4 (1991): 3–21. Pickering, Andrew, ed. Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Rouse, Joseph. Knowledge and Power: Towards a Political Philosophy of Science. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987. Shapin, Steven and Simon Schaffer. Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes. Boyle and the Experimental Life. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985. Star, Susan Leigh. The Structure of III-Structured Solutions: K Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving. Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Ed. L. Gasser and N. Huhns. New York: Morgan Kauffman Publications, 1989. 37–54. Thrift, Nigel. Flies and Germs: A Geography of Knowledge. “ ” Social Relations and Spatial Structures. Ed. Derek Gregory Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 1 Olmec Jade and John Urry. London: Macmillan, 1985. 366–403. mask from Arroyo Pesquero, University of Veracruz Museum of Anthropology. Author photo.

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec

CAROLYN E. TATE

People in Formative Period Mesoamerica (2000–250 BCE) developed an array of empirical knowledge and technological adaptations that became the foundation for the later great civilizations. These included domesticated plants, skilled ceramic production, lithic technologies, and long-distance travel and trade. This essay will focus on the little-studied topic of Olmec knowledge of the human body. It uses as evidence the hundreds of Olmec three-dimensional sculptures of the human figure in stone and clay (Fig. 1). Apparently the Olmec recorded their empirical observations about the process of human gestation and about the innate energies of the adult human body in many kinds of sculptures (Fig. 2). The practice of encoding knowledge and lore in sculpture characterizes Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 2 Fetus figurine all Mesoamerican cultures. It is documented for the found in a bowl containing cinnabar. Alabaster. Private sixteenth-century Yucatec Maya, whose word “its” Collection, drawing by Corey Escoto. 1204 Knowledge systems of the Olmec

900 BCE, the subjects of these sculptures and of the incised symbol system were quite consistent in cultures across southern Mesoamerica. Most of the sculptures portrayed human beings, and some of these showed humans in specific stages and states of being. Many sculptures illustrated Olmec knowledge of human gestation, bodily organs, and mental disciplines of the body. Because the sculptures and the knowledge they encoded were linked to ritual practice, we might consider the sculptures as illustrations of spiritual technologies. However, Olmec knowledge of gestation and the disciplines of the human body also informed agriculture, and calendrics, and was part of a long- distance trade technology. The name “Olmec” was given in the early twentieth century to the inhabitants of ancient Mexican Gulf Coast civic centers such as La Venta and Tres Zapotes. At that time, little evidence of the Formative Period existed, and many scholars assumed that most early culture traits originated in the Gulf Coast region. Since then archaeologists have shown that nascent civiliza- Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 3 Monument 1 tions in Central Mexico, Highland Oaxaca, the Pacific of San Martin Pajapan. Portrays a ruler in part of creation Coast, Guerrero, and the Gulf Coast all contributed to narrative, in the act of “raising the world tree” (Reilly 1994). On an ideological system that coalesced by the Middle the headdress is an embryo plaque. Drawing by corey Escoto. Formative. This article follows the (debatable) conven- tion of referring to all the groups who participated to some extent in this ideological system as “Olmec.” By no means did ALL Olmec sculptures portray these scientific subjects. Many sculptures showed humans as a part of creation stories or engaged in political events (Fig. 3). However, a significant number of monumental and small sculptures displayed Olmec knowledge of life processes, beginning with gestation.

The Human Embryo Recent research strongly suggests that a human embryo image formed part of the earliest symbol system of Mesoamerica. A figurine from Oaxaca (made in the Tierras Largas Phase, about 1400 BCE, at the cusp of the appearance of “Olmec” traits in Mesoamerica) portrayed a human female with a fetus enclosed in a cavity in the abdomen (Marcus 1998). In the Basin of Mexico around 1200 BCE, villagers created a stylized Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 4 An early form image of the human embryo at about 48–56 days of of the stylized embryo image on a ceramic vessel from gestation (Fig. 4). Within the next 300 years, many Tlapacoya, a village in the Basin of Mexico. About 1200 groups throughout Mesoamerica forged, shared, and BCE. Drawing by Corey Escoto. adapted an ideological system, or a set of interconnected concepts and metaphors. To show alliance to these the symbol as “were-jaguar,”“were-snake,” or “were- concepts and the supernatural and meta-environmental crocodile.” The interpretation of it as “embryo” remains powers they indexed, men wore images of the human controversial (see Extra). embryo in greenstone (Fig. 5). This kind of exotic, elite regalia evoked powers of creation, vital energy, and the dawn of life. The “embryo” symbol was one of the most The Human Fetus widespread characteristics of the “Olmec” civilization. The argument that the Olmec focused on the human Earlier in the twentieth century, scholars referred to embryo as a major symbol of vital spirit is strengthened Knowledge systems of the Olmec 1205 by the fact that they also made sculptures of the human The human infant fetus (Fig. 6). About 50 such sculptures are known, Olmec exploration of the human gestation process many from the Gulf Coast. One small fetus figurine continued with representations of infants (Fig. 7). was excavated, along with an embryo figurine and two These most often appear in the form of large, of children, from La Venta, which demonstrates that the sometimes life-sized, hollow ceramic figurines. The fetus was a legitimate subject of sculpture (not the proportions and faces of some of these figures seem invention of modern forgers). Also, three colossal fetus older than infants, so the significance of the hollow sculptures were found at La Venta in the 1940s and figures seems to vary. Nevertheless, they seem to have recently installed at the site museum. Fetus sculptures celebrated the rapid growth and vitality of infants as have the disproportionately large head and flexed limbs well as an acknowledgment of the precariousness of of a human fetus. They must have been modeled on human life in its early years. Just as many communities fetuses that aborted, yet all are portrayed alive. Their today carry statues of specific saints into the agricul- meaning is less clear, but I suspect that they were tural fields to bless and promote the fertility of the considered to be intermediaries between the world of crops, these hollow babies may have brought their vital humans and that of the supernatural life forces. energy to ancient crops (Fig. 8).

Human Gestation and the 260-Day Calendar The ancient focus on human gestation explains the priority of the 260-day calendar in Mesoamerican ideology, and ties ancient knowledge of lunar cycles (9 × 29 = 261) to menstruation and gestation. The 260- day calendar seems to have been established in Oaxaca (where the earliest known figurine of a woman with a K fetus in an abdominal cavity occurred), well before the existence of the Long Count. It continued to serve as a divinatory calendar, primarily consulted by female

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 5 A greenstone headdress ornament of the embryo face adorned with a headband. Private collection, drawing by Corey Escoto.

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 7 Hollow Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 6 Olmec sculptures sculptures of human infants, in the National Museum of of the human fetus. Author drawing. Anthropology, Mexico. Author photo. 1206 Knowledge systems of the Olmec

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 8 This embryo sculpture and canoe of “matching” jadeite were found together at Cerro de las Mesas. The excavator, Drucker (1955), noticed that the figurine “fit” into the canoe. On each end of the canoe is an incised embryo symbol. Drawing by Corey Escoto. Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 9 A drawing of a small ceramic vessel representing a seated human with an clients, into the sixteenth century and even later. Many outsized, but fairly accurate, human heart, Drawing by Gordon Bendersky. Mesoamerican groups considered the life cycle of maize to be 260 days, like the gestation of humans, despite the fact that from the Western point of view, it is or sometimes, double-facedness, with two noses and shorter. Rituals conducted before the planting of maize mouths and three or four eyes (Fig. 10). While these and after its harvest extended the life of maize to figurines have traditionally been interpreted as mytho- parallel the period of human gestation. The Maya logical beings, Bendersky found a 1:1 correspondence believed that humans were made of maize. “Humans between documented cases of a congenital anomaly are maize” was a major operative metaphor of many called diprosopus and the range of features shown in Mesoamerican cultures. the Tlatilco figurines. The case is compelling that Formative Period Olmec Art as Medical Illustration Mesoamericans were fascinated with the processes of Not only did the Olmec illustrate the processes of human gestation and physical development. Another embryogenesis and human infancy, they also explored class of objects, stone figurines of humans, suggests that and illustrated certain organs and congenital anomalies. they were also interested in the potential of the disciplined One small hollow ceramic vessel illustrates a seated body, in what we might call mind-body communication. human figure with an exposed heart of exaggerated size (Fig. 9). Gordon Bendersky, MD, a cardiologist, has discussed the relative accuracy of the portrayal, con- Exploring the Spiritual Potential of the Adult Body cluding that the image must have been made from Small-scale stone images of the human figure occur direct observation of a heart but that certain features across Mesoamerica (except in the Maya area) in the were changed “to display the organ more symmetri- later Formative Period (900–400 BCE). From Guerrero cally and to facilitate the placement of the head directly to the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Slope, “Olmec” people on the sulcus” (Bendersky 1997). As with Olmec re- made stone figurines in only a few variations: standing presentations of the human embryo, the representation figures, seated figures, kneeling or half-kneeling, and of the subject in sculpture was modified (or in artistic lying on the belly with the legs bent backward so the terms, “stylized”) – the actual thing was transformed feet touch the head. into a symbol. Over 100 “standing figures” with an exceptionally Dr. Bendersky (2000) has also made a case that a consistent posture have been published. The best number of figurines with a normal number of facial known of these are the sixteen that constitute a group features served to illustrate an incidence of congenital known as La Venta Offering 4. Each figure is made of a defects in the small farming community of Tlatilco, different stone, probably by a different sculptor, yet on the shore of Lake Texcoco in highland Mexico. the poses are nearly identical. The figures neither wear A number of figurines from the site exhibit two heads, costumes nor hold regalia, so the focus of the piece is Knowledge systems of the Olmec 1207

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 10 Left: Tlatilco figurines, from about 1100 BCE, exhibit multiple features or heads. Drawing by Gordon Bendersky, used with kind permission. Right: Photo of an individual exhibiting a form of diprosopus, courtesy Gordon Bendersky. K on the pose itself (Fig. 11). The figures stand with their weight distributed symmetrically. The knees are flexed and the pelvis is tilted to straighten the spine (Fig. 12). The limbs are loose and muscles are not articulated, providing a sense of focused relaxation. In sum, the figures exhibit a perfectly straight spine with relaxed limbs and a focused gaze. This pose looks comfortable, but it is deceptively difficult to maintain. Flexing the knees demands effort from the quadriceps, the largest muscle in the body. After a minute of standing this way, the heart begins to pound. This posture is common to several physical-spiritual disciplines. In Hatha Yoga, this position is called Tadasana, the Mountain Pose. It is said to teach endurance, steadiness, contentment, and enable a person to experience the flow of energy spiraling up from the feet to the top of the head. In T’ai Chi, the pose is called Hun-Yuan Kung or Beginning Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 11 Standing figures Posture. In this position, it is said that the earth is from La Venta Offering 4. Photo by John Verano. invoked by the rootedness of the feet, the sky by the verticality of the spine, and humanity by the sinking of are from archaeological contexts) also seem to exhibit a energy to the Dan T’ien, an energy center below the disciplined posture (Fig. 13). Each sits cross-legged navel. In both traditions, the pose is used to focus the with a straight spine. In a few, the hands are resting on mind or meditate. However, although both Asian bent knees. At least two sit in a half-lotus position, with traditions are at least as old as 1000 BCE, no known one foot resting on the other knee. portrayals of this pose survive from Asia from this era. Quite a few Olmec sculptures portray a human in a Not all Olmec standing figures portray nude figures pose clearly based on a very difficult disciplined in this pose. A few wear clothing and hold weapons or posture. The figure reclines on the stomach and bends ritual items. Their meaning is distinct from that of the backward to form a wheel (Fig. 14). The elbows standing meditators. support the elevated chest and head. The back and legs Seated stone figurines are more rare in the Olmec arch so that the feet touch the top of the head. Hatha corpus, but the few that exist (about eight, half of which Yoga includes several such postures. Within the many 1208 Knowledge systems of the Olmec

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 12 A standing figure from La Venta Offering 4. The profile shows the Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 14 Top: Figurines straight spine and flexed knees. Photo courtesy John Verano. in the backward arching pose. Private collection. Bottom: Portrayal of an expert Yogi, Swami Vishnudevananda, in similar disciplined poses. Author drawings.

systems of yoga, these postures are ascetic disciplines whose practice and attainment involves controlling the body and mind, sometimes with the goal of realizing oneness with the divine consciousness. In the past, these backward arching figures have been called “acrobats” and considered to be “court jesters.” Another subject of Olmec stone figurines shows a person kneeling or half-kneeling with hands on the knees. In many of these, an animal skin partially covers the human figure. The skin has split and is peeling away, like that of a snake or lizard that sheds its skin. Kent Reilly (1989) has interpreted such figures as humans transforming into an animal alter ego. In light of the focus on the human embryo in Olmec sculpture, symbolic of the rapid transformation of the human “seed” into various animal-like forms and finally into a human form, the fetus, this adult transformation makes sense as a part of larger ideolo- gical structures. In summation, While Formative Period people were domesticating food plants, building early public architecture, engaging in long-distance travel and trade, getting to know their environment, and establishing the ideology that would permeate later Mesoamerican cultures, they were also exploring the human body Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 13 Seated figures itself. One major focus was on the mysteries of human from La Venta Tomb A. from Drucker 1952: Plater 46. Public development from the stage of the embryo, which domain. appears as much like a tailed animal, bird, or fish as a Knowledge systems of the Olmec 1209 human, to the fetus, which is clearly human, to infancy. symbol IS biologically based and that it represents the human embryo No later Mesoamerican civilization focused to this of about 56 days (Fig. 18). “ ” To explore the proposal that this image represents the human extent on the early stages of life, the seed stages, embryo, this discussion compares the features of a human embryo as did the people in these seminal societies. It is also clear that a guiding metaphor of Mesoamerican civilization, “humans are maize,” so clearly expressed in the Maya Popol Vuh, originated in the Formative Period. Another major focus of their research, which they expressed in sculpture, was that of the physical- spiritual disciplines of the body. Although later cul- tures, notably the large central Mexican city of Teotihuacan, made similar standing and seated stone figures, the postures are less specifically “disciplined” and the meaning of these figures seems to have changed in the Classic Period.

Extra: Human Embryo or Were-Jaguar in Olmec Sculpture? One of the characteristic features in Olmec art is a symbol that is widely known as a were-jaguar. The symbol appeared as a disembodied head on headdress ornaments, as a whole body in the form of figurines (Fig. 15) and large ritual axes, and on monumental stelae (Figs. 16 and 17). First advanced in 1946, the interpretation of this symbol as a were-jaguar has survived many attempts to replace it K with alternatives. All of these have pointed out that the symbol lacks the pointed ears, fangs, claws, whiskers, tail, spots, and body of a jaguar. The only vaguely jaguar-like features are a puffy upper lip, a flat nose, and an open mouth, usually toothless. Newer interpretations Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 16 The Kunz Axe, contend that the symbol was based on another animal: a crocodile, jadeite, American Museum of Natural History. Represents an snake, or a fantastic creature or represents a deity. It was considered a embryo or “human seed,” Drawing by Corey Escoto. hallmark of Olmec art that the Olmec portrayed “biologically impossible creatures.” Very recent research strongly suggests that the

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 17 La Venta monument 25/26 represents a human embryo with a Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 15 Figurine headband, bundled at the bottom, and with a head in the shape representing and Embryo with a pronounced crest on its head. of a mountain. Here the embryo symbolizes the vital energy Private collection, drawing by Corey Escoto. inherent in seeds. Author drawing. 1210 Knowledge systems of the Olmec of 56 days to those of two Olmec pieces, a figurine and an is diamond-shaped. The Olmec figurine’s head shows these “axe” (Fig. 19): typical swelling masses. The stylized forms on the axe give the head a slightly curved, tapering rectangular shape. Both the . Overall proportions: in each case, the head is very large in ’ figurine and the axe show the anterior fontanel. In the figurine it is proportion to the body. The human embryo s torso from the base subtle but present; in the axe it takes the stylized “cleft-head” of the head to the rump head is about 1.25 times the size of the form. In other examples it is diamond-shaped. head. The same is true of the Olmec figurine. On the axe, the head . Eyes: lidless oval eyes sit on the sides of the head in the human is even larger than the rest of the stylized body. . ’ embryo (Fig. 20). The eyes are still open but eyelids begin to form Head: the embryo s forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain form between days 52 and 57. On the figurine and axe, the eyes are bulges that create the shape of the head. Soft bony portions are widely spaced and lidless although on the figurine, which seems separated by large sutures called fontanels. The anterior fontanel to show an embryo of about 57–58 days, lids are beginning to close over the eyeball (Fig. 21). . Nose and mouth: at four weeks, the embryo exhibits a single, arching slit where the nose and mouth will soon develop. In the 5th–6th week, buds at the corners of the slit, called maxillary prominences, grow rapidly toward each other to form an upper lip that separates the nostrils from the mouth. The maxillary prominences are just that – prominent or puffy. At this stage, the nose barely projects above a swollen upper lip. This facial development occurs rapidly and at the stage during which the embryo is frequently lost from the womb (this will be explained below). Anyone who had seen several embryos would have noticed the swollen upper lip and shallow nasal pits. The principal feature of the Olmec symbol is its “puffy upper lip” and arching mouth, usually toothless. Above the upper lip are the flat nostrils of a human embryo. Sometimes Formative Period people added the dentition of various animals to the basic image to confer certain mythical associations or animal-like qualities on the symbol (see Fig. 22). . Ears: on an embryo the ears first appear as small arches on the sides of the neck. They do not move up onto the head until Week 10. Similarly, on the figurine, ears are not shown. On this axe, the maker included the cultural symbols of the headband and long earflaps but no ears. . Limbs: in the developing embryo, the arms appear in Week 4, slightly before the legs. Hand plates appear in Week 6 but toe rays only in Week 7. Most of the Olmec images show short arms with poorly differentiated fingers. Both the figurine and axe show arms Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 18 Photograph of a that are better developed than legs. Apparently the Olmec took care human embryo of 56 days, from England 1996. Used with to show the developing stages of the limbs in both naturalistic and kind permission. conventionalized images.

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 19 A comparison of a human embryo at 56 days, an Olmec figurine, and an Olmec axe. The figurine is somewhat naturalistic, and the axe is a more stylized representation of the human embryo. Drawings by Corey Escoto. Knowledge systems of the Olmec 1211

Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 22 An Olmec “ ” Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 20 The Face of axe based on the form of the human embryo, with feline human embryo. Photos courtesy England 1996. teeth added. Drawing by Corey Escoto.

process. Could this be possible? Access to embryos in the Formative Period was at least as high as it is today. Since about 20% of K recognized pregnancies in the modern industrialized societies terminate between 42 and 56 days, (Weeks 6–8) it is also likely that miscarriage was at least that common in the past. The embryo measures from 20 to 30 mm at that stage, and so is quite visible. Human embryos were described in texts from other cultures, such as in the Garbha Upanishad (1400 BCE, India), so clearly ancient people did observe them. Although there are no written texts from the Formative Period to corroborate the notion that the symbol represents an embryo, there are many references by modern indigenous people to embryos, placentas, conception, and gestation. Two modern stories illustrate the survival of this cultural focus. These stories illuminate what the embryo might have meant to the Olmec. The first story comes from Nahuatl (Aztec) speakers. In a village in Veracruz, people place a cedar box in the shrine of the earth mother, Tonantsij. Her domain includes ruling over her children, known as the seed spirits, who are “…the life force or potential for fertility of each crop” (Sandstrom 1991: 244). These “seed spirits” seem to be a modern version of the ancient embryo symbol. From woman-made paper, villagers form elaborately dressed figures of the seed spirits and place them in the box. These are cleaned, renewed, and redressed annually. Throughout the year they are given offerings of food, so they will not want to return to their mountain-cave home. The most important seed spirits, those of maize, are called 7-Flower and 5-Flower, and are considered to be divine human twin children. Also, the Amatan people make bundles out of bandanas. They call these “elote child” and say they represent spirit and flower of maize. Three ears of corn are tied together, one for its backbone and two for Knowledge Systems of the Olmec. Fig. 21 A comparison its face. Marigolds, (representing the fiery energy of conception) of the faces of actual human embryos with those of Olmec emerge from the opening at the top and a candle, representative of the embryo figurines, Photos courtesy England 1996. Drawings phallus, is inserted into this womb-like bundle to bring male energy in by Corey Escoto. the form of fire. Similarly, the twentieth-century Maya of Santiago Atitlán keep a box representing the womb of one of the three Marias in a shrine. In The degree of correspondence between the Olmec symbol and the the box is a bundle called “Heart of the Placenta.” It is wrapped in a human embryo is so high that there is little question that the symbol woven, beribboned cloth decorated with three faces called the corn indeed is a stylized representation of an embryo. The use of the girls, which a shaman places on the belly of a pregnant woman to embryo as a symbol points to knowledge of the human gestation give her fetus its face. Hanging from the ribbons, which represent 1212 Kūshyār ibn Labbān umbilical cords, are two small bags filled with dry corn paste. The Atitecos call these bags “divine twins”–one male, one female – and Ku¯shya¯r ibn Labba¯n consider them to be the original placentas that wrap the original seeds of the human race: the “root of children” (Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 175–176). The ultimate spiritual technology in Olmec ideology seems to have MICHIO YANO been the evocation of the embryo (seed) spirit as the vital force that animates crops and human life. In his book al-Madkhal fī s.inā’at as.kām al-nujūm (Introduction to the Art of Astrology) the author calls himself Kūshyār ibn Labbān ibn Bāshahrī al-Jīilī. This name indicates that Kūshyār was a son of Labbān who References was a son of Bāshahrī and that he hailed from Jīlān, a Bendersky, Gordon. The Olmec Heart Effigy: Earliest Image region of modern Iran south of the Caspian Sea. The of the Human Heart. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine date of the book is some time around AD 992, the year 40 (1997): 348–61. for which positions of the fixed stars are given. In the ---. Tlatilco Sculptures, Diprosopus, and the Emergence of same book he refers to his two earlier books on Medical Illustrations. Perspectives in Biology and Medi- astronomical tables (zījes), al-Zīj al-jāmi’ (Comprehen- – cine 43.4 (2000): 477 501. sive) and al-Zīj al-bāligh (Far-reaching). In some Drucker, Philip. La Venta, Tabasco: A Study of Olmec “ ū ” Ceramics and Art. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin manuscripts Ab al-s.asan (the father of al-s.asan) is 153. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, added at the top of his name. No further information is 1952. available about his family and life. ---. The Cerro De Las Mesas Offering of Jade and Other One of the most famous of his books is the Kitābfī Materials. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 157. us.ūls.isāb al-hind (Book on the Principles of Hindu Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1955. Reckoning) which is known as the oldest surviving 25–68. Arabic book on arithmetic using Hindu numerals. The England, Marjorie. Life Before Birth. 2nd ed. London: Mosby-Wolfe, 1996. Arabic text is divided into two parts. In the first section Grove, David C. Formative (Preclassic) Period. The Oxford of the first part Indian numerals and the decimal Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. Ed. David system of notation are introduced. In the following Carrasco. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press, sections are (2) addition, (3) subtraction, (4) multiplica- 2001. 236–43. tion, (5) results of multiplication, (6) division, (7) results ’ Marcus, Joyce. Women s Ritual in Formative Oaxaca: of division, (8) square root, and (9) arithmetic checks. Figurine-Making, Divination, Death, and the Ancestors. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of The second part comprising sixteen sections is devoted Michigan. Ed. Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus. Vol. to sexagesimal computations using sexagesimal tables. 33. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthropology, University of According to Kennedy’s(1956) classification of Michigan, 1998. the subject matter of Islamic zījes, Kūshyār’s Compre- Reilly III, F. Kent. The Shaman in Transformation Pose: A hensive Astronomical Table covers the following sub- Study of the Theme of Rulership in Olmec Art. Vol. 48, jects: chronology, trigonometric functions, spherical Suppl. 2. Princeton University: Record of the Art Museum, astronomical functions, equations of time, mean 1989. 4–21. ---. Visions to Another World: Art, Shamanism, and Political motions, planetary equations, planetary latitudes, sta- Power in Middle Formative Mesoamerica. Ph.D. Disserta- tions and retrogradations, parallax, eclipse theory, tion, University of Texas, 1994. visibility conditions, geographical locations, star tables, Sandstrom, Alan R. Corn Is Our Blood: Culture and Ethnic and astrological tables. Identity in a Contemporary Aztec Village. Norman and Kūshyār’s book on astrology seems to have been one London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. of the most popular handbooks on this subject, Tarn, Nathaniel and Martin Prechtel. Constant Inconstancy: The Feminine Principle in Atiteco Mythology. Symbol and especially in the eastern half of the Muslim world, as Meaning Beyond the Closed Community: Essays in is witnessed by the abundance of surviving Arabic Mesoamerican Ideas. Ed. Gary H. Gossen. Albany: manuscripts and translations into Persian, Turkish, and Institute of Mesoamerican Studies, 1986. 173–84. Chinese. The book consists of four books, following Tate, Carolyn E. La Venta’s Stone Figurines and the Olmec the model of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos. Almost all the Body Politic. Memorias Del Tercer Simposio Internacional chapters in the first book have corresponding ones in De Mayistas. Mexico, DF: Instituto de Investigaciones the Tetrabiblos. The second book deals with so-called Filologicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, ū ā 1998. 335–58. judicial astrology where K shy r shows his knowledge Tate, Carolyn E. and Gordon Bendersky. Olmec Sculptures of of topics of Persian and Indian origin. Most of the the Human Fetus. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine subjects in the third and fourth books are found in 42.3 (1999): 303–32. Books III and IV of the Tetrabiblos. The last two Kūshyār ibn Labbān 1213 chapters of the third book are devoted to a subject References which was not unknown to Ptolemy but which found a Kennedy, E. S. A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables. significant development in Persian astrology, namely, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 46.2 the rules for computing the so-called tasyīr arc for (1956). determining the length of an individual’s life. Levey, Martin and Marvin Petruck. Kūshyār ibn Labbān: In the introduction of this book he clearly distin- Principles of Hindu Reckoning. Madison: University of guishes between two branches of the science of stars: Wisconsin Press, 1965. Saidan, A. S. Kūshyār ibn Labbān ibn Bāshahrī,Abū’l-s.asan, astronomy and astrology in modern terms. The former, ī ī dealing with spheres of planets, their motion, and the al-J l . Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Ed. Charles C. Gillispie, Vol. 7. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973. computation of their positions, is more fundamental 531–3. and is grasped by instruments and observation, and is to Sezgin, F. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums. Band V be proved by geometry. The latter branch concerns the (Mathematik), 1974, Band VI (Astronomie), 1978, and knowledge of human deeds which is derived from the Band VII (Astrologie), 1979. Leiden: Brill. planets, their power, and their influence upon whatever Yano, Michio and Mercè Viladrich. Tasyīr Computation ū ā ā is below the sphere of the moon. This is grasped by of K shy r ibn Labb n. Historia Scientiarum 41 (1991): 1–16. experience and analogy (qiyās).

See also: ▶Sexagesimal System

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