Published by the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee Volume 20, Number 1, Summer 1992

In this Issue:

Indigenous Knowledge

Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.

Novum Organum With that strangely paradoxical statement, the Elizabethan philosopher Francis Bacon helped set the course of Western science for centuries to come. Henceforth, man and nature would do battle for the earth; banished to the realm of magic and superstition was the pagan notion of nature as a benevolent and sustaining force of which human beings were an integral part. It was a philosophy of convenience, one that rationalized the total conquest of the New World and its indigenous cultures. But it was, as well, a remarkably durable science, as the current validity of another Baconian dictum readily attests: "Knowledge is power."

Recently, however, there has emerged a movement to recover the indigenous, or "traditional", knowledge systems pushed aside by Western science. The empowerment of aboriginal peoples through land claims and self-government initiatives has made possible the re-emergence of ancient ideas and beliefs capable of enriching the body of human knowledge.

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ISSN: 0380-5522