Indigenous Knowledge article with Masai info

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> Now the Ancient Ways Are Less Mysterious

>

>

>

> Each June for at least the last four centuries, farmers in 12 mountain

> villages in Peru and Bolivia follow a ritual that Westerners might think

> odd, if not crazy. Late each night for about a week, the farmers observe

the

> stars in the Pleiades constellation, which is low on the horizon to the

> northeast. If they appear big and bright, the farmers know to plant their

> potato crop at the usual time four months later. But if the stars are dim,

> the usual planting will be delayed for several weeks.

>

> Now Western researchers have applied the scientific method to this seeming

> madness. Poring over reams of satellite data on cloud cover and water

vapor,

> Professor Orlove, an anthropologist at the University of

California

> at , and colleagues have discovered that these star-gazing farmers

are

> accurate long-range weather forecasters. High wisps of cirrus clouds dim

the

> stars in El Nino years, which brings reduced rainfall to that part of the

> Andes. In such drought conditions, it makes sense to plant potatoes as

late

> as possible.

>

> Orlove's work, which was reported in January in the British journal

Nature,

> is just the latest example of indigenous or traditional knowledge that has

> been found to have a sound scientific basis. In agriculture, nutrition,

> medicine and other fields, modern research is showing why people maintain

> their traditions.

>

> Take the Masai of East Africa, who are famous for the kind of high-fat

diet,

> rich in meat and milk, that would make a cardiologist swoon.

s,

> a professor at McGill University in Montreal and director of the Center

for

> Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment, has long studied the Masai

to

> determine how they stay healthy.

>

> The Masai add the roots and barks of certain plants, including a species

of

> acacia high in antioxidants, s said. They also chew a natural gum,

> related to myrrh, that helps to break down fats.

>

> " It's not a magic bullet protecting the Masai against heart disease, " he

> said. " But there is a benefit from what they are doing. "

>

> In a 1998 study, two Cornell University researchers analyzed the spices

used

> in 36 countries and found a correlation between average temperature and

> cooking with spices like cumin, turmeric, ginger and chili peppers, all of

> which have antimicrobial properties. The hotter the climate, the hotter

the

> food -- in part, at least, to keep it from spoiling.

>

> Sometimes, however, the benefits of traditional knowledge are not so

obvious

> to those outside the culture. In Bali in the 1970s, the Indonesian

> government, persuaded by international advocates of the " green

revolution, "

> forced rice farmers adopt new growing schemes. Among other things, the

> farmers were made to stop their centuries-old ritual of meeting in small

> groups at a series of water temples set at the forks of rivers, to

negotiate

> seasonal schedules for flooding their paddies.

>

> The new techniques resulted in disaster. Farmers were pressured to plant

as

> often as possible. With little coordination of irrigation, water shortages

> and pest infestation were the norm.

>

> At about this time, J. Lansing, an American anthropologist, began

to

> study the water temples. What he found, which was supported later by

> computer modeling, was that the old system was quite sophisticated and

> efficient, encouraging cooperation among thousands of farmers. Water was

> shared and controlled through a process involving reciprocal altruism.

>

> " Everybody gets more rice and variation in harvest disappears, so there's

no

> reason to be envious of your neighbors, " said Lansing, who now teaches at

> the University of Arizona. " It's a bottom-up system of management that's

> worked very well. " The green revolution, he added, " was very much top

down. "

> The traditional system has been re-established.

>

> Orlove has studied similar traditional resource management around Lake

> Titicaca, on the border between Bolivia and Peru. A distinctive feature of

> the lake is the reeds growing in its shallows. The people around the lake

> use them for rafts and livestock feed, among other things.

>

> " They are a major component of the household economy, " said Orlove. The

> residents replant the reeds, which also serve as a spawning ground for

some

> of the 22 species of fish that are unique to the lake.

>

> But indigenous knowledge can be faulty. " Traditional people sometimes get

> things right, and sometimes get them wrong, " said Alan Fiske, a

> psychological anthropologist at the University of California at Los

Angeles.

> " Some things people do are bad for them. " Other anthropologists have

> challenged the notion that all indigenous groups have somehow developed a

> blissful oneness with their world.

>

> The problem, Fiske noted, is that verifying traditional knowledge is not

> easy. The scientific method can be expensive, and data can be difficult to

> obtain. Orlove's research on the potato farmers would have been impossible

> even 10 years ago, because the type of satellite data he needed did not

> exist.

>

> There may be a shortage of data, but there's no shortage of traditional

> knowledge that awaits possible confirmation by science. Lynch, an

> American scientist who has spent the past two decades helping Costa Rican

> farmers, said he has learned from them the importance of timing. A tree

cut

> down during a new moon, he said, will quickly be ravaged by the insects,

> while one felled several days before a full moon will stay free of

termites

> for years.

>

> Lynch now follows the practice. " But I've never seen any scientific study

to

> back it up, " he said.

>

> AP