ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been a growing interest in ‘indigenous knowledge’ and its relevance to the formulation of resource management regimes, or the conservation of fauna and flora.1 Agrawal (1995) attributes this interest to the failure of grand theories to account for the lack of state-sponsored development in third-world countries. However, this is too narrow a perspective of indigenous knowledge if we are to understand the rhetorical power this concept has attained today. The interest is part of an intellectual reaction against what Friedman (1992) calls the anticulture and anti-nature of modernism. It reflects the increasing skepticism many people in the industrialized world have of the heuristic power of the western, scientific paradigm-and of economic development as such-which so far has been the fundament of most management regimes designed and imposed by national and international bodies (Bruun and Kalland 1995). Moreover, it reflects the growing ability of some indigenous peoples and their organizations to make their voices heard both in national and international fora.
