Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2013
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-9-71
Abstract
Background
We test whether traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) about how to make an item predicts a person’s skill at making it among the Tsimane’ (Bolivia). The rationale for this research is that the failure to distinguish between knowledge and skill might account for some of the conflicting results about the relationships between TEK, human health, and economic development.
Methods
We test the association between a commonly-used measure of individual knowledge (cultural consensus analysis) about how to make an arrow or a bag and a measure of individual skill at making these items, using ordinary least-squares regression. The study consists of 43 participants from 3 villages.
Results
We find no association between our measures of knowledge and skill (core model, p > 0.5,R2 = .132).
Conclusions
While we cannot rule out the possibility of a real association between these phenomena, we interpret our findings as support for the claim that researchers should distinguish between methods to measure knowledge and skill when studying trends in TEK.
Copyright Statement
This document was originally published by BioMed Central Ltd in Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. This work is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution license 2.0. Details regarding the use of this work can be found at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/. DOI: 10.1186/1746-4269-9-71.
Publication Information
Demps, Kathryn. (2013). "An Empirical Comparison of Knowledge and Skill in the Context of Traditional Ecological Knowledge". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 971-89.
Comments
For complete list of authors, please see article.