Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development

Abstract (English)

Imbalance in a Human-Nature-Society system has a negative effect for modern society on a global level. The effects of high human pressure on Nature have been noted for a long time at various local levels, but it is only now we can see irreversible damage: loss of soil and soil fertility, loss of variety in flora and fauna. It is precisely this interference with a natural mechanism in the self-regulatingbiosphere, according to ecologists, which is the precursor of a global ecological crisis. Interdisciplinary research is a positive way to search for solutions to new problems and to achieve a pattern of Sustainable Development for modern Society.
Folk/ indigenous pre-industrial socieies have had a different experience in relation to Nature when they solved problems in Life-support activity. Special focus on Folk / indigenous technologies for supporting life in relation to Nature on a local level provides a lot of information for understanding characteristics that support the long-term survival of life and using Nature’s resources on the local level (Billings, 2011) . Cross-cultural, interdisciplinary approach to the investigation of Folk technologies in using Nature have an important role for better comprehension of Folk culture and the mode of life in pre-industrial period.
We hope that our panel will provide positive opportunities for discussion problems of Folk culture and indigenous knowledge in a context on the need for solving problems of minimization risks on climate change and Humanitarian problems (rights of indigenous people) and for keeping heritage of indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica area and around the World.
We hope to discuss new data about nature and society that is useful for redefinition the body of ethnological science.