Becoming a Stronger Warrior
Auteur: Deborah Williams, Gerhard Shipley
Nombre de pages: Nombre de pages non disponible pages
ISBN: 9798218459550
Edition: Deborah H. Williams
Date de publication: Deborah H. Williams
Description: Western science largely controls what is taught, funded, studied, and published, yet few scientists are aware of the particular ontological, epistemological, and axiological assumptions that form the foundation of the Western scientific worldview. Western science is not universal, acultural, or objective, and only the power and privilege of colonialism allow scientists to believe otherwise. Indigenous peoples have their own ways of knowing founded on different philosophical assumptions and recognizing metaphysical phenomena and explanations that are reflexively rejected by Western science. Western science, particularly as practiced in the social sciences, can be a colonial endeavor in which some scientists reduce their human subjects to constituent components (e.g., genetics, languages, cultural practices), take what is valued, discard the remainder (especially anything of a metaphysical nature), and methodically move on to the next project often with little sense of responsibility for and largely oblivious to the negative effects. Indigenous peoples are stakeholders at every level in the manufacture and production of knowledge, especially knowledge about them or that otherwise affects them. As students, Indigenous peoples encounter obstacles in science education when they are forced to choose between respecting important cultural beliefs and participating in science classes and laboratories. As subjects of scientific research, they encounter obstacles when they are excluded from consulting on, participating in, and benefitting from scientific research. As student and faculty researchers working, seeking funding, and/or publishing within the dominant Western system of knowledge production, they encounter obstacles when they are forced to do so within the limiting framework of the dominant Western scientific paradigm. With this book, we seek to make these barriers more visible and call for all involved to recognize and remove them and to acknowledge and respect Indigenous worldviews and ways of knowing that could inform and enhance Western peoples' understanding of and approach to the world.