Anthropologies of knowledge and South Africa's Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy

Abstract

Following a visit to the South African Medical Research Council's Indigenous Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Delft, Cape Town, this paper explores the possibilities for anthropological responses to South Africa's Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy of 2004. While the Policy is admirable in that it focuses attention on the integration of science and traditional knowledge in South Africa, its dualisms of indigenous knowledge and science, and its assumptions about identity, power, and about acceptable epistemology call for critique. The question arises: on what theoretical grounds ought anthropological dialogue about knowledge diversity be based? This paper offers a critique of possibilities for engaging with the IKS Policy via three different approaches in contemporary social anthropology: social constructionism, phenomenological anthropology, and research on Amerindian perspectivsm.