Beware the Elephant in the Bush: myths, memory and indigenous traditional knowledge in north-eastern Namibia

Abstract

This article draws on a case study exploring the value of elephant wisdom and myths in managing human-elephant conflict in Caprivi (Namibia). It does so to highlight that Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK) is more flexible than recent concerns suggest. This is because ITK transforms in response to changes in both the biophysical and wider socio-political setting of people's environment. The article demonstrates the transformative nature of ITK by applying the findings of the case study to the literature associated with myths, truth claims and collective memory to argue that ITK has a strong social and cultural element. As such, ITK can be viewed as cultural knowledge which is essential to people's adaptation to their social and biophysical environment. Therefore, ITK will evolve to combine traditional forms of knowledge with new knowledge as the needs of society change, whether this is due to changes in the biophysical, socio-political or both environments. This finding provides valuable insight into the dynamic nature of ITK; it also offers new perspectives on culture and cultural memory in making sense of the world.