Gendered Sphere of Traditional Knowledge in Morocco

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge (IK) and its various definitions—Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK), Traditional Knowledge (TK), Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK), Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK)—is a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, experience, and beliefs, evolving through adaptive processes and culturally transmitted through generations. It is about the relationship that living beings maintain with one another and with all living things in their environment. In rural Morocco as other parts of the world, IK has allowed rural communities to sustain livelihoods, buffer for extreme climatic conditions, maintain resource availability and food security. For all its virtues, IK is increasingly recognized for its contribution to sustainable resource management, sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation, and food security. It has not, however, been recognized for the promotion of women’s social enterprise. As the central authorities in Morocco struggle to integrate rural women into development initiatives, it has failed to take into account women’s traditional knowledge. This is coupled with the stigmatized image that many rural illiterate women are “backwards,” reinforced by the perception that women who have left the countryside to live in urban areas are more successful. This book chapter is about the need to acknowledge and record women’s Indigenous/traditional knowledge practices and skills as a powerful educational tool to reconcile and lift rural women out of poverty through social enterprise.