Indigenous “Folk” Geographical Ideas and Knowledge

Hong-Key Yoon

doi:10.4236/aa.2017.74020

Abstract

This paper advocates the need for studying indigenous folk geographical ideas and knowledge in addition to academic geographic ideas and knowledge to encompass all types of geographic tradition in a cross-cultural context. To date, historians of geographic ideas and knowledge in the West have mainly paid attention to Western academic geographic knowledge. Folk and academic geographic ideas and knowledge interact with and influence each other. Academic geography can benefit much from the study of various “folk” traditions. The existence of, and interactions between, the two geographic traditions among different cultures are compelling reasons for the cross-cultural study of folk geographic ideas and knowledge. This paper uses examples from Korea and the Maori people in New Zealand to argue the advantage of studying folk geographic knowledge in a cross-cultural context.

Highlights

To date, scholars of geographic ideas and knowledge have tended to emphasise those idea held by professional geographers belonging mainly to academic institutions, government agencies and private businesses
Wright’s “geosophy,” which is understood as the study of “geographical knowledge of one kind or another” or “the geographical ideas, both true and false, of all manners of people”, is a powerful intellectual call for the study of the geographic ideas and knowledge held by non-geographers belonging to folk traditions (Wright, 1947: pp. 13-14)
In order to achieve this goal of a more enlightened study of geographic ideas and knowledge, this paper advocates that researchers of geographic thought need to give more attention to the geographical ideas and knowledge held by various indigenous people of the world, who can provide emic knowledge of their culture-environment relationships and explain them more comprehensively

Summary

Introduction

Scholars of geographic ideas and knowledge have tended to emphasise those idea held by professional (academic) geographers belonging mainly to academic institutions, government agencies and private businesses. At the same time, it can be argued that many members of urban ghettos or rural peasants belonging to various tribal communities recited certain proverbs or told certain stories (e.g., legends) expressing their thoughts on their lives and their surrounding environment Such folk ideas and views may not be as influential as, say, a scholarly writing, many people believed such views and ideas, which as a different kind of cultural influence is one that carries its own weight of significance in the comparative study of geographic ideas and knowledge. The exact date of proverbs and legends that contain indigenous folk geographical ideas and knowledge are usually difficult to find, which accounts for the use of relative dating methods such as “terminus ante quem” (point before which) or “terminus post quem” (point after which) to determine the relative age of oral traditions including myths, legends, folktales and proverbs. Indigenous folk geographical knowledge and academic geographic ideas and knowledge may be understood as existing side by side and influencing each other in myriad ways

The Study of Folk Knowledge in Geographic Tradition

The Need for Cross-Cultural Studies of Geographic Ideas and Knowledge

Contributions of Folk Geographical Knowledge?

Conclusion