Sustainability lessons in traditional Bengali proverbs

Abstract

By employing an exploratory sequential mixed method, the present article examined the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and the ecological components of traditional Bengali proverbs (Khanar bacan), which is almost on the verge of extinction. Subsequently, we surveyed the current generation to assess their familiarity with these proverbs and explore connections between their understanding and eco-literacy. Our investigation encompassed 150 ecological proverbs, illustrating an understanding of ecological patterns and sustainability. The qualitative examination of the proverbs revealed the ecological component of scientific understanding of environmental patterns and cosmology. The proverbs are embedded with an ecosophy that appreciates the interconnectedness between the social systems and the surrounding ecology. The survey pointed out that participants whose residences belong to urban areas are not very familiar with the Khanar bacan. In contrast, the rural participants performed better in identifying the proverbs. Notably, the findings also indicated that the participants who were familiar with the proverbs demonstrated accuracy in responding to questions with TEK-based perspectives. The study underscores the efficacy of proverbs in cultivating ecoliteracy among the Bengali folk. Again, it presented a grim picture of the Bengal youth who are obscuring the indigenous knowledge in their minds and are becoming more susceptible to ecological catastrophe. In fact, the well-being of both humans and the environment is interconnected. Therefore, there is a dire need to protect indigenous knowledge because it provides a novel way to reduce the human-nature divide.