Module 1

• From the dawn of humanity, we humans have been dependent on our immediate environment for all of our needs: for water, food, shelter, and clothing. An intimate knowledge of our environment, gained through systematic observations, was a matter of life and death for an individual and the tribe.
• With the absence of writing, this knowledge was transmitted orally, through the telling of stories, chanting and music, and the creation of visual arts.
• Myths and legends and folklore are a part of what we call Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP). These traditional pieces of knowledge are passed on through traditional means for many generations.
• A product of careful and methodologically sound observations of the natural world, IKSPs have been tested and re-tested for thousands of years in the most rigorous real-life laboratories for survival and well-being.
• Keepers of indigenous knowledge

  • Elders
  • Storyteller
  • Hunter
  • Gatherer
  • Farmer
• Biocultural knowledge


  The knowledge that is rooted both in the natural environment and what is readily available, at the same time grounded on the culture – values and norms -- of the people who hold it
• Traditional health practices


  • Suob is a Philippine traditional health practice used during pregnancy and postnatal care. It is similar to steaming and mother-roasting practices in other SEA cultures.
• Biodiversity management


  • Traditional rice cultivation practices of the B'laan, T'boli, and Subanen indigenous communities maintain and protect biodiversity in the area. “The B’laan ethnic group of the south has more than 100 varieties of rice and the T’boli group has 160 known rice varieties.
• The earliest material evidence in civilizations that used the written word showed that societies kept track of their livestock and grains, made bread, wine, and cheese, and recorded astronomical data to keep time and predict the weather.
• The Sumerian belief system encompassed both empirical and the magical
• Sumerians recorded medical lore, particularly in the treatment of disease, the use of herbs and animal material as materia medica
• Sumerian knowledge was kept in clay tablets written in cuneiform
• Sumerian medical clay tablet


  • Medical clay tablet from Nippur dated to about 2200 BC is considered the oldest known Sumerian medical book
• Greek philosophers


  • Noted for the treatises that eloquently explain their observations, hypotheses, and conclusions about the world and Man's place in it
  • The methods used by these philosophers are similar to those used by ancients and indigenous people in that they use their experience, meditation, and learned intuition in trying to understand what they believe is the nature of things

  
• Most of the population in Medieval Europe and the Golden Age of Islamic Civilization was concerned with the production of food and goods that were used in the local communities
• The business of seeking and using knowledge was relegated to a select few who knew how to read and write in Medieval Europe and the Golden Age of the Islamic Civilization
• Knowledge and its interpretation of Medieval Europe and the Golden Age of the Islamic Civilization were done by a ruling class: the Monarchies and the Church were very powerful
• Monastic schools were important in terms of education, governance, and practical applications of astronomy and medicine
• The church was the sole interpreter of the Holy Texts, and the arbiter of the appropriate knowledge and use of knowledge. Thus, individuals, philosophies, and discoveries had to pass through the censure.
• European Enlightenment


  • Zeitgeist (defining spirit or mood) of the era is change and progress; brought about divergent and conflicting theories on the origins and purposes of living systems
  • Evolution of living things were considered with tolerance for questioning long-established dogma; openness to test theories by experimentation
  • New ideas more freely discussed, and hypotheses on phenomena and their underlying mechanisms were tested not only based on the train of logic and reasoning, but based on actual, physical experimentation.
• Cartesian Worldview


  • Authoritative guarantor of truth in effect shifted from God to humanity – a philosophical argument that justifies anthropocentrism
  • Mechanistic perception of living systems: that all matter is simply particles interacting with each other; all phenomena may be explained through mechanisms
  • There is no "essential" "nature" but simply a system of moving particles. All intuition may be tested through experimentation. all mechanisms can be explained through mathematics
• The study of Living Systems has grown in such a way that it now seeks to predict and mitigate the current environmental crisis that the human society seems to be moving towards.
• Elders are esteemed for their knowledge, and the knowledgeable among them are required to perform special roles
• Storyteller, with the ability to tell stories in a memorable, engaging way, performs an important teaching function in the life of a tribe; for stories, myths, and legends are how experiences of the tribe, especially of catastrophic events, are recorded and stored.
• Hunter, whose knowledge of wildlife, capacity to read the slightest of signs, and the capability to create tools and weapons, teach the knowledge of the environment without words;
• Gatherer, who knows fruits, animals, and herbs and their uses
• Farmer, who has knowledge of the seasons and the signs of the wind and sky
• Examples of biocultural knowledge:

  1. Medicinal plants
  2. Traditional health practices
  3. Biodiversity management
• The DOH approved ten medicinal plants used in Philippine Traditional Medicine after undergoing clinical studies.
• 1. Lagundi - Cough and Asthma
  2. Sambong - Anti-urolithiasis (kidney stones)
  3. Ampalaya -Lowering blood sugar and anti-diabetes
  4. Garlic - Anti-cholesterol
  5. Guava - Oral/skin antiseptic
  6. Tsaang-gubat - Mouth wash
  7. Yerba-Buena - Analgesic or anti-pyretic
  8. Niyug-niyogan - Anti-helminthic
  9. Acapulco - Antifungal
  10. Ulasimang-bato - Anti-hyperurisemia
• Sumerians are from Mesopotamia and Modern Day Iraq
• The legacy of Greek philosophical inquiry resonated with the most important questions of human existence: What is Man? What is the world?
• • Biology, not quite a field of study until the 18th century (for before, it was called natural history), branched into subdisciplines Anatomy, Microbiology, Genetics, Taxonomy, Cell Biology, Embryology, Biochemistry, Physiology, and Molecular Biology
• Following the development of chemistry, and the increase in analytical power of the X-ray crystallography, the chemical composition of cells became an object of study
• With increasing analytical power, the unit of analysis moved from organism to organ to tissue to cell, and even further within the cell, to its organelles, and later on to the macromolecules and smaller molecules that have physiological effects
• New ideas more freely discussed, and hypotheses on phenomena and their underlying mechanisms were tested not only based on the train of logic and reasoning, but based on actual, physical experimentation
• The hypothetico-deductive method, or "Scientific Method," was seen as a methodology with an unprecedented analytical power in terms of hypothesizing underlying mechanisms behind phenomena and a means of verifying these hypotheses
• Increase in interest in collecting, cataloging, and studying different kinds of organisms in different kinds of environments stemmed from living systems in the 19th and 20th century
• Ecology was established (late 19th century) and the concept of ecosystems emerged (mid-20th century) fusing matter and energy flows into the study of ecology
• With the threats to the environment becoming evident and communicated to the public, the interdisciplinary field of Environmental Science includes traditional science disciplines such as biology, ecology, geology, and chemistry and combines in issues such as environmental ethics and social issues