Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples: The Cultural Politics of Law and Knowledge

by Laurelyn Whitt

At the intersection of indigenous studies, science studies, and legal studies lies a tense web of political issues of vital concern for the survival of indigenous nations. Numerous historians of science have documented the vital role of late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century science as a part of statecraft, a means of extending empire. This book follows imperialism into the present, demonstrating how pursuit of knowledge of the natural world impacts, and is impacted by, indigenous peoples rather than nation-states. In extractive biocolonialism, the valued genetic resources, and associated agricultural and medicinal knowledge, of indigenous peoples are sought, legally converted into private intellectual property, transformed into commodities, and then placed for sale in genetic marketplaces. Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples critically examines these developments, demonstrating how contemporary relations between indigenous and Western knowledge systems continue to be shaped by the dynamics of power, the politics of property, and the apologetics of law.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Science, History, Indigenous, Law, Economics

284 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2009

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might be about to start a research project at work on how to encourage Indigenous students to engage with STEM. And so I’ve been reading books related to this. This one is more about what STEM has done to Indigenous people, so effectively the opposite of what I was looking for. All the same, this is an important read.

This book looks at how western science has presented itself as a framework of objective truth in opposition to Indigenous knowledges, which are invariably seen as being tainted by mysticism or other forms of wishful thinking. It isn’t that Indigenous knowledge is useless, it is just that it takes western science to cast away the dross and therefore to find them gems. The book I was reminded of while reading this was Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. The point being that Indigenous knowledge is defined by the west as part of the common heritage of the world and therefore available for 'primitive accumulation'. It can therefore be appropriated by western science (and western corporations) for free. They can then make some trivial modification to this knowledge, and, on the basis of this novelty, patent it and make money from the commodification of this knowledge. The Indigenous communities who really created this knowledge through eons of experimentation get nothing in return.

Can you see the three-card trick that has been played here? Incredibly clever. Thousands of years of accumulated knowledge becomes the sole property of a corporation with no need to compensate the holders of that knowledge for anything.

This book looks at the difficulties associated with taking such knowledge from Indigenous communities. Not merely due to the gross exploitation that is involved, but also because Indigenous ways of understanding how knowledge is created, persevered, passed on, and sustained rarely looks anything at all like the western, legalistic modes of the commodification of knowledge. In fact, many of the Indigenous communities discussed here point out that to ‘sell’ knowledge is to kill that knowledge. Knowledge is often something intimately connected to place and to the relationship between the people whose task it is to maintain their connection to land, including the plants, animals and future generations that belong to that place.

This book unites science, law and Indigenous peoples’ ways of understanding the world. Living in Australia, it is increasingly becoming clear to us that we underestimated Indigenous knowledges to our own and the land’s great cost.

This book isn’t just about biological knowledge, however – that is, it isn’t just concerned with protecting seed and plant knowledge that has been held by Indigenous communities, but also about protecting the rights of Indigenous communities to their own DNA, a really good book on this is Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century. The point is that a lot of the mapping of DNA is a technology in search of an application, and a large part of that application seems to be the recreation of the idea of ‘race’, this time as a means to sell ‘cures’ to people according to their ethnic background. That this is particularly iffy (both scientifically and morally) is discussed at length here, as it is in Fatal Invention.

This is a fascinating book – and well worth the read. We are increasingly becoming a ‘knowledge society’ – we need to ensure that the exploitation of knowledge is done in a way that is fair and respectful. We should be seeking to avoid treating Indigenous knowledge in ways that are reminiscent of how we have treated Indigenous bodies and Indigenous lands in. the past.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

The downside of posting reviews on twitter (or other websites) is that sometimes they get bought out by very yikes people, and then you nope out, delete your profile and lose everything. Anyway, just editing this review where I linked to a twitter thread that no longer exists.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good look at the ethics (truly, the lack thereof) of extractive colonialism, in this case using the lore and genetics of indigenous people for profit that not only does not return to the originators or respect their wishes, but may even then prohibit their own uses.

There are several legal cases referenced, with copious notes, but the part that sticks with me most is the justification for the Human Genome Diversity Project, saying they needed the access because these genetic lines might be going extinct, but finding that more important -- and more worth investment -- than preventing the people from going extinct.