Sangomas, scientists, brave pioneers, exotic secrets from the deep jungle, noble savages - the field of traditional knowledge and genetic resources is rife with contested stereotypes. There is enough discourse about discourses, colonial, post colonial and neo-colonial to make any theorist happy. Sometimes the analysis is so thick it tends to obscure some (obvious) observations. Observations which may prove critical to the A2K movement's understanding of traditional knowledge.
The first is that indigenous societies are different from one another, and diverse in themselves. The second is that colonialism, so integral to the modern project, has not left pristine traditional communities but has operated by processes of exploitation, appropriation and disruption. Traditional knowledge systems, have as a result, been disrupted. These systems were never static but were changing through histories of trading and migration, and have been further complicated by colonialism's relocation of indigenous communities, for instance through slavery, foods, medicines, being transplanted across the globe.
Currently traditional knowledge and genetic resources has been regarded as a developing country problem. But is it?
Appropriation is a cross border phenomenon and often involves the use of mainstream intellectual property rights (IPR) i.e. patent and trademark systems by multinational corporations to 'own' traditional knowledge. That suggests, to me anyway, that the problem is with conventional IP. If appropriation is not something that happens only in developing countries but something that happens in developed countries, it requires changes too, and therefore requires changes to their laws.
Another problematical area of conventional studies of traditional knowledge is the oft overstated idea that it is difficult to protect group rights, since legal problems arise in identifying who belongs to 'groups'. However Western legal systems ascertain who belongs to groups entitled to money or other benefits all the time, in class actions and in second generation constitutional systems.
It is high time that traditional knowledge ceases to be the subject of jurisprudential speculation and becomes one of the primary incentives for re-thinking the global intellectual property system.
tags: south africa science-research traditional-knowledge
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