Explain: This module forced me to answer the question: “What is science?” (I would make “What is science?” the essential question for this entire course.)
I did not walk into this course believing that Alaska Native Ways of Knowing qualify as science. If there is nothing else that the readers of this blog and students in this course learn, be it that science is broader than our modern, Western definitions encompass:
Science is often understood today to mean the pursuit of knowledge using the scientific method to create models that accurately describe/predict the natural phenomena of our universe. (That is as short as I could get to my understanding of science up until this past week.)
Only a few centuries ago, science was inseparable from philosophy. (The highest scientific degree remains the PhD, or “Doctorate of Philosophy.”) Science has long meant simply the logical pursuit of knowledge. In this sense, the Alaska Native Ways of Knowing cannot be classified as anything but science. The beauty of the simplicity of Alaska Native subsistence lifestyles using all resources completely and without waste proves that these people are the masters of human existence in their respective environments. The old ways simply cannot get more efficient without importing material resources from other locations.
Extend: I intend to make use of the development of the subsistence lifestyle when I open my physics class next semester. I usually discuss the scientific method as a tool to solve problems and answer questions in a methodical way. It will be neat to relate the scientific method to centuries of trial and error in the development of the most efficient survival techniques of our ancestors. My students are predominantly Alaska Native, and any relationship that I can draw between class activities and their cultural heritage/ identity will make them more engaged.
Evaluate: Richard Glenn’s dichotomous life as a western scientist with the Native ways of knowing at his core is quite interesting.
Recently I spoke at length with one of my students about culture and science. He discussed the perfection, over centuries, of hunting weapons, in particular the asaaqua (toggle-point) harpoon head. It is specifically designed for harvesting the fat spring seals or beluga. The asaaqua works by first penetrating the outer hide, skin, and fat of the seal. Then as the harpoon is removed, a cord attached to the center of the asaaqua makes it turn perpendicular to the entrance wound. This leaves it locked under the fat and skin, just at the top of the muscle. There is no way that the seals could escape a properly deployed asaaqua.
I found a reference to the “toggle point” harpoon head in this paper on Beluga harvesting. I didn’t get to read the whole thing, but the toggle point harpoon is still a core element of the current (as of 1993) hunting methods!
3 Colleagues:
Tracy writes about the visible effects of the salmon abundance near her home. She is teaching home economics with subsitence caught salmon. This segues into many current events world-wide, from farmed fish and genetic modification, to the excessive bycatch in the pollock fishery.
Nick writes about the flat surface landscape around Barrow. Then he delves into petroleum engineering and discusses the underground geology in his area. The references to millions of long-dead organisms piques my interest.
Winsor write about those students who have never been Outside. I have run across quite a few of them, yet it continues to amaze me how little they understand life in the Lower 48. Winsor also brings up some great points about the natural landscape no longer being the landscape. Think of the dense urban areas. NYC after the infamous events of a decade ago that changed the skyline drastically. One cannot ignore the affects of man-made landscapes on local culture.
2 comments:
Matt,
I have always thought that science was a means to understand the world around us which is loose enough to allow different views and cultural beliefs their own breathing space.
I just finished reading "Mirage" by Nina Burleigh which told the story of the scientists on Napoleon's failed trip into Egypt in 1798. It was funny to note that "Egyptology" or even "archeology" didn't exist but had to be invented. Our studies even in this class would be, by their standards, befitting of a "naturalist" as the fields of geology, biology and ethnology were mingled together.
Long short of it, science is a tool, yes, but it is only defined by the people who are using it.
That is true about how Alaska Natives do not "waste" their harvest. My grandpa once told me a story when people were very hungry long ago when food was very hard to get his grandpa put under his tongue a fish egg and told him to leave it under his tongue so he won't be hungry and this egg made saliva inside his mouth making his mouth water and he would drink his saliva. People long ago knew their bodies. My sister Sonya Edwards goes to MEHS!
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