Title: Challenges of preserving indigenous ecological knowledge through intergenerational transfer to youth

Authors: Service Opare

Addresses: University Canada West, 626 West Pender St., Vancouver BC, V6B 1V9, Canada

Abstract: Indigenous communities have acquired significant ecological knowledge which is now gaining global recognition. This makes its preservation for the benefit of society essential. Preservation of indigenous knowledge has been pursued through cultural transmission processes which resulted in intergenerational knowledge transfer to youth. Using data from research conducted in two indigenous communities in Ghana, this paper examines key cultural transmission processes including socio-cultural functions that enabled young persons to interact with and thereby acquire ecological knowledge from elders and other knowledgeable persons. It identifies constraining variables such as limited youth focus on, and inadequate hands-on involvement in, traditional aspects of these functions as critical factors that might negatively affect long-term, sustainable use of acquired knowledge. The paper then examines possibilities of using prominent community members as role models for young persons and other measures for strengthening community interactive processes through which intergenerational knowledge transfer could be sustained.

Keywords: knowledge preservation; cultural transmission; intergenerational knowledge transfer; youth participation; ecological knowledge; community leaders; chiefs; queen mothers; environmental management; social learning; traditional activities; young people; indigenous knowledge; indigenous communities; Ghana; culture.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2016.080243

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2016 Vol.17 No.3/4, pp.232 - 248

Received: 05 Aug 2016
Accepted: 30 Aug 2016
Published online: 08 Nov 2016 *

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