Grandmothers’ Role as Knowledge Managers – Health +
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: February 12, 2006
role of indigenous knowledge systems’ managers
Authors: Aubel,
J.
Produced by: Indigenous Knowledge Initiative, World Bank (2006)
This paper argues that the contribution of senior women, or
grandmothers in managing indigenous knowledge (IK) systems is overlooked by most
development programmes which do not acknowledge their influence or explicitly
involve them in efforts to strengthen existing family and community survival
strategies.
It suggests that many development programmes assume that the
best way to introduce new information and change into a cultural setting is to
focus on the younger members of society, and that the youth will teach their
elders, which the authors suggest reflects a western perspective that is often
in conflict with the cultural values of non-western societies.
The paper
highlights specifc influences of the elderly in knowledge management. Gender is
an important dimension of the management of IK systems. Many roles are
gender-specific and, therefore, the expertise of elder men and elder women
differs. Senior women, or grandmothers, who have greater experience and greater
knowledge of the development of young children and to the well-being of women of
reproductive age.
Societies around the world acknowledge that
grandmothers play an influential role in the upbringing of children and in the
education and supervision of their daughters and daughters-in-law. While certain
harmful practices are promoted by grandmothers in various cultures, given the
wide-ranging role they play and their influence and intrinsic commitment to
promoting the well-being of women and children, they should be viewed as key
actors in development programmes.
The paper then looks at why community
programmes dealing with the education, health and development of young children
and their mothers have not systematically involved grandmothers, and
acknowledges that, there are biases against grandmothers, expressed by many
development planners and practitioners, such as:
- grandmothers do not significantly influence the knowledge and practices of
other family members - if they are influential they are often a bad influence
- because many grandmothers are illiterate, it is impossible for them to
learn new things - because of their age and attachment to tradition they are necessarily
resistant to change
These negative stereotypes appear to contribute to the fact that
grandmothers’ experience and potential have not been seriously taken into
account.
The paper discusses programmes in Southeast Asia and West Africa
that have resulted in methodology to strengthen grandmothers’ role as knowledge
managers. The results of these experiences in Asia and Africa illustrate how
change can be brought about from within indigenous knowledge systems when key
actors in those systems, i.e. the IK managers, are involved in deciding if and
how to combine global knowledge with traditional knowledge. The authors conclude
that experiences working with grandmothers in several countries have
demonstrated how their role as indigenous knowledge authorities can be built on,
while at the same time they are encouraged to integrate new practices into local
knowledge systems. It is likely that similar untapped potential exists among
grandmothers in many other societies around the world. [adapted from authors]
Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC20983
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