Trust in development: some implications of knowing in indigenous knowledge

Abstract

The indigenous knowledge (IK) initiative in development has met with limited success. The cultural relativity of knowledge � i.e. what qualifies as justified belief � may partly explain why. Drawing on New Guinea Highlands' ethnography, I explore the implications for dominant capitalist development discourse of constituting and verifying knowledge differently. Trust emerges as a central issue. Highlanders' approach to knowing attends to the subjective nature of understanding and potential for disagreement. The grammar of language � such as that spoken by the Wola of the Southern Highlands Province � reflects these concerns, notably attention to the source/reliability of any professed knowledge. This evidential interest relates to oral traditions, enskilled knowing, and individual knowledge variability, in addition to the trust to be put on any expressed knowledge. It relates also to how stateless political contexts preclude the imposition of views, such as what comprises economic development; albeit what shape an alternative �acephalous development� might take is currently unclear.