Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T15:12:56.699Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

the Sustainable Harvesting of Edible Insects in South Africa, with Reference to Indigenous Knowledge, African Science, Western Science and Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Rob Toms
Rob Toms*
Affiliation:
Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Transvaal Museum, Northern Flagship Institution, PO Box 413, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa
Get access

Abstract

In our ongoing research on edible insects in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, we have found evidence of the unsustainable harvesting of edible insects and the food plants of certain insects. The decline in the edible insect industry, together with the need for food security provides a strong incentive to investigate possible causes of problems using different knowledge systems. Any solution to these problems needs to take Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) into account if it hopes to be successful and sustainable. We have found that different communities have different explanations for the same phenomena. Some of these explanations correspond with the explanations for the same phenomena in Western science. Where areas of overlap between IKS and Western science exist, these can be used in education in such a way that recommendations for sustainable harvesting can be developed with reference to African science. In this process, the area of overlap between the systems may grow as information from one system is incorporated in another. In this contribution the overlapping roles of IKS, African science and Western science are explored in the teaching of the sustainable harvesting of Indigenous resources for food security and conservation. This creates opportunities to teach relevant science in such a way that the concerned communities can benefit through better food security and the conservation of culturally important plants and animals.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 36 , Issue S1: (Re)Contesting Indigenous Knowledges & Indigenous Studies , 2007 , pp. 145 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartlett, E. (1996). Hold the turkey (the mopane worm as a food source). New Scientist Today, 152, 58–59.Google Scholar
Brain, C.K. (2004). The occurrence of burnt bones at Swartkrans and their implications for the control of fire by early hominids. In Brain, C.K. (Ed.), Swartkrans, a cave’s chronicle of early man (pp. 229–242). Pretoria: Transvaal Museum.Google Scholar
Brain, C.K., & Sillen, A. (1988). Evidence from the Swartkrans cave for the earliest use of fire. Nature, 336, 464–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreyer, J.J. (1968). Biological assessment of protein quality: Digestibility of the proteins in certain foodstuffs. South African Medical Journal, 42, 1304–1313.Google ScholarPubMed
Dreyer, J.J., & Wehmeyer, A.S. (1982). On the nutritive value of mopanie worms. South African Journal of Science, 78, 33–35.Google Scholar
Greyling, M., & Potgieter, M. (2004). Mopane worms as a key woodland resource. In Lawes, M.J. Eeley, H.A.C. Shackleton, C.M. & Geach, B.G.S. (Eds.), Indigenous forests and woodlands in South Africa (pp. 575–589). Pietermaritzburg: University of Kwazulu–Natal Press.Google Scholar
Janaiah, C., Rao, P.S., Chari, N., & Reddy, P.V. (1979). Chemical composition of the scent glands of adults and nymphs of the Tessaratoma javanica i. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, 17, 1233–1235.Google Scholar
Kaschula, S.A., Twine, W.E., & Schole, M.C. (2005). Coppice harvesting of fuelwood species on a South African common: Utilizing scientific and Indigenous knowledge in community based natural resource management. Human Ecology, 33 (3), 387–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koro, E. (2002). Eating worms andprotecting parks. Retrieved 28 April, 2006, from http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/wpc2003/pdfs/postwpc/news/wriwpc_l4l003.pdf.Google Scholar
Kozanayi, W., & Frost, P. (2002). Marketing of mopane worm in southern Zimbabwe: Mopane worm market survey. Retrieved 28 April, 2006, from http://www.frp.uk.com/dissemination_documents/R7822_Mopane_Worm_Marketing.pdf.Google Scholar
Makhabele, P., & Eybers, T. (2006, 19 April). AIDS worm fury. The Citizen, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar
Murfin, B. (1992). African science in school curriculum. Retrieved 28 April, 2006, from http://www.africa.upenn.edu/K-12/African_Science.html.Google Scholar
Sarinjev, D. (2003). Why OBE feels like the sword of Damocles in the humanities and English studies. Retrieved 28 March, 2007, from http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=11814.Google Scholar
Teffo, L.S. (2006). Nutritional and medicinal value of the edible stinkbug, Encostemum delegorguei Spinola consumed in the Limpopo Province of South Africa and its host plant odonaea viscosa Jacq. var. angustifolia. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Toit, C.W. du (2005). The environmental integrity of African Indigenous knowledge systems: Probing the roots of rationality. Indilinga, African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, 4 (1), 55–73.Google Scholar
Toms, R. (2002). Ethno–entomology as a key to museum transformation. South African Museums Association Bulletin, 28, 56–58.Google Scholar
Toms, R.B. (2005). Indigenous knowledge icons, education and sustainable natural resource management. Indilinga, African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, 4 (1), 264–269.Google Scholar
Toms, R.B., & Nonaka, K. (2005). Harvesting of insects in South Africa and Japan: Indigenous knowledge in the classroom. Science in Africa. Retrieved 28 April, 2006, from http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2005/july/edibleinsects.htm.Google Scholar
Toms, R.B., & Thagwana, M.P. (2003). Eat your bugs!. Science in Africa. Retrieved 28 April, 2006, from http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2003/october/stinkbug.htm.Google Scholar
Toms, R.B., & Thagwana, M. (2005). On the trail of missing mopane worms. Science in Africa. Retrieved 28 April, 2006, from http://wwwscienceinafrica.co.za/2005/january/mopane.htm.Google Scholar
Toms, R.B., Thagwana, M.P., & Lithole, K.D. (2003). The mopane worm: Indigenous knowledge in the classroom. Science in Africa. Retrieved 28 April, 2006, from http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2003/june/mopane.htm.Google Scholar
Van Sertima, I. (Ed.). (1983). Blacks in science: Ancient and modern. (Journal of African Civilisations 5(1)). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Wallner, F. (2005). Indigenous knowledge and Western science: Contradiction or cooperation. Indilinga, African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, 4 (1), 46–54.Google Scholar