Culture and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Emergent Order and the Internal Regulation of Shared Symbolic Systems

I explore the relationship between culture, knowledge and behaviour in a context of change, comparing scientific with cultural knowledge. I argue that applications (or instantiations) of scientific knowledge are not the same as science, and undergo a process that has properties not unlike those described by Ellen and Harris for 'Indigenous Knowledge' (IK). This process uses knowledge that is not derived from the system represented, but nevertheless is necessary for the system to operate in a contingent world even though this knowledge was not in the original subset of knowledge being applied. This consideration of knowledge about what contexts must be instantiated to enable domain knowledge to be instantiated builds on Ellen's concept of prehension, which in part includes the anticipatory knowledge a subject brings to a situation. I suggest the operative principles in IK have similar properties.