Difference Between Superstitions and Indigenous Knowledge

Tien Dat Phung

Indigenous Knowledge

3.  With reference to at least 2 ways of knowing, explain the difference between superstitions and indigenous knowledge.

         Indigenous knowledge and superstitions could be seemed as the same thing, but in my opinion they are completely different things. Both are from long time ago of human culture groups, and obviously they are can be different. Indigenous knowledge and superstition are still exist today, we can hear it from not just the elders and it can be still useful today as much as other types. But in facts, I think all this considered they are still different in a lot of ways. I will compare the 2 things with 2 ways of knowing are faith and reason.

         Reason could be refer to logic, comparison, judgment and experience. The reasoning behind decision of choosing reason, as one of my ways of knowing to examine the case is that I think it is the best fit for the task. But since superstitions seem like to make up stories and interrupt your life. For example, one of the most common superstition is the fear of number 13. There are a lot of reasons behind this number: 13 steps on gallows, or a bad luck number. All of these stories behind it are just what people make it up and it just seem silly. But in contrast the indigenous knowledge is different in this fact. Most of their knowledge is by their survival experience. These people lacked the knowledge of sciences but still certain situation their knowledge is more useful. For example that the movie I saw in class which there is an indigenous man that can cure an injury from another person that he had tried to go to a lot of hospital but they couldn’t take care of it but the indigenous man can by using their own herbal to cure him. There are certain rituals that indigenous group would consider helpful but from reason it would seem like superstition.