Difference Between Superstition and Indigenous Knowledge

Difference between superstition and indigenous knowledge

Superstition and indigenous knowledge could be considered the same thing, but in my opinion they are completely different things. Both superstitions and indigenous knowledge are from the early days of human culture groups, and thus they can be vastly different. Superstitions still exist today, and can be heard on every day basis from all age groups, not just the elderly. Indigenous knowledge is the same in this factor, this type of knowledge can be useful today as much as other types. All this considered they are still different in a lot of ways. I will compare the two things with referencing two ways of knowing, reason and faith.

Through reasoning we can make rational decisions in life, but the word has a lot of meaning. Reason could be referring to logic, rationality, comparison, judgment, and experience. The reasoning behind my 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. Since superstitions at first seem like made-up stories, and things that just interrupt your life. This is an opinion that a lot of people share in the world, for example when I was looking up common superstitions one of the top hits was “Silly superstitions”. One of the most common superstitions that surprisingly shared across most cultures in the world is the fear of number 13. There are many reasons behind the fear of the number, for example there were 13 people at the last supper, 13 steps on the gallows, 13th god in Norse mythology is Loki, but these are just a few. People in Japan are so afraid of the number 13th, that in elevators its left out, which could create confusion. All of these stories behind the fear of 13 are just that, stories or events that happened, and people make false correlations. Through reason superstitions just seem silly, since most of them commit a logical fallacy in creating false connections.
Now indigenous knowledge is different in this fact. Most of the knowledge that was acquired by the tribes of old on survival is considered indigenous knowledge. These people lacked the knowledge of sciences that we have, but still in certain situations their knowledge is more useful. For example in the movie “Into the Wild”, the main character thinks that he can survive without any experience in that ecosystem, ultimately causing his death. If we were to think it through, it would seem logical, that the best option to survive is to rely on people, or knowledge that is indigenous to that area. Of course there is a blend within superstitions and indigenous knowledge, so the borders aren’t clearly marked. There are certain rituals that the indigenous group would consider useful, but from reason it would seem like superstition.