Indigenous Knowledge and the Social Construction of Patriarchy: The Case of the Bukusu of Kenya

This article is an ethnographic study on the Bukusu number system and the connections between Indigenous knowledge and patriarchy. It examines the ways patriarchy is embedded in everyday knowledge through a number system that has deep gender hierarchy symbolisms. The findings show strong connection between everyday knowledge and social norms that define the status of men and women. While this article is centered on Bukusu society in Kenya, it is premised on the understanding that patriarchy is a pervasive social problem that goes beyond Indigenous societies as evident in the feminist critiques of contemporary societies. Just as Durkheim traced the genesis of society to the simplest forms of rules associated with totemic beliefs, this article also points to the roots of patriarchy in Indigenous society so as to draw attention to the variety of ways in which patriarchy is manifested. By incorporating feminist critiques of patriarchy, it shows conceptual connections between the blatant manifestation of patriarchy in Indigenous societies and the latent, albeit oppressive, manifestations of patriarchy in modern societies. Overall, the article provides deep conceptual insights into the intersection of knowledge systems and patriarchy.

Stability and Change in Everyday Knowledge: From Taken for Granted to Social Representation

What do we talk about when we talk about everyday life? This chapter considers everyday life as a “metasystem” in Moscovici’s terms, a normative system that checks and organizes knowledge and thought. Looking at social representations theory, the chapter considers the structuring power of this metasystem, referring to two kinds of research where the absence (for deprived children) or suspension (in the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italy) of everyday life causes delays in children’s development and dismay in adults. The suspension of ordinary life highlights the social representation of “normality.” The structure of the “everyday life” metasystem is largely taken for granted, and this calls into question the relationship between the taken-for-granted and the knowledge that constructs social representations or, in other words, between stability and change in common knowledge.

Trust is knowing that... The subjective meanings and senses of experience-based foundations of trust of students with intellectual disabilities

Trust refers to daily life facilitating factors, to social integration, to a sense of security or quality of life. So far, there have been no studies analysing the trust of students with intellectual disabilities. The analysis of trust of young persons with intellectual disabilities was not attempted. Therefore, a question was formulated: what meanings and senses do students with these disabilities assign to their experiences of the foundations of trust? The study features qualitative research interviews (in-depth and non-structured). The theoretical and empirical assumptions apply the interpretive/constructivist paradigm and phenomenological-hermeneutic perspective based on Alfred Schütz’s social theory. The empirical material was obtained based on 11 interviews conducted with students with mild intellectual disabilities of 6th – 8th grades of special needs comprehensive school. The basis for trust is everyday knowledge manifested in: the knowledge about the essence of trust, knowledge of the study’s participants – their skills and capabilities, the cause that leads to a specific result. Knowledge as the foundation of trust is common and non-reflective, but also authentic and dynamic, revealing ways of coping with everyday life. The meanings and senses assigned to objects, humans and relationships are not a direct representation of the social world, but they constitute in fact the way of life of the subjects.

The Marginal Reality of Humor

The relevance of the work is due to the presence of a contradiction between the prevalence of humor, its ubiquity and ubiquity in social reality and its rather weak research as a phenomenon of this social reality. The main line of existing research on the nature of humor is connected with the study of it as a statement with a special (contradictory) logic. The purpose of this article is to study the nature of humor not so much within the framework of a separate statement with a special logic but as a phenomenon that constructs social reality, as well as the place of humorous reality among other types of social reality. The analysis is carried out on the basis of the constructivist approach, by the method of reconstruction of the humorous text. As a result of the study, the hypothesis of the existence of humor as a certain layer between referential realities (Zh. Derrida) is supplemented by the idea of constructing in a humorous utterance on the basis of these referential realities a special independent reality of humor, which remains marginal within the framework of the discourse in which referential realities are realized. Humor destroys the contingent logic of discourse in a certain semantic field, comparing previously disparate realities. The construction of humorous reality within the semantic field of professional knowledge performs other functions than outside of it (for example, in everyday knowledge). The absence or limitation of jokes about the knowledge sacred to the system, which belongs to the nuclear part of the corresponding discourse that constructs the system, is a protective mechanism for this system, which stabilizes society. The results of the study are a continuation of the development of the constructivist approach in ontology and social philosophy and can serve as a basis for studying the ways of constructing realities in society

Everyday Knowledge and Apothecary Craft: Pharmacopoeias of Ancient Northwestern Honduras

Medicinal practices were critical in ancient societies, yet we have limited insight into these practices outside references found in ancient texts. Meanwhile, historic and ethnographic resources have documented how a number of plants, from across the landscape, are assembled into pharmacopoeias and transformed into materia medica. These documentary resources attest to diverse healthcare practices that incorporate botanical elements, while residues in the archaeological record (seeds, phytoliths and starch grains) point to a variety of activities, some of them therapeutic in nature. Focusing on four pre-Hispanic communities in northwestern Honduras, I draw upon ethnobotanical and ethnobiological knowledge to infer medical practices potentially represented by ancient plant residues. Comparing these findings with prior investigations, I address the limits of dividing taxa into mutually exclusive categories such as ‘food’, ‘fuel’ and ‘medicine’. I consider the importance of apothecary craft in past lifeways, as well as the persistence of many traditions in contemporary medical practice.

Arquitectura común: aprendiendo de los habitantes y sus prácticas cotidianas

Over the last decade it has been possible to see growing ties between several architectural groups and urban communities located mainly in territories marked by decay, informality, and inequality. This process has generated a progressive recognition of the value that the daily practices of inhabitants and their communities have in the production of new ways of living, which poses new challenges for the development of the area. Starting from a description and analysis of a neighborhood improvement experience, self-managed by the inhabitants, this article addresses this challenge by proposing the formation of a common architecture, understood as a process of production of spatiality, supported by communalization dynamics that are open to new learnings that incorporate the everyday knowledge of the inhabitants and their communities.

Usurpers of Technology: Train Robbery and Theft in Egypt, 1876–1904

This article examines banditry, embezzlement, and other insider crimes along Egyptian railway lines during a period when British officials exerted centralized control over the Egyptian railway and financial austerity had a negative impact on the rail sector. By exploring the motives and tactics of railway crimes, I posit that criminals, by making claims on and use of the technology outside the purview of state regulations, expressed their heterogeneous desires to redistribute social wealth, repurpose the technological promise of modern railways, and confound intentions of colonial governance. Using new archival materials, this article utilizes a bottom-up approach to examine grassroots activism, everyday knowledge, informal networks, and the social mores and norms that criminals harnessed to discern infrastructural vulnerabilities and elude surveillance from the colonial state. Ultimately, I contend that criminal acts uncovered social crises otherwise hidden under the shadow of the exterior prosperity and stability of late 19th-century Egypt.