Indigenous ecological knowledge in islands: fishermen in Japan and Indonesia

Abstract:

This research aims to reveal a characteristic of indigenous ecological knowledge of fishermen based on a comparison of case studies in Indonesia and Japan.

A case study in Japan, it reveals the astronomical knowledge used in squid fishing on Sado Island in Japan, and consider how fishermen understand astronomical knowledge and the influence of modernization. Before modernization, fishermen had detailed oral knowledge, despite not knowing why. This is classified as a “phenomenon-responsive type” approach, in which knowledge is adopted even if the reasoning behind it is unknown. Fishermen born after modernization have knowledge based on hearing and do not utilize it. Information about their names is not detailed, cognize them connecting with squid. For them, it is not clear that a celestial body is linked to fishing and that there is a scientific explanation. This is classified as a “causal-responsive type” approach, in which knowledge is not adopted if fishermen do not know a scientific explanation, even if they heard it from old fishermen.The causal-responsive type corresponds to a modern attitude, and it is speculated that this led to the transformation and loss of astronomical knowledge.

A case study in Japan, it reveals the ecological knowledge focusing about space and time use by Sama-Bajau people in Banggai Islands in Japan, and consider how fishermen recognize and classify. They classified 2-year period into 4 seasons, based on direction and strength of wind. They recognized konda period – five successive nights between crescent and waning moon – as the best days for fishing. In contrast, unlikely as other Sama-Bajau people who live aside coral seas, the people of the study village seldom referred to knowledge about tidal moves. On the other hands, the people classified sea space into 12 categories, based on submarine topography. For locating fishing ground, they combined several technologies, which were roughly grouped in to three. In conclusion, the fisher people of the study village had the indigenous knowledge of space and time based on the geographical conditions and their technologies of fishing were rooted from combination of several different knowledge.

By comparison of these two case studies based on fieldwork, this research discuss about indigenous ecological knowledge, modernization, and adaptation.