Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Tracking knowledge : science, tracking and technology

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79).

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Du Plessis, Pierre
Other Authors: Green, Lesley
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Social Anthropology 2015
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613284998316032
access_status_str Open Access
author Du Plessis, Pierre
author2 Green, Lesley
author_browse Du Plessis, Pierre
Green, Lesley
author_facet Green, Lesley
Du Plessis, Pierre
author_sort Du Plessis, Pierre
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79).
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14263
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:41.762Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Social Anthropology
publisherStr Social Anthropology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14263 Tracking knowledge : science, tracking and technology Du Plessis, Pierre Green, Lesley Indigenous Knowledge Social Anthropology Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79). Knowledges are not distinct entities. They cannot be held in isolation as if bounded, discrete, or systematic. They are far too dynamic and complex to be thought of in this way. 'Scientific' and 'Indigenous' knowledge, however, are often discussed polemically and held in dialogical tension against one another. They are part of a set of dualisms that work under certain universal assumptions critical to Western epistemology. These dualisms include modernity/tradition; nature/culture; and subject/object. This study examines the multiple perspectives, including both scientists and local trackers, involved in the Western Kgalagadi Conservation Corridor Project (WKCC) in an attempt to resolve some of these dualisms. It focuses on the dimensions of tracking animals and data collection with a GPS technology known as 'Cybertracker'. Involving both scientists and people from the Kalahari with knowledge of tracking animals, the dynamics of knowledge production and the movement of knowledge are explored. Their work together demonstrates ways that movement and embodiment are central to the production of knowledge. Knowledge production and the relationship between diverse knowledges and approaches in the WKCC project are investigated without reducing them to the same epistemological foundation or holding them in dualistic opposition. Knowledges become part of networks and engage with one another through their movement, embodiment, and interaction with various non-human subject-objects. The use of the Cybertracker databasing technology shows that an engagement of multiple perspectives, the significance of movement, performance, historical connections, and subject-object relations in a variety of contexts are key to understanding the production of knowledge. The movement, agency, and relatedness demonstrated in various 'knowledge objects', including data, shows that the complexities involve a continual exchange of influence in which knowledges are always changing. The presence of diverse knowledges, expressed in both their relatedness and their tensions, are evident in their very movement in these networks as actors and the interwoven trails they leave behind. In the process, the boundaries between the dualisms become blurred, if not irrelevant. 2015-10-25T16:52:29Z 2015-10-25T16:52:29Z 2010 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14263 eng application/pdf Social Anthropology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Indigenous Knowledge
Social Anthropology
Du Plessis, Pierre
Tracking knowledge : science, tracking and technology
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Tracking knowledge : science, tracking and technology
title_full Tracking knowledge : science, tracking and technology
title_fullStr Tracking knowledge : science, tracking and technology
title_full_unstemmed Tracking knowledge : science, tracking and technology
title_short Tracking knowledge : science, tracking and technology
title_sort tracking knowledge science tracking and technology
topic Indigenous Knowledge
Social Anthropology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14263
work_keys_str_mv AT duplessispierre trackingknowledgesciencetrackingandtechnology