Abstract:
Indigenous knowledge cannot be verified by scientific criteria nor can science be adequately assessed according to the tenets of indigenous knowledge. Each is built on distinctive philosophies, methodologies and criteria. Indigenous knowledge has been considered incompatible with Western empirical based science, mainly because of the inclusion of holistic and spiritual components in the former. While there is considerable debate about their relative merits, contests about the validities of the two systems distract from integration research, and the subsequent opportunities for creating new knowledge. A decision-making framework that achieves integration - the Mauri Model - is discussed.