Paper short abstract:

Two distinct ontological perceptions on nature are the Indigenous Amazonian perspectives and practices, and the Nature/Culture divide present in western scientific knowledge production, i.e., natural science. It is crucial to understand indigenous people’s relation to nature to bridge this divide

Paper long abstract:

This research demonstrates how in-depth ethnographic studies of indigenous perspectives and practices are crucial for understanding Amazonian indigenous people's relation to nature, thus providing an approach to bridge the nature/culture dichotomy. The partition of nature and culture in Amazonia as outlined in Levi-Strauss's La Pensée Sauvage, and further developed in his Mythologiques, discusses myths about relations between humans and non-humans in Amerindian societies validating a dichotomy between nature and culture. Some 25 years afterword the nature/culture discourse reemerged, advocating nature/culture dichotomy as nonexistent for Amerindians (Århem 1993; Descola and Palsson 1996; Lima 1996; Viveiros de Castro 1996). Indigenous Amazonian perspectives and practices, and the Nature/Culture divide present in western scientific knowledge production, i.e., natural science, are two distinct ontological perceptions on nature. Alternative realities become apparent in ethnography as from an indigenous perspective; Nature and Culture are interwoven and constantly emerging. In contrast, the natural science standard classification, as embedded in western scientific knowledge, imposes a divide between "nature" and "culture". This "mode-1 knowledge production" (Gibbons et al. 1994; Nowotny et al. 2001) of the established natural science disciplines advocate their ontology of knowledge production superior to indigenous knowledge productions. As most scientific disciplines aim for replicable results, Nowotny elaborated upon the Mode-2 knowledge production or interdisciplinary research, multivocal, generated in the context of application, and often resulting in new questions. Anthropology is such an integrative discipline in the Mode-2 knowledge production including specialists following both modes of knowledge production; a multidisciplinary collaboration is necessary to overcome the nature/culture divide.