Notes on Traditional Knowledge, Modern Knowledge and Rural Development

For this purpose, I take 'traditional knowledge' to mean the body of knowledge, science and techniques used by rural people, and the term 'modern knowledge' to mean the body of knowledge, science and techniques arising essentially from the European scientific revolution of the 17th century.1 Traditional knowledge and modern knowledge are not at either end of a continuum of usefulness or scientificness; traditional knowledge today includes many modern notions and is based in part on scientific methods, while modern knowledge is in several important respects functionally inferior to traditional knowledge. Both types of knowledge grow and change, although modern knowledge changes much faster than traditional knowledge.