Sami Knowledge vs. Western Knowledge
Sami Knowledge
- Experiential: knowledge, especially language is gained by doing tasks and experiencing the world.
- Apprenticeship: knowledge is passed from an older person to a younger person through doing activities together and storytelling.
- Oral Tradition: informal storytelling serves as a means of transmitting knowledge.
- Narrational: multiple stories of how people operate in the world (world-views) and cultural knowledge are acceptable.
- Non-binary: objects in the world are classified mentally and linguistically according to utility or relevance.
Western Knowledge
- Theoretical: knowledge is based on application of empirical information to a theoretical framework.
- Teacher-student: knowledge is passed from an older person to a younger person in a one-sided monologue. The teacher is assumed to have more or better knowledge than the student, and therefore power.
- Written Tradition: knowledge is “unacceptable” until it is validated in writing. Main transference of knowledge is through written materials.
- Meta-narrational: stories are subsumed under a few overarching narratives that claim to explain everything in a certain terrain of knowledge.
- Binary: certain knowledge or categories are placed in opposition with others. One group is privileged while the other group is marginalized.