Introduction to Indigenous Knowledge : Ep 8 of Crash Course Native American History

Long ago, if you knew how to listen, you could hear the trees speaking. The Podawatami tells stories about this with trees gathering together, making plans.

Ha muito tempo, se voce soubesse ouvir, poderia ouvir as arvores falando. O povo Potawatomi conta historias sobre isso, com arvores se reunindo, fazendo planos.

Stories where the trees decide how to grow, how many seeds to produce, how to survive. And in recent years, non-native botnists have picked up on the same thing. Trees really are communicating.

Historias onde as arvores decidem como crescer, quantas sementes produzir, como sobreviver. E nos ultimos anos, botanicos nao-nativos perceberam a mesma coisa. As arvores realmente estao se comunicando.

They share resources and information through chemicals in the air and networks underground.

Elas compartilham recursos e informacoes atraves de substancias quimicas no ar e redes subterraneas.

So, how did native peoples thousands of years ago figure out something that western scientists are only just discovering? Hi, I'm Jim and this is Crash Course Native American History.

Entao, como os povos nativos ha milhares de anos descobriram algo que cientistas ocidentais so estao comecando a descobrir? Oi, eu sou Jim e este e o Crash Course Historia Nativo-Americana.

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Science is a useful tool for understanding the world. It's helped us figure out really complex ideas like particle physics and evolution and microwave popcorn. And native people have made plenty of scientific discoveries, yet we're often perceived as anti-science.

A ciencia e uma ferramenta util para entender o mundo. Ela nos ajudou a descobrir ideias realmente complexas como fisica de particulas e evolucao e pipoca de micro-ondas. E os povos nativos fizeram muitas descobertas cientificas, no entanto somos frequentemente percebidos como anti-ciencia.

So, what gives? Turns out what we typically consider science today isn't the only way to arrive at accurate information. There are a variety of ways of knowing or means through which people discover knowledge. And many Native American ways of knowing are rooted in observing the earth and living in close relationship to it since time immemorial. To paraphrase Pawatami writer and botnist Dr. Robin Wall Kimmeer.

Entao, qual e o problema? Acontece que o que normalmente consideramos ciencia hoje nao e a unica forma de chegar a informacoes precisas. Ha uma variedade de formas de saber ou meios pelos quais as pessoas descobrem conhecimento. E muitas formas de saber nativo-americanas estao enraizadas em observar a terra e viver em relacao proxima com ela desde tempos imemoriais. Parafraseando a escritora e botanica Potawatomi Dra. Robin Wall Kimmerer.

We tend to think of science as being neutral and objective where the conclusions drawn are influenced by the people doing the concluding. But years ago,

Tendemos a pensar na ciencia como neutra e objetiva, quando as conclusoes tiradas sao influenciadas pelas pessoas que as estao tirando. Mas anos atras,

Western scientists assumed plants didn't communicate because they don't do so in the ways that look like animal communication.

Cientistas ocidentais assumiram que plantas nao se comunicavam porque nao o fazem de formas que se parecem com comunicacao animal.

And later, when scientists revisited that question with the understanding that communication could look really different from what they'd expect, bingo, they started to find compelling evidence, which just goes to show that all knowledge is influenced by the perspectives we humans bring to it. And Native American cultures,

E depois, quando cientistas revisitaram essa questao com o entendimento de que a comunicacao poderia parecer realmente diferente do que esperavam, bingo, comecaram a encontrar evidencias convincentes, o que so mostra que todo conhecimento e influenciado pelas perspectivas que nos humanos trazemos a ele. E as culturas nativo-americanas,