TOK Indigenous Knowledge Systems

What does indigenous mean?

• people cut off from Western civilization.

• Primitive

• originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native.

• isolated peoples.

What does an etic approach mean

• relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture in terms of its internal elements and their functioning rather than in terms of any existing external scheme.

• relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture that is unbiased.

• relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture in terms of being an insider.

• relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture that is general, non-structural, and objective in its perspective.

What does an emic approach mean?

• relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture in terms of its internal elements and their functioning rather than in terms of any existing external scheme.

• relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture in terms of its being from the perspective of an outsider.

• relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture in terms of its potential to help or improve that language or culture.

• relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture in terms of its objective approach.

What is cultural relativism?

• the theory that beliefs, customs, and morality exist in relation to universal standards.

• the theory that anything goes.

• the theory that beliefs, customs, and morality exist in relation to the particular culture from which they originate and are not absolute.

• the theory that all cultures are equal.