BIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS - Portal do Professor

PART I / CHAPTER 2
Cultural practices also contribute to the herd’s diversity. For
example, a husband is required by custom to give a dowry to
the woman’s family that includes a good milk producer.
Similarly, when a young woman moves to her husband’s home,
she takes her animals to add to his. Over time this strengthens
not only the herd but also the bond between the two families.
Environmental knowledge: Outsiders cannot live in the
region the same way we do because they lack the
knowledge of how to live within this environment. We are
able to guide our livestock over long distances to provide
grazing, water and salting resources for them. Without
this understanding of Samburu and its surrounding
districts, our lives would not be tenable.
Our ethno-veterinary knowledge keeps our livestock healthy,
our breeding practices promote a strong herd consisting of
selected livestock populations and our environmental
knowledge underwrites our animals’ survival in these harsh
climatic conditions. We provide for our animals welfare, just
as they provide for our livelihoods. Our relationship, therefore,
is not one of provider and user, but of mutual-dependence
and support. 13
It is interesting to note that much of the TK that the
Samburu hold is critical to their way of life, not just an adjunct
to it. Without the ethno-veterinary knowledge, breeding
practices and environmental knowledge of the area,
the Samburu would not be able to carry on their ways of life.
Their knowledge, innovations and practices, in this regard, are
integral to their lives and must be fostered to ensure the
continuation of the Samburu’s pastoralist lives.
The traditional healers spoke most about their knowledge
relating to healing people. The Gunis of Rajasthan had this to
say about their TK relating to healing community members,
and the links to ethno-veterinary knowledge:
We are based predominantly in rural Rajasthan where
medical facilities are few. In any event, our communities
have little available money for paying medical bills. When
epidemics break out, our communities in the past received
little to no support which has had tragic consequences,
especially for the most vulnerable. We are therefore the
13. Supra note 2.
14. Supra note 8.
BIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS AS A
COMMUNITY-BASED RESPONSE TO THE CBD
primary health care providers to the villagers. We have our
own names for the various ailments and have particular
ways of understanding them. We treat a range of seasonal,
common and chronic aliments including coughs and colds,
diarrhea, broken bones, skin diseases, jaundice, various types
of asthma, pneumonia, wounds, snake bites, scorpion stings,
scabies, stomach ache, malaria, lucoria, and gastritis. The
women among us also assist with childbirth and pre- and
post-natal care. Each one of us specializes in particular
kinds of ailments, with overlaps of knowledge between us.
When someone approaches one Guni with a particular illness
that another Guni has more knowledge about, we refer
them to that Guni.
We are also asked for advice on problems in family relationships,
village disputes and spiritual matters because of our wisdom.
The female Gunis are particularly respected in the communities,
and have been able to use their status to change social customs,
leading to empowerment of women.
Some of us also have ethno-veterinary knowledge for
treating animals. Animal hospitals are few and far between
and often when the animal falls ill it cannot walk and it is
too expensive to transport it to the veterinary hospital.
Thus the only realistic treatment is local. Notably, we treat
some of the livestock keepers’ important breeds of sheep
and camels, and therefore can say that we help to conserve
important animal genetic resources. 14
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