Discourse of Indigenous Knowledge of Crop Cultivation in South Wolo: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Farmers’ Voices and Practices
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015-03
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
For crop cultivation development in Ethiopia, recontextualizing the discourse of
indigenous farming knowledge is needed. Thus, the central purpose of this thesis is,
through recontextualization process, to explore the discourse of indigenous crop
cultivation knowledge in South Wolo, and to analyze it critically. As its point of
departure,the study poses four problems:what discourse farmers use to construct and
recontextualize their crop cultivation activities; how the farmers use discourse to
construct, to make use of and to preserve their indigenous farming knowledge; whether
farmers’ use of the discourse of indigenous knowledge of crop cultivation enhances or
retards crop cultivation practices; and the status of the discourse of indigenous
knowledge of farming in the discourse used by modern agricultural technology.
In order to find answers to these four major questions,it is indispensable to situate the
study within the qualitative methodology of ethnographic fieldwork and use qualitative
methods of data collection, namely interviews (personal and group), two types of focus
groups, non-participant observation and collecting relevant documents.Relevant social
theories such as the Appraisal Theory (AT),Symbolic Interactionism (SI),Structuration
Theory (ST) are utilized to guide both data collection and for the analyses process.
Fifty-eight(58) purposively sampled farmers participated in the interviews, focus group
discussions, and were observed on-farm activities about the way they carry out two
specific activities –ploughing and seed acquisition–and some general topics around crop
cultivation.The assumption is that it is possible to reconstruct indigenous knowledge of
crop cultivation from farmers’ recontextualizations of the ways they carry out the two
specific crop cultivation activities, and some topics around crop cultivation. The study
also uses these different research instruments to triangulate the data gathered in order to
verify the data and ensure plausability and dependability.
The farmers’ texts and discourses obtained from the research instruments are analysed
thoroughly and qualitatively using Fairclough’s (1992) model of critical discourse analysis
(CDA) in combination with Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Appraisal Theory in the
aspects of the experiential, interpersonal, textual and attitudinal meanings of language as
practiced in the two specific crop cultivation activities and some general topics around crop
cultivation. Moreover, some dimensions from the theory of Symbolic Interactinism and the
Structuaration Theory are used to back up the analysis of discourse practice and social practice
of indigenous knowledge of crop cultivation.
The analysis on textual level reveals that transitivity, modality, theme and rheme construct the
farmers as agents of various activities of crop cultivation by dominantly drawing upon the
discourse of indigenous knowledge. On the level of discourse practice, the analysis of force of
utterance, intertextuality, interdiscursivity, and participants’ text production strategies show high
level of indigenous knowledge, but low level of the discourse of modern farming
knowledge/technology. The analysis on the level of discourse as social practice reveals the
existence of a gap between the discourse of indigenous knowledge of crop cultivation and the
discourse of modern agricultural technology. The discourse of indigenous knowledge of farming
is found to exist being dominated, but it is found to be the major farming knowledge farmers draw
upon to cultivate crops. Finally, the study suggests a framework that positions indigenous
farming knowledge at the centre,and its integration with modern agricultural technology in
developing modern farming knowledge to enhance the practice of crop cultivation development
Description
Keywords
Indigenous Knowledge