Will tribal knowledge survive the millennium?
Cox, P.A.
Science 287(5450): 44-45
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 10644221 Document Number: 525222
At a time when science has largely supplanted superstition in explaining the causes of disease, traditional knowledge systems are quickly disappearing. Linguist Michael Krauss estimates that half of the 6,000 of so languages spoken at the start of the 20th century have now gone, along with the cultures they once kept alive. By 1994, pharmacologist Norman Farnsworth had identified over 119 plant-derived compounds that are used worldwide as drugs; numerous prescription drugs sold in the United States contain molecules derived from, or modeled after, naturally occurring molecules in plants, many of which derive from traditional medicine. The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, which for the first time established international protocols for safeguarding and sharing national biological resources, specifically examines the issues of traditional knowledge and binds the signatory nations to respect and preserve traditional knowledge, to promote its wide application, and to encourage equitable sharing of benefits from it.