---
title: "Ethnoscience"
chunk: 1/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnoscience"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:24:19.989526+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Ethnoscience has been defined as an attempt "to reconstitute what serves as science for others, their practices of looking after themselves and their bodies, their botanical knowledge, but also their forms of classification, of making connections, etc." (Augé, 1999: 118).

== Origins ==
Ethnoscience has not always focused on ideas distinct from those of "cognitive anthropology", "component analysis", or "the New Ethnography"; it is a specialization of indigenous knowledge-systems, such as ethno-botany, ethno-zoology, ethno-medicine, etc. (Atran, 1991: 595). According to Scott Atran, ethnoscience looks at culture with a scientific perspective (1991: 650), although most anthropologists abhor this definition. Ethnoscience helps to understand how people develop with different forms of knowledge and beliefs, and focuses on the ecological and historical contributions people have been given (Atran, 1991: 650). Tim Ingold describes ethnoscience as a cross-discipline (2000: 160). He writes that ethnoscience is based on increased collaboration between social sciences and the humanities (e.g., anthropology, sociology, psychology, and philosophy) with natural sciences such as biology, ecology, or medicine (Ingold, 2000: 406–7). At the same time, ethnoscience is increasingly transdisciplinary in its nature (Ingold, 2000: 407).
Of course, naturally over time, the ways in which data has been collected and studied has changed and the field has evolved, becoming more detailed and specific (Urry, 1972: 45). The ideas, mechanics, and methods of ethnoscience evolved from something else - a combination of several things. This pretext amalgamation of theories, processes, and –isms led to the evolution of today's ethnoscience.