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The project is only just started, and there would be many "blanks" associated with some of the categories now. But in browsing at the "Low-Tech Magazine" site, I noticed an article about developing an inventory of many traditional skills and indigenous people knowledge compilation from all over the world.
It may take several years to fully develop this UNESCO site, but it might be a site to "bookmark" as it gets more developed. |
| As the "Low-Tech" article notes:
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com...
The Traditional Knowledge Institute gathers and protects historical knowledge and promotes and certifies innovative practices based on the modern re-proposal of tradition as well. Using traditional knowledge does not mean to reapply directly the techniques of the past, but rather to understand the logic of this model of knowledge. It is a dynamic system able to incorporate innovation subjected to the test of the long term and thus achieves local and environmental sustainability.
Today, traditional knowledge is in danger and its disappearance would not only cause the loss of people's capability to keep and pass on the artistic and natural heritage, but also of an extraordinary source of knowledge and cultural diversity from which appropriate innovative solutions can be derived today and in the future.
The idea to set up a data bank of traditional knowledge was launched by Italian Pietro Laureano, architect, town planner, author and UNESCO consultant on arid areas, Islamic society and endangered ecosystems. Laureano worked in the Sahara desert for eight years and coordinated pilot projects in Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and Ethiopia. "We want to pick up the thread of tradition again", he said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde earlier this week. "Cultural heritage is not only to be found in monuments and galleries. It is also in the works and the landscapes of man".
Here is a link to the site as it exists now:
http://www.mappeonline.com/une...
And its icon page:
http://www.mappeonline.com/une...
The initial focus is on coping in an arid world. I think this will expand with time. Some of the icons sound like they would cover some very interesting information. For example, "Architecture for Saving Energy and Resources", a "Garden Town", various means of capturing water, "Plant Species to Combat Erosion", etc.
As noted, this project is just getting underway. But in the world we are likely to face in the not distant future, a reference to such topics, and how they were addressed in a low-tech manner in times gone by, seems like very welcome information.
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