Meusburger, P., Freytag, T. and Suarsana, L. (eds.): Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge 306 Meusburger, P., Freytag, T. and Suarsana, L. (eds.): Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge. Dordrecht, Springer, 2016. 304 p. DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.65.3.9 Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 2016 (3) In contemporary academic discourses one can scarcely fi nd any views questioning the pivotal role of culture in knowledge systems. The close relation- ship between cultural values and learning processes is distinctly highlighted in the processes of commu- nication, adaptation, acculturation, hybridisation and the individual’s subjective interpretation of the world itself. Cultural identities, which might be intertwined with ethnicity as well, can signifi cantly infl uence att itudes towards school and education. Therefore, gathering knowledge is strongly linked to and infl uenced by the cultural dimension: “Every form of knowledge is somehow ‘cultural’” (Strohmayer, U. 2003, p. 521.). This aspect should be taken into account while one is investigating topics related to knowledge, for diff erent cultural patt erns may either assist or hinder the process of learning. Despite the paramount importance and relevance of these issues, the moderate interest from geogra- phers might be surprising. Proponents of new cul- tural geography have accused traditional cultural geography of paying too much att ention on material forms of culture instead of investigating their mean- ing, symbolism, textuality or social embeddedness. The new cultural geography, however, still neglects to focus on problems such as consequences of racial and ethnic disparities in educational attainment, the impact of cultural factors on cognitive capaci- ties and educational att ainment or the suppression of minorities through the educational system. Terms such as knowledge or education are quite omitt ed in the comprehensive handbooks of cultural geog- raphy (Mitchell, D. 2000; Anderson, K. et al. 2003; Gebhardt, H. et al. 2003; Duncan, J.S. et al. 2004; Atkinson, D. et al. 2005). The book of Meusburger, Freytag and Suarsana att empts to fi ll this gap by presenting multidimensional viewpoints. The volume is a result of the 8th Symposium of the ‘Knowledge and Space’ series held in Heidelberg. Its main organisers were Peter Meusburger, distin- guished senior professor in the Institute of Geography at the Heidelberg University, Laura Suarsana, re- search associate in the same institution, and Tim Freytag, professor at the Faculty of Environmental and Natural Resources at Freiburg University. The book consists of 13 chapters, wherein the fi rst fi ve texts deal with issues of education in multiethnic states. The subsequent four chapters explore the rel- evance of indigenous knowledge in various contexts. The fi nal four chapters highlight the function of cul- ture in everyday situations. Peter Meusburger presents in his study the edu- cational system as a heavily contentious field of political and cultural interrelations. He evokes the introduction of compulsory education, which had a major impact on the evolution of nation-states, the shaping of the common consciousness of societies and the genesis of nationalism. Given the soft traits of cultural identity, assimilation and transculturation occur continuously, and they are being shaped espe- cially by the educational system. National governments discovered the potential benefi t of this a long time ago, thereby schools could serve as appropriate means for the endeavour of na- tion-building and pursuits of cultural homogenisa- tion. The study employs examples of this sort, where minorities in multiethnic states undergo diff erent types of discrimination, suppression and forced as- similation during learning processes. Thus, ethnic self-esteem, cultural identity and sense of belong- ing of the students get reinforced, what results in discrepancy with their cultural roots. Through the wide-ranging examples Meusburger emphasises the importance of situatedness and embeddedness in the spatial context, disapproving universal toolkits in scrutinising cultural diversity. 307Book Review – Book Review – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 (2016) (3) 306–309.Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 (2016) (3) 306–309. The next chapter off ers an insight into the public school system in the United States, focusing on the specifi c interconnection of race, power and geography. Adam Fairclough att empts to fi nd the proper explana- tion of why Southern public schools have been con- stantly more underdeveloped over the centuries than the Northern ones. From the very beginning the South has not showed substantial interest in developing pub- lic schools due to a possible menace what educated slaves were thought to mean to the reigning system of social hierarchy. Aft er the Civil War more sophisticated methods emerged in the restriction of Black education, leading to a racially segregated school system that con- served inequality. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, public schools in the South were fi nally in- tegrated, thus segregated education was theoretically dismissed. In fact, integrated schools abolished Black schools too. Yet, although an achievement gap still per- sists between North and South, integration has actually diminished the long-standing disparities. The narrative of strikingly uneven educational con- ditions continues to be discussed in the next chapter as well. Werner Gamerith affi rms that the American school system has never fully carried out its mission to put egalitarian ideological concepts in practice. Social stratifi cation along ethnic and racial relations has become an evident part of the daily routines, where schools are no exception. As Gamerith as- serts, the subordination of certain groups was essen- tial in sustaining the American vision of well-being. For instance, ripping Native American children from reservations into boarding schools several hundreds of miles away sheds light on how severe the issue is. As far as diff erences in education att ainment are con- cerned, fi nancial endowment plays a major role due to the fact that the funding of public schools mainly depends on local property taxes. Thus, school drop- outs and low literacy rates coincide in space with pat- terns of economic underdevelopment. Tim Freytag studies the role education plays in the social reproduction of socioeconomic and cultural ine- qualities in higher education and research institutions in the southwestern U.S. state of New Mexico. He ar- gues that the factors determining educational success, such as family background or the social milieu, a per- son’s capabilities to learn, the quality of teachers, the availability and accessibility of education infrastruc- ture are all working together. Being aware of the com- plex intersectionality of a wide range of parameters, Freytag approaches the issue through the conceptual lens of sociocultural and geographical embeddedness. Firstly, he presents the low educational performance of Hispanics mainly on basis of census data. Then he writes from the perspectives of Hispanic students and teachers. His fi ndings suggest that Hispanics tend to be particularly dependent upon their own cultural context in the family, hence the university milieu claims a great challenge from them. George J. Sefa Dei uses students’ narratives of schooling experiences in order to theorise the particu- lar case of Black and other minority youth education in Euro-Canadian contexts. He affi rms that prevail- ing power relations and internal colonial hierarchies hinder identity and empowerment for community- building as well as individual and collective agency. Adopting an anticolonial discursive framework one must dismantle dominant discourses in order to reduce the marginalisation of certain voices and knowledge systems. The anticolonial prism, that is to say, glorifi es the local cultural knowledge, which it identifi es with equity, social justice, resistance, self-es- teem, and fairness. While analysing school dropouts and practices of exclusion the author puts structural, socio-political and human dimensions at the centre, arguing that a complex factor refl ecting class, gender, race, ethnicity, power and history should be utilised as primary determinant in the process of re-envision- ing the education. The education system generally dispenses with the rich source of knowledge brought by the students from cultural milieus. Dei presents successful students’ individual strategies as well, con- cluding that engagement with social diff erences can partly explain students’ performance. Heading towards the next thematic part of the book, Chapter 7 off ers an exploration of ‘indigenous knowl- edge’, especially its links with development studies. The term itself constitutes an att empt to emphasise the prominence of local voices and practices. Adherents of this approach frequently focus on dichotomies of knowledge systems, distinguishing between the so- called ‘Western’ objective scientifi c knowledge and the local practical knowledge such as indigenous knowl- edge, traditional knowledge and native knowledge. The latt er systems, however, involve some inconsist- ency due to the fact that nowadays neither one is truly indigenous to anywhere nor tribal societies identify themselves as indigenous. Employing geographical scales, such as the ‘glocal’, may lead towards a more adequate understanding about how knowledge is functioning in the contemporary globalised epoch (Robertson, R. 1995). In the case of the Wola people from Papua New Guinea Highlands, Paul Sillitoe discusses ways where language barriers thwart the very fi rst steps of development interventions. As the case of Wola people refl ects, assessment and transmis- sion of knowledge varies widely from place to place, what prevents us from fi nding general answers to developmental problems. In one of the two chapters of the book dealing with local knowledge, Cristoph Antweiler demonstrates that the concept should be conceived as a continuum between formal science and everyday traditionality. These two, as the argument continues, could not be equated nor contrasted because none of them is more valuable than the other one. While the previous chap- ter examines rural space, this one presents an urban 308 Book Review – Book Review – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 (2016) (3) 306–309.Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 (2016) (3) 306–309. context. The fi eldwork spent in the Indonesian city of Makassar can be regarded as the central thread. Instead of theorising fi ndings, however, Antweiler rather deals predominantly with methodological out- comes. He recommends repertory grid method as a promising alternative way of ethnological fi eldwork in cognitive anthropology. One of the main advan- tages of this study is that it off ers the reader an appro- priate and well-detailed toolkit, which may be quite applicable for similar empirical researches. Regarding the multidimensional trait of local knowledge, the place-based character should also be taken into account. Accordingly, Marcus Nüsser and Ravi Baghel focus on geographically situated or site-specifi c knowledge generation. Hence, they inten- tionally deviate from the aforementioned concept of indigenous knowledge, which foregrounds stakehold- ers’ ethnicity and tradition. Site-specifi c knowledge emerges through people’s practical engagement with their environment. Artifi cial glaciers refl ect upon this topic in Ladakh, where rapid socio-political transfor- mations have taken place, demonstrating the hetero- geneous feature of local knowledge. These glaciers used to store frozen water to cope with water scarcity. Yet, current concerns about the global climate change att ributed new functions to them, thus local knowl- edge gets torn apart from its local context. As the case study points out, local knowledge and external scien- tifi c knowledge are sometimes hard to separate from each other since their relation is dynamic and fl uid. Diana D. Davis presents through the case studies of pastoralists in the Maghreb and Afghanistan how indigenous knowledge has been, and continues to be, eroded. Despite unfavourable environmental condi- tions, the nomads had been able to produce an im- pressive number of livestock and agricultural harvest until the 19th century, but the consequent suppressive measures imposed by the colonialist expert knowl- edge continuously deteriorated the complex ecolog- ical knowledge system of pastoralists. Concerning the Maghreb, the French restricted the accessibility to natural resources, appropriated agricultural lands and forest, imposed incompatible veterinary medi- cine on the local population, and prohibited common techniques such as using fi re on the lands. Most of the adverse laws remained in eff ect under the post- colonial era too, what supplemented by the main- stream development projects resulted in the further loss of indigenous knowledge. In Afghanistan Koochi women possessed a rich knowledge of how to treat animals and their diseases. Western developmental programs failed to take account of local gender rela- tions though, hampering women’s traditional way of life. There can be no doubt that the author is truly committ ed to preserve indigenous knowledge. Chapter 11 off ers probably the most peculiar in- sight into how indigenous knowledge really mani- fests itself in practice. The extensive fi eld research in the Papua New Guinean Trobriand Islands by Gunter Senft helps us understand the gradual shrinkage of indigenous knowledge, which is indirectly facilitated by the cultural and economic dimensions of globali- sation. Among the population of the islands the con- struction of large seagoing, so-called masawa canoes used to be the end-product of a complex cooperation, which included diff erent forms of technical and magi- cal knowledge. The process of making these canoes was deeply integrated into the community’s social network. Thereby the building process was a mat- ter of bringing people together and lett ing them take part in the distribution of knowledge. In consequence of the changing economical-political external envi- ronment, dinglies started to replace masawa canoes. The decay of canoe building had a crucial impact not only on technologies, social events and the traditional faith, but aff ected people’s cultural identities and cog- nitive capacities as well. The subsequent chapter deconstructs the precolo- nial Igbo societies’ ceremonies, highlighting the pe- culiar trait of these norm-bearing activities. Taking Ikechi Mgbeoji’s argument, instead of considering ceremonies as a manifestation of marry-making and pointless ritualistic drama, he looks beyond the nor- mative traits and perceive them as crucial events in order to transmit knowledge. The study off ers an in-depth description of ceremonies taking place in the Igbo society (for example birth, marriage, burial, passage into adulthood). According to Mbeoji’s con- clusion, the ceremonies should be reconceptualised as principal means for encoding traditional knowledge and practices. One could consider Igbo as either a speaker of the language, the area occupied by the community, the language, or the ethnic group it- self. Nevertheless, the colonialism aff ected all these spheres, thus the whole cultural practices of Igbo have been subjected to westernisation designed to overwrite native law by the English common law. During the colonial and even postcolonial periods ceremonies thereby signifi cantly lost the capability of transferring key knowledge among each other. In the last chapter William T.S. Gould reveals the existing cleavage between knowledge and behaviour in the context of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa. In recent development studies, as the modern- ist way of spreading factual knowledge has become a dubious project, a new approach emphasises the awareness on existing indigenous knowledge sys- tems. Regardless of formal or indigenous knowledge acquisition, however, access to more and bett er in- formation per se is not suffi cient to enhance living conditions in a certain group. Despite the fact that knowledge about avoidance is gett ing quite accessible nowadays, we still experience rising infection rates due the prevailing gap between knowledge and be- haviour. There seems to be medical evidence for two practices effi ciently reducing HIV prevalence rates, 309Book Review – Book Review – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 (2016) (3) 306–309.Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 (2016) (3) 306–309. namely male circumcision and reducing the number of sexual partners. Nevertheless, both practices are deeply connected to cultural factors. For example, one could not deem male circumcision as a mere medical intervention, but rather a momentous cultural event. Not surprisingly, the less this intervention is being part of the custom, the higher HIV prevalence comes about. Given the heterogeneous ethnic patt erns and dif- ferent cultural att itudes in East Central Europe, some chapters of the book can contribute to a more sophis- ticated interpretation of sociocultural processes in the region. Att empts to assimilate ethnic minorities have had a long history here, and the confl icts aft er the fall of the Iron Curtain proved that ethnic confl icts have not ended yet. Nonetheless, contemporary confl icts have rather been transferred into soft spaces like edu- cation. Thus, the theoretical framework and methodo- logical references of the volume can be made use of in education systems of this region. Furthermore, the anti-colonial approach presented by George J. Sefa Dei can be useful in the East Central European con- text as well, due to the socialist past and the former subordination to the Soviet Union. Investigating diff erent dimensions of knowledge will remain a prominently contentious fi eld of inter- disciplinary research. As pointed out in the book, history, environmental studies, cultural anthropol- ogy, jurisprudence and psycholinguistics could also contribute to the issues of traditional, local and indig- enous knowledge. Moreover, geography reminds us about the relevance of various scales and the spatial context. By off ering a multi-perspective outline, the book substantially extends the discussion about the interrelated questions of culture and knowledge. Thus, it serves as a proper starting point for all of those, including academics, students or those outside of science, who are interested in the cultural aspects of the generation and diff usion of knowledge. Tamás Illés1 1 Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. E-mail: tamas.illes92@gmail.com REFERENCES Anderson, K., Domosh, M., Pile, S. and Thrift, N. (eds.) 2003. Handbook of Cultural Geography. London, SAGE. Atkinson, D., Jackson, P., Sibley, D. and Washbourne, N. (eds.) 2005. Cultural Geography: A Critical Dictionary of Key Concepts. London and New York, Tauris. Duncan, J. S., Johnson N. C. and Shein, R. H. (Eds.) 2004. A Companion to Cultural Geography. Malden, Blackwell. Gebhardt, H., Reuber, P. and Wolkersdorfer, G. 2003. Kulturgeographie – Leitlinien und Perspektiven. In Kulturgeographie: Aktuelle Ansätze und Entwicklungen. Eds.: Gebhardt, H., Reuber, P. and Wolkersdorfer, G., Heidelberg–Berlin, Spektrum, 1–31. Mitchell, D. 2000. Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction. Oxford, Blackwell. Robertson, R. 1995. Glocalization: Time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity. In Global Modernities. Eds.: Featherstone, M., Lash, S. and Robertson, R., London, SAGE, 25–44. Strohmayer, U. 2003. The culture of epistemology. In Handbook of Cultural Geography. Eds.: Anderson, K., Domosh, M., Pile, S. and Thrift, N., London, SAGE, 520–531.