Anthropology and ethnobiology are two related sciences in which talking to people is really the main method for gathering knowledge.

Some anthropologists are directly concerned with current practical problems, and with particular groups of people. Some take a broader or more long-term perspective, and hope that their work will be useful, for the people studied, in the long-run. And among some anthropologists, there is a real desire to be involved in development issues, in planning, in assessment, and in mediation between local communities and the wider world.

One finding I recently made (nothing new), as an ethnobotanist visiting Papua New Guinea, is that local communities are not really all that local. Local people can also be experts and communicators with connections. Local people are constantly exchanging knowledge through encounters with neighbours, at markets, at feasts. They are also exchanging food and planting materials in many different ways - the two most essential commodities in their local economy.

The extent of such networks can only be approximately known, even by those involved in them every day. When we follow the good advice given in the original message - let's make a special effort to speak with the experts and communicators in local communities.

It is from them that we can learn most about local circumstances, and it is through them that new ideas from outside can be tested and naturally promoted, if they are found to be useful.

Peter Matthews

The Research Cooperative (http://cooperative.ning.com)

An international home for better research communication (NPO)

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