Cite this article:
Shefare (2016). Culture and Customary Rules of Indigenous Healers, Issues and Challenges: Contrastive Studies on Selected Communities of Ethiopia and India. Journal of Ravishankar University (Part-B: Science), 29(1), pp.91-92.https://doi.org/
OP-E02
Culture and
Customary Rules of Indigenous Healers, Issues and Challenges: Contrastive
Studies on Selected Communities of Ethiopia and India
Habtom Teklay Shefare
Department of Anthropology,
Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231
Corresponding author email:
habtomt2014@gmail.com
[Received
30 December 2015; accepted 12 January 2016]
Abstract: This research
will rely entirely on document analysis, surveys, in-depth interviews, focus
group discussions, and field observation to investigate the anthropogenic
mechanisms taking place at the local level and the frames of Culture and
customary rules of Indigenous healers existing issues and challenges. Data
generated through these methods are of crucial importance for understanding the
divergent values and beliefs as well as the dynamics associated with them. The
purpose of this research is to understand how culture and customary rules of
indigenous healers are perceived and maintained by the selected communities of
Ethiopia and India. Thus this study will examine the structures and frames of
the customary rules of healers in Ethiopia and India. In order to draw a
complete understanding on this, the study will include an examination of the
national and regional policies, strategies and frameworks and the different
rural community members of the study area. The local communities in forest
regions of both the countries have not been adequately empowered and
strengthened in terms of their informal institutions to participate in resource
generation and control as well as planning and implementation of natural
resource management protocols. There are different issues and challenges
relating to sustainable use of natural resources as interlinked with local
health tradition and indigenous knowledge. This piece of research has been
conceptualized to explore sensitive areas of interrelationship of different
variables and institutional matrix of local health tradition and indigenous knowledge.
Community participation in environmental decisions exerts pressure on planners
to find new ways of fusing the expertise of scientists with insights from the
local knowledge of communities. How can policy culture and customary rules of
indigenous healers become issues of development in Ethiopia and India shall be
critically examined and answered through this ethnographic research.
Keywords: Customary
rules, Indigenous healers, Indigenous know ledge, Institutional matrix