Indigenous knowledge: Ends or means?

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners in an array of disciplines, and increasingly in social work and social development, are looking to indigenous knowledge in their search for a host of ideological and pragmatic ends. Following the enumeration and analysis of these ends, this article concludes that while indigenous knowledge may perhaps provide a feel-good way of searching for answers in difficult times, its utility in achieving most of its pragmatic ends, as differentiated from its ideological ones, is questionable.