The first concerted critical examination of the uses and abuses of indigenous knowledge. The contributors focus on a series of interrelated issues in their interrogation of indigenous knowledge and its specific applications within the localised contexts of particular Asian societies and regional cultures. In particular they explore the problems of translation and mistranslation in the local-global transference of traditional practices and representations of resources.

List of Maps, Plates and Tables, Notes on Contributors, Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1 Ethnobiology and Ethnoecology in the Context of National Laws and International Agreements Affecting Indigenous and Local Knowledge, Traditional Resources and Intellectual Property Rights, Chapter 2 'We Wander in our Ancestors' Yard': Sea Cucumber Gathering in Aru, Eastern Indonesia, Chapter 3 The Construction and Destruction of 'Indigenous' Knowledge in India's Joint Forest Management Programme, Chapter 4 Claims to Knowledge, Claims to Control: Environmental Conflict in the Great Himalayan National Park, India, Chapter 5 Locating Indigenous Environmental Knowledge in Indonesia, Chapter 6 'Indigenous' Regionalism in Japan, Chapter 7 The Use of Fire in Northeastern Luzon (Philippines): Conflicting Views of Local People, Scientists and Government Officials, Chapter 8 The Life-Cycle of Indigenous Knowledge, and the Case of Natural Rubber Production, Chapter 9 Enclaved Knowledge: Indigent and Indignant Representations of Environmental Management and Development among the Kalasha of Pakistan, Chapter 10 Endangered Forest, Endangered People: Environmentalist Representations of Indigenous Knowledge, Chapter 11 Indigenous Knowledge: Prospects and Limitations, Index