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This article questions the premises of the concept of 'indigenous knowledge,' based on a case study of a seemingly exemplary system of indigenous knowledge, contemporary smallholder rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia. The analysis begins with a summary of the historical development of the technology of rubber cultivation, focusing on the transplanting of Para rubber from South America to Southeast Asia and the construction of knowledge of rubber cultivation both during and following this transplanting. This history of knowledge construction was characterized by two critical discontinuities, involving the separation of the rubber plant from its original conceptual context, and extensive experimentation with rubber production technologies. The resulting system of Asian smallholder cultivation is, like many other such systems, neither indigenous nor exogenous but rather hybrid in character, and representation of this hybridity is strongly contested by the principal parties involved, ie, the smallholders on the one hand and the government estate sector on the other. It is concluded that (1) the concept of indigenous knowledge is a type of 'dividing practice' that over-writes a history of interaction and contestation, and (2) that the concept of indigenous knowledge has gone through a 'life cycle' of initial reception and utility followed by subsequent rejection and disutility. 1 Photograph, 33 References. (Original abstract - amended)

This article questions the premises of the concept of "indigenous knowledge," based on a case study of a seemingly exemplary system of indigenous knowledge, contemporary smallholder rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia. The analysis begins with a summary of the historical development of the technology of rubber cultivation, focusing on the transplanting of Para rubber from South America to Southeast Asia & the construction of knowledge of rubber cultivation both during & following this transplanting. This history of knowledge construction was characterized by two critical discontinuities, involving the separation of the rubber plant from its original conceptual context, & extensive experimentation with rubber production technologies. The resulting system of Asian smallholder cultivation is, like many other such systems, neither indigenous nor exogenous but rather hybrid in character, & representation of this hybridity is strongly contested by the principal parties involved, ie, the smallholders on the one hand & the government estate sector on the other. It is concluded that (1) the concept of indigenous knowledge is a type of "dividing practice" that over-writes a history of interaction & contestation, & (2) that the concept of indigenous knowledge has gone through a "life cycle" of initial reception & utility followed by subsequent rejection & disutility. 1 Photograph, 33 References. Adapted from the source document.

The Wet and the Dry; Irrigation and Agricultural Intensification in Polynesia. Patrick Vinton Kirch. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. 385 pp.From Upland to Irrigated Rice: The Development of Wet‐ Rice Agriculture in Rejang Musi, Southwest‐Sumatra, Jürg Schneider. Berlin: Reimer, 1995. 214 pp.