Indigenous Knowledge of Natural Resource Management and Population Control for Dong Ethnic Group in Guizhou Province

摘要

Dong ethnic people have rich indigenous knowledge in terms of their daily life and production, which plays an important role in the sustainable development of their village. This paper aims to understand traditional knowledge of Dong ethnic people in resource management and population control, including traditional resource management, traditional medicinal knowledge and village regulations in Zhanli Village in Southeast Guizhou Province. The research methods include key informant interview, group discussion, participant observation and secondary data collect- ing. The results show that Zhanli villagers try their best to utilize indigenous knowledge to manage the natural resources and keep the stable population to make themselves live in a sustainable way. Indigenous knowledge plays an important role in managing their limited natural resources and keeping the population stable under an excellent condition. Zhanli villagers employ indigenous knowledge to manage natural resources and use local herbs to control the population. Village regulation terms significantly influence villagers’ awareness in resource management and birth control. Women play the chief role in employing indigenous knowledge in weaving as well as medicinal knowledge in birth control, and these kinds of knowledge are passed down through the female line. However, the inheritance style of traditional knowledge is decreasing. Indig- enous knowledge plays an important role in the sustainable development of this village, which gives implications for development practices to involve indigenous knowledge to achieve sustainable development.