Indigenous Climate Information and Modern Meteorological Records in Sinazongwe District, Southern Province, Zambia

摘要

In 2007, we conducted field research in Sinazongwe District in Southern Province, Zambia, focusing on collecting indigenous information concerning the local climate, which was often embodied in proverbs involving weather forecasts. The indigenous information was compared with recently collected meteorological records and a relationship between popular folk knowledge, local climate, and global climate factors such as ENSO (El Ni?o and the Southern Oscillation) was suggested. Proverbs related to agriculture and climate were categorized into four types of indicators used to forecast rain: the emergence of butterflies; tree characteristics (producing shoots, flowering, and dropping water); wind direction, wind speed, and temperature; and wind sound. The first two types are based on seasonal changes in life forms, and the latter two use wind variations produced by synoptic pattern changes.