This book deals with indigenous people and the problems that plague agricultural production in the high mountains of Ecuador. The author argues that when indigenous knowledge systems and participatory rural appraisal approaches are placed in the context of communicative action theory, they will gain theoretical, political and practical significance, and cross-cultural co-operation for development should be improved. Aimed at a varied readership, including those with an interest in agricultural knowledge systems, participatory philosophy, or the rural economy and ethnography of the Andes. Published in the Indigenous Knowledge and Development series.

Abbreviations viii
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xi
1. A story of dead sheep 1
Introducing a paradox 4
2. Anthropology and development 7
An uneasy relationship 7
Participatory and indigenous knowledge approaches 9
3. In the parish of the poor 13
Living in Zumbahua 15
Ecology and economy 18
History of Zumbahua 19
The community of Michacala 22
Labour organization 24
Kin 27
Agrarian structure 28
Livestock economy 29
Conclusion 31
4. Views on the environment 34
A scientific view of nature 35
Climate and altitude 35
Geography 37
A Michacalan view of environmental forces 39
Evil wind 41
Taken-by-the-mountain 42
Tingu 44
Conditions for a good harvest 45
5. Veterinary and indigenous models of sheep management 51
Veterinary views of sheep breeding 55
Genetic selection 55
Nutrition 56
Management practices 58
Sheep health 61
A critical review 64
An indigenous model of sheep health 67
Rainbow 67
Bad luck 69
Sinister person 71
Witchcraft 72
Principles of the indigenous model 73
Testing the model: protective witchcraft 76
Conclusion 79
6. Hungry for Hope: on the cultural and communicative
dimensions of development 82
The rationality debate 82
Dialogue and change 85
Communicative rationality 87
Getting hungry for hope 91
Notes 93
Glossary 101
Sources 102
References 103

Carmen Hess