<p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:8.0px Times"><span style="font-size:medium">Current Anthropology</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium"> </span></span><span style="font-size:medium">Volume 51, Number 5, October 2010</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span></p>   <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:22.0px Times">Mobilizing Local Knowledge<span style="font:12.0px Helvetica">&nbsp;</span></p>   <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:22.0px Times">and Asserting Culture<span style="font:12.0px Helvetica">&nbsp;</span></p>   <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:14.0px Times">The Cultural Politics of In Situ Conservation of<span style="font:12.0px Helvetica">&nbsp;</span></p>   <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:14.0px Times">Agricultural Biodiversity<span style="font:12.0px Helvetica">&nbsp;</span></p>   <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:14.0px Times">by C. J. Shepherd<span style="font:12.0px Helvetica">&nbsp;</span></p>   <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:9.0px Times"><span style="font-size:medium"><br></span></p> <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:9.0px Times"><span style="font-size:medium">Despite  the fact that a good number of development organisations in East Timor  seek to draw aspects of local knowledge and Timorese culture into their  interventions, to date there has been little critical work on the  politics of local knowledge mobilisation. Knowing and deploying local,  indigenous, or traditional knowledge has become an increasingly</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">important instrument for the design and implementation of development and conservation initiatives</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">in  the Third World. Of relevance to the East Timorese context and with  comments provided by anthropologists David Hicks and Andrew McWilliam,  this article explores the strategic mobilization of local knowledge  through a</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">case study of the politics of knowledge that emerges within projects aimed at the on-farm conservation</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">of agricultural biodiversity in the Peruvian highlands. In framing traditional farmer practices and</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">knowledge as integral to agrobiodiversity conservation, development and conservation groups take</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">recourse to a particular construct of Andean culture. Yet tension arises between the customary</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">delegitimization of Andean cultural traditions and the new appeals to value them, ambivalence</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">emerges within interventionary discourse practice, and the recognition of local farmer expertise in</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">a broader context of social hierarchy is rendered problematic. This case study of local knowledge,</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">its mobilization and negotiation within a particular rendering of “culture,” ideological differences</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">between institutions, agricultural heterogeneity, and the agency of recipient farmer groups have</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">broader implications for how we study the utility and value of local knowledge and “cultural essen-</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:medium">tialism” in other development and conservation contexts, including those of East Timor.</span><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:9.0px Times"><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium"><br></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:9.0px Times"><span style="font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-size:medium">If you would like a single copy of this article, email <a href="mailto:chris.shepherd@anu.edu.au" target="_blank">chris.shepherd@anu.edu.au</a></span></span></p> <br><br>Dr Bu V.E. Wilson<br>T: Australia +61&nbsp; 0&nbsp; 407 087 086<br>T: Timor-Leste + 670 744 0011<br>E: buvewilson@gmail.com<br><br><br><br>