Cultural Styles of Knowledge Transmission

Book excerpt: Anthropologist Ad Borsboom devoted his academic careerfrom 1972 onwards to the transmission of cultural knowledge.Borsboom handed the insights he acquired during many years offieldwork among Australian Aborigines on to other academics,students, and the general public. This collection of essays by hiscolleagues, specializing in cultures from across the globe, focuses onknowledge transmission. The contributions deal with local formsof education or pedagogy, the learning experiences of fieldwork,and the nexus of status and education. Whereas some essays arereflexive, others are personal in nature. But all of the authors arefascinated by the divergent ways in which people handle :"knowledge."The volume provides readers with respectful representationsof other cultures and their distinct epistemologies.