ERIC Number: EJ1142816
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Nov
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1525-822X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Peer Evaluation Can Reliably Measure Local Knowledge
Reyes-García, Victoria; Díaz-Reviriego, Isabel; Duda, Romain; Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro; Gallois, Sandrine; Guèze, Maximilien; Napitupulu, Lucentezza; Pyhälä, Aili
Field Methods, v28 n4 p345-362 Nov 2016
We assess the consistency of measures of individual local ecological knowledge obtained through peer evaluation against three standard measures: identification tasks, structured questionnaires, and self-reported skills questionnaires. We collected ethnographic information among the Baka (Congo), the Punan (Borneo), and the Tsimane' (Amazon) to design site-specific but comparable tasks to measure medicinal plant and hunting knowledge. Scores derived from peer ratings correlate with scores of identification tasks and self-reported skills questionnaires. The higher the number of people rating a subject, the larger the association. Associations were larger for the full sample than for subsamples with high and low rating scores. Peer evaluation can provide a more affordable method in terms of difficulty, time, and budget to study intracultural variation of knowledge, provided that researchers (1) do not aim to describe local knowledge; (2) select culturally recognized domains of knowledge; and (3) use a large and diverse (age, sex, and kinship) group of evaluators.
Descriptors: Peer Evaluation, Reliability, Measurement, Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology, Questionnaires, Identification, Self Evaluation (Individuals), Ethnography, Indigenous Populations, Ethnic Groups, Foreign Countries, Correlation, Skills
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Cameroon; Indonesia; Bolivia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A