Ways of Knowing Essay

Order Description
FYI: The subject area is sociology and anthropology.
ASSESSMENT #4 Final Essay (2500 words)

The final essay builds on from the exercise undertaken in class in Week 4 – entitled ‘Ways of Knowing’. In this final essay you are required to look at what have classically been termed scientific and ‘alternative’ or ‘folk’ ways on knowing. By examining these as classificatory modes we can examine notions of innocent and oppressive ways of knowing. We can also begin to question what we know and why this has come to be normalised.

For this final essay you will choose a species of indigenous Australian flora OR fauna and document what is known about the species from two key perspectives – namely Western science and Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous science. HOWEVER…this is not merely an exercise in describing the information you find and which is available on this species. Rather, you are also required to engage with the critical and epistemological/ontological and axiological differences that inform the knowledge you are able to find. This feeds into a broader discussion on ways of knowing.

Given the information you find you are expected to academically reflect on
• What information is available? Briefly recount what you have found.
• How are they different or similar?
• What does this reveal about ways of knowing? Epistemology? Ontology? And Axiology?
• How does that fit within the scope of this course’s wider theme of knowledge as power and socially constructed and differentially valued?

This final essay will require you to consolidate much of what you learn throughout the semester, not just material introduced and covered in Week 4. Thus, a successful submission is one that takes a holistic approach to the notion of social research, epistemology, ontology and axiology.

The final essay must be written in an academic style, and must include considerable engagement with the appropriate academic literature and much of the course set literature. It is expected that no less than 10 sources are used throughout your final essay. The essay much also include in text citations that engage directly with this literature and a reference list.

Websites that are not explicitly part of the social science discourse or which do not exactly relate to the aims of this final essay task do not count as references. Wikipedia is also NOT an appropriate academic source.