Generic inhibitors to conserve and transform traditional technologies : the case of Ethiopia

Abstract

Traditional technologies are revelations of knowledge, skill, and wisdom of ancestors that have been used to facilitate and enhance the performance of socio-economic activities, overcome environmental challenges, and magnify symbolic presentations of cultural and spiritual engagements. Traditional technologies are still practiced in many communities despite the strides made in the advancement of modern technologies. The socio-economic significance of traditional technologies in the context of Ethiopia is even more profound. There are hardly social, economic, and spiritual activities that are not, directly or indirectly, influenced by the application of traditional technologies. The irony is, however, they are not appreciated and conserved in spite that they have been proving a sustained significance across generations while, to the contrary, modern technologies are even staggering to outlive the stage of product introduction. Although still proving to be useful, traditional technologies have been marginalized as if they are symbols of backwardness belonging to the past as irrelevant to the modern day settings. It was, therefore, the urge to look into this dilemma that became the basis for the initiation to conduct a research on the captioned topic. The study has endeavored to address how traditional technologies, specifically that of Ethiopia, are able to sustain contrary to extant theoretical predictions of technologies, and investigate why they have been deterred from getting the conservation and transformation they deserve in spite of the socio-economic significant role they have continued to play as capitulated in the statement of the problem. In addressing the statement of the problem, the paradigm of the world outlook within which the research was situated is found to be related to the Critical Theory paradigm. As a result, a qualitative research methodology based on a case study design was framed and a longitudinal field study on the sampled cases was conducted. The data generated from the study were ix filtered, coded, organized, categorized, and ultimately analyzed and interpreted using apparent analytic models until saturated and triangulated findings were established. Accordingly, the core constructs that has been defining the fate of traditional technologies were induced and their impact in deterring or promoting the conservation and transformation of traditional technologies were synthesized. Based on the outcomes of data analysis and interpretation, appropriate methods of reshaping the societal attitude and orientation in terms of conserving and transforming traditional practices are proposed as induced recommendations ultimately requiring a timely intervention.