Knowing the weather in Namibia: observing, recognizing and understanding

了解天气的土著和科学方法通常表达不同的本体论。在干旱的纳米比亚西北部，降雨是最显著的天气事件。虽然该地区讲khoekhoegowab语的居民（ǂnūkhoen）将降雨解释为爱的风的相互作用，但气象学家认为这是地球绕太阳旋转的原因。气候运动、天气预报和天气应用程序将这些类型的知识带入对话。该项目的目的是，首先，描述这些认识方式及其潜在的本体论假设，其次，探索当他们进入对话时会发生什么。为了理解这些动态，我利用了海德格尔的现象学和他的解释学现实主义。我认为，不同的认知方式在环境多元化中共存，人们在特定的情况下利用特定的知识。为了从经验上研究这一点，我提出了一种方法方法，将认知人类学的技术与对就地和流动知识的分析结合起来。通过旅行和谈话，我试图探索知识是否以及如何在地点和运动中构成。这也将允许显示，如果和如何改变。该项目的总体理论目标是帮助理解部分矛盾的知识系统是如何结合在一起的，以及哪些理论模型适合描述这些过程。

Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing the weather typically express different ontologies. In arid northwestern Namibia, the rainfall is the most salient weather event. While the Khoekhoegowab-speaking inhabitants (ǂnūkhoen) of the region explain the rainfall as an interaction of loving winds, meteorologists perceive the rotation of the earth around the sun as the cause. Climate campaigns, weather forecasts and weather apps bring those types of knowing into dialogue. The aim of the project is, firstly, to describe these ways of knowing and their underlying ontological assumptions ethnographically and, secondly, to explore what happens when they enter into dialogue. To understand these dynamics, I make use of Heidegger’s phenomenology and his hermeneutic realism. I argue that different ways of knowing coexist in an environmental pluralism and that people draw on specific knowledge in specific situations. To study this empirically, I propose a methodological approach that combines techniques from cognitive anthropology with an analysis of knowledge in-the-place and on-the-move. Through travelling and talking, I attempt to explore, whether and how knowledge is constituted in places and movements. This will also allow showing, if and how it changes. The overall theoretical aim of the project is to contribute to understand how partly contradicting knowledge systems combine and which theoretical models are suitable for describing those processes.