Abstract

This paper has two purposes: To report the findings of a study of ethnic differences in cognition in a rural West Sumatran area; and to demonstrate the importance of ethnicity—in at least some contexts—for tailoring agricultural research to farmers' needs. A cognitive mapping technique, called a Galileo, was used to measure people's views of soil and its relation to people among three Indonesian ethnic groups living in the same area. Findings from participant observation and from collaborative agricultural fieldwork with farmers of all three ethnic groups are used to evaluate and interpret the Galileo results