Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community

by John A. Grim, Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, Diane Bell, Maria Elena Bernal-Garcia, J. Peter Brosius

Overview

A new perspective on religions and the environment emerges from this collection. The authors, a diverse group of indigenous and non-native scholars and environmental activists, address compelling and urgent questions facing indigenous communities as they struggle with threats to their own sovereignty, increased market and media globalization, and the conservation of endangered bioregions.

Drawing attention to the pressures threatening indigenous peoples and ways of life, this volume describes modes of resistance and regeneration by which communities maintain a spiritual balance with larger cosmological forces while creatively accommodating current environmental, social, economic, and political changes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780945454281
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2001
Series:	Religions of the World and Ecology , #6
Pages:	824
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

John A. Grim is Senior Lecturer, Yale Divinity School.

Mary N. MacDonald is Professor of History of Religions, Le Moyne College.

Pramod Parajuli teaches anthropology, ecology, and social movements at Syracuse University.

Table of Contents

• Preface Lawrence F. Sullivan
• Series Foreword Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim
• Introduction John A. Grim
• Prologue Richard Nelson
• Maps of Indigenous Peoples

Fragmented Communities

• Intellectual Property Rights and the Sacred Balance: Some Spiritual Consequences from the Commercialization of Traditional Resources Darrell Addison Posey
• Contextualizing the Environmental Struggle Tom Greaves
• In the Eye of the Storm: Tribal Peoples of India Pradip Prabhu
• Shoot the Horse to Get the Rider: Religion and Forest Politics in Bentian Borneo Stephanie Fried

Complex Cosmologies

• Nature and Culture: Problematic Concepts for Native Americans Jack D. Forbes
• Local Knowledges, Global Claims: On the Significance of Indigenous Ecologies in Sarawak, East Malaysia J. Peter Brosius
• Is Indigenous Spiritual Ecology Just a New Fad? Reflections on the Historical and Spiritual Ecology of Hawai'i Leslie E. Sponsel
• The Road to Heaven: Jakaltek Maya Beliefs, Religion, and the Ecology Victor D. Montejo
• Tapu, Mana, Mauri, Hau, Wairua: A Mäori Philosophy of Vitalism and Cosmos Manuka Henare

Embedded Worldviews

• The Sacred Egg: Worldview, Ecology, and Development in West Africa Ogbu U. Kalu
• Melanesian Religion, Ecology, and Modernization in Papua New Guinea Simeon B. Namunu
• Interface between Traditional Religion and Ecology among the Igorots Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
• Religion, Ritual, and Agriculture among the Present-Day Nahua of Mesoamerica Javier Galicia Silva
• The Life and Bounty of the Mesoamerican Sacred Mountain Maria Elena Bernal-Garcia
• Calabash Trees and Cacti in the Indigenous Ritual Selection of Environments for Settlement in Colonial Mesoamerica Angel Julian Garcia Zambrano
• Warao Spiritual Ecology Werner Wilbert

Resistance and Regeneration

• Hunting, Nature, and Metaphor: Political and Discursive Strategies in James Bay Cree Resistance and Autonomy Harvey A. Feit
• Sovereignty and Swaraj: Adivasi Encounters with Modernity and Majority Smitu Kothari
• Respecting the Land: Religion, Reconciliation, and Romance—An Australian Story Diane Bell
• Kumarangk: The Survival of a Battered People Tom Trevorrow and Ellen Trevorrow
• Contemporary Native American Responses to Environmental Threats in Indian Country Tirso A. Gonzales and Melissa K. Nelson

Liberative Ecologies

• A Guest on the Table: Ecology from the Yup'ik Eskimo Point of View Ann Fienup-Riordan
• Learning from Ecological Ethnicities: Toward a Plural Political Ecology of Knowledge Pramod Parajuli
• Changing Habits, Changing Habitats: Melanesian Environmental Knowledge Mary N. MacDonald
• Indigenous Education and Ecology: Perspectives of an American Indian Educator Gregory Cajete
• Andean Cosmovision and the Nurturing of Biodiversity Julio Valladolid and Frédérique Apffel-Marglin

• Select Bibliography
• Notes on Contributors
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Lee Irwin

The articles found in this volume are articulate in laying out the underlying contestations that are threatening the very existence of indigenous people the world over. They reveal how deep and difficult the struggle for a sustainable way of life is among indigenous peoples of the world. The exploitation of resources, the denial of the legitimacy of indigenous religious worldviews, political marginalization, and the struggle of indigenous peoples to find their voice and cooperative empowerment are all themes central to this volume.
— Lee Irwin, College of Charleston

The articles found in this volume are articulate in laying out the underlying contestations that are threatening the very existence of indigenous people the world over. They reveal how deep and difficult the struggle for a sustainable way of life is among indigenous peoples of the world. The exploitation of resources, the denial of the legitimacy of indigenous religious worldviews, political marginalization, and the struggle of indigenous peoples to find their voice and cooperative empowerment are all themes central to this volume.

Joel Martin

Confronting readers with the awful human and ecological costs borne by indigenous peoples in an age of globalization, this book also celebrates ecological ethnicities and their creative forms of resistance. If you live on this planet, you need to read this book. If you love this planet, you will want to.
— Joel Martin, University of California, Riverside

David Kinsley

The pressures on indigenous lands and traditions and the commodification of indigenous lands by corporate and government powers are important issues addressed in this volume. The book contains excellent discussions of the continuing exploitation of indigenous peoples in terms of environmental racism as exemplified by the proposed disposal of nuclear wastes on indigenous reservations. It covers ecological, religious, and political issues in a striking way. Brilliant and exemplary!
— David Kinsley, McMaster University

Editorial Reviews

The pressures on indigenous lands and traditions and the commodification of indigenous lands by corporate and government powers are important issues addressed in this volume. The book contains excellent discussions of the continuing exploitation of indigenous peoples in terms of environmental racism as exemplified by the proposed disposal of nuclear wastes on indigenous reservations. It covers ecological, religious, and political issues in a striking way. Brilliant and exemplary!

David Kinsley

Confronting readers with the awful human and ecological costs borne by indigenous peoples in an age of globalization, this book also celebrates ecological ethnicities and their creative forms of resistance. If you live on this planet, you need to read this book. If you love this planet, you will want to.

Joel Martin

The articles found in this volume are articulate in laying out the underlying contestations that are threatening the very existence of indigenous people the world over. They reveal how deep and difficult the struggle for a sustainable way of life is among indigenous peoples of the world. The exploitation of resources, the denial of the legitimacy of indigenous religious worldviews, political marginalization, and the struggle of indigenous peoples to find their voice and cooperative empowerment are all themes central to this volume.

Lee Irwin

Contributors to the present volume offer myriad examples that demonstrate ways in which the ancient cosmologies of indigenous traditions are understood as a totality of belief, imagination, and sustainable practices describing a community's relationship to the land. There are in indigenous lifeways no sheltered and isolating constructs that separate religion from nature. Some essays explore the implications of this intimate knowing of one's place for policy makers and activists of the world. Several writers pose "liberative" ecological strategies grounded in indigenous epistemologies. Recommended.

Choice - L. De Danaan

Contributors to the present volume offer myriad examples that demonstrate ways in which the ancient cosmologies of indigenous traditions are understood as a totality of belief, imagination, and sustainable practices describing a community's relationship to the land. There are in indigenous lifeways no sheltered and isolating constructs that separate religion from nature. Some essays explore the implications of this intimate knowing of one's place for policy makers and activists of the world. Several writers pose "liberative" ecological strategies grounded in indigenous epistemologies. Recommended.
— L. De Danaan

Choice