Continuing in the series Religions of the World and Ecology, distributed by Harvard University Press for the Center for the Study of World Religions, Indigenous Traditions and Ecology brings together perceptive essays written by indigenous persons and non-natives sympathetic to indigenous views. The depth and breadth of this volume leads us to conclude that no understanding of the environment is adequate without a grasp of the religious notions of life's beginnings and relationships between land and people. This volume emerged from a 1997 conference at Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions and is organized beautifully by editor John Grim.
The essays are divided into those dealing with fragmented communities, complex cosmologies, embedded worldviews, resistance and regeneration, and liberative ecologies. A synopsis of each essay is given in the introduction so that the reader can go directly to the essay of interest. The indigenous views of Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Australian aborigine, Yupik Eskimo and tribal peoples from India to Papua New Guinea are represented. For this reason, this volume is an excellent resource for secondary religion and ecology teachers as well as a text for the study of indigenous peoples. The essays themselves are insightful, detailed and bring to life the belief systems and traditions of the Native peoples.
As for being a research resource, I have found this text to be one of the most indispensable I have come across. The fullness and astuteness of the material allows for comparisons between divergent worldviews as well as in-depth looks at case studies of similar worldviews. Some possible uses (suggested as aims in the series forward) of this text at the secondary level might be to select a few of the essays and have the students 1. Identify and evaluate the distinctive ecological attitudes, values and practices of the different religious traditions. 2. Describe and analyze the commonalities that exist within and among the religious traditions with respect to ecology.3. Identify the minimum common ground on which to base constructive understanding, motivating discussion, and concerted action in diverse locations across the globe. 4. Articulate in clear and moving terms a desirable mode of human presence with the earth. 5. Outline the most significant areas, with regard to religion and ecology, in need of further study. 6. Look within each worldview for cosmologies, myths, symbols, and rituals that resituate us within the rhythms and limits of nature. 7. Develop a global environmental ethic based upon collective indigenous worldviews. 8. Suggest possible responses of particular indigenous peoples, based on religious views expressed in the essays, to a particular environmental crisis. 9. Determine how the geographic location of a peoples may have influenced the development of their worldviews concerning ecology.10. Explore the ethnobotany of an indigenous people.
Any of these activities would allow us to expand the dialog of religion and ecology in the context of indigenous people. As John Grim so aptly put it, there are two challenges embedded within the lifeway concept, the first being the need to understand the roles of indigenous religions in their efforts to maintain a spiritual balance with larger cosmological forces while creatively accommodating current environmental, social, economic, and political changes. The second challenge is to open interpretive possibilities for understanding an integrated environmental vision that transmits spiritual states of knowing and moral ways of being in the world.
These challenges are so fitting as we enter the 21st century to the tragic experiences of fanatical religious terrorism, and as we experience incapacitating human generated environmental degradation. A look at various indigenous cosmologies helps us to consider our global kinship; it helps us to recognize the interrelatedness of our earthly landscape. I highly recommend a copy of Indigenous Traditions and Ecology The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community for your classroom.
review©2001 by RSiSS and Sandy Buczynski
Science Department
Seabury Hall, 2001