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I sometimes think that animistic belief - objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence - is more respectful of the ecosystem than som
by salesynerd 2y ago
I sometimes think that animistic belief - objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence - is more respectful of the ecosystem than some of the modern ones. Lots of ancient cultures, across the globe, tried to live in harmony with their natural environments. I wish that we can go back to that stage.
- chimpanzee 2y agoI agree. You should check out “Becoming Animal” and “The Spell of the Sensuous”, both by David Abram
- salesynerd 2y agoThanks for your suggestion; I'll read the two books.
- goatlover 2y agoTo what extent did they really, or was it more low impact for smaller tribal groups? There’s plenty of examples of civilization with roads, waterways and larger buildings in the Americas prior to the Europeans. Same for most of the rest of the world. Humans cleared areas with fire, they damned rivers, and built cities.
- gen220 2y agoI also often think about this. "Animism" was a super efficient way to program a culture for respect towards nature. From that perspective it's a shame that it's gone. I'm hopeful that with all this research, we're sort of traversing a longer cultural arc that terminates at the same "symptoms" of animism (respect for nature, good stewardship of natural resources, following the precautionary principle). Those symptoms would now be supported by different load-bearing pillars, called "Environmental Science" and "Biology". I don't think we can go "back", but I think we can go "forwards" and still end up in a good (albeit, ironically, more or less the same) spot, where capital-S Science basically endorses most native land management practices. We've already made pretty good progress in the last generation or two.