Indigenous Cultures: Environmental Knowledge, Practice, and Rights Chapter 18

Culture All the ideas, practices, and material objects that people in a particular social group create to deal with their real-life problems. Cultural practices, then, are ways of doing things that societies or social groups have developed over time to survive and prosper. Culture is – Learned – Associated with notions of resources (knowledge, language, skills) – A good thing

Cultural Approaches to Water State-centered approaches to water Market-centered approaches to water Indigenous approaches to water

Questions Compare Western culture about nature with Indigenous culture? How is nature conceptualized by different societies? How are flora, fauna, terrain, and energy of the physical environment utilized in practice?

Some Characteristics of Indigenous Peoples Mobile Communal ownership of valuable resources Kinship based social structure –reduces the need to consume and to work to make money Egalitarian—equality in social relations Indigenous peoples tend to control resources or occupy land desired by members of the capitalist nation-state.

Indigenous Environmental Ideas and Knowledge A set of ideas and practices that people have developed in relation to their natural, sociopolitical, and symbolic surroundings “the environment” is not merely a setting or a complex of material circumstances or natural resources. Indigenous forms of environmental knowledge and practice are not “poor substitutes” for Western culture and environmental relations

Indigenous Ecological Practice Indigenous peoples have typically been successful in adapting sustainably to their local environmental (and societal) conditions. “Long term success story” Impacts of climate change and globalization and development?

Enduring Questions Does this mean that Indigenous cultures leave smaller “ecological footprints” by consuming and waster less of the environment’s bounty? Are societies who members seek to control and dominate nature more likely to experience greater social inequalities and cyclical shortages in access to material resources? As well as greater frequency of competition and conflict over material access both within their own societies and with other societies?

Resistance & Rebellion PeasantAntisystemicReligious Antisystemic ExampleZapatistasFeminist mov’t Labour Environmental Chrisitian & Islamic Fund’alism AboutLand Poverty Inequality Labour Risks Justice Cultural alternative FormOvert/covert Reform Overt reform CofC Replace CofC