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Index of Subjects Dear David and sust-maritimers, I very much agree with what you are saying. During my early 20's I spent years actively researching cultures and belief systems throughout the world and throughout history. I was looking for a culture & belief system that was healthy, just, life-affirming, ecological, joyous, true in profound ways and was not just an ideal or a fantasy. Time after time I found fantastic assumptions that were just not verifiable or consistent with reality and groups that caused great harm. Without going into writing a tretis, I was disappointed repeatedly. Ancient cultures that were hunter/gatherers would disrupt the environments profoundly just as soon as they had fire and spears. With each new technology, people caused increased environmental harm and were able to organize more fully to channel wealth from many into the control and benefit of a few. Animal husbandry, the wheel, walled cities, metal smelting, writing and so on are each associated with people and the environment being more fully and more harmfully exploited by cultures, and especially by those in control. Aboriginal cultures are no exception. Their level of environmental and social exploitation and harm are closely related to their level of technology that enables them to do that exploitation and harm. But they do have one factor that helps to lessen that damage. To the extent that individuals, communities and cultures are active participants of a mystical practice that imbues in them a sense of "oneness" or "non-separatness" they refrain from causing harm to their environment. "Ultimately, deep ecological awareness is spiritual or religious awareness. When the concept of the human spirit is understood as the mode of consciousness in which the individual feels a sense of belonging, of connectedness, to the cosmos as a whole, it becomes clear that ecological awareness is spritual in its deepest essence. It is, therefore, not surprising that the emerging new vision of reality based on deep ecological awareness is consistent with the so-called perennial philosophy of spiritual traditions, whether we talk about the spirituality of Chrisitian mystics, that of Buddhists, or the philosophy and cosmology underlying the Native American traditions." Fritjof Capra, "The Web of Life." But there are always people in every culture who are naturally drawn to doing right, and there are also those who are opportunistic and seek to take improper advantage of any situation. And all aboriginal cultures and all communities are not alike in this either. So we have Hopi's guarding their spiritual high ground and protesting that the newcomer Navajo are destroying the Hopi and their sacred lands. The Hopi are correct. The sheep herding Navajo are denuding the land and sold a sacred mountain (Black Mesa) to the Peabody Coal Company to produce power for Los Angeles while polluting the entire wilderness area. And the Navajo systematically kill the eagles in their nests that Hopi rely on for their religious practices. Meanwhile the Navajo present themselves as wonderful people using all of the stereotypes of Native American spirituality. This is all so very sad. Of course, many Navajo behave much better than their tribe has a whole does. And a few Hopi do not behave well either. Closer to home we have the heartbreak of MicMac logging old growth forests. Of course these are just a few out of many that are behaving better. But the elders and the communities were unable or unwilling to control them, so one cannot make an idealized case for a special spiritual ecological awareness for natives that will survive both opportunity and technology. We all need a spritual practice and a spiritual commitment and a spiritual understanding that will firmly commit us to not destroying the very living system that we are but one part of. Aboriginal spiritual practice does lead higher percentages of aboriginal persons to conserve the earth than in most other populations, but it does not go far enough, nor is it a practice non-aboriginal persons can widely adopt since it is dependent on belonging to an aboriginal group conferred by birth. We need a spiritual & ethical transformation of our cultural paradigms. All of our religions, our scientists and so on have to adopt this ethic of biological caring. And we have to actually practice it. All the best, David Wimberly -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- You received this because you are subscribed to "sust-mar", the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list. To unsubscribe, send email to <majordomo@chebucto.ns.ca> with "unsubscribe sust-mar" (without quotes) as the body of your message. To post a message to sust-mar subscribers, send it to <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca> Posts that are off-topic or excessive length (10K) will be rejected. For help contact <sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
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