Thursday, July 29, 2010

Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence by Gregory Cajete (Clear Light, 1999)

It's been a month since I've added anything to this blog.  I have been reading, but it's been primarily history books pertaining to Canadian and Aboriginal relationships.  Titles include The Indian Commissioners by Brian Titley and The Canadian Iroquois and the Seven Years' War by D. Peter MacLeod.  I also read The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien; but none of these books are "metaphysical" per se, so I haven't blogged them.

Native Science, however, does fit well under the term "metaphysical" hence it's inclusion here. 

A lot of effort is undertaken by writers trying to explain 1) that Native spirituality and mundane proclivities were entwined and inseparable and 2) that plants and animals have volition of their own and are due well being and thanks for offering their life force for our human livelihoods. 

For instance, the making of clay pots by traditional indigenous people of the American Southwest was a spiritual and pragmatic exercise.  It was pragmatic because the pots were necessary, but it was a spiritual exercise because the time needed to create the pot was recognized as an integral component of the creation as opposed to something to "cut down on" in order to get the final product.  Likewise, the materials required for the pots came from the earth itself and therefore thanks were offered as a remembrance of how the earth (mother) provides for people (her children).  In this sense, then, the mass production of contemporary jars and plastic containers is counter-logical to the traditional worldview of, say, the Navajo.  This difference can be seen in the way that Native cultures were "primitive" compared to the "advanced" technological marvels of Europe.  Two things (at least) have happened because of these two very different world views.  First, Native people have been denigrated as "backwards", "primitive", and as "obstacles to progress".  Second, the unchecked mass consumption required for and giving rise to mass production has been and is literally destroying the earth.

Cajete claims, and I agree, that widespread, popular acceptance and implementation of Native values concerning the inherent sacredness of the earth and our dependence on the earth's natural resources are necessary for human survival.  In other words, globally, systematically, we have to re-remember that the earth provides us with everything; but we have to share, we have to keep usage to needs rather than immature wanting.  Additionally, thanks have to be given to earth/nature/the universe for providing all that we need, and enough of the resources have to be left untouched for many, many future generations to come.

Very simple and very effective if this ideal is implemented.

I guess some ways of moving towards accepting this reality are necessary if you are hyper-intellectual and/or skeptical.  I would suggest learning about non-human sentience, as well as information theory - there may be knowledge there that can help a person see that humans are not just "at the top of the food chain" but are actually woven into a web of interdependence.

We can't just mindlessly consume everything in front of us, we have to collectively and individually realize that we require plants, animals, air, water and sunlight to survive; anything we do that upsets that relationship is our own folly and ultimately our own self-induced doom.