Ecocentrism – Looking to Other Ways of Knowing
Although settler society (discussed in my previous post) is inclined to think so, we humans are not the center of the universe. This conception of the world has pervaded the Western psyche for centuries. It is not just a harmless fixation with the homo sapien, but a colonial project rooted in dreams of extraction. This human-centered way of seeing the environment is called anthropocentrism, a complicated concept that essentially refers to pervasive obsession with ourselves.
An alternative to mainstream environmentalism
Suppose you feel that you care about the environment and make a meaningful effort to protect it. In that case, it may surprise you to hear that anthropocentrism is not just a way of thinking that is attached to the most significant polluters or those who refuse to recycle. Many in settler-colonial societies are imbued with the individualism that allows one to believe we humans are the most essential beings and that the entire ecosystem standing in our way is merely unavoidable collateral damage. Using this way of thinking to confront the environment and the current climate crisis is one of the main problems that has emerged with mainstream environmentalism: environmentalism that functions within the colonial-capitalist paradigm.
Ecocentrism challenges this very notion by advancing the idea that nature has intrinsic value outside of its benefits to humans. While some might classify this way of thinking as “emerging” as it does not yet have the strong institutional credibility of anthropocentrism, in reality this concept is not at all new. Indigenous peoples have long practiced this way of thinking about the earth, and through their relationship with the lands since time immemorial, they have acquired valuable knowledge often referred to as traditional ecological knowledge.
“Enduring knowledge and practices”
I asked Dr. Claudia Ford, an environmental studies professor at SUNY Potsdam, what traditional ecological knowledge entailed and what she thought its importance was to environmentalism and society. She referred me to sections of her dissertation on the subject titled Weed women, all night vigils, and the secret life of plants: negotiated epistemologies of ethnogynecological plant knowledge in American history, in which she writes:
Traditional ecological knowledge is considered to be the environmental knowledge of indigenous communities who have lived many centuries, often many millennia, within a specific geography.
In light of this description, she later explains that as a result of colonization, traditional ecological knowledge has endured and evolved over time:
Native groups encountered new peoples with their new cosmologies and cultural knowledge on the territories of original Native lands, forever altered by these encounters. For Africans, their cosmology, culture, family, language, and traditions were intended for obliteration by the brutality of the Middle Passage and slavery, and are sometimes portrayed as if they had indeed been destroyed. The research shows, however, that African traditional knowledge was not completely destroyed, even as it was violently assailed. For Native and African populations the New World encounters were fraught with distinct but related aggressive traumas of concurrent dislocations, genocide, and slavery. The toll these ordeals placed on the traditional knowledge of Native and African peoples is difficult to imagine, yet there is evidence of enduring knowledge and practices.
Although this wisdom can be valuable to environmentalism and society as a whole, Dr. Ford offers an important note of caution:
Attempts to discuss or implement shared ecological experiences, knowledge, or management ought to proceed under the leadership of an indigenous people, centering indigenous histories, using indigenous research frameworks, and respecting rules of access to different types of stories and knowledge.
The limits of settler “ethics”
Recognizing this, we can see that colonization and anthropocentrism are not two separate issues. In an article titled White Allies, Let’s Be Honest About Decolonization, Kyle Powys Whyte provides critical insight into the settler relationship with the environment and decolonization:
Decolonizing allyship requires allies to be critical about their environmental realities—and about the purpose of their environmentalism. To do this, allies must realize they are living in the environmental fantasies of their settler ancestors. Settler ancestors wanted today’s world. They would have relished the possibility that some of their descendants could freely commit extractive violence on Indigenous lands and then feel, with no doubts, that they are ethical people.
This ability to take an “ethical” position in the face of unethical violence is a goal of the colonial anthropocentric view. It allows settlers to feel that although we are destroying and polluting the earth for human benefit, the right thing to do entails the least amount of damage that still allows for the most benefit. (I say “we” because, as I have noted previously, I am part of the settler population but am also seeking to challenge white-settler dominance through my writing.) From an ecocentric point of view the earth has their own rights that would come first. Human benefit is secondary and to fulfill our basic needs.
From Standing Rock to Akwesasne
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protests and subsequent lawsuit against the Dakota Access Pipeline serve as a prominent example of a contemporary case where these two philosophies are clearly at odds with each other. Below you will see a video of LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, one of the Standing Rock water protectors, describing their battle against the pipeline:
However, these battles are happening all across Turtle Island (North America), including the North Country. As a result of industrial pollution, the St. Lawrence River Watershed has become polluted with toxic Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), amongst other things. These pollutants have traveled upstream to Akwesasne, leading to significant environmental and health impacts for the Kanien:keha'ka (Mohawk). The polluters and creators of the chemicals have been reluctant to clean them up, and the existing polices follow the anthropocentric view as they prioritize protecting the economic needs of the settler towns, cities, and states and the ability of settler industries to accumulate capital through extraction. The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe is currently part of a lawsuit against Monsanto-Bayer for the toxic effects of these PCBs. As this case demonstrates, the confrontations between these ways of conceptualizing the environment are not purely philosophical but clearly have very real implications for the health of communities, indigenous sovereignty, and cultural survival.
To learn from indigenous artists, activists, and educators working on the front lines of these issues, including some of the very individuals who hold what I have described as traditional ecological knowledge, be sure to join Talking Wings Productions for the North Country Art, Land, and the Environment Summit. The Summit will challenge the anthropocentric view, getting to the heart of topics relating to water, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. We can truly change our world if we just take the time to learn.
The North Country, Art, Land, and Environment Summit is being organized by Talking Wings Collective and will take place between September 9th and October 2nd, 2020. Their team is primarily comprised of Blake Lavia & Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo. You can find out more about Talking Wings at https://talking-wings.com and the Summit at https://nocoenvironment.org/
Dr. Claudia Ford has enjoyed a career in international management, development, and women's health spanning three decades and all continents. Dr. Ford holds a PhD in Environmental Studies and is on the faculty of State University of New York, Potsdam. She teaches ethnobotany, indigenous knowledge, gender studies, international business, environmental justice, and environmental literature in classrooms and workshops. Dr. Ford is a visual artist and writer, and she serves on the boards of directors of the Soul Fire Farm Institute - committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system; and the Biodynamic Association - awakening and enlivening co-creative relationships between humans and the earth, transforming the practice and culture of agriculture to renew the vitality of the earth, the integrity of our food, and the health and wholeness of our communities. She will be the moderator of the Food Sovereignty in the Time of Covid-19 panel on September 16, 2020 at 6:30 pm EST.
Banner Image Courtesy of Talking Wings Productions.
