8. Nature Immersion & Connection

Evolved Nest Component #8 of 9

WHY IS NATURE IMMERSION & CONNECTION IMPORTANT?

We care for those we care about. One of the causes for the planetary ecological crises humanity has brought about is the lack of caring for the rest of nature and a sense of separation from it (T. Berry, 1999; W. Berry, 2012). In the modern world, we too often forget that our species is a creature of Earth and has evolved with the rest of the natural world, which preserves us. As Jack Forbes noted (paraphrased), ‘I could lose my arms, legs, eyes and still live, but if I lose the air, the water,’ I die.

The Indigenous or kinship worldview encompasses all of life on Earth. We have a world of sentient relations. Children immersed in Nature know this. We can relearn this and can hone perception and skills to get along with our local landscape—animals, plants, waterways, soil—so that we live regeneratively instead of destructively towards All.

READ: Learn Again to Be an Earth Creature

Humans are part of nature. How to reawaken innate skills and reconnect.

All humans are part of nature but in industrialized societies we learn to shut down our animal minds and nature connection, says Tamarack Song. My students are using Song’s wisdom and that of Josh Lane to relearn attunement to the natural world.

What must we relearn? First, that we belong to the earth and not the other way around. Jack Forbes (2008) tells it like it is:

“The fact of our absolute, utter, complete dependence upon the earth is used by native teachers as a part of self-understanding… I can lose my hands, and still live. I can lose my legs and still live. I can lose my eyes and still live. I can lose my hair, eyebrows, nose, arms and many other things and still live. But if I lose the air I die. If I lose the sun I die. If I lose the earth I die. If it lose the water I die. If I lose the plant and animals I die. All of these things are more a part of me, more essential to my every breath, than is my so-called body. What is my real body?” (pp. 181-182)

Okay, so I agree that I need nature. I’ll look out the window, memorize the birds in my neighborhood, sit in the park and appreciate it.

Ah, but this is not enough. Tamarack Song tells us:

“To know Nature, observation and study are not enough. We might be able to score well on a test… yet that is only a beginning… When we approach Nature through study and research we become technical naturalists. Rather than our intrinsic way of connecting from the heart and using our intuitive sense, we rely on technology and intellect. In other words, we are out of touch.”

Realizing our dependency on nature, appreciating nature’s beauty and finding places in it for solace and inspiration are a great start. But Song urges us to expand our awareness even more, to this:

We are nature. We come from nature and will return to it when we die. But how about in between? Song writes for those who don’t want to wait 'til death to feel deeply connected to nature. He tells us we can relearn the “Old Way” of feeling connected to nature, a way more familiar to us as children.

We have abilities that go far beyond the kind of intelligence we test and encourage in schools. Tamarack Song discusses an intelligence he calls “animal mind” that understands “nature speak” where we understand immediately what is being communicated, we take it at face value and respond accordingly. “In our Animal Minds we feel automatically centered. We can think without thoughts and act without getting caught up in shoulds, woulds, and coulds.” (p. 6)

Our animal mind is part of our implicit systems that govern much of our behavior without awareness (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999).

WHAT EVERYONE CAN DO:

• Take up suggestions from Richard Louv, such as in his book, Vitamin N. Select activities according to your interests and abilities and/or your child.

• Let yourself and children wander around outside exploring the natural world.

• Go to local, state and national parks and let everyone, including children, have as much freedom as possible.

• Talk about the rest of the natural world as part of your community.

• Learn about local animals and plants and what they need to thrive.

• Get involved in local outdoor clubs.

What are the advantages of relearning our animal nature?

To know nature is to know ourselves. When we are fully in our “animal mind,” we no longer feel separated from nature but feel kinship with the animals around us, with the trees and natural entities around us.

“When we find our Animal Minds we will discover something so earthshaking that it turns lives upside down: life is a verb.” (p. 6)

But Song tells us the core reason why it is so important to restore our capacities for nature connection:

“When we are brother and sister to the Birds and Trees, we see how easy it is to treat them with kindness and respect, just as we do with our Human family. As we take care of our Human family’s home, we will want to take care of forest kin’s home. We will naturally evolve a sustainable lifestyle, consuming and polluting less as we relearn how to live in harmony with all of life.” (p. 5)

Transforming yourself through the animal mind.

Find a sit spot in nature to visit routinely.
Stop thinking and shift away from the planning, calculating, judging mind.
Bring an attitude of curiosity, observation, sense of mystery.
Practice being present, attending to the feelings of our body and our senses in the moment—sounds, sights, smells, touch.
Deep, belly breathing helps get into the alpha brain wave state of relaxation. If we become afraid, we can breathe through the fear (fear is an absence of breath, said a therapist of mine).
Accrue mindful moments of presence, peacefulness.

Click on the image to visit the Evolved Nest's Overview of the Nine Components' Page

Evolved Nest Films

The Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities

From the immense Whale to the intriguing Octopus – all Animals share with humans brain structures and processes that give us the capacities for life’s rainbow of experiences: consciousness, thinking, feeling, loving, and dreaming.

Perhaps most importantly, we share common ways of raising our young: what is called the evolved nest. Evolved nests are practices that nurture physical and psychological wellbeing. Each child is “nested” with mother, family, community, and the rest of Nature as one seamless whole. Passed from generation to generation over millions of years, each Animal’s nest has been perfected to meet and match the needs of their young. Nestedness is evolution’s way of ensuring that everyone thrives. Each Animal’s evolved nest shares basic similarities but also unique differences.

The Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children is the second short film in a series that includes Reimagining Humanity and Breaking the Cycle. This short film in an accompaniment to the acclaimed book, The Evolved Nest, by Darcia Narvaez and G.A. Bradshaw.

Reimagining Humanity

The goal of this film is to expand human imagination, based in deep history and transdisciplinary science, about human potential. We have not always been so stressed, disconnected and mindlessly destructive.

For most of our species existence we have lived in cooperative companionship. The film illustrates what this looks like.

Human societies are built from individuals who begin life in relationship. The quality of community support for meeting children’s basic needs influences the state of health the child carries forward in all systems. Undercare in early life leads to less health in childhood and adulthood and a basic sense of disconnection—a Cycle of Competitive Detachment. This is not humanity’s heritage. Over 95% of our species history was spent in a Cycle of Cooperative Companionship, where children’s basic needs were met, leading to wellbeing in childhood and adulthood, with a deep sense of connection and skills to keep the cycle going.

Why Reimagine Humanity?

Download and Listen

Discover the new short film, Reimagining Humanity, the sequel to Breaking the Cycle, and its capacity to help us employ our rational imaginations and ancestral wisdom to remember who we really are, and who we can truly become. See the film above. Listen to the interview with Darcia in the podcast.

Evolved Nest Videos on Nature Connection

Evolved Nest Explained: Darcia Narvaez, PhD, presents the Nature Connection component of the Evolved Nest to her students at the University of Notre Dame.

Connecting to Nature: Indigenous Wisdom Meets Neurobiology; Darcia Narvaez & Four Arrows

Take Up the 28 Day Eco Attachment Dance!

You, your children, your family are invited to discover ways to connect with nature, renew your ecological attachment, and restore your living connection to the Earth.

Dr. Darcia Narvaez and her students did an experiment to increase ecological attachment—nature connection—through small daily practices. Each day participants practiced one activity that increased attention to and being grateful for the natural world. See here for the press release about the study, published in EcoPsychology.

Take up the Eco Attachment Dance to expand your own ecological attachment through an Instagram challenge. Each day for 28 days an activity will be posted for you to practice that day. Each activity takes about 5 minutes (though you can go longer).

If you would like to take the anonymous pretest (and later a posttest) you can see how your attitudes and behaviors change after participating in the Eco Attachment Dance.

Click here to follow the dance on Instagram.

VISIT THE ECO ATTACHMENT DANCE WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Articles

Discover the Evolved Nest articles on Kindred Magazine here.

Darcia's Posts on Indigenous Wisdom:

Natives Foster Happy People Without Overthinking

https://kindredmedia.org/2020/07/natives-foster-happy-people-without-overthinking/

Indigenous Psychologies From Around The World

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/10/indigenous-psychologies-from-around-the-world/

Indigenous Psychologies Contrast With Western Psychology

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/10/indigenous-psychologies-contrast-with-western-psychology/

What Wise Elders Know

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/07/what-wise-elders-know-especially-women/

Sustainable Wisdom: Indigenous Style

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/04/sustainable-wisdom-indigenous-style/

Wise Elders in the Circle of Life

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/03/wise-elders-in-the-circle-of-life/

Earth Home Economics: Rebecca Adamson And “Enoughness”

https://kindredmedia.org/2016/10/earth-home-economics-rebecca-adamson-and-enoughness/

American Indians: The Misunderstood Heritage

https://kindredmedia.org/2014/11/american-indians-misunderstood-heritage/

10 Indigenous Holistic Healing Practices

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/02/10-indigenous-holistic-healing-practices/

Self-Actualize And Become A Wise Elder

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/06/self-actualize-and-become-a-wise-elder/

Broken Eagle Wing: Mending Worldview

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/01/broken-eagle-wing-mending-worldview/

How Many Worldviews Are There? Is Only One Sustainable?

https://kindredmedia.org/2016/02/how-many-worldviews/

Our Ancestors Were Smart and Good

https://kindredmedia.org/2020/12/our-ancestors-were-smart-and-good-2/

The “Death Of Birth” And Losing Nature

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/06/the-death-of-birth-and-losing-nature/

Daily Practices That Increase Nature Connection

https://kindredmedia.org/2020/05/daily-nature-connection/

Learn Again To Be An Earth Creature

https://kindredmedia.org/2020/04/earth-creature/

Socially Distanced? Get Closer To Nature

https://kindredmedia.org/2020/06/socially-distanced-get-closer-to-nature/

Getting Connected to Nature

https://kindredmedia.org/2020/02/connected-to-nature/

Darcia's Blogs on Nature Immersion and Connection

Overcoming Nature Deficit Disorder

Learn Again to Be an Earth Creature

https://kindredmedia.org/2020/04/earth-creature/

Nature Heals, Restores, and Comforts

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/12/nature-heals/

Analyses of Inaction Toward the Ecological Crisis

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/12/analyses-of-inaction-toward-the-ecological-crisis/

We Are in a Climate Emergency—How Can Psychology Help?

https://kindredmedia.org/2019/12/we-are-in-a-climate-emergency-how-can-psychology-help/

Humans Defeat Nature—As Prescribed. Now What?

https://kindredmedia.org/2017/07/humans-defeat-nature/

A Good Life: Embodied, Earth-Centric or Controlled, Detached

https://kindredmedia.org/2016/09/a-good-life/

Changing the Human Psyche for Living Sustainably

https://kindredmedia.org/2016/07/changing-human-psyche-living-sustainably-thomas-berry/

Living Virtuously– With the Land

https://kindredmedia.org/2016/05/living-virtuously/

More Resources

Kindred's articles on Nature Connection

Kindred's articles on Indigenous Wisdom

Practitioner Guide to Assessing Connection to Nature Our goal in creating this guide is to provide practitioners, organizations, researchers, and others with a “one-stop shop” for measuring nature connections.

Eco Attachment Dance. Eco Attachment Dance is part of the Evolved Nest Initiative, a web resource to help individuals, families, and communities nest or re-nest themselves. Eco Attachment Dance aims to help human beings reengage their connection to the natural world.

Evolved Nest Podcast Series

Listen to the full Evolved Nest Podcast Series

Nature Connection Songs

Nature Connection Songs Resources Include:

Podcasts for your to download of Darcia singing and demonstrating the songs below.
The Nature Connection Songs PDF, showing musical lyrics and chord progressions for you to play along.
The entire collection is listed here, below.
See and share these on Kindred here.

Download PDF

We Love The Earth

We Love The Earth is a nature connection song written and performed here by Darcia Narvaez, PhD.

A Song Honoring Plants

See the description below.

A Song Honoring Plants

This song honoring plants is written and performed by Darcia Narvaez. It was included in Chapter 9 in her new book with Four Arrows, Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Earth.

Many plant species are increasingly threatened with extinction. Humans often act mindlessly toward plants, as if they do not have feeling or purpose. Native American communities honored plants as life givers and teachers. They practiced the “honorable harvest,” a way to treat plants and animals with respect. This song describes what the honorable harvest looks like. Sing and play this song with one or more partners.

We Are Water Song

See description below.

Water is life-giving, life-supporting aspect of the world. The ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, Thales (c. 624-546 BCE), suggested that all things come from water. We often forget how ubiquitous it is and how reliant we are on its purity. Many people in the world do not have regular access to clean water. This song is to remind us how much we interact with water in so many ways. Sing and dance this song with one or more partners.

Birds We Love

Bird species are undergoing rapid extinction rates due to human activities, like killing insects that they feed on. This song is a reminder that we love to see and hear birds. They need our mindful concern to help them thrive and prevent further extinction.

Sing to the Insects

Insects are disappearing at a rapid rate with a mass extinction underway. In industrialized nations, we often treat insects as pests, not thinking about they fit into complex ecosystems that keep other animals, and ourselves, alive. When we use pesticides on one insect, it also kills other insects.

Our Research Related to Nestedness

BOOKS

Narvaez, D., & Bradshaw, G.A. (2023). The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way Of Raising Children And Creating Connected Communities. North Atlantic Books.

Topa, Wahinkpe (Four Arrows), & Narvaez, D. (2022). Restoring the kinship worldview: Indigenous voices introduce 28 precepts for rebalancing life on planet earth. North Atlantic Books.

Narvaez, D., Four Arrows, Halton, E., Collier, B., Enderle, G. (Eds.) (2019). Indigenous Sustainable Wisdom: First Nation Know-how for Global Flourishing. New York: Peter Lang.

Narvaez, D. (Ed.) (2018). Basic needs, wellbeing and morality: Fulfilling human potential. Palgrave-MacMillan.

Narvaez, D. (2016). Embodied morality: Protectionism, engagement and imagination. Palgrave-Macmillan.

Narvaez, D., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller, L., Gettler, L., & Hastings, P. (Eds.). (2016). Contexts for young child flourishing: Evolution, family and society. Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D. (2014). Neurobiology and the development of human morality: Evolution, culture and wisdom. Norton.

Narvaez, D., Valentino, K., McKenna, J., Fuentes, A., & Gray, P. (Eds.) (2014). Ancestral landscapes in human evolution: Culture, childrearing and social wellbeing. Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., & Gleason, T. (Eds.) (2013). Evolution, early experience and human development: From research to practice and policy. Oxford University Press.

PHILOSOPHICAL GROUNDING

Narvaez, D. (2021). Species-typical phronesis for a living planet. In M. De Caro & M.S. Vaccarezza (Eds.), Practical Wisdom: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives (pp. 160-180). London: Routledge.

Narvaez, D. (2020). Ecocentrism: Resetting baselines for virtue development. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 23, 391–406. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-020-10091-2

Narvaez, D. (2019). Humility in four forms: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, community, and ecological. In J. Wright (Ed.), Humility (pp. 117-145). In book series, Multidisciplinary perspectives on virtues (N. Snow & D. Narvaez, series eds.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D. (2018). Ethogenesis: Evolution, early experience and moral becoming. In J. Graham & K. Gray (Eds.), The Atlas of Moral Psychology (pp. 451-464). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Narvaez, D. (2017). Evolution, childrearing and compassionate morality. In Paul Gilbert (Ed.), Compassion: Conceptualisations, Research and Use in Psychotherapy (pp. 78-186). London: Routledge.

Narvaez, D. (2017). Are we losing it? Darwin’s moral sense and the importance of early experience. In. R. Joyce (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy (pp. 322-332). London: Routledge.

Narvaez, D. (2016). Goodness, survival and flourishing. Philosophical News, 12, 56-64.

Narvaez, D. (2016). Baselines for virtue. In J. Annas, D. Narvaez, & N. Snow (Eds.), Developing the virtues: Integrating perspectives (pp. 14-33). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

CHILD RAISING AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT: EMPIRICAL PAPERS

Narvaez, D., Gleason, T., Tarsha, M., Woodbury, R., Cheng, A., Wang, L. (2021). Sociomoral temperament: A mediator between wellbeing and social outcomes in young children. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 5111. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.742199

Tarsha, M. S., & Narvaez, D. (2021). Effects of adverse childhood experience on physiological regulation are moderated by evolved developmental niche history. Anxiety, Stress & Coping. DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2021.1989419

Gleason, T., Tarsha, M.S., Narvaez, D., & Kurth, A. (2021). Opportunities for free play and young children’s autonomic regulation. Developmental Psychobiology, 63 (6), e22134. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22134

Narvaez, D., Wang, L., Cheng, A., Gleason, T., Woodbury, R., Kurth, A., & Lefever, J.B. (2019). The importance of early life touch for psychosocial and moral development. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 32:16 (open access). doi.org/10.1186/s41155-019-0129-0

Narvaez, D., Woodbury, R., Gleason, T., Kurth, A., Cheng, A., Wang, L., Deng, L., Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, E., Christen, M., & Näpflin, C. (2019). Evolved Development Niche provision: Moral socialization, social maladaptation and social thriving in three countries. Sage Open, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019840123

Narvaez, D., Wang, L, & Cheng, A. (2016). Evolved Developmental Niche History: Relation to adult psychopathology and morality. Applied Developmental Science, 20(4), 294-309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2015.1128835

Gleason, T., Narvaez, D., Cheng, A., Wang, L., & Brooks, J. (2016). Wellbeing and sociomoral development in preschoolers: The role of maternal parenting attitudes consistent with the Evolved Developmental Niche. In D. Narvaez, J. Braungart-Rieker, L. Miller, L. Gettler, & P. Hastings (Eds.), Contexts for young child flourishing: Evolution, family and society (166-184). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Gleason, T., Wang, L., Brooks, J., Lefever, J., Cheng, A., & Centers for the Prevention of Child Neglect (2013). The Evolved Development Niche: Longitudinal effects of caregiving practices on early childhood psychosocial development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28 (4), 759–773. Doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.07.003

Narvaez, D., Wang, L., Gleason, T., Cheng, A., Lefever, J., & Deng, L. (2013). The Evolved Developmental Niche and sociomoral outcomes in Chinese three-year-olds. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10(2), 106-127.

REVIEW PAPERS of Child Raising and Human Development

Tarsha, M., & Narvaez, D. (2024). Humanity’s evolved developmental niche and its relation to cardiac vagal regulation in the first years of life. Early Human Development. 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2024.106033

Tarsha, M., & Narvaez, D. (2023). The Evolved Nest, oxytocin functioning and prosocial development. Frontiers in Psychology, 14:1113944. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1113944

Narvaez, D. (2022). First friendships: Foundations for peace. Peace Review Special Issue on Friendship, Peace and Social Justice, 34(3), 377-389. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2022.2092398

Gleason, T., & Narvaez, D. (2019). Beyond resilience to thriving: Optimizing child wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(4), 60-79. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v9i4.987

Narvaez, D. (2019). Evolution and the parenting ecology of moral development. In D. Laible, L. Padilla-Walker & G. Carlo (Eds.), Oxford handbook of parenting and moral development (pp. 91-106). New York: Oxford University Press.

POLICY and PRACTICE related to Wellbeing and Child Raising

Narvaez, D., & Duckett, L. (2020). Ethics in early life care and lactation practice. Journal of Human Lactation. 36, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890334419888454

Narvaez, D., & Witherington, D. (2018). Getting to baselines for human nature, development and wellbeing. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 6 (1), 205-213. DOI: 10.1037/arc0000053

Narvaez, D., & Noble, R. (2018). The notion of basic needs. In D. Narvaez (Ed.), Basic needs, wellbeing and morality: Fulfilling human potential (pp. 1-15). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.

Noble, R., Kurth, A., & Narvaez, D. (2018). Measuring basic needs satisfaction and its relation to health and wellbeing. In D. Narvaez (Ed.), Basic needs, wellbeing and morality: Fulfilling human potential (pp. 17-49). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.

Noble, R., Kurth, A., & Narvaez, D. (2018). Basic needs satisfaction and its relation to childhood experience. In D. Narvaez (Ed.), Basic needs, wellbeing and morality: Fulfilling human potential (pp. 51-89). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.

Kurth, A., & Narvaez, D. (2018). Basic needs satisfaction and its relation to socio-morality capacities and behavior. In D. Narvaez (Ed.), Basic needs, wellbeing and morality: Fulfilling human potential (pp. 91-133). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.

Narvaez, D. (2018). Basic needs and fulfilling human potential. In D. Narvaez (Ed.), Basic needs, wellbeing and morality: Fulfilling human potential (pp. 135-161). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.

Narvaez, D. (2018). Epilogue: The future of basic needs fulfillment. In D. Narvaez (Ed.), Basic needs, wellbeing and morality: Fulfilling human potential (pp. 163-166). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.

Narvaez, D. (2017). Getting back on track to being human. Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, 4(1), March 2, 2017. Online free: DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/ijps.v4i1.151

Narvaez, D., Gettler, L., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller-Graff, L., & Hastings, P. (2016). The flourishing of young Children: Evolutionary baselines. In Narvaez, D., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller, L., Gettler, L., & Harris, P. (Eds.), Contexts for young child flourishing: Evolution, family and society (pp. 3-27). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Hastings, P., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller-Graff, L., & Gettler, L. (2016). Young child flourishing as an aim for society. In Narvaez, D., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller, L., Gettler, L., & Hastings, P. (Eds.), Contexts for young child flourishing: Evolution, family and society (pp. 347-359). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D. (2015). Understanding flourishing: Evolutionary baselines and morality. Journal of Moral Education, 44(3), 253-262.

Narvaez, D., & Gleason, T. (2013). Developmental optimization. In D. Narvaez, J., Panksepp, A. Schore, & T. Gleason (Eds.), Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy (pp. 307-325). New York: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., & Gleason, T. (2013). The value of using an evolutionary framework for gauging children’s well-being. Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy (pp. 3-30). New York: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., & Gleason, T. (2013). The Future of human nature: Implications for research, policy, and ethics. In D. Narvaez, J., Panksepp, A. Schore, & T. Gleason (Eds.), Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy (pp. 455-468). New York: Oxford University Press.

Gleason, T., & Narvaez, D. (2014). Child environments and flourishing. In D. Narvaez, K. Valentino, A., Fuentes, J., McKenna, & P. Gray (Eds.), Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution: Culture, Childrearing and Social Wellbeing (pp. 335-348). New York: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Gray, P., McKenna, J., Fuentes, A., & Valentino, K. (2014). Children’s development in light of evolution and culture. In D. Narvaez, K. Valentino, A., Fuentes, J., McKenna, & P. Gray (Eds.), Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution: Culture, Childrearing and Social Wellbeing (pp. 3-17). New York: Oxford University Press.

INDIGENOUS WISDOM

Kurth, A., Kohn, R., Bae, A., & Narvaez, D. (2020). Nature connection: A 3-week intervention increased ecological attachment, Ecopsychology, 12(2), 1-17. DOI: 10.1089/eco.2019.0038

Narvaez, D., Four Arrows, Halton, E., Collier, B., Enderle, G., & Nozick, R. (2019). People and planet in need of sustainable wisdom. In Narvaez, D., Four Arrows, Halton, E., Collier, B., Enderle, G. (Eds.), Indigenous sustainable wisdom: First Nation knowhow for global flourishing (pp. 1-24). New York: Peter Lang.

Narvaez, D. (2019). Original practices for becoming and being human. In Narvaez, D., Four Arrows, Halton, E., Collier, B., Enderle, G. (Eds.), Indigenous sustainable wisdom: First Nation knowhow for global flourishing (pp. 90-110). New York: Peter Lang.

Four Arrows, & Narvaez, D. (2016). Reclaiming our indigenous worldview: A more authentic baseline for social/ecological justice work in education. In N. McCrary & W. Ross (Eds.), Working for social justice inside and outside the classroom: A community of teachers, researchers, and activists (pp. 93-112). In series, Social justice across contexts in education (S.J. Miller & L.D. Burns, Eds.). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Narvaez, D. (2013). The 99%–Development and socialization within an evolutionary context: Growing up to become “A good and useful human being.” In D. Fry (Ed.), War, Peace and Human Nature: The convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views (pp. 643-672). New York: Oxford University Press.

ADULT NESTEDNESS and INDIGENOUS/KINSHIP WORLDVIEW

Narvaez, D. (2024). Returning to evolved nestedness, wellbeing, and mature human nature, an ecological imperative. Review of General Psychology, 28(2), 83-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268023122403 (text at ResearchGate)

Narvaez, D. (2024). What happened to species-typical human nature? In L. Sundararajan & A. Dueck (Eds.), Values and Indigenous psychology in the age of the machine and market: When the gods have fled (pp. 25-48). Palgrave-Macmillan. (text at ResearchGate)

Tarsha, M.S., & Narvaez, D. (2023). The developmental neurobiology of moral mindsets: Basic needs and childhood experience. In M. Berg & E. Chang (Eds.), Motivation & morality: A biopsychosocial approach (pp. 187–204). APA Books.

Narvaez, D., & Tarsha, M. (2021). The missing mind: Contrasting civilization with non-civilization development and functioning. In T. Henley & M. Rossano (Eds.), Psychology and cognitive archaeology: An Interdisciplinary approach to the study of the human mind (pp. 55-69). London: Routledge.

Narvaez, D. (2019). Moral development and moral values: Evolutionary and neurobiological influences. In D. P. McAdams, R. L. Shiner, & J. L. Tackett (Eds.), Handbook of personality (pp. 345-363). New York, NY: Guilford.

Narvaez, D. (2019). In search of baselines: Why psychology needs cognitive archaeology. In T. Henley, M. Rossano & E. Kardas (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive archaeology: A psychological framework (pp. 104-119). London: Routledge.

Tarsha, M. S., & Narvaez, D. (2022). Effects of adverse childhood experience on physiological regulation are moderated by evolved developmental niche history. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 35(4):488-500. DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2021.1989419

Gleason, T., & Narvaez, D. (2019). Beyond resilience to thriving: Optimizing child wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(4), 60-79. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v9i4.987

An educational initiative of the award-winning nonprofit Kindred World.

8. Nature Immersion & Connection