Moving Toward Kinship Worldview

It’s time for a rethink. The planet from the activities of civilization has met the four horseman of the environmental apocalypse (Wilson, 1991): atmospheric degradation; global warming creating climate instability; widespread toxification of soil, air, water; massive species extinction. Humanity’s future has ‘gone wobbly’ with a hothouse earth (unpredictable weather and runaway temperature) in the near future (Steffen et al., 2018). 

Thanks to the dominant culture, civilization over the last millennia has convinced itself that humans are superior to nature and that nature will recover from mindless ravaging and technology will pull us out of any trouble we make (Merchant, 1983). It is no longer true. The “animal house” treatment of nature is showing irreversible effects, from disappearing species to global warming. Cultural disconnection from the web of responsibility have led to the use of technologies that put us on the precipice of species extinction.    

On the other hand, 80% of remaining biodiversity is guarded by Indigenous peoples around the world who govern 20% of the land (Diaz et al., 2019). What do they know that we need to remember? Two things: a kinship worldview and traditional ecological knowledge (knowhow for living responsibly and respectfully in a particular biocommunity). The kinship worldview has many precepts. Here is one.  

Relation to Nature:  

• No sense of superiority or separation from the rest of the natural world but understanding all other entities as alive and as humanity’s teachers.  

• Humble respect of nature as partner, specifically treating animals, plants and other entities as sentient with their own purpose.  

This means not outright killing insects, plants, animals, without trying alternatives ways to avoid whatever is bothering you (e.g., for a beetle you find inside the house, capturing it and putting it outside). David Abrams describes how an Asian temple would put out a bowl of rice each night “for the local spirits.” A visitor was curious to see how that worked so he stayed to watch. A line of ants took each rice kernel and carried it to their nest. It kept them busy and out of the pantry. There are many traditional ways of cooperating with the rest of the natural world instead of treating them as “pests” deserving of extermination.  

Below are suggestions for helping you move toward an Indigenous worldview. 

The Purpose Of Kinship Worldview

From the book’s epigraph:  According to the United Nations 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: 

“The findings of this Assessment…are based on an unprecedented collection of evidence, integrating natural and social science perspectives, a range of knowledge systems and multiple dimensions of value. This is the first global-level assessment to systematically consider evidence about the contributions of indigenous and local knowledge and practices to the enhancement and maintenance of wild and domesticated biodiversity and landscapes.” (1) 

“The report shows that 75% of the land-based environment and about 66% of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human actions. On average, these trends have been less severe — or avoided — in areas held or managed by Indigenous Peoples.” (2) 

“The notion of a good life that most Indigenous Peoples share is deeply relational: the relation to the land with all its interconnected human and nonhuman inhabitants constitutes their collective self-understanding as community. Livelihoods sovereignty is an essential condition to keep this bond. These contributions of nature to notions of a good life may be under threat as access to nature—or key components of nature—are lost.” (3) 

“Consumption patterns area fundamental driver of material extraction, production, and flows, but they too are driven—by worldviews and notions of good quality of life.” (4) 

“The loss of Indigenous languages is potentially a major problem for value diversity and authenticity. In many regions, community values that support sustainable trajectories using indigenous knowledge are at risk of extinction, which results in the loss of biodiversity. The value of the knowledge-practice-belief complex of Indigenous Peoples relating to conservation of biodiversity are central to the sustainable management of ecosystems and biodiversity.” (5) 

Sociocultural framings, norms, worldviews and relational values influence the outcomes of sociotechnological innovations enormously. Nevertheless, these factors remain largely overlooked in studies on sustainable sociotechnological transformations. (6)

From Restoring the Kinship Worldview by Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2022 by Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez. Reprinted by permission of North Atlantic Books.

REFERENCES 

1. S. Díaz et al., Summary for Policymakers of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Bonn, Germany: IPBES, 2019), https://ipbes.net/sites/default/files/2020-02/ipbes_global_assessment_report_summary_for_policymakers_en.pdf.

2. Monica Dean, “Key Findings to Know from the IPBES Report On Biodiversity,” United Nations Foundation, May 6, 2019, https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/key-findings-to-know-from-the-ipbes-report-on-biodiversity/.

3. Kai M. A. Chan et al., “Unedited Draft Chapter 31” (Bonn, Germany: IPBES, 2019), 74, https://ipbes.net/sites/default/files/ipbes_global_assessment_chapter_5_unedited_31may.pdf.

4. Chan et al., “Unedited Draft,” 67.

5. Chan et al., “Unedited Draft,” 81–82.

6. Chan et al., “Unedited Draft,” 93.

What Does It Mean To Be Indigenous?

New Book: Restoring Our Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts For Rebalancing Life On Planet Earth, podcast and epigraph from book

10 Indigenous Holistic Healing Practices

Sustainable Wisdom: Indigenous Style

Indigenous Psychologies Contrast With Western Psychology

Indigenous Psychologies from Around the World

Principles of Indigenous Child-raising: Our Ancestors Were Smart and Good 

What Are the Characteristics of Thriving Adults?

Indigenous Self-Actualization Is Communal

How Has Humanity Lost Practical Wisdom?

Colonial Psychology: The Psychology We All Recognize: Part 1 of 3

Principles of an Indigenous Way of Being: Part 2 of 3

What Is Wellness According To Indigenous Psychology: Part 3 of 3

Natives Foster Happy People Without Overthinking

“Decolonization” and “Indigenization” A Brief Argument for Their Urgent Implementation

Decolonizing Child-raising

Books on the Indigenous worldview

Four Arrows (2020). The Red Road: Connecting Diversity and Inclusions Initiatives to Indigenous Worldview. Charlottesville, N.C.: Information Age Publishing.

Four Arrows (2021). Sitting Bull's words: Moving backwards into the future. Glen Ellyn, IL: DIO Press.

Martin, C. L. (1992). In the spirit. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Martin, C.L. (1999). The way of the human being. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

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

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.

Shepard, P. (1998). Coming Home to the Pleistocene (Shepard, F.R., Ed.). Washington D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books.

Shepard, P. (1998). The tender carnivore and the sacred game. New York: Scribners.

Shepard, P. (1982) Nature and madness. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Quinn, D. (1992). Ishmael. New York: Bantam. (a novel)

Science-oriented books from Indigenous worldview

Cajete, G. (2000). Native science. Santa Fe: Clear Light Publishers.

Four Arrows, aka Jacobs, D.T. and Cajete, G. (2010), Critical neurophilosophy and Indigenous wisdom. Netherlands: Sense Publishers

Kimmerer, R.W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, MN.

Peat, F.D. (2001). Blackfoot physics. Boston, MA: Weiser Books.

Indigenous history and worldview

Deloria, V. (2006). The world we used to live in. Golden, Co: Fulcrum Publishing.

Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2014). An indigenous people’s history of the United States. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Four Arrows (2016). Point of departure. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Four Arrows (2020). The Red Road: Connecting Diversity and Inclusions Initiatives to Indigenous Worldview. Charlottesville, N.C.: Information Age Publishing.

Four Arrows (2021). Sitting Bull's words: Moving backwards into the future. Glen Ellyn, IL: DIO Press.

Forbes, J.D. (2008). Columbus and other cannibals: The wétiko disease of exploitation, imperialism, and terrorism, rev ed. New York: Seven Stories Press.

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.

Nelson, Melissa K. Original instructions: Indigenous teachings for a sustainable future. Bear & Co., 2008.

Sorenson, E.R. (1998). Preconquest consciousness. In H. Wautischer (Ed.), Tribal epistemologies (pp. 79-115). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

Indigenous healing

Katz, R. (2017). Indigenous healing psychology: Honoring the wisdom of the First Peoples. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press.

Ross, R. (2014). Indigenous healing: Exploring traditional paths. Toronto: Penguin Canada.

Interdisciplinary next steps

Eisler, R., & Fry, D.P. (2019). Nurturing our humanity. New York: Oxford University Press.

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

Regarding (the history of) western civilization and its alternatives

Bram, Marvin (2002). The recovery of the west: An essay in symbolic history. Xlibris.

Bram, M. (2018). A history of humanity. Delhi: Primus Books.

Harvey, G. (2017). Animism: Respecting the living world, 2nd ed. London: C. Hurst & Co.

Sahlins, Marshall. The Western Illusion of Human Nature: With Reflections on the Long History of Hierarchy, Equality and the Sublimation of Anarchy in the West, and Comparative Notes on Other Conceptions of the Human Condition. Chicago: Prickly Pear Paradigm Press, 2008.

In education

Four Arrows, aka Jacobs, D.T. Ed., (2006) Unlearning the Language of Conquest: Scholars Challenge Anti-Indianism in America. Austin: University of Texas Press

Four Arrows (2013) Teaching truly: A curriculum to Indigenize mainstream education. New York: Peter Lang

Four Arrows (2016). The CAT-FAWN connection: Using metacognition and indigenous worldview for more effective character education and human survival. Journal of Moral Education, 45, 261-275.

Europeans invading the Americas

Turner, F. (1994). Beyond geography: The Western spirit against the wilderness. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

References

Díaz, S., Settele, J., Brondizio, E., Ngo, H.T., Gueze, M. Agard, J.,…Zayas, C. (2019). IPBES summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Bonn, Germany: The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Merchant, C. (2003). Reinventing Eden: The fate of nature in Western culture. New York, NY: Routledge.

Wilson, E.O. (1991). Biodversity, prosperity, and value. In  F. H. Bormann & S.R. Kellert (Eds.), Ecology, economics, ethics: The broken circle (pp. 3-10). New Haven: Yale University Press.

Steffen, W., Rockström, J., Richardson, K., Lenton, T.M., Folke, C., Liverman, D.,… Schellnhuber, H.J. (2018). Trajectories of the earth system in the Anthropocene,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115 (33) 8252-8259; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810141115.