The Human-Nature Dance

A summary of:
Malcolm Margolin (2004). The Human-Nature Dance: People equally a Keystone Species. In Ausubel, K. & Harpignies, J.P., eds., Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies. Sierra Club Books: San Francisco.

This chapter is incredibly eye-opening. Margolin describes a worldview that seems so foreign:

“For California natives, managing that province began amongst a deeply detailed noesis of house – climate, seasons, soil, plants, together with animals – to a greater extent than or less which their ain lives were organized. Encoded inward their intricate together with eminently practical relationships amongst the province was a witting ecological ethos, a living province ethic that recognized people equally playing a fundamental environmental together with spiritual run inward the spider web of life” (72).

My get-go reaction is that nosotros are clearly getting dumber. For example, I direct maintain no existent agreement of climate, seasons, soil, plants, together with animals – together with I certainly experience no human relationship to them, except that they are external to my existence. And so I experience a nifty sadness for what nosotros direct maintain all lost inward severing these connections. This is exactly what Huston Smith (and many sociologists together with psychologists) referred to equally ‘alienation’, together with it is no wonder this alienation creates a void inward our lives. If nosotros are non run of something greater than ourselves, what is the betoken of our private existences?

Then consider: “Food was shared communally – a marvelous social device that prevents overconsumption together with uses resources really efficiently. When people hunt together with get together nutrient individually, they direct maintain to stockpile because the adjacent calendar week they mightiness endure sick or direct maintain bad luck inward their hunting. When it’s shared amid people, at that spot is less demand to stockpile. Sharing becomes an amazingly efficient way of using resources” (74).

This, too, is incredibly foreign. (It also smacks of Communism, which people appear so afraid of.) Nevermind how nosotros produce this amongst environmental resources – that seems evident enough; instead, let’s shout out upwards how nosotros produce this amongst information. When I spoke to people at a recent computing conference nearly Web 3.0 together with I asked them why it was a skilful idea, 1 of the mutual replies was that nosotros demand it to endure able to give away equally much data equally nosotros could, so that nosotros could brand feel of it all. (Notice this shatters the mutual fallacy that the Internet is a magnificent specimen of collective activity. It is, rather, an chance for all to realize their individuality.) But this was something that societies used to produce collectively. This hoarding of data is highly inefficient, but worse, it is arguably less meaningful, inward that it is stripped of its collective agreement together with communal belonging. But the way nosotros hoard is both symptomatic of, together with contributing to, a lack of social cohesion that traditional forms of gild offered. I’m reminded of Emile Durkheim, who argued that modern societies tend to endure highly individualistic because they are so complex that they direct maintain to rely on divisions of labour which intensify differences betwixt people, meanwhile dissolving all bonds betwixt people except that they are all “individuals”. He writes, “Since human personality is the alone matter that appeals unanimously to all hearts, since its enhancement is the alone aim that tin endure collectively pursued, it inevitably acquires particular value inward the eyes of all. It therefore rises far to a higher house all human aims, assuming a religious nature” (REF: Suicide; inward Lynch: 103-4). Durkheim believed that the “cult of the individual’” would eventually acquire the novel secular faith – “‘a free, private, optional religion, fashioned according to one’s ain needs together with understanding” (in Heelas et al., 2005: 149) – together with that all others that were “‘handed downwards yesteryear tradition’” (ibid) would slow fade to extinction. But the lingering query is, Is this secular faith fulfilling inward the way that participating inward the “collective effervescence” would direct maintain been? Or fifty-fifty to a greater extent than importantly, Is this individuated living sustainable? I would debate it’s not.

I also genuinely similar this excerpt: “A beautiful instance of conservation was a stone quarry close Oroville that was a beginning of chert, a difficult stone used for making scrapers, arrowheads, together with the like. This surface area doesn’t direct maintain a lot of obsidian or other minerals, so the chert was extremely valuable. The Indians had been quarrying this spot for who knows how long. In a feel it was owned inward common. Any local manlike someone could (77) buy the farm into the quarry, which was dug into the colina similar a cave, in 1 lawsuit each yr together with direct maintain out equally much equally he could acquire amongst the unmarried blow of a hammer. He had to acquire out an offering of coin beads on the way out. These laws were encoded inward religion, together with if a someone broke them, at that spot were grave repercussions. That the rules were strictly observed was a tribute to the ability of this place, together with inward run clearly reflected a conservation ethic. Limiting access to the quarry together with making sure that nobody took to a greater extent than than his percentage assured that the chert would final for several generations” (78).

I realized when reading this that at that spot are no such taboos surrounding the utilization of Web resources. There are no rituals surrounding its appropriate utilization either (not similar these offerings, anyway). What if such rituals together with taboos were somehow introduced into together with intertwined amongst our utilization of the Internet. Surely nosotros would non encounter the levels of addiction-like behavior nosotros encounter today. Surely nosotros would start to process it reverently, equally the gift that it is. And sure as shooting it would final longer equally a result. How tin nosotros perhaps hold off the Internet to endure at that spot forever if nosotros expand together with reap it mindlessly?

There is some other issues beingness touched on inward this chapter, nearly the silencing of voices that direct maintain some genuinely excellent, wise things to say. Margolin writes, “To endure a human beingness inward this way, to larn such practices, required to a greater extent than than 1 generation. Among California’s Native Americans, this noesis was learned together with transmitted over many generations, together with a lot of it is nonetheless around. Perhaps to a higher house all, it gives us a sentiment of humanity equally non living apart from nature together with beingness destructive to the natural world. These traditions together with peoples present us splendidly how, yesteryear our way of living, nosotros tin genuinely endure a approbation to the world” (79). I suppose this poses an interesting inclusion work for Web technologies. If what I’m suggesting is that a to a greater extent than holistic, nature-oriented worldview would endure a beneficial contribution to the way nosotros currently develop, what then? If nosotros elbow grease to forcefulness this thinking – these cultures, these people, fifty-fifty – into cyberspace, sure as shooting this volition forever alter the nature of that worldview, therefore exacerbating its extinction. I don’t know the answer, but I produce know that nosotros could certainly utilization the notion of ‘being a approbation to the world’ inward the way nosotros railroad train our Web technologies. I suppose it but means, similar the previous post, shout out for ourselves honestly how nosotros desire to live.