Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach Us about Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality (Culture of the Land) - Hardcover

Holthaus, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813124875 ISBN 13: 9780813124872

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, 2008

Synopsis

Scientific evidence has made it abundantly clear that the world's population can no longer continue its present rate of consuming and despoiling the planet's limited natural resources. Scholars, activists, politicians, and citizens worldwide are promoting the idea of sustainability, or systems and practices of living that allow a community to maintain itself indefinitely. Despite increased interest in sustainability, its popularity alone is insufficient to shift our culture and society toward more stable practices. Gary Holthaus argues that sustainability is achievable but is less a set of practices than the result of a healthy worldview. Learning Native Wisdom: Reflections on Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality examines several facets of societies―cultural, economic, agricultural, and political―seeking insights into the ability of some societies to remain vibrant for thousands of years, even in extremely adverse conditions and climates. Holthaus looks to Eskimo and other Native American peoples of Alaska for the practical wisdom behind this way of living. Learning Native Wisdom explains why achieving a sustainable culture is more important than any other challenge we face today. Although there are many measures of a society's progress, Holthaus warns that only a shift away from our current culture of short-term abundance, founded on a belief in infinite economic growth, will represent true advancement. In societies that value the longevity of people, culture, and the environment, subsistence and spirituality soon become closely allied with sustainability.Holthaus highlights the importance of language as a reflection of shared cultural values, and he shows how our understanding of the very word subsistence illustrates his argument. In a culture of abundance, the term implies deprivation and insecurity. However, as Holthaus reminds us, "All cultures are subsistence cultures." Our post-Enlightenment consumer-based societies obscure or even deny our absolute dependence on soil, air, sunlight, and water for survival. This book identifies spirituality as a key component of meaningful cultural change, a concept that Holthaus defines as the recognition of the invisible connections between people, their neighbors, and their surroundings. For generations, native cultures celebrated and revered these connections, fostering a respect for past, present, and future generations and for the earth itself.Ultimately, Holthaus illustrates how spirituality and the concept of subsistence can act as powerful guiding forces on the path to global sustainability. He examines the perceptions of cultures far more successful at long-term survival than our own and describes how we might use their wisdom to overcome the sustainability crisis currently facing humanity.

About this title

About the Author

Gary Holthaus is the author of several books, including From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture and Wide Skies: Finding a Home in the West.

Reviews

Holthaus presents the latest offering in a series articulating a new agrarianism, a work enriched by the more than 25 years he lived among Native peoples in Alaska. He describes his essay collection as an “invitation to conversation” about the concept of sustainability—a concept embracing respect for the environment, social life, and the integration of the world’s economy. He illuminates the sharp distinctions between the long-term view taken by Native peoples regarding the connection between nature and humans, and the “immediate return” goals of the U.S. economy, exemplified by our “frantic hunt for the last barrel of oil.” Drawing on quotes from ancient and contemporary philosophers, nineteenth-century Native speakers, and religious texts from various world religions, Holthaus underlines two crucial components of the earth’s spiritual health: the survival of ancient languages, and an atmosphere of “humaneness” among diverse cultures worldwide. Finally, he explores the definition of nature in its broadest sense, and calls for the adoption of agrarian principles that create healthier, economically viable food systems capable of sustaining us all. --Deborah Donovan

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813124875
• ISBN 13: 9780813124872
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280