Comparing The Mestizo World And The Indigenous Amazonian Society

Throughout history, humans have had a strong reliance on nature and their environment. As far back as historians can look, people have depended on elements of nature for their survival. In the past few decades, the increased advancement of technology has led to an unfortunate division between humans and nature, and this lack of respect is becoming a flaw in current day society. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv criticizes modern culture by arguing that humans increasing reliance on technology has led to their decreasing connection with nature through the use of relevant anecdotes, rhetorical questions and powerful imagery to appeal to ethos.

Since the beginning of time, mankind has depended on nature for survival. Although, throughout the years society has learned to manipulate nature for their own selfish advantages. In the passage written by Richard Louv, he utilizes rhetorical questions, repetition, and a tone of nostalgia to stress that sad truth about the separation of mankind and nature.

Since the beginning of time, man relied on nature for everything- food, shelter, clothing, etc. Today, technology runs rampant, even though we use it to our advantage, it cuts humanity’s tie with nature. Richard Louv invokes the sad truth that we are beginning to lose our relationship with nature. In Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv uses anecdotes, hyperboles, hypothetical situations, rhetorical questions, and imagery to argue against the separation of man and Mother Nature.

Nature is a beautiful location where animals and plants live in unison, being untouched by humans. The human population, however has the ability to take and abuse nature.

Val Plumwood in her essay “Paths Beyond Human-Centeredness,” illustrates the impact that humans have on nature and non-animals when it comes to preserving environments. Understanding that nature has it’s living properties that let it thrive among its resources allows for people to grasp the complexities that come about when construction companies destroy the environment in which they work. Plumwood uses the term dualism to refer to the sharp distinction between two classes of individuals. There is the high class, which is considered as the “One.” In contrast, the other side of the division consists of individuals that are classified as lower and are subordinates to the “One” as “Others.” This account on dualism allows the reader to understand how humans can significantly alter the environment because of the way they perceive its resources and inhabitants. Plumwood defines five characteristics that illustrate the oppressive actions that change the connection between human relations and the relationship between humans and nature.

Both Samsara and The Spell of the Sensuous provide depict vivid and strong depiction of the environment. For instance, Samsara provides some landscapes, time-lapse cityscapes, deserts, destroyed houses, crafts made by the Buddhist monks, all those pictures are shot extremely specific. In addition, Samsara and The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram both discuss about the interaction with the nature. They contrast the modern countries with “undeveloped world”

The people nowadays also abuse on what nature can provide to them. People are influenced by the western Culture, Man is more powerful and can have dominion over nature and that nature as they see become merely an instrument to satisfy human needs and wants. This kind of thinking or we can say attitude towards nature is called the “Anthropocentric Attitude”. Man reduce the value of nature as it is and it’s important because nature has made all things specifically for the sake of man and that the value of non-human things in nature is merely instrumental. An opposite thinking would be the Eastern Culture, for they value nature very well and they treat nature being one with them. This thinking or attitude is known as “Ecocentric

In life we are all confronted with the idea of nature along with society. Although both have their pros and cons they work together to give us freedom and order among individuals.

It is also the material that helps bind together and articulate indigenous rights and cultural survival as concomitant with Amazonian environmental justice. These assumptions have been re-produced in part through a reflexive, performative dynamic of identity politics tied intimately to Amazonian indigenous groups’ quest for self determination and the selective appropriation of Western symbolic constructs. According to anthropologists who have looked closely at contemporary indigenous cultural survival in the Amazon (Carneiro da Cunha & de Almedia, 2000; Conklin, 1997; Conklin & Graham, 1995; Turner, 1993 & 1995) the rise of environmentalism in the 1980s and the explosion of international interest in the rainforest that followed created a period for Amazonian Indians of increased intercultural exchange and relationship building. Much of this took place with more globally networked eco-conscious actors as indigenous nations forged alliances with new, non-governmental interests, such as Cultural Survival, the World Wildlife Fund, the Nature Conservancy, GAIA Foundation, Rainforest Action Fund, and the Environmental Defense Fund to oppose environmentally destructive practices (Conklin & Graham, 1995). The exchange also unfolded in relation to progressive, “fair trade” practicing transnational companies, most noticeably The Body Shop and Ben & Jerry’s (Ice cream) (Corry, 1993; Turner,

The South-Central Ecuadorian Amazon is home for eight Indigenous Nationalities and Ethnic Groups , two of them decided to live in voluntary isolation (CODENPE, 2015). Indigenous legally recognized territories occupy more than 90% of the area, while Tagaeri and Taromenane, the two non-contacted and isolated groups, live along the Yasuní National Park area but the extension of their territories cannot yet be estimated (Reference).

The lifestyle of a traditional way of life is different from a modern way of life, as you can see when it comes to the tribe. The Amazon tribe doesn't function the same as an average person. Their language is different, clothing, food, form of entertainment, education, and transportation is different this is the same when you are comparing two different cultures. The difficulties that would arise is since the language is so different you will no way of communicating with them and understanding them.

Human civilization has not existed for a very extended period of time in comparison to the Earth itself. Yet, I have no fear in saying that no other creature has had such a momentous impact on the ecological systems here. This paper will cover a modern environmental issue, which has more flows and social structures involved than a hydro plant built on Facebook. From here I will connect another long standing pattern within this, and a childhood influence, that never ceases to amaze. I will also do a cross comparison for what each means for the other, and examine direct flows and ideas linked to sustainability

Nature as w e know it means different things to different people. To an economist, natural is often seen as a resource to be transformed and put in readiness for human use. An alternative view is that humans are stewards who should care for natural things as well as making use of nature’s bounty. Another view is that nature of animism, which sees nature as a living thing, something to be respected and not controlled. Some native American’s view the earth as a sacred place could be called animist. Another alternative view is that the entire planet earth is a self correcting system based on a symbiotic relationship between the earth and the living beings(Peacock,

White’s thesis in The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis states that in order to confront the expanding environmental crises, humans must begin to analyze and alter their treatment and attitudes towards nature. The slow destruction of the environment derives from the Western scientific and technological advancements made since the Medieval time period. “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them” (RON p.7). Technology and science alone will not be able to save humans until we adjust the way of thinking and suppress the old ideas of humans power above nature. Instead, we need to learn how to think of ourselves as being

Since the 20th century, and the birth of the consumer society, the relation man-nature totally changed, man doesn’t only need nature in order to survive, but he needs it to satisfy different inexistent needs. The issue of energy is almost the most important, as it was said previously, evolution and energy are two reliable term, concerning man. The most famous ones are fossil energies, for years, man has used these energies indefinitely, and this phenomenon has grown abruptly because of our society. A new reliance was created, man plundered every resource on Earth, and a new dependence was born, nowadays, nature almost needs man.