List of articles
1. Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Environmental Education curriculum.
2. Science or Traditional Knowledge will save the environment?
3. Reviving India's ecological traditions
2. Science or Traditional Knowledge will save the environment?
3. Reviving India's ecological traditions
Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Environmental Education curriculum.
For thousands of years, our natural environment, managed sustainably by rural communities, remained healthy. It is only in the last few decades that due to industrialization, due to modern man’s unsustainable economic activities, the environment got exploited and disfigured like never before.
In the meanwhile, indigenous people’s sustainable knowledge, considered primitive and unscientific by Western science, got disregarded and neglected.
By the term 'indigenous people', we refer to traditional rural people, the peasants, the artisans, the tribals… They have lived for millennia in harmony with their environment. They consider themselves a part of nature and hence nature is not exploitable. Nature’s generosity is not to be abused by greed and destructive materialism and consumption!
Indigenous people's knowledge is a body of beliefs, cultural rituals, native wisdom, folk knowledge and traditional science that is unique to a group of people. Indigenous knowledge is the basis of all activities that sustain a society: agriculture, health care, education…
Indigenous/traditional/rural people, being dependent on their environment, possess an immense knowledge of the ecosystem they live in. That knowledge is based on centuries of living close to nature and ensures natural resources are used sustainably. Indigenous knowledge is therefore environmental knowledge.
Indigenous people who have developed a great knowledge about their local environments over the centuries: knowledge about the soil, climate, water, crops, forest, wildlife, minerals etc. have therefore the potential to contribute to the ecology movement and to Environmental Education.
In school, children are taught about the 3 R: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The 3 R involve a sustainable use of local resources. As we have seen, living in partnership with the natural world (rather than to exploit it) is what indigenous people have been doing for millennia.
To the 3 R should be added 2 more R: Rediscover and Reconnect. Environmental Education is about rediscovering the wisdom and traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous people and indigenous cultures. It is about helping children reconnect with their land-based cultures and knowledge to live sustainably.
India, being the largest reservoir of Indigenous Knowledge, integrating this ecological knowledge into Environment Education is of utmost importance. It will have the double benefit of reconnecting city kids with the land, and of valorizing traditional rural communities. It will encourage pupils to learn from their elders, and to appreciate and respect their knowledge. It will enable schools to participate actively to the collection and documentation of traditional knowledge as well as to its transmission to the next generations.
In the meanwhile, indigenous people’s sustainable knowledge, considered primitive and unscientific by Western science, got disregarded and neglected.
By the term 'indigenous people', we refer to traditional rural people, the peasants, the artisans, the tribals… They have lived for millennia in harmony with their environment. They consider themselves a part of nature and hence nature is not exploitable. Nature’s generosity is not to be abused by greed and destructive materialism and consumption!
Indigenous people's knowledge is a body of beliefs, cultural rituals, native wisdom, folk knowledge and traditional science that is unique to a group of people. Indigenous knowledge is the basis of all activities that sustain a society: agriculture, health care, education…
Indigenous/traditional/rural people, being dependent on their environment, possess an immense knowledge of the ecosystem they live in. That knowledge is based on centuries of living close to nature and ensures natural resources are used sustainably. Indigenous knowledge is therefore environmental knowledge.
Indigenous people who have developed a great knowledge about their local environments over the centuries: knowledge about the soil, climate, water, crops, forest, wildlife, minerals etc. have therefore the potential to contribute to the ecology movement and to Environmental Education.
In school, children are taught about the 3 R: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The 3 R involve a sustainable use of local resources. As we have seen, living in partnership with the natural world (rather than to exploit it) is what indigenous people have been doing for millennia.
To the 3 R should be added 2 more R: Rediscover and Reconnect. Environmental Education is about rediscovering the wisdom and traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous people and indigenous cultures. It is about helping children reconnect with their land-based cultures and knowledge to live sustainably.
India, being the largest reservoir of Indigenous Knowledge, integrating this ecological knowledge into Environment Education is of utmost importance. It will have the double benefit of reconnecting city kids with the land, and of valorizing traditional rural communities. It will encourage pupils to learn from their elders, and to appreciate and respect their knowledge. It will enable schools to participate actively to the collection and documentation of traditional knowledge as well as to its transmission to the next generations.
Science or Traditional Knowledge will save the environment?
Western style education, today's number one system of education across the world, has the noble objective of training planet earth's children into scientific objectivity.
Scientific objectivity means:
*a capacity to deal with facts in a detached and clinical way (no emotions);
*a perception of the world that is limited to what is physical, rational, logic, and quantifiable.
No need to say, it takes years of schooling to sharpen the mind of our little innocent children, bundles of emotions, so that they become detached, objective, analytical, clinical, rational… Those who can't are labeled as drop-outs.
The ultimate result of this training of the mind is a mind that loses the capacity for compassion, love and empathy as objectivity excludes all emotions. It gives birth to a cold and uncaring individual who views the natural world as something that must be studied, dissected, mastered and exploited.
The scientific mind believes in progress, development and technology, technology being . Trained with scientific objectivity, it abhors indigenous traditions labeled as primitive and superstitious and it rejects indigenous technologies labeled as 'Stone Age'. In the process, indigenous technologies, institutions, norms and values are flung into the trash bins of history.
Unknowingly, the scientific mind is serving the angel of death. Yes, how did it come that a natural environment which had been healthy for thousands of years could have been disfigured in a mere few decades? The blame for all this must be put on the irresponsibility and violence of science and the technocratic age that it has engendered. The blame for today's state of affair must be put on the scientific mind that attempts to wipe out communion with all living things in the name of rationality.
Unless religion and ecology are fused together in a meaningful manner, we don't have any chance of preserving our environment. Just a small example. We all agree that trees are important. But the rational mind and the 'primitive' mind have different reasons and that makes all the difference! The scientific rational mind will say we can't cut trees because trees give us oxygen…. But the same rational mind will immediately like to add that to cut one tree is not a problem because many other are there and just cutting one wouldn't harm the planet... The rational mind will end up cutting the tree because it will find a good reason to do so. The 'primitive' mind will tell trees can't be cut because they are sacred, trees are living things that deserve to be respected as much as humans, trees are friends… and he will not want to cut or harm a single tree unless it is absolutely necessary for his survival and even then he will do so after taking the permission of the tree spirit.
As you can understand there is more chance for a jungle to survive the axe if in the hands of a 'primitive' mind pervaded with awe and reverence for the natural world and the universe than in the hands of a smart rational mind good at justifying any selfish act.
That is why unless ecology and spiritually are fused, unless the rational mind becomes less rational and more emotional, all these rational words of saving the environment might just turn out to be empty discourses. More than 30 years, rational scientific minds have been at work discussing cold apocalyptic figures about global warming, climate change… and has something really happened? In fact, scientific minds are still debating whether global warming is really happening or not!
If fusing ecology and spirituality is the solution, then it is just what world's indigenous people have been doing for millennia. Every of India's traditional knowledge systems has been backed up by religion. If water is an important resource that has to be conserved, then it has been sanctified with temples built along rivers. If animals are to be protected, then they are deified. If forests are important then there are sacred groves.
Indigenous people have been successful at preserving the environment and that is where we have to respect them and learn from them. We need therefore a conscious and deliberate effort to rescue whatever is left of indigenous people's traditional knowledge because it has proved its sustainability. The green movement has to get impregnated more and more with indigenous people's knowledge.
Traditional knowledge is holistic, it has respect for all living things, it includes physical as well as spiritual well-being, it is connected to life and values, and it is intuitive and qualitative. Traditional knowledge emphasizes on practical application of skills and knowledge, it is integrated to daily living, it is based on practical experimentation and local verification and it has been time-tested. It is a knowledge centered not on exploitation but on the harmony with the natural world.
It is therefore high time scientists admit they could learn a lot from indigenous people! Science is not the ultimate knowledge. Ultimate knowledge, if at all such a notion exists, will come from a synthesis of science with traditional knowledge.
Scientific objectivity means:
*a capacity to deal with facts in a detached and clinical way (no emotions);
*a perception of the world that is limited to what is physical, rational, logic, and quantifiable.
No need to say, it takes years of schooling to sharpen the mind of our little innocent children, bundles of emotions, so that they become detached, objective, analytical, clinical, rational… Those who can't are labeled as drop-outs.
The ultimate result of this training of the mind is a mind that loses the capacity for compassion, love and empathy as objectivity excludes all emotions. It gives birth to a cold and uncaring individual who views the natural world as something that must be studied, dissected, mastered and exploited.
The scientific mind believes in progress, development and technology, technology being . Trained with scientific objectivity, it abhors indigenous traditions labeled as primitive and superstitious and it rejects indigenous technologies labeled as 'Stone Age'. In the process, indigenous technologies, institutions, norms and values are flung into the trash bins of history.
Unknowingly, the scientific mind is serving the angel of death. Yes, how did it come that a natural environment which had been healthy for thousands of years could have been disfigured in a mere few decades? The blame for all this must be put on the irresponsibility and violence of science and the technocratic age that it has engendered. The blame for today's state of affair must be put on the scientific mind that attempts to wipe out communion with all living things in the name of rationality.
Unless religion and ecology are fused together in a meaningful manner, we don't have any chance of preserving our environment. Just a small example. We all agree that trees are important. But the rational mind and the 'primitive' mind have different reasons and that makes all the difference! The scientific rational mind will say we can't cut trees because trees give us oxygen…. But the same rational mind will immediately like to add that to cut one tree is not a problem because many other are there and just cutting one wouldn't harm the planet... The rational mind will end up cutting the tree because it will find a good reason to do so. The 'primitive' mind will tell trees can't be cut because they are sacred, trees are living things that deserve to be respected as much as humans, trees are friends… and he will not want to cut or harm a single tree unless it is absolutely necessary for his survival and even then he will do so after taking the permission of the tree spirit.
As you can understand there is more chance for a jungle to survive the axe if in the hands of a 'primitive' mind pervaded with awe and reverence for the natural world and the universe than in the hands of a smart rational mind good at justifying any selfish act.
That is why unless ecology and spiritually are fused, unless the rational mind becomes less rational and more emotional, all these rational words of saving the environment might just turn out to be empty discourses. More than 30 years, rational scientific minds have been at work discussing cold apocalyptic figures about global warming, climate change… and has something really happened? In fact, scientific minds are still debating whether global warming is really happening or not!
If fusing ecology and spirituality is the solution, then it is just what world's indigenous people have been doing for millennia. Every of India's traditional knowledge systems has been backed up by religion. If water is an important resource that has to be conserved, then it has been sanctified with temples built along rivers. If animals are to be protected, then they are deified. If forests are important then there are sacred groves.
Indigenous people have been successful at preserving the environment and that is where we have to respect them and learn from them. We need therefore a conscious and deliberate effort to rescue whatever is left of indigenous people's traditional knowledge because it has proved its sustainability. The green movement has to get impregnated more and more with indigenous people's knowledge.
Traditional knowledge is holistic, it has respect for all living things, it includes physical as well as spiritual well-being, it is connected to life and values, and it is intuitive and qualitative. Traditional knowledge emphasizes on practical application of skills and knowledge, it is integrated to daily living, it is based on practical experimentation and local verification and it has been time-tested. It is a knowledge centered not on exploitation but on the harmony with the natural world.
It is therefore high time scientists admit they could learn a lot from indigenous people! Science is not the ultimate knowledge. Ultimate knowledge, if at all such a notion exists, will come from a synthesis of science with traditional knowledge.
Reviving India's ecological traditions.
India was in fact world's largest repository of indigenous knowledge systems. The tragedy is that due to industrialization and globalization, indigenous knowledge
systems are today under threat of extinction. Just like tigers and river dolphins are
endangered, traditional knowledge that has been developed over thousands of years
of man living in harmony with nature, is on the verge of getting lost for ever. Undeniably
tragic! Why? Because indigenous knowledge is the answer to many environmental
problems the world is facing today.
To quote E.G. Vallianatos: "The peasants of the Third World have some clues to what may spark an ecological renaissance in the farms of America. The peasant carries the seeds of centuries of wisdom, every truth having been learned from living in balance with nature. The peasant talks about eons of wisdom tested in nature."
That is why we've got to preserve indigenous people's skills and expertise in the fields of agriculture, architecture, health care systems, textiles … They are gifts inherited from our 8000 years old Indian civilization.
