Indigenous Religions as Antidote to the Environmental Crisis: Surveying a Decade of Reflection

Abstract

While it is generally accepted that the environmental crisis that the world is experiencing is a direct result of human activity, what is less obvious is that this depends on the nature of the relationship between human beings and the natural environment. This, in turn, is shaped by how human beings mentally construct the relationship between themselves and the world. I have been reflecting on this phenomenon for more than a decade, paying particular attention to the dynamics around an enchanted way of being in the world, typical of indigenous communities, compared with those of a disenchanted way of being in the world, typical of modernity. This essay attempts to summarize and condense some of these reflections. Enchantment brings with it the experience of an intersubjective, personal world with porous boundaries in the relationship between beings, and is typically characterized by interdependence and vulnerability. Disenchantment objectifies this world, disengages the self from it, and rids it of any agency other than that exercised by the autonomous self, thus gearing it toward mastery and control. This increases exponentially the ability of human beings to impact and change the world around them in ways that are eventually destructive for the environment.