Re/placing Native Science

Indigenous Voices in Contemporary Constructions of Nature

Bibliographic Data

ID5877256
AuthorsJay T Johnson, Brian Murton, Brian J Murton
Year2007
Volume45
Issue2
Pages121-129
Publication date2007-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1745-5863 • E-ISSN: 1745-5871
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00442.x
OpenAlexW2076352922
LanguageEN
Citations received78
References cited27

Since the earliest days of the European Enlightenment, Western people have sought to remove themselves from nature and the 'savage' non-European masses. This distancing has relied upon various intellectual techniques and theories. The social construction of nature precipitated by Enlightenment thinking separated culture from nature, culture being defined as civilised European society. This separation has served to displace the Native voice within the colonial construction of Nature. This separation has also served as one thread in the long modern 'disenchantment' of Westerners and nature, a 'disenchantment' described so adeptly by Adorno and Horkheimer (1973). Unfortunately though, this displacement is not only a historical event. The absence of modern Native voices within discussions of nature perpetuates the colonial displacement which blossomed following the Enlightenment. In his book entitled, Native Science, Gregory Cajete describes Native science as 'a lived and creative relationship with the natural world ... [an] intimate and creative participation [which] heightens awareness of the subtle qualities of a place' (2000, 20). Perhaps place offers a 'common ground' between Western and Indigenous thought; a 'common ground' upon which to re/write the meta-narrative of Enlightenment thought. This paper will seek to aid in the re/placement of modern Native voices within constructions of nature and seek to begin healing the disenchantment caused through the rupture between culture and nature in Western science

Aesthetics · Art · Colonialism · Disenchantment · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Indigenous · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Ecology · Law · Philosophy

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