How
are people -- equipped with a colonial worldview -- likely to view the
environment and humankind's role within the ecosystem?
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"It
may not be improper to characterize as ecological imperialism
the elaboration of a world organization that is centered in industrial
societies and degrades the ecosystems of the agrarian societies
it absorbs. Ecological imperialism is in some ways similar to
economic imperialism. In both there is a flow of energy and material
from the less organized system to the more organized one, and
both may also be masked by the same euphemisms, among which "progress"
and "development" are prominent.
The anthropocentric trend I have
described may have ethical implications, but the issue is ultimately
not a matter of morality or even of Realpolitik. It is
one of biological viability." |
| |
|
Roy
Rappaport, "The Flow of Energy in an Agricultural Society,"
Scientific American (1971) |
Although
some writers seem to transcend their circumstances while considering
issues of environmental ethics, most thinkers are thoroughly grounded
in the conditions of a particular time and place. This is also true
of cultures as a whole. The values of a culture are "artifacts" of historical
circumstance and collective experience.
It is important to keep this in mind in
assessing statements about "what ought to be done" to or with the land.
The contemporary concern for land and resource management comes into
play only after a particular history of colonial expansion and imperial
domination that has characterized global history for the last five hundred
years.
What impact does this history have upon
statements of environmental ethics? What "rights" are thought to be
inherent in land "ownership" for example? What are "water rights?" In
effect, these phenomena are social conventions built up from the history
of occupation and control of expanding agrarian societies.
But what about the other side of the frontier?
Should the sensitivities and sensibilities of the "First Nations" whose
lands were taken, occupied or conquered be taken into account in developing
contemporary environmental ethics? With the recent history of colonialism
in mind, what is an appropriate "baseline" for ethical judgments about
appropriate human behavior in the environment?
To
begin, we would do best to consider the "ecological profile" of the
colonial chapters in human history. Read and consider the argument put
forward in the following articles. |
|
| Timothy
C. Weiskel |
| 1987 |
"Agents of Empire:
Steps Toward an Ecology of Imperialism," Environmental Review,
11, 4, (Winter, 1987), pp. 273-288. |
| Timothy
C. Weiskel |
| 1989 |
"The
Ecological Lessons of the Past: An Anthropology of Environmental
Decline," The Ecologist,
Volume 19, No. 3 (May/June, 1989), pp. 98-103. |
| Timothy
C. Weiskel |
| 1991 |
"Urbanization:
A Doomed Experiment?"EcoDecision, (December 1991), pp.
16-21. |
| Timothy
C. Weiskel |
| 1994 |
"Visious
Circles: African Demographic History as a Warning," Harvard
International Review, (Fall, 1994), pp. 12-16. |
Related Reading:
| James
M. Blaut |
| 1993 |
The Colonizer's
Model of the World (Guilford, CT., Guilford Press, 1993). |
Attributes of Evolving Cultural Worldviews |
| |
Implicit
Assumptions of Foraging
Society's Worldview |
| |
Implicit
Assumptions of the
Neolithic or Peasant Worldview |
| |
Implicit
Assumptions of the Colonial
Worldview |
| |
|
Implicit
Assumptions of the Colonial (Mercantilile
Capitalist) Worldview |
| |
|
Implicit
Assumptions of the Colonial (Industrial
Capitalist) Worldview |
| |
|
Implicit
Assumptions of the Colonial (Financial
Capitalist) Worldview |
| Worksheets
for analyzing implicit cultural theories
Weiskel's
"Cheat Sheet" of Implied Theories
[Downloadable .XLS version - right click and "Save As"] |
|
Contested
Worldviews - Post-Columbian Debates
|
|
Video of Discussion Section and Class Session