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Nature-Connectedness and Well-Being Experienced During Best and Worst Times of Life: A Case for Safeguarding Biocultural Diversity

Social Indicators Research volume 165, pages 1053–1089 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

South Africa boasts some of the richest diversity of fauna and flora in the world; it also claims to be a world in one country given its cultural diversity. In a time of climate change, rapid population growth and urbanisation, the country’s natural resources as well as its cultural diversity are under threat. We report a multi-dimensional survey conducted among Xhosa-speaking people in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, that collected detailed information on indigenous knowledge of nature and its impact on cultural practices and well-being. Survey respondents included both rural and urban dwellers, a majority of whom professed to be Christians who also held traditional religious beliefs and acknowledged the ancestors. Survey respondents described their Best and Worst periods of life in line with Bernheim’s Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment, and indicated whether going into nature had contributed to their Best life experience and helped them to cope during their Worst one. Being in nature typically contributed to well-being across many of the Best social domains of life, such as celebrations with family, personal achievements and milestones in life, including traditional rites of passage to adulthood. Deaths in the family represented by far the most common Worst experience in life when going into nature often provided comfort and solace. Findings suggest that experience of the multiple benefits of being in nature may be universal across cultures and that many traditional Xhosa religious beliefs and cultural practices go hand in hand with access and exposure to nature that enhances well-being.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. We are grateful to Robert Cummins and Joseph Sirgy for bringing to our attention this early study by Watson, who rigorously examined how subjective well-being among students related to a wide range of life domains including ‘love of nature’ (see Cummins 2019, 2021).

  2. According to Mayer (1963, p. 115), ‘the intlombe (or umtshotsho or intuthu), which lasts from late on Saturday afternoon till about midday on Sunday, is devoted to dancing, singing, and conversation. … The main function of the girls or women is to provide music and audience; while males dance, females clap, sing, and admire’.

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Funding

Funding was provided by National Research Foundation (Grant No. 119399), South Africa Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development.

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  1. Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa

    Valerie Møller

  2. Anthropology Department, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa

    Michelle Cocks

  3. Botany Department, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa

    Susanne Vetter

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Appendix

Appendix

See Table 7.

Table 7 Domains of life defining Nature Survey Best and Worst periods of life: frequencies and percent cases
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Møller, V., Cocks, M. & Vetter, S. Nature-Connectedness and Well-Being Experienced During Best and Worst Times of Life: A Case for Safeguarding Biocultural Diversity. Soc Indic Res 165, 1053–1089 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-023-03063-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-023-03063-3

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