Abstract
Latin America hosts a diversity of ecological worldviews and practices rooted in Amerindian cultures (e.g., Aymara, Quechua, U’wa, and Waorani) and schools of thought (e.g., geoculture, decoloniality, liberation philosophy and ecotheology) that have actual and potential value for Earth Stewardship. However, global discourses do not adequately include the diversity of languages and ethics rooted in the heterogeneous biocultural mosaic of Latin America and other regions. This is due in part to the limited inter-linguistic and inter-cultural dialogue among academics, educators, and policy makers that reside in different regions of the world. To contribute to solving this deficit, this chapter couples the conceptual frameworks of Earth stewardship and the biocultural ethic to foster: (i) inter-cultural dialogues and negotiations that fracture the current homogeneity of neoliberal global discourses through the acknowledgement and inclusion of the diversity of ecological worldviews, values, and languages, and (ii) forms of biocultural inter-species co-inhabitation embedded in the diversity of habitats and life habits. A basic principle of the biocultural ethic is that life habits are interrelated with the communities of co-in-habitants and their habitats. These “3Hs” of the biocultural ethic offer a conceptual framework that can be coupled with three terms that identify Earth Stewardship: the habitats of the Earth, the habit of stewardship, and the communities of co-inhabitants including the stewards. This coupling makes explicit the participation of diverse stewards. To better recognize the stewards’ diversity is essential to identify their differential responsibility in the genesis of global environmental change, at the same time that to visualize and value a plethora of ways of conceiving and practicing Earth stewardship.
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Notes
- 1.
The distinction of these two interwoven realms, the bio-physical and the symbolic-linguistic-cultural, is essential to the biocultural ethic (Rozzi 2012, 2013). Under this biocultural perspective, the term philosophy abandons its disciplinary character, which currently prevails in academia. Instead, I emphasize the plural character of philosophy, with its diversity of ways of understanding the natural world and of co-inhabiting in it, with in particular ecological and cultural contexts. The plural character of philosophy concurs with the conceptual framework developed by Raul Fornet-Betancourt for a Latin American intercultural philosophy (Fornet-Betancourt 1994).
- 2.
The biocultural perspective of this essay shares central concepts with intercultural philosophy (sensu Fornet-Betancourt 1994, 1998). However, the biocultural ethic extends the moral community beyond the boundaries of the human species. The worldviews of contemporary ecological sciences and of Amerindian cultures support the concept of a community of life. This can be also considered as a moral community on the basis of the notions of kinship (based on evolutionary genealogies shared by humans and other living beings) and of co-inhabitation, embedded in the recurrent ecological and cultural interrelationships among human and other-than-human beings (Rozzi 2012, 2013). Recent ethnography of South America illustrates the creativity and agency of the other-than-human world, as well as the rich communication that takes place between human and other-than-human persons. The limits of extending personhood as a category of human-like subjectivity to non-humans has, however, been amply discussed (Rival 2012).
- 3.
By “biocultural phagocytosis” I refer to the appropriation and mercantilization of local cultures, their habitats, life habits, and communities of co-inhabitants.
- 4.
The process of biocultural homogenization entails simultaneous and interdigitated losses of native biological and cultural diversity at local, regional, and global scales. This process leads to the disruption of the interrelationships between cultures and their land, and results in the massive replacement of native biota and cultures by cosmopolitan species, languages, and cultures (see Rozzi 2001, 2012, 2013).
- 5.
For example, Leonardo Boff had a leading role in the writing and divulgation of the Earth Charter, a declaration of fundamental ethical principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the twenty-first century. The Earth Charter involved a decade-long (1995–2005), worldwide, cross cultural dialogue on common goals and shared values, and the document has been further enhanced by its endorsement by over 4,500 organizations, including governments and international organizations. See http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content, and Tucker (2015, in this volume [Chap. 26]).
- 6.
Boff alludes to Herbert Marcuse’s concept, and homonymous book One-Dimensional Man: Studies in Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts, 1964).
- 7.
Unpublished interview by Ricardo Rozzi and Claudia Sepúlveda recorded in October 2008.
- 8.
The interpretation of poverty as a main cause of environmental degradation is still prevailing. However, many scholars and international organizations, including the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), have offered alternative evidence and approaches. In its landmark Burndtland Report, WCED (1987, p. 117) stated that “there has been a growing realization in national governments and multilateral institutions that it is impossible to separate economic development issues from environment issues; many forms of development erode the environmental resources upon which they must be based, and environmental degradation can undermine economic development. Poverty is a major cause and effect of global environmental problems. It is therefore futile to attempt to deal with environmental problems without a broader perspective that encompasses the factors underlying world poverty and international inequality.” The Brundtland Report addressed in depth the disparities in income and ecological impact among countries, and documented that the countries with lower or middle income economies have 83 % of the world population, but only 21 % of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Conversely, the countries that are high-income oil exporters or have industrial market economies are inhabited by 17 % of the world population and accumulate 79 % of the world’s GDP. The inequalities in income distribution are extreme in Latin American countries. For example, in Brazil, the wealthiest country of the region, the richest fifth of the population concentrates 68 % of the country’s GDP, while the poorest fifth shares only 2 % of the national GDP (Baer and Maloney 1997).
- 9.
- 10.
In Latin America, as in other regions of the world, ethnoecology has been essential to disclose the richness of Amerindian worldviews and the value of traditional ecological practices (Ulloa et al. 2001). This interdisciplinary field has involved fruitful collaborations between Latin American and international researchers. Indeed, the International Society of Ethnobiology was founded in Belem Brazil during the First International Congress of Ethnobiology in 1988. It involved an active collaboration between Brazilian, Latin American, and international researchers under the leadership Darrell Posey. In the 1990s, Victor Toledo’s collaboration with U.S. ethnobotanist Janis Alcorn was essential to establish the journal Etnoecologica and to promote a conservation approach which attempts “to stabilize the traditional conservation ethics wherever it still exists, and improve the modern conservation ethic” (Alcorn 1993).
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Rozzi, R. (2015). Earth Stewardship and the Biocultural Ethic: Latin American Perspectives. In: Rozzi, R., et al. Earth Stewardship. Ecology and Ethics, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12133-8_8
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