Many of us who are students of ancestral skills and technologies marvel at the ingenuity of nature-based peoples. The inventiveness of humans is remarkable. Turning salty sea-water into fresh water might seem out of the realm of possibility for someone using only local materials from nature, but not for this man. Enjoy!
The renowned “anthropologist under Amazonian influence” and indigenous rights activist Jeremy Narby, author of such classics as The Cosmic Serpent and Intelligence in Nature, considers the intelligence of living beings and wrestles with his own culture’s anthropocentric concepts. In his view, constantly affirming the centrality of humans gets in the way of respectful living in the biosphere. Rethinking human-centered concepts such as “nature” and “anthropocene” can cast light on our relationship with the living world. Because the words we use influence how we think, we gain from examining them with care.
Please enjoy this talk by the brilliant Canadian anthropologist, Jeremy Narby. In his 20-minute presentation, from the 2017 Bioneers Conference, Dr. Narby discusses the ways in which indigenous peoples in the Amazon experience the intelligence of the more-than-human world.