Honoring Mother Earth
In the Lands of World Maker : Reclaiming Native Space in Northeastern California and Settler Colonialism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Deserea Langley
World Maker traveled throughout Northeastern California creating and naming the landscape for people. World Maker formed the world according to the resources found at each place designating places that were livable, places that should be cautionary and places that had resources for people to use. Native American responsibility to land is inherently tied to the transmission of knowledge which offer lessons and values that are shared through oral stories and religious ceremonies. Native American responsibility to land is inherently tied to the transmission of knowledge which guide the morality of people and communities, offering lessons and values that are shared through oral stories, religious ceremonies, and land management. Dispossession from traditional homelands serve as a primary factor to the fracture of Native American religious activities and responsibilities that tie Maidu, Paiute, Pit River and Washoe people to the Northeastern California landscape. My research focuses on the disruption of “Susanville Indians” knowledge systems under the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887. The act assisted in the surveying of Indian land to divide Indian communal land holdings into individual allotments. Exploitative economies and the outright selling of Indian land denied access to sacred sites and knowledge centers that are imperative to the identity, religious ceremonies, and land management of Susanville Indian tribal members. As a foundation, I use the Mountain Maidu creation story to shape the discussion on interaction by tribal members to revitalize religious practices, language and land management.
Nature as Object and Symbol: Qur'an as a Source for Islamic Environmental Ethics
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jakub Koláček
If we look at texts of contemporary Muslim authors attempting to formulate appropriate ethical stance towards environmental issues, we can distinguish between two different notions of nature based on interpretation of the Qur'anic text. The first one is “objectual” and treats nature as actually existent entity present in the world and carrying specific qualities, being open to human discovery, encounter, use and management. The second one is that of a symbol referring to broader ethico-religious truths and meanings regarding the universe and creation. Whereas the first notion stands closer to modern scientific conceptualizations of nature and usually serves as a basis for linking of religion and science together in one pragmatic holistic approach towards the ecological questions, the second one attaches to nature more specific “sacred” quality which serves as a basis for more unique and categoric religious deontology. How are these two notions inferred from Qur'anic text, how are they employed in actual ethical statements and how are they combined together? Is there a relation between the preference of one of these notions and actual ethical stances towards concrete ecological questions? And is it, after all, possible to argue that one of these notions is closer to the original meaning of Qur'anic revelation than the other? The answer to these questions will be sought via discoursive analysis of contemporary ethical texts, textual analysis of Qur'an and theories of religious ethics of M. Weber, Ch. Taylor and T. Izutsu.
