Kinship Worldview: Precepts For Rebalancing Life On Earth / Darcia Narvaez + Four Arrows
Darcia Narvaez and Four Arrows join me to discuss their recently published book Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth, a work that contains "selected speeches from Indigenous leaders around the world—necessary wisdom for our times, nourishment for our collective, and a path away from extinction toward a sustainable, interconnected future."
As I commented at the beginning of this discussion, reading this book has been a necessary balm to the various subjects I've explored on the podcast of late. This work has reminded me that our civilization's capacity for mass violence, systemic oppression, exploitation, and the destruction of life-systems of the earth is not representative of human nature, nor the human condition, as a whole. The dominant worldview that pervades all facets of modern, industrial human life is the outcome of centuries, if not millennia, of bad habits and intergenerational trauma. The kinship worldview, highlighted in this book and in this interview, has been a defining feature of indigenous cultures the world over, for "ninety-nine percent of human history," as Professor Narvaez states in her work. The question of how to return to this way of knowing and being, and how to apply it in light of the most pressing crises dominating our time, is of utmost importance.
Bios:
Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D is Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame. She focuses on moral development and flourishing from an interdisciplinary perspective, and is especially interested in how early life experience and societal culture interact to influence wellbeing and virtuous character in children and adults. Her current research explores how early life experience influences societal culture, wellbeing and sociomoral character in children and adults. She integrates neurobiological, clinical, developmental and education sciences in her theories and research about human nature and human development. She publishes extensively on moral development, parenting and education.
Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), aka Donald Trent Jacobs, Ph.D., Ed.D, was born in Missouri in 1946. He is Irish, Tsalagi and a made relative of the Oglala Lakota Medicine Horse Tiospaye. Before his current position as professor at Fielding Graduate University, he served as Director of Education at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation where he fulfilled his Sun Dance Vows. With doctoral degrees in Health Psychology and in Curriculum and Instruction (with a cognate in Indigenous worldview), he has authored twenty acclaimed books and numerous invited chapters and articles. Co-founder of Veterans for Peace chapter 100 in Northern Arizona and recipient of the Martin Springer Institute Award for Moral Courage, he was selected by the Alternative Education Resource Organization as one of “27 visionaries in education” for their text Turning Points. His book, Teaching Truly: A Curriculum to Indigenize Mainstream Education was listed as one of 20 books of all time for progressive education by the Chicago Wisdom Project.
Episode Notes:
Purchase a copy of The Kinship Worldview from Bookshop.
Learn more about Prof. Narvaez work at her website and about the Evolved Nest
Learn more about Four Arrows' work
Watch the short film Breaking the Cycle.
Watch Indigenous worldview can preserve our existence, featured at the end of UNESCO Sustainability Conference.
The music featured is by Waxie.
Special thanks to Kate.
