132
2019). To be consistent with ecological law, eco-cultural restoration applied at landscape and bioregional scales should consist of a weaving together of historical fidelity, ecological integrity and community engagement in a quest to invigorate
place-based ecological solidarity with reference to intimate local knowledge of
place and a forward-looking sense of what seemed to get the balance right in the
past (Garver 2019).
5 Conclusion
That some human communities and individuals still retain deep respect for and
attachment to the life systems that sustain them gives reason to be hopeful about the
human prospect on the finite planet Earth. Yet, attaching or re-attaching humanity to
the ecosystems and communities of life of which people are a part on a broader
scale will be an enormous challenge. The ideologies of separation of humans from
nature are widespread and deeply entrenched in much of the world, and in much of
the law. Moreover, strong arguments exist that these ideologies are ultimately rooted
in the emergence of agriculture, which invariably requires an intentional manipulation and control of ecosystems to serve human ends and allow permanent settlements. Farming has been described as the original human act of colonization
(Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl 1997). It always limits biodiversity, and modern
industrial agriculture does so extensively. Farming also led to the rise of civilizations and the earliest known forms of codified law (Prince 1904; Kornfeld 2009), as
well as to the gradual replacement of the diversity of polytheist societies with the
singularity of monotheist ones (Armstrong 1994). At the very least, parallels can be
drawn between this religious transformation and the evolution toward the monoculture of value that money represents in modern society, the narrowing of the range of
acceptable outcomes in engineered industrial systems where consistent product
quality is essential for success, and modern notions of law as rigid and monolithic.
They all tend to squelch life-enhancing diversity.
Expecting humanity to abandon agriculture and the entire harvest of sociocultural norms and civilizational ordering that farming spawned would be futile and
unnecessary. Full material and spiritual attachment or re-attachment to place in a
way that gives hope for the human prospect will undoubtedly entail a new relationship with farming, one inspired, for example, by agroecology and the Three
Sisters—corn, squash and beans—of the indigenous people of Turtle Island
(Kimmerer 2013). The quest should be for restoration of the eco-cultural systems
that predated or escaped the rise of the kind of agriculture associated with the rise
of industrialization in a globalized, capitalist world. This transformation may well
entail a reduction in the number of people integrated harmonistically into Earth’s
life communities. Malthus saw this as a harsh and dismal future (Sieferle 2001), but
from the perspective of worldviews that celebrate strong spiritual connections
between people and their inhabited places, it is a future of beauty, wonder and collective well-being for humanity and other life.
G. Garver
2019). To be consistent with ecological law, eco-cultural restoration applied at landscape and bioregional scales should consist of a weaving together of historical fidelity, ecological integrity and community engagement in a quest to invigorate
place-based ecological solidarity with reference to intimate local knowledge of
place and a forward-looking sense of what seemed to get the balance right in the
past (Garver 2019).
5 Conclusion
That some human communities and individuals still retain deep respect for and
attachment to the life systems that sustain them gives reason to be hopeful about the
human prospect on the finite planet Earth. Yet, attaching or re-attaching humanity to
the ecosystems and communities of life of which people are a part on a broader
scale will be an enormous challenge. The ideologies of separation of humans from
nature are widespread and deeply entrenched in much of the world, and in much of
the law. Moreover, strong arguments exist that these ideologies are ultimately rooted
in the emergence of agriculture, which invariably requires an intentional manipulation and control of ecosystems to serve human ends and allow permanent settlements. Farming has been described as the original human act of colonization
(Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl 1997). It always limits biodiversity, and modern
industrial agriculture does so extensively. Farming also led to the rise of civilizations and the earliest known forms of codified law (Prince 1904; Kornfeld 2009), as
well as to the gradual replacement of the diversity of polytheist societies with the
singularity of monotheist ones (Armstrong 1994). At the very least, parallels can be
drawn between this religious transformation and the evolution toward the monoculture of value that money represents in modern society, the narrowing of the range of
acceptable outcomes in engineered industrial systems where consistent product
quality is essential for success, and modern notions of law as rigid and monolithic.
They all tend to squelch life-enhancing diversity.
Expecting humanity to abandon agriculture and the entire harvest of sociocultural norms and civilizational ordering that farming spawned would be futile and
unnecessary. Full material and spiritual attachment or re-attachment to place in a
way that gives hope for the human prospect will undoubtedly entail a new relationship with farming, one inspired, for example, by agroecology and the Three
Sisters—corn, squash and beans—of the indigenous people of Turtle Island
(Kimmerer 2013). The quest should be for restoration of the eco-cultural systems
that predated or escaped the rise of the kind of agriculture associated with the rise
of industrialization in a globalized, capitalist world. This transformation may well
entail a reduction in the number of people integrated harmonistically into Earth’s
life communities. Malthus saw this as a harsh and dismal future (Sieferle 2001), but
from the perspective of worldviews that celebrate strong spiritual connections
between people and their inhabited places, it is a future of beauty, wonder and collective well-being for humanity and other life.
G. Garver