Content uploaded by Enrique Salmon
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Enrique Salmon on Jan 08, 2019
Content may be subject to copyright.
October 2000 1327
TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
1327
Ecological Applications,
10(5), 2000, pp. 1327–1332
q
2000 by the Ecological Society of America
KINCENTRIC ECOLOGY: INDIGENOUS PERCEPTIONS
OF THE HUMAN–NATURE RELATIONSHIP
E
NRIQUE
S
ALMO
´N
1
Department of Anthropology, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado 81301 USA
Abstract.
Indigenous people view both themselves and nature as part of an extended
ecological family that shares ancestry and origins. It is an awareness that life in any
environment is viable only when humans view the life surrounding them as kin. The kin,
or relatives, include all the natural elements of an ecosystem. Indigenous people are affected
by and, in turn, affect the life around them. The interactions that result fromthis ‘‘kincentric
ecology’’ enhance and preserve the ecosystem. Interactions are the commerce of ecosystem
functioning. Without human recognition of their role in the complexities of life in a place,
the life suffers and loses its sustainability. Indigenous cultural models of nature include
humans as one aspect of the complexity of life. A Rara´muri example of
iwı´gara
will serve
to enhance understanding of the human–nature relationship that is necessary in order to
fully comprehend the distinct intricacies of kincentric ecology.
Key words: ceremonial cycle; Chihuahua, Mexico; human–nature relationship; indigenous land
management; interconnectedness; iwı´gara; kincentric ecology; Rara´muri; Sierra Madres; Tarahumara.
I
NTRODUCTION
Laguna Indian, author, and poetLeslie Marmon Silko
notes that human beings must maintain a complex re-
lationship with ‘‘the surrounding natural world if they
hope to survive in [it].’’ To Silko, humans could not
have ‘‘emerged’’ into this world without the aid of
antelope and badger. The Lagunas’ sustained living in
the arid region of the Southwest could not have been
viable without the recognition that humans were ‘‘sis-
ters and brothers to the badger, antelope, clay, yucca,
and sun.’’ It was not until theyreached this recognition
that the Laguna people could ‘‘emerge’’ (Silko 1996).
Leslie Marmon Silko elegantly expresses how in-
digenous people in North America are aware that life
in any environment is viable only when humans view
their surroundings as kin; that their mutual roles are
essential for their survival. To many traditional indig-
enous people, this awareness comes after years of lis-
tening to and recalling stories about the land. Silko
notes that, ‘‘I carried with me the feeling I’d acquired
from listening to the old stories, that the land all around
me was teeming with creatures that were related to
human beings and to me’’ (Silko 1996).This ‘‘feeling’’
survives and is reviving in indigenous people today.
My culture, the Rara´muri, also known as Tarahu-
mara, occupy one of the most biologically diverse re-
gions in the world (Ramamoorthy et al. 1993, Felger
et al. 1994). Our homeland, a region we call
Gawi
Manuscript received 26 January 1998; revised 30 April 1999;
accepted 9 June 1999; final version received 3 August 1999. For
reprints of this Invited Feature, see footnote 1, p. 1249.
1
Tribal affiliation: Rara´muri.
E-mail: Salmon E@Grumpy.Fortlewis.edu
Wachi
(the Place of Nurturing) is located in the eastern
Sierra Madres of Chihuahua, Mexico. There are ap-
proximately 60000 Rara´muri who continue to live a
traditional lifestyle of horticulture, gathering, and ag-
roforestry.
Rara´muri spirituality was historically influenced by
Jesuit Catholicism, yet the ceremonies, rituals, and
manners of giving thanks to the land remain primarily
pre-Columbian.
The northern Sierra Madre Occidental, the homeland
of the Rara´muri, represents a biologically rich zone of
contiguous montane woodland, which reaches north
from southern Mexico nearly to the international border
(Felger et al. 1994). The complex geography, topog-
raphy, and elevational changes result in the astounding
amount of biodiversity in the region. At least eight
physiognomic vegetation types can be found in the re-
gion. These include montane evergreen forest, oak-co-
niferous woodland, tropical deciduous forest, oak sa-
vanna, chaparral, shortgrass prairie, subtropical thorn-
scrub, and subtropical desert fringe (Felger et al. 1994).
It is suggested that the Madrean region of northwest
Mexico houses two of the riches floras of Mexico,
which ‘‘ranks as one of three top megadiversity centers
in the world’’ (Ramamoorthy et al. 1993). It is esti-
mated that 4000 vascular plant species are found in the
region, of which 150 are endemic (Felger et al. 1994).
In the Rara´muri region of the central Sierra Tarahumara
alone, as many as 1900 plant species can be found
(Felger et al. 1994). Many varieties of insects have been
identified, along with 65 species of reptiles and am-
phibians, of which 17 are endemic. Between 260 and
295 species of birds breed in the region, and many more
1328
INVITED FEATURE
Ecological Applications
Vol. 10, No. 5
species migrate to or visit the area. Ninety-two different
mammals roam the area, including several that are rare
or threatened.
The region is also rich in useful plants. Eighteen
races of pre-hispanic crops grow in the Sierra Madres
(Felger et al. 1994). They include species of
Agave,
Lepidium, Hyptis,
and
Panicum.
Other plants used for
medicine and food include species in the Cactaceae,
Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, and Solanaceae.
Wild relatives of domesticated plants occur in the area,
including species of
Agave, Cucurbita, Phaseolus, Pru-
nus,
and
Solanum.
It is no accident that the Rara´muri homeland is bi-
ologically diverse, as we have managed this region for
at least 2000 years (Zingg 1940). About 350 different
plant species are used by the Rara´muri for food and
medicine. Mestizo populations in the area recognize
and use only about 40% of those used by the Rara´muri
(Salmo´n 1995). These numbers reflect the strong re-
lationship and connection that the Rara´muri maintain
with their environment.
In 1935, when William Bennett and Robert Zingg
were conducting anthropological fieldwork in the Si-
erra Madre, the vast majority of Rara´muri were em-
ployed in traditional lifestyles and traditional manage-
ment (Bennett and Zingg 1935). Today, I estimate that
;
50% of Rara´muri men work in some form for Mex-
ican and Mestizo commercial operations. This em-
ployment may involve logging, mining, or ranching.
Although many men work in nontraditional occupa-
tions, it is seasonal work and coincides with times of
the year when their crops do not have to be tended.
Therefore, the men still spend much of their time in
traditional agriculture. Most Rara´muri women will not
work outside the home. The women and children spend
much of their time caring for livestock. I estimate that
up to 95% of the Rara´muri population still practices
traditional land ways in some form, including speaking
the language and participating in ceremonies.
K
INCENTRIC
E
COLOGY
:S
HARING
B
REATH
WITH
O
UR
R
ELATIVES
Indigenous languages express abstract concepts re-
lated to the land differently than does the English lan-
guage. Consequently, the term ‘‘kincentric ecology’’
would be meaningless to indigenous language speakers
(Martinez 1994
a
). However, speakers of indigenous
languages can express the concept of kincentric ecol-
ogy in traditional terms. Kincentric ecology will be
further illuminated through the Rara´muri concept of
iwı´gara.
The following description of
iwı´gara
will re-
veal the complexities of the indigenous perceptions of
self and culture intertwined in the web of life.
The Rara´muri view themselves as an integral part of
the life and place within which they live. There is
among the Rara´muri a concept called
iwı´gara,
which
encompasses many ideas and ways of thinking unique
to the place with which the Rara´muri live. Rituals and
ceremonies, the language, and, therefore, Rara´muri
thought are influenced by the lands, animals, and winds
with which they live.
Iwı´gara
is the total interconnec-
tedness and integration of all life in the Sierra Madres,
physical and spiritual. To say
iwı´gara
to a Rara´muri
calls on that person to realize life in all its forms. The
person recalls the beginning of Rara´muri life, origins,
and relationships to animals, plants, the place of nur-
turing, and the entities to which the Rara´muri look for
guidance.
A way to delve deeper into the concept of
iwı´gara
is to examine how it is reflected in a traditional ritual,
yu´mari. Yu´mari
songs often make references to
sewa´ra,
flowers. In one specific
yu´mari
song, reference is made
to
sumati okilivea,
the beautiful lily.
Yu´mari
dances
and songs are performed to heal people as well as an-
imals and the land. During
yu´mari
ceremonies, the
women are asked to dance. Women do not dance except
for
yu´mari.
The women dance in a continual
iwı´
(cir-
cle), while two male singers and chanters dance within
the moving circle. The songs ask that the land be nour-
ished and that the land will nourish the people. The
land is nourished by the results of the ceremony, which
brings rain. As the songs are performed, the
iwı´
con-
tinues to turn. The
iwı´
represents the fertility of the
land.
Iwı´
can convey other meanings, however. It trans-
lates roughly into the idea of binding with a lasso. But
it also means to unite, to join, to connect. Another
meaning of
iwı´
is to breathe, inhale/exhale, or respire.
Iwı´
also makes reference to the Rara´muri conceptof
soul. It is understood that the soul, or
iwı´,
sustains the
body with the breath of life. Everything that breaths
has a soul. Plants, animals, humans, stones, the land,
all share the same breath. When humans and animals
die, their souls become butterflies that visit the living.
The butterflies also travel to the Milky Way, where past
souls of the ancestors reside.
Iwı´
is also the word used to identify a caterpillar that
weaves its cocoons on the madrone tree (
Arbutus
sp.).
The implication is that there is a whole morphophys-
iological process of change, death, birth, and rebirth
associated with the concept of
iwı´. Iwı´
is the soul or
essence of life everywhere.
Iwı´gara
then channels the
idea that all life, spiritual and physical, is intercon-
nected in a continual cylce.
Iwı´
is the prefix to
iwı´gara.
Iwı´gara
expresses the belief that all life shares the same
breath. We are all related to, and play a role in, the
complexity of life.
Iwı´gara
most closely resembles the
concept of kincentric ecology.
As another example, the Rara´muri term
numatı´,
or
things of the natural world, are relatives, but in a re-
alistic sense. In a previous world, people were part
plant. When the Rara´muri emerged into this world,
many of those plants followed. They live today as hu-
mans of a different form. Peyote, datura, maize, morn-
ing glory, brazilwood, coyotes, crows, bears, and deer
October 2000 1329
TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
are all humans. Rara´muri feel related to these life-forms
much as Euroamericans feel related to cousins and sib-
lings (Levi 1993).
The natural world, therefore, is not one of wonder,
but of familiarity. The human niche is only one of a
myriad of united niches that work together to continue
the process of
iwı´gara.
If one aspect of the lasso is
removed, the integrity of the circle is threatened and
all other aspects are weakened. A certain attachment
results from knowing that some of your relatives are
the life-forms that share your place with you. This be-
lief influences one’s sense of identity and thought/lan-
guage.
The physical, social, spiritual, and mental health of
the Rara´muri are closely related to the cycle of cere-
mony adhered to by the culture.
Onoruame
is the cre-
ator and provider of corn (
Zea mays
) and life. Corn is
a staple food of the Rara´muri. It is eaten raw, made
into tortillas, used in soups, and as tamales. As a med-
icine, the meal itself is sprinkled onto patients as a
blessing. The tassels are used in a recipe with other
plants to cure dysentery and for kidney problems. Most
importantly, the Rara´muri owe their emergence into the
world to corn. It is believed that the Rara´muri emerged
from ears of corn after a great flood and the destruction
of a previous world.
Therefore, in order to honor
Onoruame
for his gifts
and for life, the Rara´muri are obligated to prepare and
consume their traditional corn beer, known as
batari-
ki. Batari-ki
is usually drunk only during the special
corn beer festivals, called
tesguinadas,
which are an
integral part of most Rara´muri events, including reli-
gious festivals, ceremonial dances, and curing rituals
(Salmo´n 1991).
Through the ceremony, ritual, dances, and songs as-
sociated with
batari-ki,
Rara´muri connections to the
Creator are strengthened. Rain is assured and, there-
fore, the life of the land and the plants, animals, and
people. An important cycle of existence is assured with
the consumption of
batari-ki
. More importantly, a
maintenance of the relationship with their world occurs
while they continue to fit harmoniously into it. It is a
continuous interconnected cycle of breath and life. As
will be seen, Rara´muri land management is one facet
of a need to continue the complex cycle of breath that
enhances the land.
K
INCENTRICALLY
M
ANAGING THE
L
AND
Over the centuries, methods of land use were de-
veloped that adhered to a kincentric understanding.
Horticultural and agricultural techniques included se-
lective coppicing, pruning, and harvesting, gathering,
cultivation, transplanting, vegetative propagation, sow-
ing, discriminant burning, and weeding (Bye 1976,
1981, Martinez 1993). Some plant populations and in-
dividual plant species were intentionally selected ‘‘in
accordance with ecological principles’’ in order to in-
crease population ‘‘abundance, diversity, growth, lon-
gevity, yield, and quality to meet cultural needs’’ (Mar-
tinez 1994
a, b
). As an example, some corn is selected
for its ability to produce naturally occurring sugars,
which enhances its fermentation qualities in making
corn beer. Ecologically, this is a sound practice because
the corn beer is a necessary element in keeping the
Creator strong and bringing the rain. Another example
involves the practice of moving individual species of
edible chenopods from their natural habitat to the edges
of agricultural fields. The greens come from fields
where the breath (
iwı´
) of the field is considered strong.
In translation, this means that the population of the
greens is abundant.
The concepts of kincentric ecology, or
iwı´gara,
are
at the heart of Rara´muri land management philosophy.
It is
iwı´gara
that guides agriculture, medicine, and for-
aging. The use of plants for healing and for food offers
a fundamental relationship from which the Rara´muri
view themselves as participants in their natural com-
munity. The Rara´muri understand that they were placed
here as caretakers of their land, but also to aid in the
health of the Creator, who works hard each day to pro-
vide for the land and its inhabitants.
For the Rara´muri, caretaking translates to practices
such as transplanting edible greens to corn and bean
fields. The greens become easily available for the peo-
ple and, in return, become more abundant through the
cultivation and irrigation that occurs alongside the corn
and beans. Caretaking also means that only the longest
pine needles collected for making pine-needle baskets
are selected. The shorter ones are left to be collected
next time; the collecting enhances new growth of the
needles just as pruning does to fruit trees. Therefore,
caregiving is a method of using the land while en-
hancing it.
Rara´muri women use several natural materials for
weaving. Sotol (
Dasylirion simplex
), yucca (
Yucca de-
cipens
), and beargrass (
Nolina matapensis
), comprise
the three most widely used basket materials, along with
pine needles. There has been a large tourist demand
for Rara´muri baskets since the Chihuahua-Pacifico
Railroad opened the region to tourism in the 1960s.
Baskets are sold on a daily basis along the railway, in
the numerous gift shops in the region, and to the traders
who ship them by the railcar load to the United States.
It would seem that overharvesting of weaving materials
might be a hazard. Yet the materials, found in the pine
forests and along the walls of the
barrancas
(canyons),
are carefully managed. This is due largely to the col-
lection philosophy influenced by kincentric ecology.
Traditional harvesting of these basket-making materi-
als is periodic. Only the intermediately aged leaves are
collected, which sustains the health of the plants and
suppresses sexual reproduction in favor of vegetative
progation (Bye et al. 1995).
As previously mentioned, part of the traditional man-
1330
INVITED FEATURE
Ecological Applications
Vol. 10, No. 5
agement regimen for basket materials involves burning.
Burning is employed in the management of other plants
as well. The understory of oak groves is burned to
retard new growth of oak and other trees and plants
that would compete with the existing oaks. This results
in higher yields of acorns and also in some fruit-pro-
ducing shrubs such as chokecherry (
Prunus capuli
) and
manzanita (
Arctostaphylos pungens
).
Overharvesting is an enduring concern in the Sierra
Tarahumara, where arable land is cherished and where
the pressures of logging and narcotrafficking are mak-
ing sustainable horticulture tenuous. Yet for centuries,
up to the modern period, the Rara´muri have managed
and harvested the Sierra and
barrancas
in a manner
that is sustainable. Pockets of small fields grew and
continue to grow in the bottomlands and
arroyos
of the
Sierra, while
milpas
(terraces), some at 45
8
angles, pose
in bright green contrast to the oak forests along the
upper reaches of the
barrancas
. In its strictest trans-
lation, ‘‘
milpa
’’ means cornfield. But to the Rara´muri,
milpa
is a concept of optimal land use that does not
destroy the land. The milpas are usually placed at lo-
cations where they take best advantage of runoff or are
near existing springs. Because of their small size, usu-
ally less than 12
3
12 m (40
3
40 feet), the milpas
impose less on the native plants and require less tilling
that erodes native soils. Making optimum use of arable
land is a skill that has flowered from centuries of a
relationship to the Sierra and from a philosophy of
iwı´gara
borne from the place.
Wild edible plants are treated with the same respect
as the medicinals. When collecting wild onions,
Allium
lingifolium,
the Rara´muri often select the larger bulbs,
leaving the smaller ones in the ground, thus promoting
a second harvest. In addition, the Rara´muri use digging
sticks to harvest the bulbs. The ground in which the
onions grow is continuously disturbed, encouraging
further growth of the plants and decreasing the com-
petitive perennials. A symbiotic relationship exists be-
tween the Rara´muri and the onions. Disturbance of the
sod and selective harvesting encourage the populations
and assure a harvest of onions (Bye 1976).
In return for Rara´muri care, the land provides a cor-
nucopia.
Sepe´,
or wild greens, are collected by nearly
all Rara´muri to augment the daily diet.
Sunu´,
corn, is
a staple eaten at nearly every meal. The Rara´murigrow
beans, potatoes, squashes, wheat, and a variety of other
products, both Old and New World in origin. Another
side effect of Rara´muri management of the Sierra is
the reservoir of medicinal plants that are potentially
valuable outside the Sierra. The Rara´muri employ ap-
proximately 350 different plants for medicine and food
(Salmo´n 1995). The land also permits the raising of
goats, sheep, chickens, and pigs. Some Rara´muri raise
cows and horses.
How the Rara´muri embody the concept of kincentric
ecology in their minds is more difficult to document.
Through conversations and careful observation, how-
ever, it is possible. An elder Rara´muri consultant often
allows me to accompany him on his plant-collecting
forays into the mountains near his community in Chi-
huahua, Mexico. He prefers to collect some of his me-
dicinal plants from a particular
rinco´n,
or corner, of a
large arroyo. He collects from other favorite locations
as well, all of which he says are places in which the
best plants grow.
Walking to his
rinco´n,
we passed by several plants
of the same species that we were intending to harvest
that day. When we reached his
rinco´n,
there was an
abundance of the particular plants. About a bushel was
collected, with little impact on the population. When
questioned as to why we did not collect the plants that
we passed on the trail, he asserted that ‘‘those plants
are not right for harvest because they are in the wrong
place.’’ Later examination revealed that the populations
of plants that were passed were sparse in number when
compared to those that were eventually harvested.
There is an understanding that harvesting threatened
populations is not ecologically sound. Yet, he would
not explain the situation in this manner. He suggested
that the
iwı´gara
in these low-population areas is
‘‘weak’’ and must, therefore, be allowed to be strength-
ened before the plants there are of any use. In further
conversation, he explained that collecting the plants in
the rinco´n was good, because thinning them out ac-
tually helps the
iwı´gara
in the other plants to strength-
en. He mentioned that their roots become entangled,
thus weakening their breath. In addition, he mentioned
that the plants like to be near each other because they
share their breaths. Experience told him which popu-
lations were harvestable.
Rara´muri land management represents a tradition of
conservation that relies on a reciprocal relationship
with nature in which the idea of
iwı´gara
becomes an
affirmation of caretaking responsibilities and an assur-
ance of sustainable subsistence and harvesting. It is a
realization that the Sierra Madres is a place of nurtur-
ing, full of relatives with whom all breath is shared.
Today, in the Sierra Tarahumara, logging, mining,
grazing, and other extractive industries are on the rise.
As a result, the biodiversity of the Sierra Madres is
threatened. Loss of forest canopy due to logging is
decreasing the availability of useful plants as well as
animals. The Rara´muri of 60 years ago supplemented
their diets with many edible plants as well as deer.
Today, deer hunting is almost unheard of and people
complain of having to travel farther for edible greens
and medicinal plants. Both mining and logging have
resulted in the cutting of dirt roads that crisscross the
Sierra and generate erosion problems.
Another threat to the biodiversity of the Sierra is
increased grazing as Mestizo ranchers encroach on Rar-
a´muri lands. Grazing is not a new practice in the Sierra.
Spaniards introduced sheep and goats to the Rara´muri
October 2000 1331
TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
during the 17th century, but the Rara´muri adopted this
addition to their lifestyles and diets and made it their
own. Sheep and goats furnish the Rara´muri with cloth-
ing, food, and weaving materials. In addition, the an-
imals furnish manure which adds to Rara´muri methods
of increasing the productivity of their fields. When the
animals are not grazing and adding manure to Rara´muri
fields, they are allowed to graze commonly held hill-
sides and pastures. They are constantly moved so as
not to overgraze any one area.
Despite the environmental threats to the Rara´muri
homeland, the diversity of both flora and fauna remains
rich. The Sierra is a valuable seed bank for ancient
strains of domesticated plants. Strains of panic grass
(
Panicum texanum, P. fasciculatum
), amaranth (
Ama-
ranthus palmeri
), and other edible greens, as well as
corn, beans, and squashes, continue to be harvested. In
addition, teosinte and tripsicum, thought to be the pro-
genitors of maize, survive in the Sierra. Although deer
are less numerous, they survive in the Sierra along with
black bear, ocelots, puma, eagles, hawks, and many
other mammals and birds.
R
ELATIONSHIP
B
ETWEEN
H
UMANS AND THE
N
ATURAL
W
ORLD
Indigenous cultures of North America include human
communities in their cultural equations of nature. To
indigenous people, humans are at an equal standing
with the rest of the natural world; they are kindred
relations. In addition, indigenous people believe that
the complex interactions that result from this relation-
ship enhance and preserve the ecosystem. It is under-
stood that human practices such as burning and pruning
promote new growth of shrubs, trees, and grasses. This
attracts animals such as birds to sprouting trees and
shrubs, and mammals such as deer and elk to grass-
lands. This concept of kincentricity with the natural
world is what is being referred to as ‘‘kincentric ecol-
ogy.’’
The natural world is referred to in various ways by
indigenous languages. The Yoeme of Sonora, Mexico
and southern Arizona use the terms
huya ania
to de-
scribe natural areas outside the boundaries of their vil-
lages (Evers and Molina 1987). The term roughly trans-
lates to mean nurturing life. The Rara´muri use theidea
of
gawi wachi,
the place of nurturing, to describe the
Sierra Madres (Salmo´n 1995). The Mid-Columbia Riv-
er Indians use the Sahaptin term
tiica´m,
which means
‘‘the land’’ (Hunn et al. 1990). No matter the terms,
they all make reference to the complex flow of life with
which they and their ancestors have lived interdepen-
dently for centuries. Nearly all indigenous cultures
share a set of structures, (expressions, metaphors, con-
cepts) that describe their links to the natural world
(Cajete 1994).
Indigenous people believe that they live interdepen-
dently with all forms of life. Their spiritual, physical,
social, and mental health depends on the ability to live
harmoniously with the natural world. Indigenous iden-
tity, language, land base, beliefs, and history are per-
sonifications of culture that regulate and manifest the
health of the human as well as the natural world. It is
understood that a person who harms the natural world
also harms himself.
History, identity, language, land base, and beliefs
connect, secure, and regulate the human–nature rela-
tionship. To indigenous people, history does not remain
in a linear past. History is continuous and, more im-
portantly, contextual. Cultural history is the origins of
humans and nature. For many cultures, their origins are
a result of relationships to animals, plants, etc. The
Abenaki believe they were created from ash trees. The
Lenape say that humans sprang from a ‘‘great tree.’’
The Mayans and Rara´muri believe they came from
Corn (Caduto and Bruchac 1995, Salmo´n 1995). The
Hopi owe their emergence into this world to a spider,
a spruce tree, a pine, and a stalk of bamboo, which
functioned as ladders through the
sipapu
into the Fourth
World (Courlander 1971).
The land base is often a central subject in nearly all
indigenous stories of historical origins. They often
mention how they emerged in one way or another from
the land. The land base, however, is the land to which
they claim a relationship. It may be the land on which
they now live, or a historical, or even mythical place
to which they claim relationship. Nevertheless, the life-
forms that occupy the cultural land base are direct rel-
atives to the culture.
The concepts of identity and language are connected
to indigenous peoples’ concepts of self. Words shape
thought. Thought is an expression of spirit. Many in-
digenous people feel that both humans and other life-
forms are essentially spirit and matter. Both are man-
ifestations of the interdependency of humans and na-
ture. Self-identity is a result of a developed relationship
to the environment as it is perceived by the culture.
Cultural perception stems from language and thought.
The human–nature relationship intertwines to both the
land and cultural histories.
To all cultures, beliefs form and explain the human–
nature relationship. Beliefs help a person recognize his/
her link to the natural world and his/her responsibility
to ensure its survival. No person is truly connected to
the natural world or to his/her culture if he/she does
not maintain physical, social, spiritual, and mental
health; together, they form the breath of life. Breath is
the matter and energy, which indigenous people believe
moves in all living things. Maintaining a balanced and
pure human breath also ensures the purity and health
of the breath of the natural world.
With the awareness that one’s breath is shared by all
surrounding life, that one’s emergence into this world
was possibly caused by some of the life-forms around
one’s environment, and that one is responsible for its
1332
INVITED FEATURE
Ecological Applications
Vol. 10, No. 5
mutual survival, it becomes apparent that it is related
to you; that it shares a kinship with you and with all
humans, as does a family or tribe. A reciprocal rela-
tionship has been fostered with the realization that hu-
mans affect nature and nature affects humans. This
awareness influences indigenous interactions with the
environment. It is these interactions, these cultural
practices of living with a place, that are manifestations
of kincentric ecology.
C
ONCLUSIONS
This essay presents an indigenous perception of ecol-
ogy, referred to as kincentric ecology. Kincentricecol-
ogy pertains to the manner in which indigenous people
view themselves as part of an extended ecological fam-
ily that shares ancestry and origins. It is an awareness
that life in any environment is viable only when humans
view the life surrounding them as kin. The kin, or rel-
atives, include all the natural elements of an ecosystem.
Indigenous people are affected by and, in turn, affect
the life around them. A cultural model of kincentric
ecology is presented that illustrates indigenous rela-
tionships with the natural world. The cultural model of
nature includes humans as one aspect of the complexity
of life.
In terms of indigenous land management techniques,
interactions resulting from kincentric ecology enhance
and preserve the ecosystems with which indigenous peo-
ple have lived for centuries. Indigenous land manage-
ment systems reflect the kincentric relationship that in-
digenous cultures maintain with their natural resources.
Finally, it must be mentioned that when ecologists,
land managers, environmentalists, and conservationists
speak and write about endangered species and their
potential loss, they rarely mention the loss of human
cultures that work to enhance their homelands. Cultures
such as the Rara´muri represent a group of people that
maintain and nurture their place through their tradi-
tional land management practices. They maintain the
environmental integrity of the Sierra Tarahumara,
which would quickly decline, we believe, if the Rar-
a´muri culture were to disappear. Fortunately, Rara´muri
culture is viable despite modern encroachment. Their
educational system ensures that the beliefs and tradi-
tional land practices are being transferred between el-
ders and children, which ensures the integrity of the
Sierra Madres.
L
ITERATURE
C
ITED
Bennett, W., and R. Zingg. 1935. The Tarahumara: an Indian
tribe of northern Mexico. University of Chicago Press, Chi-
cago, Illinois, USA.
Bye, R. 1976. Ethnoecology of the Tarahumara of Chihuahua,
Mexico. Dissertation. Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA.
Bye, R. 1981. Quelites-Ethnoecology of edible greens—past,
present, and future. Journal of Ethnobiology 1:(1)109–123.
Bye, R., A. Garcia, E. Herrera, J. Reyes, K. Orpiwel, and F.
Mancera. 1995. Arts/crafts exploitation of Beargrass and
Sotol. Pages 36–55
in
Projecto de Recursos Tarahumara.
Technical Report, Phase Two, World Wildlife Fund and
Biodiversity Support Program (USAID). Native Seeds
SEARCH and Sonoran Institute, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Caduto, M. J., and J. Bruchac. 1995. Native plant stories.
Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, Colorado, USA.
Cajete, G. 1994. Look to the mountain: an ecology of indig-
enous education. Kivaki Press, Durango, Colorado, USA.
Courlander, H. 1971. The Fourth World of the Hopis. Uni-
versity of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico,
USA.
Evers, L., and F. Molina. 1987. Yaqui deer songs: Maso Bwi-
kam. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Felger, R., K. Dahl, B. Burns, R. Bye, M. Fishbein, S.
McLaughlin, G. P. Nabhan, S. Nelson, H. Suzan, P. War-
shall, and M. Wilson. 1994. Northern Sierra Madre Oc-
cidental and Its Apachian outliers: a neglected center of
biodiversity. Drylands Institute, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Hunn, E. S., with James Selam and Family. 1990. Nch’i-
Wa´na ‘‘The Big River’’: Mid-Columbia Indians and their
land. University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington,
USA.
Levi, J. M. 1993. Pillars of the sky: the genealogy of ethnic
identity among the Rara´muri-Simaroni (Tarahumara/Gen-
tiles) of Northwest Mexico. Dissertation. Harvard Univer-
sity, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Martinez, D. 1993. Managing a precarious balance: wilder-
ness versus sustainable forestry. Winds of Change 8:(3)23–
28.
Martinez, D. 1994
a
. ‘‘Karuk tribal module for the Main Stem
River watershed analysis: Karuk ancestral lands and people
as reference ecosystem for eco-cultural restoration in col-
laborative ecosystem management. ’’ Issue 41. Prepared by
the Karuk Tribe of northern California under the Auspices
of Cultural Solutions for the U.S. Klamath Nation Forest.
Martinez, D. 1994
b
. Traditional environmental knowledge
connects land and culture: American Indians serve as the
link. Winds of Change 9:(4)89–94.
Ramamoorthy, T. P., R. Bye, A. Lot, and J. Fa, editors. 1993.
Biological diversity in Mexico: origins and distribution.
Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA.
Silko, L. M. 1996. Yellow women and a beauty of the spirit.
Simon and Shuster, New York, New York, USA.
Salmo´n, E. 1991. Tarahumara healing practices. Shaman’s
Drum 24:34–45.
Salmo´n, E. 1995. Cures of the Copper Canyon: medicinal
plants of the Tarahumara with potential toxicity. Herbal-
gram 34:44–55.
Zingg, R. 1940. Report on archaeology of southern chihu-
ahua. Contribution Number 1 of the University of Denver,
Center of Latin American Studies, Denver,Colorado, USA.
