We Sioux spend a lot of time thinking about everyday things which in our minds are mixed up with the spiritual. We see in the world around us many symbols that teach us the meaning

of life. We Indians live in a world of symbols and images where the spiritual and commonplace are one. We try to understand

them not with the head but with the heart.

--John Fire Lame Deer

Local, Land-Centered Outlook / Center of World Lack of Historical Perspective / Cyclic Time Immersion in Nature Reciprocal Interrelationships Animism (anima = “soul”) / Spiritism High God Dreamtime Altered States of Consciousness Harmony

Shaman Totem Taboo Fetish Omen Divination Rites of Passage and Cosmic Renewal Hunting Rituals

It is critical to understand how notions of conservation and environmental protection are conceptualized and formulated by local communities for successful conservation to occur (26)

Berkes urges us to move beyond reductionist visions of ecology by embracing moral perspectives and spiritual aspects often embedded in traditional knowledge systems and local resource management practices (27)

Environmental zones Spirits who regulate nature and human behavior

Lemane, ancestors, “grease” (ipane) Sky people, earth mother women

Rituals of replenishment “Humans control the flow of grease through the land by

appealing to spirits that regulate the flow of water” (34) Auwalo anda: pig sacrifice to “autochthonous” Lemane Pig sacrifice to ancestors in the ancestral pool

Punishment for misbehavior

There were 60,000 people living on this island [when I arrived in 1508], including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this?

--Bartolomé de Las Casas (1531)

The history of a cube of sugar is an entire lesson in economy, politics, and also in morality

--Augustin Cochin (1823-72)

Pomier Caves in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic

400 BCE-1500s Taino (Caribs) 1492 Columbus early1500s Beginning of Slave Trade in Caribbean 1697-1804 Saint-Domingue 1791 Bois-Caiman & Haitian Revolution 1804 Haitian Independence

A “new religious movement” West African spirit and ancestor cults New spirits/deities revealed in the New World Catholic saints identified as new manifestations of African

spirits Spirit possession and divination Shaman ritual specialists: manbo (female), oungan (male) Many spirits (lwa) reside in natural phenomena, especially

(and ironically) trees.