Environmental Change and Bounded Cultures :: Essays Papers

Environmental Change and Bounded Cultures Viewing cultures as shared, bounded wholes, relating to single, passive environments is a deceptive perspective in global environmental science today. As global environmental problems have topical anesthetic environmental impacts, the way that scientists return of local indigenous communities affects the relevancy of any international aid a global scientific community can offer (209). Ultimately, environmentally benign beliefs picture into environmentally benign practice, and unless scientists overcome predispositions about the inertness of culture, any valuable international relationship towards a common future will be lost (215, 222).As with other indigenous languages around the world, local tungsten African languages entail political significance in terms of relationship between land and farmer. such(prenominal) political terms do not translate easily into those of Western environmental science, and appreciation for their meaning requ ires an authentic globalization of environmental discourse (211, 222). Because unlike scientists have no knowledge of the West African cultural embeddedness of language and land, they are often unaware of the enduring links between contemporary West African farmers and their ancestors who once worked the same plot of earth. Invariably, contemporary global sciences evaluate indigenous environmental practices only on their own Western terms, and do not book for reinterpretation of ideas that could inform care of the earth (224).A limited understanding of indigenous practices also promotes the repackaging of local knowledges as romanticized notions, allowing Westerners to invent their own interpretations of what is traditional and ultimately eradicate local creativity (211). In the imposition of global orthodoxies and analysis upon environmental values and notions of sustainability in Non-Western cultures, Western scientists infringe not only on local livelihoods but also on cultura l freedom of fellow human beings (224). The scientific power of a dominant culture in defining the environmental practices of other cultures limits our international potential for environmental sustainability, as it limits the voices and legitimate contributions of indigenous societies.The political reality of globally defined environmental agendas simply does not beam the agendas of every community around the globe, rather, it reflects the priorities of those in positions of power (Leach and Fairhead 210).