1. I will be studying the Ute Native Americans and the Yanomami people of the Amazon Rainforest. I will study the respective cultures and compare their relationship to the environment with modern western society’s relationship. I will use my personal relationship with nature as a basis and lens of western society.
2. This is an important subject to be studied as we see indigenous people and ancient lands being destroyed in the name of capitalism all across the world. Indigenous cultures have a more holistic and intimate relationship with the land. Whereas western society’s relationship and understanding of nature is mainly expressed through a scientific lens. What we may see as mystical is actually an insightful interpretation that we may not understand because it is placed out of our cultural context. I will hash out this claim in my research paper. Understanding different cultures helps us understand the world better and understanding the world and its people helps us to treat it more justly.
3. I will study these cultures by examining their communal structures, their societal makeup, their food consumption, and their artistic representation of nature through folklore and other art. For example, the Ute prayer in which the people call upon the earth to teach them “regeneration…courage… limitation” etc. is indicative of their dependence on nature for wisdom as well as livelihood. I will also discuss how western society has encroached on these cultures in the belief that their “uncivilized” ways are inferior to western society. I will discuss the validity of this basis for imperialist conquest.
4. I anticipate that I will come to a deeper understanding of these cultures. I predict that I will discover that these two cultures have very profound connections and understandings with the land they have inhabited for centuries. I suspect that this understanding will be more holistic than the western understanding of nature, which is dominantly scientific.
5. I will communicate my final results via a research paper.
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