An Indigenous Philosophical Ecology: Situating the Human

Abstract

Can Indigenous ecological knowledge contribute to major debates in Western science and philosophy? I argue that it offers a 'philosophical ecology' that works synergistically with Western eco-philosophy and some streams of ecological science. This paper takes up the challenge offered by Val Plumwood: that anthropology can contribute to the work of re-situating the human. It examines an ecological philosophy of mutual benefits, and shows patterns, and a broader meta-pattem, in which life is both for itself and for others, and in which connectivity and stability are achieved through densely recursive benefits. I identify these and other contexts as areas for further dialogue.