Touching the Earth Again

The Native Americans reported their horror at the white man’s exploitative attitude to the land, their determination to tear up the surface of the earth to piece in their search for resources and wealth. Again and again at treaty meetings, the Native Americans express their dismay at the concept that land can be divided up and sold as a commodity. To them, the land was too sacred for human beings to claim ownership of. As Chief Joseph of the ‘Nez Perce’ tribe stated,

‘The country was made without lines of demarcation and it is no man’s business to divide it… The only one who has right to dispose of [the land] is the one who has created it.’

The ‘Individuated’ Sense of Self

If there is one fundamental psychological difference which between the Native Americans and the European-Americans, it may be that European-Americans have a more ‘individuated’ sense of self. That is, the European-American (or modern American, or modern Western) sense of self appears to be more autonomous, with a stronger sense of boundary, than the traditional Natives of Touch the Earth. This modern sense of self experiences a degree of separateness – separateness to the natural world, separateness to each other as individuals, and even separateness to their own bodies (in the sense of experiencing ourselves as an ‘I’ which inhabits a body).

In fact, many anthropologists have suggested something similar of other indigenous peoples. For example, the early 20th century anthropologist Lucien Levy-Bruhl, described the essential characteristic of the indigenous tribal peoples he studied as their less ‘sharpened’ sense of individuality. He noted that, rather than existing as self-sufficient individual entities, indigenous peoples’ sense of identity was bound up with their community. He cited reports of tribal peoples who use the word ‘I’ when speaking of their group, and also noted that indigenous peoples’ sense of identity extends to objects they use and touch.

A strongly ‘individuated’ sense of self may have some benefits. It may give us a sense of control over our own lives, a sense of being directors of our own destiny rather than being confined by traditions and conventions. It may even have helped to generate some of the technological advances which have made the modern world a comfortable and entertaining place for many of us. However, the potential dangers of this separate self are massive. For us as individuals, it may lead to a sense of dislocation, an underlying sense of not being at home in the world (which would have been completely foreign to the Native Americans). And this sense of unease may manifest itself in conflict between us, as individuals and groups. As one of the speakers says in Touch the Earth, the Native Americans ‘knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that the lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.’

Ultimately, the greatest danger of our sense of separation may be the destruction of our environment. People who see themselves as separate from nature and don’t perceive it as sacred – people who feel that they are entitled to dominate nature, and to plunder its resources for their own use – will inevitably mistreat and over-exploit the natural world. They will eventually reach a point of damaging the environment to the extent that it is no longer able to support them. This is why it’s urgent for us to overcome our sense of separation and to re-connect with the natural world, to develop reverence for it and sense its sacredness, as the Native Americans did. Our survival may depend on it.

Previous articles by Steve Taylor:

• Transcending Time in Egoless States of Consciousness
• Transcendent Sexuality — How Sex Can Generate Higher States of Consciousness
• Reclaiming The Self – Is Your Sense Of Self An Illusion?
• The Power Of Silence
• Happiness Comes from Giving and Helping, Not Buying and Having
• A Sense of Purpose Means a Longer Life
• Empathy – The Power of Connection
• Transcending Human Madness
• If Women Ruled the World – Is a Matriarchal Society the Solution?
• Transpersonal Purpose and the Impulse for Spiritual Development

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