lep learning from indigenous cultures

7/31/2019 LEP Learning From Indigenous Cultures

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Life, People and the Environment: How we can learn and take example from indigenous cultures to

create a sustainable and inclusional model for society.

In the previous assignment, we have discussed how our perception of tangible and intangible

presence influenced our understanding of the human neighbourhood. We discusses that the cutting

of space and time created an alienation and distinction between ourselves and what we perceived as

other discrete entities, stressing also on the destructive implications of such way of thinking (Rayner,

2010). We also argued that this did not necessarily have to be the case. Instead, we can perceive

human nature is a in a way that is not deterministic and is not based on discrete entities, and

envision life as a fluid process of sustainable perpetuation and preservation. If we do not set up

barricades in our understanding of identity, and see ourselves as 'simultaneously receptive and

responsive dynamic neighbourhood, with complex local and non-local identities' (Rayner, 2006), we

can establish a different relationship with the environment, our community of people, our functions

and our temporal context, allowing for more inclusional solutions to the management of energy.

I came across the case of the people of Ladakh (Helena Norberg-Hodge, 1993, International

Society for Ecology and Culture, 2010), a region in the North of India, on the border with Tibet,

whom traditionally led a life which illustrated a different understanding of tangible and intangible

presence. I believe the example of this civilization can suggest a type of solution to the question of

how to form a society and organize life based on the concepts of natural inclusionality. It creates anexample of how we can organize life in a sustainable and fluid way, responding to our concerns
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about how to create a society which can prevent 'social, psychological and environmental damage

engendered by such intransigent and divisive thinking' (Rayner, 2010). In fact, following Cairns and

Harnet (2004) and Taylor (2005), Rayner (2011) remarks that certain indigenous cultures and

societies are constructed upon an understanding of the self as ensembled in its surrounding, both in

terms of other individuals and in the natural environment. We shall illustrate how the Ladhaki people

create a similar example.

Ladakh is a region of incredible beauty located in the Western Himalayas. The altitude varies

between 3000 and 4300 meters, and it is characterised by the scarcity of resources and the extreme

climate. This desert region has nonetheless been home to the Ladakhi people for thousands of years,

over which they have developed a rich culture and way of life. The Ladakhi people perception of life

is marked by continuity and timelessness. Their understanding of neighbourhood is not marked by

impenetrable time and space barriers, as in fact their lifestyle stems from the recognition of

communication channels and a flexible response to energy flows within their surroundings.

Neighbourhood as the environment

The interplay and the understanding of the environment is at the heart of the survival and

prosperity of the Ladakhi people, but also of its culture and values. They are within and part of their

surroundings, and participate to its natural processes. There is a very strong awareness of the

patterns of nature, the seasons, the connection between its different elements the rivers, the land,

the animals, etc. Agricultural practices are based on human labour, animal power and hand-made

tools. Over the centuries, the Ladakhi people have found the combination to allow them to benefit

from the fruits of nature, to be synchronized with its rhythms, and balanced with its resources, so

they can strive in an area of great scarcity. For instance, fields are irrigated with meltwater from the

glaciers, and are fertilized by natural manure. As a result, with their knowledge and simple

technologies, they can produce more than enough food for the whole entire year during the four

months between the spring and autumn frost. The sizeable surplus can be traded for salt tea and

jewelry, or can be used to brew beer. This society is characterized by frugality and simplicity, as

opposed to need for accumulation , usurpation and abusive extractions of resources- this has enable

them to survive in this manner for thousands of years, placing their community in a continuous and

fluid pathway, which expands and contracts with the frost, the rain, the sun, the migrations, but

subsists undisrupted throughout time. Seasons are fluid boundaries which allow the passage from

one phase of cultivation to the other, or from the accumulation of ice to its release down the

thousands of mountain rivers and streams.

Neighbourhood as community

The Ladakhi people have an embedded sense of community. In fact, their understand the

other members of society as part of their own lives. Although there is a sense of property and

distinctions are made between families, closer friends and other communities, there is a strong

interplay of all actors. Work and all other activities are performed with other members of the

community with in the sense of together in the same place, and as by the means of their help.

Tasks are not individual assignments, but are part of a collective idea. For example, collaboration is

key to the functioning of villages: when one house has to be rebuilt, the neighbours will also help.

This is not purely altruistic it is based on the idea that when ones own house needs maintenance,

others will be there to support in return. This allows for self-preservation and protection, while


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ensuring the sustainability of the community of a whole. It is the idea of a personal conservation,

while nourishing and contributing to the enabling environment of which it is part of. Houses in

Ladakh are very simple and similar to one another, but have and astonishing beauty is their essential

white basic structure. There is no effective distinction between rich or poor within these

communities. Resources are shared so that all can have enough. For example, water for irrigation is

channelled into the fields of all families according to a calibrated rotation system. The irrigation is

made up of dug up channels which can easily be modelled and changed according to where there is a

need.

These techniques demonstrate both a. self-preservation, in that all members can ensure

their personal protection through a collective system, and b. the establishment of a sustainable and

durable balance characterized by peaceful relations. This sets an example of an understanding of

neighbourhood in terms of use of energy flows through permeable boundaries, instead of discrete

entities.

Neighbourhood as place where to work/learn/participate

Albeit the fact that members have different roles according mainly to their age and gender,

everybody participate and is involved in the full functioning of the community. In addition, there is

no factual distinction between the moments allocated to work, to learn and to play. It is not viewed

as an exclusive process. In fact, there is little notion of separation of the three. Ladakhis have to work

with constancy in order to follow the progression of seasons, but this is also combined with family

life, with discussions, with singing, with games. Leisure and work are lived as one, as part of a

process towards insuring continuity, tranquillity, security and joy. There is no cutting of time and

space into what is work and what is not. The childrens upbringing is done through experience and

through the exposure to new lessons in everyday life, which is partly self-acquired, and partly

transmitted by the elder. In fact, there is a very strong degree of intergenerational contact.

Neighbourhood as temporal context, as 'place-time'

As described above, work is done constantly, but not hastily. The pace established permits

fluidity of action, as steps of a procedure that has been passed on uninterruptedly for generations,

without a beginning or end, establishing a continuous place-time of the co-creative natural energy

flow (Rayner, 2010). Life is effectively timeless- if we consider time as a sequence of cut and

distinct moments, but maybe time-full in the sense of conceiving time as our temporal

neighbourhood, the moment within which we coexist with our surroundings. The level ofintergenerational contact means that effectively the notions of past, present and future exist in the

same moment, as the old see in the young what they have been, and the young see what they will

become. The elderly pass on their knowledge, creating the potential for new life to prosper and grow

as their energy dissipates, and the young absorb such learnings, effectively becoming old. Certainly

the Ladkhi people, being isolated from modern technology and western medical care, have less

means to prevent illness and post-pone death, but the stability and continuity of their community

allows for death to occur as a process that guarantees to leave behind a legacy of perpetuation and

life.


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I have not yet been to Ladakh, therefore I can only base myself on the knowledge I have

come across, I hope I am not mistaken by a partial and bias vision of their practices and culture, but I

do feel that this view is consistent with what I believe human life can be, and how one can interpret

the natural human neighbourhood. Unfortunately, over the last two decades, this way of living has

been strongly disrupted by the advent of modern costumes, geopolitical interests, and an economic

imposition over this traditional society, which has severely challenged the possibilities of subsistence

of this understanding of tangible and intangible presence.


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Bibliography:

Rayner, A.D.M. ,2006, Natural Inclusion: How to Evolve Good Neighbourhood. Self-published on CD

Rayner, A.D.M., 2010, Intangible Presence - Its scientific, social, psychological, environmental and

spiritual implications, available through www.best-thinking.com

Rayner, A.D.M., 2011, Space Cannot Be Cut- Why Self-Identity Naturally Includes Neighbourhood,

Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2011 Feb 8.

Norberg-Hodge, Helena, 1993, Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, International Society for

Ecology and Cultures

International Society for Ecology and Cultures, 2010, URL: http://www.localfutures.org/ladakh-

project
http://www.best-thinking.com/http://www.best-thinking.com/http://www.best-thinking.com/http://www.best-thinking.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Norberg-Hodgehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Norberg-Hodgehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Norberg-Hodgehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Norberg-Hodgehttp://www.best-thinking.com/

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