This is a dense and complex topic and Mary did a great job at breaking it down into digestible information. I agree that the social construction of nature offers hope for a different way to connect to the land. One possible mechanism that I see facilitating this shift is the emergence of the hologenome theory of evolution, which places humans not as individuals but as hosts or ‘holobionts’ to an entire ecosystem of gut microbiota that can not only influence your health and mood but they are now finding that it may play a significant role in gene expression. Through a social constructionist lens, I think this can help shift the social narrative of individual humans pitted against the environment towards acceptance that we are in fact environments ourselves. Just like our well-being and evolution depends on gut microbes living in harmony with their environment, the earth’s wellbeing and evolution depends on us living in harmony with our environment. Of course this echoes a view that many Indigenous and other world cultures had held for centuries but with “proof” from the technocratic authorities that rule our modern world, these ideas can reach wider audiences more quickly.
This is a dense and complex topic and Mary did a great job at breaking it down into digestible information. I agree that the social construction of nature offers hope for a different way to connect to the land.
One possible mechanism that I see facilitating this shift is the emergence of the hologenome theory of evolution, which places humans not as individuals but as hosts or ‘holobionts’ to an entire ecosystem of gut microbiota that can not only influence your health and mood but they are now finding that it may play a significant role in gene expression. Through a social constructionist lens, I think this can help shift the social narrative of individual humans pitted against the environment towards acceptance that we are in fact environments ourselves. Just like our well-being and evolution depends on gut microbes living in harmony with their environment, the earth’s wellbeing and evolution depends on us living in harmony with our environment. Of course this echoes a view that many Indigenous and other world cultures had held for centuries but with “proof” from the technocratic authorities that rule our modern world, these ideas can reach wider audiences more quickly.