Trekking the Amazon with Love and Care

  • Eglee Zent Lab Ecología Humana, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas
  • Stanford Zent Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas
  • Lojta Jtute Knowledge holder and community member
  • Awelajlu Jtitekyo Knowledge holder and community member
  • Jkatalila̧ Jtute Knowledge holder and community member
  • Lobįko Ijtö Knowledge holder and community member
  • Ilę Jkwayo Knowledge holder and community member
  • Maliela Yaluja Knowledge holder and community member
  • Iva Juae Knowledge holder and community member
  • Noe Jono Knowledge holder and community member
  • Alejadro Molö Knowledge holder and community member
  • Aula Amikoja Knowledge holder and community member
  • Abeto Melomaja Knowledge holder and community member
  • Alabala Aubojkyo Knowledge holder and community member
  • Kyabo Bowijte Knowledge holder and community member
  • Awaïkï Yewi Knowledge holder and community member
  • Jani-Yewi Yewi Knowledge holder and community member
  • Ba̧lejko Jtitekyo Knowledge holder and community member
  • Jkai Knowledge holder and community member
  • Jtobá Jtute Knowledge holder and community member
  • Lila Yolo Knowledge holder and community member
  • Ajti̧ta Uliejteja Knowledge holder and community member
  • Jtujkaybojlae Bowijte Knowledge holder and community member
  • Ulijkule Jtute Knowledge holder and community member
  • Jkwajkya Jlawi Knowledge holder and community member
  • Late Bowijte Knowledge holder and community member
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1809
Keywords: Love-care, Biocultural conservation, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples, Jotï, Amazon

Abstract

This essay highlights the philosophical views of the Jotï, an Indigenous group from the Venezuelan Amazon. Daily Jotï behaviors are embraced by a notion of life in which everything is interconnected (mana jtïdemame) and should be respected given its sacredness (jkïmañe). Furthermore, life is in perennial movement (jkeibïae dekae) and is designed to be carried out together in groups (uliyena majadïka). The maintenance of life is related to engaging in solidarity, reciprocity, and amicability (me madöna), with these values being the key metaphor for hunting-gathering-farming-fishing rather than predation. The universe is populated by a myriad of entities with unique capacities, volitions, and motivations (budëkïmade)—like those of people, regardless of their nonhuman appearances—evidence that the universe’s inherent condition is subjective, and all life forms originated from the same root. Likewise, no landscape or life form is pristine or final; instead, everything is potentially subject to ceaseless transformation (jka ojtali ~ jkabaemade). Those reasons provide the basis for why every person should strive for righteousness (nï jti maudöna), endeavoring to be morally good and practicing love-care with all that surrounds us (jkyo jkwainï). Love-care is the translation of a praxis considered an innate essential constituent of all persons. It is also the fundamental strategy to sustain and protect life. Given that nothing prevents a person anywhere in the world from embracing love and care as their life motto while struggling to prevent the current path of destruction of the Earth, the enactment of love-care is an endless possibility regardless of location or time.

Author Biography

Stanford Zent, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas

Full Professor, Lab Ecologia Humana IVIC

References

Århem, K. 1996. Makuna: An Amazonian People. SANS Papers in Social Anthropology Göteborg University, Sweden.

Büscher, B., and R. Fletcher. 2019. Towards Convivial Conservation. Conservation and Society 17:283–296. DOI:10.4103/cs.cs_19_75.

Campos, M. 2008. Cruzando Ecologias Com os Caçadores do Rio Cuieiras: Saberes e Estratégias de Caça no Baixo Rio Negro, Amazonas. Master’s thesis, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Brazil.

Choo, J., E. Zent, and B. Simpson. 2009. The Importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Palm-weevil Cultivation in the Venezuelan Amazon. Journal of Ethnobiology 29:113–128. DOI:10.2993/0278-0771-29.1.113.

Crocker, J. C. 1985. Vital Souls: Bororo Cosmology, Natural Symbolism, and Shamanism. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Descola, P. 1998 Estrutura ou Sentimento: A Relação Com o Animal Na Amazônia. Mana 4:23–45. DOI:10.1590/S0104-93131998000100002.

Descola, P. 2005 Par-delà Nature et Culture. Gallimard, Paris.

Furlan, V., D. Jiménez-Escobar, F. Zamudio, and C. Medrano. 2020. ‘Ethnobiological Equivocation’ and Other Misunderstandings in the Interpretation of Natures. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 84:101333. DOI:10.1016/j.shpsc.2020.101333.

Gavin, M., J. McCarter, A. Mead, F. Berkes, J. R. Stepp, D. Peterson, and R. Tang. 2015. Defining Biocultural Approaches to Conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 30:140–145. DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2014.12.005.

Hallowell, I. 1960. Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior and World View. In Culture in History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin, edited by S. Diamond, pp. 19–52. Columbia University Press, New York.

Hodge, D., and H. K. Hodge. 2009. Impermanence: Embracing Change - From the Multi-Media Art Exhibition. Penguin Random House, Canada.

Holbraad, M., and M. Pedersen. 2014. The Politics of Ontology: Theorizing the Contemporary Fieldsights. Available at: https://culanth.org/fieldsights/series/the-politics-of-ontology. Accessed on January 13, 2022.

Laszlo, E. 2003 The Connectivity Hypothesis: Foundations of an Integral Science of Quantum, Cosmos, Life, and Consciousness. State University of New York Press, New York.

Lockyer, J., and J. Veteto. 2013. Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia: Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and Ecovillages. Berghahn Books, New York.

Miller, A. M., and I. Davidson-Hunt. 2013. Agency and Resilience: Teachings of Pikangikum First Nation Elders, Northwestern Ontario. Ecology and Society 18:9. DOI:10.5751/ES-05665-180309.

Morrison, K. 2002. The Cosmos as Intersubjective: Native American Other-than-human Persons. In Indigenous Religions. A Companion, edited by G. Harvey, pp. 23–36. Cassell, London.

Niewöhner, J., and M. Lock. 2018. Situating Local Biologies: Anthropological Perspectives on Environment/Human Entanglements. BioSocieties 13:681–697. DOI:10.1057/s41292-017-0089-5.

Nirmal, P., and D. Rocheleau. 2019. Decolonizing Degrowth in the Post-Development Convergence: Questions, Experiences, and Proposals from Two Indigenous Territories. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 2:465–492. DOI:10.1177%2F2514848618819478.

Overing, J., and A. Passes. 2000. Introduction: Conviviality and the Opening up of Amazonian Anthropology. In The Anthropology of Love and Anger: The Aesthetics of Conviviality in Native Amazonia, edited by J. Overing and A. Passes, pp. 1–30. Routledge, New York.

Richter, D., and M. Mobley. 2009. Monitoring Earth's Critical Zone. Science 326:1067–1068. DOI:10.1126/science.1179117.

Robinson, M. 2014. Animal Personhood in Mi'kmaq Perspective. Societies 4:672–688. DOI:10.3390/soc4040672.

Rothman, D. 2017. Thresholds of Catastrophe in the Earth System. Science Advances 3: e170090. DOI:10.1126/sciadv.1700906.

Sahlins, M. 2012. What Kinship Is—And Is Not. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Simard, S. 2021. Finding the Mother Tree. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Strathern, M. 1988. The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia. California University Press, Berkeley.

Timmis, K., R. Cavicchioli, J. Garcia, B. Nogales, M. Chavarría, L. Stein, et al. 2019. The Urgent Need for Microbiology Literacy in Society. Environmental Microbiology 21:1513–1528. DOI:10.1111/1462-2920.14611.

Vicente, M. 2020 A River with Standing: Personhood in Te Ao Māori. Parse 12:1–14. Available at: https://parsejournal.com/article/a-river-with-standing-personhood-in-te-ao-maori/. Accessed on January 14, 2022.

Viveiros de Castro, E. 1998. Cosmological Perspectivism in Amazonia and Elsewhere. Four Lectures Given in the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, February-March. Hau Masterclass Series Volume 1. Available at: https://haubooks.org/cosmological-perspectivism-in-amazonia/. Accessed on January 14, 2022.

Viveiros de Castro, E. 2004. Perspectival Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Equivocation. Tipití 2:3–22.

Wallach, A. D., C. Batavia, M. Bekoff, S. Alexander, L. Baker, et al. 2020. Recognizing Animal Personhood in Compassionate Conservation. Conservation Biology 34:1097–1106. DOI:10.1111/cobi.13494.

Yates-Doerr, E. 2015. Does Meat Come from Animals? A Multispecies Approach to Classification and Belonging in Highland Guatemala. American Ethnologist 42:309–323. DOI:10.1111/amet.12132.

Zent, E. 2009. “We come from Trees”: The Poetics of Plants among the Jotï of the Venezuelan Guayana. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. 3:9–35. DOI:10.1558/jsrnc.v3i1.9.

Zent, E., and S. Zent. 2002. Impactos Ambientales Generadores de Biodiversidad: Conductas Ecológicas de los Hotï de la Sierra Maigualidad del Amazonas Venezolano. Interciencia 27:9–20.

Zent, E., and S. Zent. 2022b. Love Sustains Life: Jkyo Jkwainï and Allied Strategies in Caring for the Earth. Journal of Ethnobiology 42:86–104. DOI:10.2993/0278-0771-42.1.86.

Zent, E., S. Zent, A. Juae Mölö, T. Jono, G. Liye, A. Yolo, A. Melomaja, et al. (+199 Jotï authors). 2019. Nï Jotï Aiye: Jkyo Jkwainï. Libro comunitario Jotï: Historia, territorio y vida. Ediciones IVIC, Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation, Acaté Amazon Conservation. Editorial Arte, Caracas, Venezuela.

Zent, S., and E. Zent. 2008. Los Jodï. In: Los Aborígenes de Venezuela, edited by M. A. Perera, pp. 499-570. Ediciones IVIC, Monte Avila Editores, ICAS, Fundación La Salle, Caracas, Venezuela.

Zent, S., and E. Zent. 2012. Jodï Horticultural Belief, Knowledge and Practice: Incipient or Integral Cultivation? Boletim du Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi 7:293–338. DOI:10.1590/S1981-81222012000200003.

Zent S., and E. Zent. 2020. Co-ecology of Jotï, Primates, and Other People: A Multispecies Ethnography in the Venezuelan Guayana. In Neotropical Ethnoprimatology, edited by B. Urbani B. and M. Lizarralde, pp. 161–197. Ethnobiology Series. Springer, Cham. DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-27504-4_8.

Zent, S., and E. Zent. In press 2022a. Collaborative Action Research for Biocultural Heritage Conservation. In Field Environmental Philosophy: Education for Biocultural Conservation. Ecology and ethics, edited by R. Rozzi, A. Tauro, T. Wright, N. Avriel-Avni, and R. May Jr.. Springer, Dordrecht.

An illustration of the Jotï Cosmos, Spheres of Life and Trees, featuring disks of different habitats from the forest floor, underbrush, water and sky, connected by trees and plants, and including a variety of animal life and humans within one complex but whole ecosystem. Elaborated by Nuria Martín.
Published
2022-08-20
How to Cite
Zent, E., Zent, S., Jtute, L., Jtitekyo, A., Jtute, J., Ijtö, L., Jkwayo, I., Yaluja, M., Juae, I., Jono, N., Molö, A., Amikoja, A., Melomaja, A., Aubojkyo, A., Bowijte, K., Yewi, A., Yewi, J.-Y., Jtitekyo, B., Jkai, Jtute, J., Yolo, L., Uliejteja, A., Bowijte, J., Jtute, U., Jlawi, J., & Bowijte, L. (2022). Trekking the Amazon with Love and Care. Ethnobiology Letters, 13(1), 29–40. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1809
Issue
Vol 13 No 1 (2022)
Section
Perspectives

Copyright (c) 2022 Eglee Zent, Stanford Zent, Lojta Jtute, Awelajlu Jtitekyo, Jkatalila̧ Jtute, Lobįko Ijtö, Ilę Jkwayo, Maliela Yaluja, Iva Juae, Noe Jono, Alejadro Molö, Aula Amikoja, Abeto Melomaja, Alabala Aubojkyo, Kyabo Bowijte, Awaïkï Yewi, Jani-Yewi Yewi, Ba̧lejko Jtitekyo, Jkai, Jtobá Jtute, Lila Yolo, Ajti̧ta Uliejteja, Jtujkaybojlae Bowijte, Ulijkule Jtute, Jkwajkya Jlawi, Late Bowijte

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content and grant Ethnobiology Letters (the “Journal”) and the Society of Ethnobiology right of first publication. Authors and the Journal agree that Ethnobiology Letters will publish the article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits others to use, distribute, and reproduce the work non-commercially, provided the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal are properly cited.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

For any reuse or redistribution of a work, users must make clear the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

In publishing with Ethnobiology Letters corresponding authors certify that they are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements. They warrant, on behalf of themselves and their co-authors, that the content is original, has not been formally published, is not under consideration, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights. They further warrant that the material contains no matter that is scandalous, obscene, libelous, or otherwise contrary to the law.

Corresponding authors will be given an opportunity to read and correct edited proofs, but if they fail to return such corrections by the date set by the editors, production and publication may proceed without the authors’ approval of the edited proofs.