|
Definition of Key Terms |
| Community a community designates both the physical boundaries of and relationships with a specified region. A community extends beyond the human world, encompassing all living things and the relationship between them. A community stresses the interdependence of all species. |
| Cultural Ecopsychology attempts to heal the rift between the human psyche and the natural world through a cultural interpretation of the natural landscape. From this interpretation, laws and customs sanctioning how to live are derived for the people of a specific culture. These laws and customs are modeled from natural cycles and are, thus, in harmony with the natural world. Cultural groupings are needed for this interpretation because they address issues specific to place. The interpretation comes from direct, active, open, and sensory interactions with the local landscape. As landscapes vary from place to place, one human interpretation is not enough. Hence, culture is meaning that comes through interaction with one’s local living geography. The author believes that Cultural Ecopsychology is not a sub-category of the field of Ecopsychology, but instead is at the center of this field. |
| Culture regulates how humans interact with the living world through practices, ethics, and philosophy. A sustainable culture is one that mirrors the living world. Traditionally, culture has functioned as a common way of being for a people who lived in close proximity to one another. Culture was purposeful, for it ensured that people of the same region would live together peacefully for they shared a common identity. Culture is the container of this identity. It can be a shared worldview, habits of consumption, religion, daily practices - any medium that expresses the human relationship with its surroundings. Moreover, culture is a tradition that is passed down. Members of a society learn its culture in order to ensure their survival within it. |
| Displacement occurs when a specific cultural population is moved from its original homeland or bioregion and relocated to a different setting. |
| Ecopsychology identifies the dysfunctional relationships humans of western civilization have developed with the rest of the natural community, over time, as a result of the dominating values of western culture. It is a study of the rift between the human psyche and that of the natural world. A true ecopsychological view recognizes that the individual’s psyche is embedded within the natural world and that the natural world is, in turn, affected by the individual’s psyche. |
| Sustainable suggests the long term durability of a living system. A sustainable culture is one that mirrors the living world in its practice. It abides by natural cycles and opens itself up to knowledge beyond the human realm. |
| Urban African Americans designate Black people who live in relatively segregated inner-city communities. Although the term African American commonly refers to any African descended citizen of the United States, within the context of this paper if singles out those who are descended from enslavement within the Americas. |
| Western Culture (within the context of this paper) refers to the dominant and expansive consumer class of the economically richest and most politically powerful nations which are based upon a hierarchical order, such as the United States and the European nations. Clearly, there is more to western culture, however the author reveals this definition to demonstrate how western culture is oppressive to other groups, including people of color, and the living world. |
