Elemental Powers: Water Beings, Nature Worship, and Long-term Trajectories in Human-environmental Relations
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Human societies have developed unique trajectories of engagement with their environments over time.Some of these long-term relationships contain more potential for sustainability than others.Early human societies worshipped 'nature beings', including water serpent deities who manifested the elemental and generative powers of water.Such beliefs supported collaborative and reciprocal efforts to co-exist respectfully with the non-human world: a form of 'conviviality' that maintained highly sustainable lifeways.However, as other societies enlarged, became more hierarchical, and developed more instrumental technologies, they humanised their gods to worship their own rather than non-human powers.This supported ideas about 'dominion' over nature that, in prioritising human needs and interests and externalising their costs, have led directly to the current environmental crisis.Focusing on images and objects representing water deities, and exploring how the role and form of these changed to reflect key transitions in social, political and technical arrangements, this article asks what we can learn from earlier societies, and from contemporary indigenous communities that retain traditional beliefs and values.Is there a creative scope to incorporate the tenets of more sustainable modes of environmental engagement into contemporary debates about 'rights for nature'?Can alternate worldviews assist societies in developing less anthropocentric ways of thinking about and engaging with the non-human world?In the face of contemporary realities, how can we re-establish more convivial human-environmental relations?
DOI: 10.33063/diva-463871
Author: Veronica Strang
Institution: Durham University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4393068249