Online presentation made on Tuesday June 2nd for the Ecuadorian Society of Ethnobiology and the Latin American Society of Ethnobiology (SOLAE) by Didier Lacaze

Introduction

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Didier Lacaze. My background is not academic. It is based rather on a life experience of about 40 years, in direct contact with the tropical forests and diverse indigenous cultures in the Amazon [Peruvian and Ecuadorian].

Despite not having followed university studies, I owe much of what I learned during these 4 decades to many people, both scholars of biological, social and health sciences, and members of different indigenous peoples and cultures who shared their knowledge and teachings with me.

My interest in the relationship between health and nature was nurtured from 1983, when I was the administrator of an ecological reserve, located on the Tambopata River, in the southeastern Peruvian Amazon.

Then, in 1985, when I was appointed by the Federation of Native Communities of the Madre de Dios River -FENAMAD, as coordinator of a project of Application of Traditional Medicine, called AMETRA 2001.

As part of this work, in 1996, together with Ethnobotanist Miguel Alexiades and the FENAMAD, we published: “Salud Para Todos” / Heath For All – Medicinal Plants from the Madre de Dios River Basin), and in 1996: “FENAMAD’s

Program in Traditional Medicine: An Integrated Approach to Health Care in The Peruvian Amazon“. (In “Medicinal Resources of The Tropical Forest”¹

The title of my presentation “The Rebellion of the animals, the Plants, Nature”, is inspired by an article published by the Brazilian anthropologist, Els Lagrou, which ends by saying: “It is not only the fact of eating bats or pangolins that causes epidemics, but the way in which our civilization, which feeds on the endless growth of cities over forests, trees and their inhabitants, stopped listening to the “rebellion of the animals, the plants… nature”.

 

 

 

 

 

Relations between indigenous cultures and nature

Well then, we are entering into this theme of the relations between our human society and this other non-human society, which from the traditional Amazonian cultures, forms part of what we call “nature”, which for those other cultures is shared with other forces and powers.

To understand this better, we have to interest ourselves with the Pan-Amazonian myths that deal with the origins and creation of the world. These stories of the ancestors say that in times before this humanity, humans and non-humans spoke a common language, which they communicated with each other.

That, in the wake of many disorders in that world/time before, the Creator decided to end it by bringing about great floods – or great fires [depending on the culture], which put an end to this earlier humanity. This is how that other form of communication between humans and non-humans was lost, although the memory of those “times before” was not completely lost.

The myths go on to say: “The Creator sent new people to repopulate the world; this is how our ancestors came…”.

Human and non-human, all were still related, from the memory of those “times of before”. “Game animals were countrymen, plants transmitted knowledge…, while invisible beings jealously guarded the resources.

To this new humanity the Creator transmitted teachings, through non-visible forms, which in English we call spirits, about how people should live with each other, so that everything goes well in the world.

To make them remember these teachings, the Creator arranged for invisible beings to protect the resources. In order to extract these resources, be they animals or plants, in order to live and reproduce, certain rules had to be followed, such as asking permission from these invisible beings, among other rules.

In other words, it was a matter of respecting the owners of the resources, of not depredating or over-exploiting nature to avoid “retaliation” from the protective beings, causing diseases, scarcity of resources or other calamities to come.

What GAIA MAY BE telling us with the COVID-19

Since the declaration of this corona virus epidemic, we have heard many opinions and theories about the possible origins of COVID-19. Among others, we have spoken of nature’s revenge, of a divine punishment, that the devil is to blame, or the politicians… that we are at war with an invisible enemy – the corona virus, that our health workers are in the front line of the battle, etc… few have dared to ask if it is not that we are not at war with ourselves…

Well, perhaps I’m making a little simplistic characterization of a much more complex phenomena. However, I think it can help us understand this better if we connect to a more Western and scientific thinking, through the GAIA hypothesis, formulated by James Lovelock and co-developed by Lynn Margulis in the 1970s.

Also known as the Gaia theory or the Gaia principle, it proposes that:

“all living organisms interact with their inorganic environment on Earth to form a complex synergistic and self-regulating system that helps maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet“. (James Lovelock)

As we see, according to this theory, GAIA would behave as a self-regulating system, which tends to self-regulate.

 

So, if we apply the GAIA theory to the above said, we would have to reconsider several of the words that we pronounced before, starting with the one we used for the title of this talk: “rebellion”.

That is to say : In the face of the depredatory actions of our civilization, or rather of our economic productive system, to irresponsibly extract the natural resources that we believe we need to live well and be happy, Gaia moves, Gaia breathes, reacts, defends itself, regulates itself.

 

 

 

Interculturality

Now, we have before us two different ways of seeing and understanding the world in which we live.

I believe that in this way we can see and understand that finally these are constructions that belong to different cultures and that do not necessarily have to be antagonistic. They are versions of reality that each culture builds from and with the world in which it lives.

Like many other people, I am convinced that the traditional knowledge and practices that still survive today in the Amazon are invaluable contributions for us, if we are willing to listen and learn.

Preserving dialogue with non-humans is fundamental, because only through dialogue can we avoid the disasters that result from forgetting that we share this world with other forces.

I cannot help but regret also how much we, the humanity, have lost by allowing this knowledge and practice to be abandoned, lost or distorted, believing that we are doing good when we bring development, in whatever form, to indigenous peoples.

I do not believe that we in the West should adopt the beliefs and practices of indigenous peoples, but perhaps they can teach us something that will serve us, and neither should we think or believe that they should give up theirs.

What is certain is that we still have a long way to go to open up paths and build bridges between the various cultures, which will allow for a true dialogue, in which one and the other will be nourished and enriched mutually. This is true iinterculturality.

6. To conclude

I want to continue to believe that this pandemic, despite the suffering, pain and difficulties that many have experienced and continue to experience, particularly now in the Amazon, gives us a great opportunity to seriously reconsider the possibility of an “other”, more inclusive, truly intercultural world.

I conclude by recalling the words of our President of the Republic, Lenin Moreno, in his speech on May 24, when he said: “…I am not interested in being remembered…”

So, I, today, to you Mr. President, I say:

“Please do something to preserve the rainforests and to protect the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon. “If you don’t do something now, I am afraid you will always be remembered as the one who didn’t do what he could and should have done then.”

🙏

Thank you very much