Aboriginal Concept of Human Need

by A.S. Cajes

Batad Rice Terraces in Ifugao. Foto by A.S. Cajes

In relation to their natural environment or the cosmos, the early Filipinos, like the American Indians, harmonized their ways with the natural forces.  Prof. Dr. Florentino H.  Hornedo says: 

"The traditional Filipino lived with nature. The forests and rivers were his 'brothers.' Their preservation and conservation was his life. Their destruction, his destruction. When he told his children that divine beings prohibited the desecration of the forest, he was speaking with the authority of life and in the name of life.[1]” 

Hornedo explains this aboriginal outlook in terms of the generalist and synthetic mind of the earlier peoples, which is in stark contrast to the specialist and reductionist attitude of the scientific mind. The aboriginal mind considered nature as mysterious, thus s/he was at the mercy of the forces of nature.  With this condition, his/her natural recourse was to live with nature rather than subjugate it. In contrast, the scientific mind has a vast amount of knowledge about natural processes.  Nature is no longer a mystery to him/her. The scientific mind has "unraveled," so to speak, the cause and effect of the world.  Nature is now at his/her mercy. But the aboriginal mind, Hornedo observes: 

Transcended the mere level of cause and effect to the human quest for meaning, which involves a fascination with purpose and final causes.  His science, therefore was concerned not with the control of nature, but with the making sense of phenomena and protecting his consciousness from the threat of absurdity.  Thus, the aboriginal or traditional consciousness is not concerned with the conquest of natural forces, but with harmonizing his ways with it.  Nature, he tells himself, is sovereign, and it is from the bounty of this sovereign reality that he feeds himself and his children.  The noblest relation he can have with nature is expressed in terms of the familial-'brother' or 'mother', and such other effective symbols of a fruitful relationship.[2] 

The aboriginal concept of human need, in relation to the natural environment, is distilled in a letter from Chief Seattle, chief of the Squarmish Indians, to the American Government in 1854. The letter was a response to the offer by "The Great White Chief" in Washington to buy Indian. 

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the Earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clear and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memory and experience of my people. The white man's dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful Earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the Earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters, the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and the man, all belong to the same family. The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. Teach your children what we have taught our children that the Earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know - the Earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth - befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.[3] 

Thomas Berry, in his address to the Harvard Seminar on Environmental Values at Harvard University on April 9, 1996 explained why the indigenous peoples are capable of such an "environmental language" in contrast to contemporary peoples. He said: 

"Indigenous peoples are capable of such statements because they live in a functioning universe, in a cosmos. We no longer live in a universe, we live in cities or nations or civilizations or cultural traditions. We do not live in a significant manner with the wind or the rain or the stars in the sky. We recognize the dawn and sunset and the seasons of the years, yet these are only incidental to the major concerns of life. Our laws are the laws of human or of divine origin, they are not laws primarily of cosmological origin."

---

[1] Florentino H. Hornedo, Pagmamahal and Pagmumura Essays (Quezon City: ADMU-Office of Research and Pub., c. 1997), 37.

[2] Ibid., 4.

[3] Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia in the Southern Spring of 1995.