In this
case, during his stay in Alaska in the 1980s, Abbey deplored not having
encountered that border, but a region transformed into a "high-tech
slum".
He
denounced those who, once the first indigenous occupants had been eliminated or
deported and confined, fattened on the back of the wilderness surrendered to
industrial exploitation: " the majority it seems, or at least the loud and
powerful majority, is here for profit. For the big bucks."
Today, all
over the world, the "positive ecology" brandished by "noisy and
powerful" politicians is accompanied by the image of a sanitized,
exploited and developed nature. This paradigm imposes a materialistic and
utilitarian vision of Nature, subjected to high-tech industrial exploitation on
the pretext of economic interests.
Positive,
positivism, positivist : let's remember…
In the
second half of the 19th century, the "positivist anthropology" was
developed in France and Italy. This science studied indigenous populations from
all continents. She based her approach on anthropometry, the spectacular
accounts of explorers from previous centuries and sociocultural apriorities. It served as a scientific guarantee for a real
"factory of the inferior Being", for human zoos, for colonial
expansions...
At the same
time, Italian positivist anthropology identified, in the population of the Mezzogiorno, the stigmas (laziness, crime, lack of
industry, lack of intelligence...) that its French counterpart detected in the
indigenous peoples of Africa, the Americas and Australia.
It led to
the stigmatization of southern Italian and the exacerbation of the
"southern issue" that had been highlighted by the unification of the
country in the 1860s.
Just as all
Humanity was foreign to positivist anthropology, Nature and the relationship
between Man and Nature are excluded from "positive ecology". The
complexity of the Human and the Living is ignored, to the benefit of a priori
and simplistic conclusions.
In Italy,
in Turin, there is now a museum that highlights the scientific error of
positivist anthropology[2].
Positive
ecology and its supporters, heirs to the positivist impasse that has been
closed for a century, may also be entitled to their museum within one or two
generations.
At the
beginning of the 20th century, Aldo Leopold, an American forester and
ecologist, observed and analyzed the danger to nature and wildlife posed by the
agricultural and industrial practices of the time.
It laid the
foundations for the protection of natural areas, which were followed by the
creation of National Parks in the USA and throughout the world. He contributed
to the emergence of the modern scientific paradigm, recognizing the complexity
of life.
Photography Guy Taliercio
We now
understand that the preservation of nature and that of indigenous peoples in
their integral living environment are closely linked, and that they are
essential to our own survival. This is the case, for example, of the indigenous
peoples of the Americas, whose future is closely linked to that of their
natural environment.
Resilience,
Resistance, "RESTANZA - Attitude to stay and live" in the Italian region
of Cilento, and elsewhere...!
All over
the world, indigenous peoples claim their rights, take them when they can,
organize themselves to live in the environment in which they were born, where
their ancestors lived, with their language, with their rites, building a
modernity that is not imposed on them by predatory economic imperatives or
stupid policies.
Elsewhere we
simply do choose to be there together.
All of
these people live on the borders of Abbey and Thoreau :
"where men and women live with, through and for the land, nto self-sufficient self-help communities in a spirit of
independence, magnanimity and trust."
In the
complex world, for minorities, borders are no longer demarcation lines, but
spaces where at least two languages are spoken, where the one who came and left
is not excluded, and where those who want to join them are welcome.
And so many
are becoming borders, that they form islands, archipelagos and, finally,
continents.
Guy
Taliercio
[1] Edward Abbey is a 20th century American writer
and environmentalist – Text reference from: "Beyond the wall: essays from
outside". HD Thoreau is a 19th century American philosopher, naturalist
and poet.
[2] Museum of Criminal anthropology Cesare
Lombroso – Torino. "The
new museum displays are also intended to provide the visitor the conceptual
tools to understand how and why this controversial scientist came to formulate
the theory of criminal atavism and what were the errors in his scientific
method that led him to found a science that turned out to be so erroneous"
http://museolombroso.unito.it/index.php/en/museum/intro- consulted on the 2019 April
23rd at 3.28 pm.