Sacred Sites as a Threat to Environmental Justice?

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Sacred Sites as a Threat to Environmental Justice? "
Mark S. Cladis

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	1086094
Doc. No	:	LA129723
Call No	:	‭10.1163/15685357-02302001‬
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Mark S. Cladis
Title & Author	:	Sacred Sites as a Threat to Environmental Justice? [Article]\ Mark S. Cladis
Publication Statement	:	Leiden: Brill
Title of Periodical	:	Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Date	:	2019
Volume/ Issue Number	:	23/2
Page No	:	132–153
Abstract	:	I explore the intersection of environmental spirituality and environmental justice with special attention given to indigenous ecologies. Indigenous communities often employ the language of discrete “sacred sites” to protect portions of their lands from environmental harm. However, the concept of the sacred in Western traditions is typically accompanied by its binary opposite, the profane. Do protected sacred sites implicitly license harm to such “profane” sites as low-income sacrifice zones? Is environmental spirituality in tension with environmental justice? After explicating this problem, I resolve it by exploring indigenous notions of the sacred—notions that are not binary. Indigenous notions allow for treating some discrete lands as places of special power and healing while still maintaining that all lands are sacred and worthy of environmental protection. These are not hierarchical notions of the sacred but variegated ones (or what I call hózhó sacred weaves). I explore the intersection of environmental spirituality and environmental justice with special attention given to indigenous ecologies. Indigenous communities often employ the language of discrete “sacred sites” to protect portions of their lands from environmental harm. However, the concept of the sacred in Western traditions is typically accompanied by its binary opposite, the profane. Do protected sacred sites implicitly license harm to such “profane” sites as low-income sacrifice zones? Is environmental spirituality in tension with environmental justice? After explicating this problem, I resolve it by exploring indigenous notions of the sacred—notions that are not binary. Indigenous notions allow for treating some discrete lands as places of special power and healing while still maintaining that all lands are sacred and worthy of environmental protection. These are not hierarchical notions of the sacred but variegated ones (or what I call hózhó sacred weaves).
Descriptor	:	environmental justice
Descriptor	:	environmental spirituality
Descriptor	:	indigenous ecology
Descriptor	:	Native American and indigenous religions
Descriptor	:	religion
Descriptor	:	sacred geography
Descriptor	:	sacred mountains
Descriptor	:	sacred sites
Location & Call number	:	‭10.1163/15685357-02302001‬