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Religion, 'Nature' and Environmental Ethics in Ancient India: Archaeologies of Human: Non-Human Suffering and Well-Being in Early Buddhist and Hindu Contexts
Author Shaw, Julia (著)
Source World Archaeology
Volumev.48 n.4
Date2016
Pages517 - 543
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Publisher Url http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
LocationOxfordshire, UK [牛津郡, 英國]
Content type期刊論文=Journal Article
Language英文=English
KeywordArchaeology as Environmental Humanities; Indian religion and 'nature'; Agriculture, food change and environmental control; Violence and non-violence; Purity and Pollution; Monasteries as gardens
AbstractThis paper assesses archaeology’s contribution to debates regarding the ecological focus of early Buddhism and Hinduism and its relevance to global environmentalism. Evidence for long-term human:non-human entanglement, and the socio-economically constructed element of ‘nature’ on which Indic culture supposedly rests, challenges post-colonial tropes of India’s utopian, ‘eco-friendly’ past, whilst also highlighting the potency of individual human:non-human epistemologies for building historically grounded models of Indian environmentalism. For early Buddhism, I mediate between two polarized views: one promoting the idea of ‘eco-dharma’ as a reflection of Buddhism’s alignment with non-violence (ahiṃsā), and the alleviation of suffering (dukkha); a second arguing that early Buddhist traditions have been misappropriated by western environmentalism. I argue that the latter view subscribes to canonical models of passive monks removed from worldly concerns, despite archaeological evidence for socially-engaged monastic landlordism from the late centuries bc. Others cite this evidence only to negate Buddhism’s eco-credentials, thereby overlooking the human:non-human entanglement theme within modern environmental discourse, while the predominant focus on non-human suffering overlooks convergences between modern and ancient ecological ethics and environmental health. Case studies include examples of Buddhist land and water management in central India, set within discussions of human v. non-human-centric frameworks of well-being and suffering, purity and pollution, and broader Indic medico-ecological epistemologies, as possible models for collective responses to environmental stress.
Table of contentsAbstract 517
Introduction 517
Archaeology, religion and environmental ethics 519
Archaeologies of religion and 'nature' in ancient India 521
Purity and pollution: religious v. environmentalist categories of dirt? 523
Ahiṃsā: the ethics of non-injury in Indic environmental discourse 524
Buddhism and ecological ethics 525
Monasteries as gardens: transcendence or control of nature? 526
The Sanchi Survey Project: long-term patterns in the socio-ecological landscape 529
Reservoirs, rice-production and monastic landlordism 531
Conclusion 534
Acknowledgements 536
Disclosure statement 536
Funding 536
Notes on contributor 536
References 536
ISSN00438243 (P); 14701375 (E)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2016.1250671
Hits164
Created date2023.11.17
Modified date2023.11.17



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