[PeDAGoG] Recording of TACC TALK: Indigenous, non-western understandings of Climate Change by Dr. Rosalyn Bold

Thu Feb 11 12:03:44 CET 2021

Hello Sonali

Thanks for your email, and my apologies that it has taken me so long to reply! I am teaching as a Visiting Fellow with a Mexican university and it has taken up a lot of my time and attention preparing the classes.

Godwin Vasanth Bosco sounds fascinating from his website, and I will enjoy reading his book, many thanks.

In response to your questions (I am copying them in case you can no longer remember!)
1.) I was most intrigued by the idea that - and I hope I got it right - climate change will not prove to be as disastrous for the small, organic farmer as for industrial agro-business. Have I got it right, and if yes, could you say more about that?

Well this is to some extent conjecture on my part, based on my observations of how quickly Kaatans respond to change. Also its predicated on the 'gambling' involved in predicting future crop prices on the stock exchange- this is what governs international agribusiness rather than a focus on producing as much as possible with a highly resilient diverse approach. The UNFAO in 2010 produced a report entitled 'Wake Up!' which broke with the green revolution fascination to call urgently for the propagation of small scale 'traditional' farming as it is more resilient to climate change as well as emitting significantly less greenhouse gases than agribusiness employing tractors, hydrocarbon based fertilisers, etc. Do you know that the agricultural sector currently accounts for a third of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide?!? amazing for something that involves growing plants, which of course absorb carbon- it seems to me that this is the easiest to change, given there are many existing sustainable farming systems and landscape knowledge still out there. It seems that this is an especially relevant issue in India as there has been such a widespread uptake of GR techniques with such controversial consequences, like the contemporary protests, farmer suicides and pesticide related illnesses, etc. My partner and I are making a documentary on traditional vs. GR farming among the Bishnoi of Haryana and Rajasthan.

2) Also, I am sceptical of reading too much into ritual as a means of signifying (or inculcating) respect/love. Here in India symbol and actuality are kept remorselessly apart. Mainstream Hinduism still - indeed, increasingly - pays attention to the rituals that worship snakes, trees, forests, lakes, spring, harvest, etc.etc., even as, as a society, we systematically lop away at forests, dynamite sacred mountains and rivers, etc.etc. Thoughts?

Yes, this is an interesting observation, and leads one to wonder what is different in this type of veneration. Do they worship particular forests, snakes etc or abstract ones, that is to say, are we talking about immanent or transcendent religiosity here? I would love to study this more and hope to make it to India before too much more time elapses to do just this. We are restricted from applying for tourist visas currently but it is my hope with some institutional backing at the Indian end I would eb able to get a Research Visa.

On pervasive modernism you might like Michael Cepek's There Might Be Blood, an ethnography whcih I am currently doing with my Mexican students.

I hope youre well, and good to be in touch!

Best wishes

Rosalyn

Dr. Rosalyn Bold

Honorary Research Fellow

Department of Social Anthropology
University College London.

________________________________
From: sonali sathaye <ssathaye at gmail.com>
Sent: 03 February 2021 08:38
To: PeDAGoG: Post-Development Academic-Activist Global Group <gta-pedagog at lists.ourproject.org>; Bold, Rosalyn <r.bold at ucl.ac.uk>
Cc: singhvan at rcn.com <singhvan at rcn.com>; vikalp-sangam-list <vikalp-sangam-list at googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [PeDAGoG] Recording of TACC TALK: Indigenous, non-western understandings of Climate Change by Dr. Rosalyn Bold

Dear Rosalyn,

Thanks for your talk. In response to your question about similar ideas being explored in India, I would like to share the work of a friend and amazing naturalist, Godwin Vasanth Bosco, who worked for nine years in the Shola regions of the Nilgiris in South India and in 2019 came out with a book called "Voice of a Sentient Highland". There is a startling correspondence between what you were talking about and what he talks about -  Vasanth has come to it through his own relationship with the mountains (and shola) he knows best.

Technical reasons also prevented me from asking the couple of questions I wanted, so I take this opportunity to do so -
I was most intrigued by the idea that - and I hope I got it right - climate change will not prove to be as disastrous for the small, organic farmer as for industrial agro-business. Have I got it right, and if yes, could you say more about that?
Also, I am sceptical of reading too much into ritual as a means of signifying (or inculcating) respect/love. Here in India symbol and actuality are kept remorselessly apart. Mainstream Hinduism still - indeed, increasingly - pays attention to the rituals that worship snakes, trees, forests, lakes, spring, harvest, etc.etc., even as, as a society, we systematically lop away at forests, dynamite sacred mountains and rivers, etc.etc. Thoughts?

Incidentally, I studied mainstream Euro-American culture for my dissertation in Anthropology many years ago in order to study the eye/I through which so much of the rest of the world is perceived -  The divorce between nature/culture, self/society, thought/emotion, body/mind seems to lie at the very heart of this way of perception. Unfortunately however, these dichotomies are now well represented in thinking - scholarly and otherwise - all over the world (Protestantism appears to be just one of the many religions that sit well with our current economic system!).

Looking forward to continued discussion -

best,
sonali

On Wed, 3 Feb 2021 at 00:54, Bold, Rosalyn <r.bold at ucl.ac.uk<mailto:r.bold at ucl.ac.uk>> wrote:

Thanks very much everyone, I enjoyed today.
I may have given the wrong email address! You can contact me here at r.bold at ucl.ac.uk<mailto:r.bold at ucl.ac.uk>. I am eager to develop collaborations with colleagues studying the relevance of these ideas in india- feel free to get in touch!

Best wishes

Rosalyn

Dr. Rosalyn Bold

Honorary Research Fellow

Department of Social Anthropology
University College London.

________________________________
From: GTA-PeDAGoG <gta-pedagog-bounces at lists.ourproject.org<mailto:gta-pedagog-bounces at lists.ourproject.org>> on behalf of singhvan at rcn.com<mailto:singhvan at rcn.com> <singhvan at rcn.com<mailto:singhvan at rcn.com>>
Sent: 02 February 2021 17:22
To: PeDAGoG: Post-Development Academic-Activist Global Group <gta-pedagog at lists.ourproject.org<mailto:gta-pedagog at lists.ourproject.org>>; vikalp-sangam-list <vikalp-sangam-list at googlegroups.com<mailto:vikalp-sangam-list at googlegroups.com>>
Subject: [PeDAGoG] Recording of TACC TALK: Indigenous, non-western understandings of Climate Change by Dr. Rosalyn Bold

Dear All,

For those who missed today's talk by anthropologist Dr. Rosalyn Bold in the series from Teachers Against the Climate Crisis (TACC), or those who want to revisit what was a really interesting session, here is the link to the youtube video.

Indigenous and non-western understandings of climate change: Latin American challenges to colonial and extractivist discourses
Dr. Rosalyn Bold, University College, London.
https://youtu.be/IWQ9RRs_GsI

Best,
Vandana

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