Andean Llamas and Earth Stewardship - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 82

(Bauckham 2011 , pp. 60-61). The importance of stewardship is that it imposes
limits on human conduct. Rooted in the Sabbath tradition of Judaism and the
Adam and Eve peasant tradition of ancient Hebrew society, “restraint, noninter-
ference, and humility were an integral part of the original Jewish concept of stew-
ardship, regardless of corruptions that may have taken place subsequently, and
these restraining virtues may yet prevail” (Ehrenfeld and Bentley 2001 , p. 126).
Its importance for ethics and thus stewardship is that it contains within itself nor-
mative language. Yet, as metaphor, content is plastic, not exhaustive and hardly
literal. Still it is powerful because it stimulates the moral imagination. Certainly
in many respects, stewardship is a fl awed concept, given its historical origins in
hierarchical social and economic structures, yet when understood from the ancient
Hebrew tradition of Adam and Eve and Sabbath, and re-read from peasant econo-
mies such as the Aymara, new insights are to be had. Finally stewardship is about
how humans are to interact with the earth.
Andean llama stewardship is practiced in a framework of mutuality. Andean eth-
ics is based on reciprocity. So far from “domination” or “power over”, this steward-
ship fosters a subject-subject relationship. That which is to be cared for is not an
object but a subject worthy of respect. It nourishes “power with,” a symbiotic
empowering. Llamas, the dung they produce, and the peasants who spread it on
their fi elds, are all in a kind of reciprocal partnership. Following Larson's discussion
of environmental metaphors ( 2011 , p. 119), stewardship, then, is a metaphor, that
“[b]y emphasizing relationship… exemplif[ies] what has been called an ethic of
partnership, as opposed to former ethics based on egocentrism, anthropocentrism,
or even ecocentrism. This new ethic gives equal moral consideration to both the
human and the nonhuman, thus balancing respect for biodiversity and cultural
diversity.” Andean llama stewardship is a kind of “ethics of care” that emphasizes
relationship and the well-being of animals and people: peasant farmers take care of
the llamas, the llamas take care of the peasant farmers. Following the meaning of
cultivation as nurturing service, Earth stewardship nurtures a healthy earth. Leopold
tells us that “[h]ealth is the capacity of the land for self-renewal.” Paraphrasing him,
we can say, “Stewardship is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity”
( 1949 , p. 221).

7.3.1 Biohistorical Anthropology

Stewardship raises the question of anthropology. How should the human being be
understood in this complex weaving called nature? Are humans to be considered
a legitimate part of the natural order? What is their relationship to other living
beings? These questions bear on the meaning of stewardship because it implies an
anthropology.
Stewardship does not separate nature and society; furthermore, it understands
humans as the artisans of history. In many respects it emphasizes the human situa-
tion, and that humans are not mere puppets of natural forces. Nor does stewardship