Andean Llamas and Earth Stewardship - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 84

“associated with instrumentalist attitudes to nature which are linked with environ-
mental exploitation…” (Northcott 1996 , p. 180). Inevitably then, stewardship is
political and confl ictive as it challenges powerful interests.
Earth stewardship is advocacy for justice. Justice is concerned with power rela-
tions and the consequences for life-possibilities of those relationships. The Hebrew
Sabbath tradition had much to say about justice. This tradition not only is concerned
with the right relationship of humans to each other and their social groupings, it also
calls for right relationships to the land itself. The Jubilee (Lv 25), as synthesis of the
Sabbath tradition, proclaimed liberty to both human captives and to the land. It
ordered the redress of wrongs committed against people and the Earth and the (re)
establishment of a just situation. Redressing wrong is the essence of justice in this
tradition. It is rooted in the Mesopotamian tradition of the right of the wronged to
clamor for redress. According to this ancient custom, a person who had been
wronged, whose “rights” were violated, could “clamor” to the king, who, in turn,
was obligated to hear the complaint and to rectify the injustice. The Earth also
“clamors” for redress. “A deep chesty bawl echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls
down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night. It is an outburst of
wild defi ant sorrow, and of contempt for all the adversities of the world,” wrote
Leopold ( 1949 , p. 129). The Earth steward is obligated to hear the “chesty bawl”
and to redress.

7.4 Conclusion

Reading stewardship from the praxis of peasant societies such as the Aymara pro-
vides a perspective that emphasizes mutuality, care and protection, and advocacy for
the well-being of the Earth and its many forms of life. It urges humanity as a vital
and legitimate participant in nature, as biocultural or biohistorical beings. This
stewardship is not a master-servant one, but rather a community of beings together
for the welfare of all. In this community even llama dung commands respect.

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