Earth Stewardship and the Biocultural Ethic: Latin American Perspectives - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 89

Stewards

Co-in-Habitants

Earth
Stewardship

Biocultural
Ethics

Stewardship

Earth (planet)
earth (ecosystems)

Habits

Habitats

Fig. 8.1 The “3Hs” of the biocultural ethic coupled with the three core components identifi ed for
Earth Stewardship: habitat/ Earth , habit/ stewardship , and co-inhabitants/ stewards

8.2 Amerindian, Scientifi c, and Pre-Socratic Perspectives

on South American Co-inhabitation

The cultural and biogeographic identity of South America is marked by the presence
of the Andes Cordillera, which crosses the continent north-south from Colombia to
Chile. Soared over by the emblematic Andean Condor, this mountain range infl u-
ences both (1) the symbolic-linguistic realm of the worldviews associated with
environmental stewardship and philosophies, and (2) the biophysical realm of the
heterogeneous mosaic of ecosystems in this continent. 1 According to the worldview
of the pre-Incan civilization of Tiahuanaco, in ancestral times Viracocha (one of the
most important deities for this primordial South American culture) emerged from
Lake Titicaca in the heights of the Andes and created the sun with his radiant light,
the rain and water with his tears, as well as the heavens, the stars, the humans and
the other living beings that inhabited the region (Fig. 8.2 ).
This Andean cosmogony points out that humans share a common origin with all
other-than-human beings. Viracocha is the source of both the biophysical entities and
the order of the world; humans participate in both a cosmic community and a cosmic
order. This Andean cosmology is similar to ancient Greek pre-Socratic cosmologies,
which represent the philosophical roots of Western civilization. In the Quechua Andean

1 The distinction of these two interwoven realms, the bio-physical and the symbolic-linguistic-
cultural, is essential to the biocultural ethic (Rozzi 2012 , 2013 ). Under this biocultural perspective,
the term philosophy abandons its disciplinary character, which currently prevails in academia.
Instead, I emphasize the plural character of philosophy, with its diversity of ways of understanding
the natural world and of co-inhabiting in it, with in particular ecological and cultural contexts. The
plural character of philosophy concurs with the conceptual framework developed by Raul Fornet-
Betancourt for a Latin American intercultural philosophy (Fornet-Betancourt 1994 ).