Ecological Epistemologies and Spiritualities in Brazilian Ecovillages: In the Labyrinth of an Environmental Anthropology

by Luz Gonçalves Brito

Overview

This book brings together ethnographic field research on four permacultural ecovillages in Brazil to highlight the importance of spirituality and ecological epistemologies as key analytical tools. It demonstrates that ecological spirituality can, and should, be understood beyond the dichotomy of personal and political, between people and nature, in the field of environmental anthropology.

The book uses a broad philosophical methodology based on the phenomenological theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Tim Ingold and Alfred Schutz combined with post-structuralist conceptions of the relationship between person and world, individual and society. The field research consisted of ethnographic travel, observation and recorded dialogue with individuals based in each ecovillage: Arca Verde, situated in Campos de Cima da Serra; Vrinda Bhumi, a Vaishnava ecovillage in Baependi-MG; Goura Vrindavana, a Vaishnava ecovillage in Paraty-RJ; and Muriqui Assu Ecovillage Project, a secular ecovillage in Niterói-RJ. Throughout the book ethnographic research is woven together with poetic interludes, images, personal narrative experience and phenomenological theory, bringing a new understanding and approach to environmental anthropology as a discipline.

Including a Preface written by Tim Ingold, it will appeal to academics, researchers and upper-level students in phenomenology, environmental philosophy, environmental anthropology, religious studies and social sciences more broadly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032458205
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Series:	Routledge Environmental Anthropology
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Luz Gonçalves Brito holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University Federal do Rio Grande do Sul/UFRGS, Brazil. She is committed to environmental humanities, phenomenology and intersectionality. Her current research interests include political ecology, gender, race and mental health.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Tim Ingold Prelude 1. Exploring a fractal labyrinth Interregno: on ontological insecurity in Porto Alegre caused by the fossil fuels crisis, which resembled an Armageddon 2. The way of the Muriqui-Assu Interlude: sociality of the chickens 3. Gaudya Vaishnavismo in Serra da Bocaina (Rio de Janeiro) 4. Gaudya Vaishnavismo in Serra da Mantiqueira (Baependi-MG) Denouement: breaking through the social membrane