Expanding identity beyond the human

Summary

Indigenous North American theories of mind, self, and consciousness offer historical examples of human relationships with non-humans that were not always peaceful or mutually beneficial, such as the near-extinction of beavers through Indigenous participation in the fur trade. Drawing on conversations with Elders and recent psychedelic literature, the author argues that today's context of human domination over animals, where humans are more dangerous to animals than vice versa, enables the construction of a new consciousness of non-humans. This new consciousness has historical antecedents in Indigenous thought but is also entirely new.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Ecofeminists, environmental activists, and ecologists are calling humans to change our relationships to other‐than‐humans and more‐than‐humans. Indigenous people and knowledge systems are often exemplified as ways for non‐Indigenous people to relate to these entities. While Indigenous people have historically participated in epistemologies and modes of perception that rendered them more able to connect to non‐humans, these relationships have not always been peaceful or mutually advantageous. Examples are cited in which annihilating all beavers was the goal, and the fur trade is cited as a time when Indigenous people in North America gained mastery over animals that had previously threatened them, leading to near extinction for some species in some locations over a short time. Bear–human marriage stories provide us with another way to view the human–animal relationship, which is sometimes violent. Through multiple conversations with Elders over time, I have been accumulating a sense of Indigenous North American (INA) theories of mind, self, and consciousness. I apply the results of my discussions to the question of whether we are creating a new consciousness of relations with non‐humans that has not previously existed in INA thought, though it has its progenitors. I also apply insights from recent literature on psychedelics. This new thought arises from the current domination of the planet and animals by human beings and the relative lack of threat to humans from animals. Indeed, we are more dangerous to them than they are to us. Within this context, we can construct a new consciousness of non‐humans, which has its historical antecedents and which is also entirely new.