Connections Between Humans And Nature

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Connection between humans and nature


Leslie Marmon Silko authored the book “Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination”; it focuses the way the Pueblo people look at the world. Silko refers to the way humans and nature is tied together in her writing. In nature, everything has equal and being, because everything comes from a common creator. Schweninger depicts how Native American writing, such as Silko’s, relates to the human and non-human world. Lee Schweninger writes, “…in Native American writing, a sharing motif prevails.” Silko and the Pueblo people show how nature and man are interconnected in several ways, which is just one idea of the sharing motif.
Man and nature are interconnected through animals and the survival of the Pueblo people. The Pueblo people had respect for everything that the earth provided for them, including animals and nature. Silko states, “Nothing is overlooked or taken for granted. Each ant, each lizard, each lark is imbued with great value simply because the creature is there, simply because the creature is alive in a place where any life at all is precious.”(299). The Pueblo people had a tremendous respect and admiration for their environment and all living things. Furthermore, they were good stewards in the use of their physical surroundings. The idea of man and humans being tied together is supported when Silko says, “Survival depended upon harmony and cooperation not only among human beings, but among all things.”(292). Here, she means that Pueblo depended on each other and nature for their survival. This is tied to the concept on how man and nature are connected to each other through harmony and cooperation.
The Pueblo people’s view of the world’s origin reflects how man and nature are interconnected. Silko makes the point that, “The ancient Pueblo people called the earth the Mother Creator of all thing in this world. Her sister, the Corn Mother,...