What happened to species-typical human nature?

This is Part 7 of What happened to species-typical human nature?

Part 1: Human Social Origins

2: The Nested Community

3: Seeds of Disorder: Colonization of Childhood

4: The Eroded Nest and Wrecking of Human Nature and Spirituality

5: Where We Are Today

6: Lost Spirituality: Intellect over Spirit, Machines over Life

7: Conclusion: Reaching for the Alternative (text below)

Download paper here:

Narvaez, D. (2024). What happened to species-typical human nature? In L. Sundararajan & A. Dueck (Eds.), When the gods have fled: Being human in the age of machine and the market. Palgrave-Macmillan.

Abstract of whole paper:

The clash of civilizations continues between colonizers and Native/First Nation Peoples around the world. Native/First Nation Peoples traditionally are Nature-centric, oriented to gift economies, meeting basic needs through species-normal nestedness. Humanity’s evolved nest includes soothing perinatal experiences, breastfeeding for several years, responsive care relationships, a welcoming community and supportive stable caregivers/mentors, extensive affectionate touch (and no negative touch), self-directed social play, nature immersion and attachment, and routine healing practices. The right brain hemisphere is scheduled to grow more rapidly in early childhood, and nest provision supports its optimization which leads to a flexible, socially engaged, emotionally attuned orientation to the world, a spiritual heartmindedness connected to the rest of Nature.

Settler-colonial childraising practices, now spread around the world, do not follow evolved nest practices, undermining holistic brain development. Such undercare impairs spiritual heartmindedness, leading instead to psyches vulnerable to manipulation, easily triggered into self-protectionism. Mind-brains have been colonized by fear and distracted with a focus on deliberation as humanity’s uniqueness. Knowhow for living responsibly on Earth is dismissed by the intellect, the focus of Westernized schooling. To return to holistic development, the evolved nest must be provided along with healing practices to restore humanity’s full nature.

Part 7 Conclusion: Reaching for the Alternative (revised)

To be species-normal of any species is to be cooperative and Earth-respecting. But what is distinctive about being human?

Based on our millions-year-old existence as a genus (7.5 million years), a clade (2 million), and a species (300,000), we have a good deal of information about what it means to be human, as distinct from chimpanzees, for example. To be fully human in a species-normal manner means not only to be a communal, earth-respecting organism, but one that is superbly socially skilled, and spiritually connected to others and the Cosmos.

Modern humans have become abnormal, missing virtually all of these traits culturally if not individually. To return to species-normality requires today a decolonization of the minds and spirits of modern human beings. It requires a restoration of humanity’s ancestral wisdom, a Nature-centered worldview and evolved nestedness (Topa & Narvaez, 2022).

What steps should be taken to move back to an earth-respecting, wellness-promoting pathway? Here are six actions.

First, we can support the traditional practices of First Nation/Indigenous Peoples around the world. The traditional ecological knowledge each community has built over many generations is in peril and needs our support. Unlike modern humans, they still listen to and learn from the rest of Nature. They have not become isolationist and narcissistic like the rest of us, thinking only about human interests and dominating Nature. Native/First Nation communities around the world guard most of the biodiversity left on the planet (Brondizio et al., 2019). We can learn from them.

Second, to prevent further trauma across generations, we must abandon colonizing, trauma-inducing child-raising practices. We must return to the wellness-promoting practices of our ancestors (Narvaez, 2022; Gleason & Narvaez, 2019). These practices are still observable among egalitarian hunter-gatherers. They give full nested support to babies and children, standing back as they grow into capacities to let their unique spirits unfold. They are egalitarian and focus on abundance and joy (instead of work, like us). Adults must also live nested, to maintain a cooperative human nature (see Narvaez, 2024).

Third, let’s examine our spirituality. Salvationist Christianity has taken our attention away from Nature and our species’ goodness. Ancestral wisdom apparent in egalitarian hunter-gatherer communities aligns better with another Christian tradition, Creation Spirituality, an older wisdom tradition found in Biblical texts (Fox, 2000). It also is visible in ancient and contemporary Native/First Nation spiritualities which are also holistic, beholding divinity immanent in this world. Creation spirituality affirms the sacredness of Earth apart from human use. Earth is full of sentient, sacred lives, some of which are human.

Holistic spirituality practices are devoted to increasing perception, understanding and connectedness. Self-transcendence through trance, ceremony or psychotropics promotes polysemy, the ability to de-identify with one’s narrow ego self. Instead, one is able to merge with others, human and nonhuman, through dedifferentiation (Bram, 1998). As with the use of psychotropics by Indigenous shamans, the goal of gnosis is transentience: “In sentient immersion we do not merely live in relation to all life, connected with nature and the cosmos, but we live through all life, and all life lives through us” (Lash, 2006, p. 141). Daily immersion in a polysemous culture—one that that practices transpersonal ceremonies—supports a sense of oneness with All. It is a holistic spirituality that includes the other-than-human, ancestors and a dynamic, fluctuating universe (e.g., Descola, 2013; Katz, 2017). The goal of creation spirituality is to keep creation and one’s community thriving into future generations. Instead of aiming to win a competition (Carse, 1986), such as getting to an Earth-denying heaven, one interacts with all of creation through infinite play.

Fourth, adults can learn to use their deliberative minds to shape their attention and change their habitual mindsets. Westernized peoples are taught to see the world objectively, at an arm’s length, like an observer. When we are stuck in this perspective, focused on the manifest (the material world we see/touch/measure) we automatically categorize the world. We delusionally believe we are separate. Our ego latches onto a particular identity, particular outcomes and expectations. We take up abstract ideals and try to make them happen. This scripted, goal-directed attitude forces itself on the world, perceiving more narrowly, more rigidly, dualistically, competitively.

We lose egalitarian flexible responsiveness. We cause a lot of suffering. We tune out awareness of the entangled dynamism of life.

But we can learn to pay attention to the attitude and mindset we bring to a situation. Rather than coming to a situation to objectify and categorize, we approach others and situations with openness, receptive to beauty, connection, and play. We can learn to spend life more in polysemy, dedifferentiation and shapeshifting in ways that enhance the lives of others. We become more and more aware of the dynamism and multiplicity of Spirit.

Fifth, we can adopt and practice the Indigenous or kinship worldview (Topa & Narvaez, 2022), our inheritance as Earthlings. We learn the differences between the kinship worldview and the dominant worldview that governs our daily lives. Humbling ourselves to the wisdom of the non-human will enable us to learn the ways of responsible Earth community membership.

Sixth, to enable mind shifting in worldview and spirituality, we may need to heal ourselves first. We can restore our individual and communal spirit through individual and group ceremony (Macy & Brown, 2014), through self-hypnosis techniques (Four Arrows, 2016), and even guided psychotropics (Buhner, 2014). Meditation that breaks down the sense of self-identity and replaces it with a cosmic identity (a wild mind) may be necessary for the global transformation of humanity that is needed to preserve our species and many others (Hinton, 2022).

When we are healed, we will be able to enjoyably provide the evolved nest to babies, children and others. We will release our and their spirituality, thereby cultivating humanity’s innate cooperative nature. We will build attentive communities of love and tenderness, partnering with Mother Earth to facilitate the flourishing of all.

REFERENCES

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Descola, P. (2013). Beyond nature and culture (J. Lloyd, trans.). University of Chicago Press.

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Gleason, T., & Narvaez, D. (2019). Beyond resilience to thriving: Optimizing child wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(4), 60-79. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v9i4.987

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Macy, J., & Brown, M. (2014). Coming back to life. New Society Publishers.

Narvaez, D. (2022). Beyond trauma-informed: Returning to Indigenous, wellness-informed practices. International Journal of Existential Positive Psychology, 11(1). Available at: https://www.meaning.ca/ijepp-article/vol11-no1/beyond-trauma-informed-returning-to-indigenous-wellness-informed-practices/ (at ResearchGate)

Narvaez, D. (2024). Returning to evolved nestedness, wellbeing, and mature human nature, an ecological imperative. Review of General Psychology, 28(2), 83-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268023122403 (text at ResearchGate)

Topa, W., & Narvaez, D. (2022). Indigenous voices introduce 28 precepts for rebalancing life on planet Earth. North Atlantic Books.