African American perspectives of nature

August 24, 2005 5:29 AM

I'm looking for literature that reflects some of the different worldviews or perspectives that African Americans have in relation to nature and natural resources.

I have been drafted to teach an Environmental Science course this fall and one of the activities that was provided with the course is an activity where students read several passages (e.g. poem, prose, short essay, song lyrics, etc.) that reflect some of the different worldviews or perspectives that different cutural groups have in relation to nature and natural resources. They are then led through a journal exercise that allows them to reflect on these different perspectives and how these may affect how peoples in these different cultural groups approach nature and natural resource use, etc.
The activity as it was provided to me contrasts perspectives from Native Americans with those of European settlers. One group I am interested in potentially adding to the the activity are perspectives of African Americans (historic and/or modern).

posted by batboy to Education (6 answers total)

There's an interesting book about Africans viz. Culture and the Senses: Embodiment, Identity, and Well-Being in an African Community.
posted by Gyan at 7:36 AM on August 24, 2005

Percival Everett, who, not to be too much of a fascist about it, should be everyone's favorite author, writes about fly fishing and horses a lot. He's African American. Part of his underlying thesis, though, is that that group is too diverse to have any one attitude toward anything. Damned if I Do is a collection of his short stories that has a lot of writing about the American West.
posted by OmieWise at 8:04 AM on August 24, 2005

The H-Net list, H-Environment, has discussed this and similar topics. You might try the search page--make sure to search just H-Environment. One recent discussion was titled "African Americans & Longleaf Pine Forests."
posted by LarryC at 8:22 AM on August 24, 2005

In case you're looking at other cultures still - I have some interviews from Mayan Guatemala on environment/resources/sustainability that I'd be glad to share. They are from earlier this year, in a small town a couple hours outside Antigua.
posted by whatzit at 9:05 AM on August 24, 2005

Response by poster: whatzit,

I'd love to see the interviews.
posted by batboy at 9:59 AM on August 24, 2005

I got your email, and I'll send them back hopefully this evening or perhaps tomorrow. Somewhere under all this email, there they are. I think I have more info on the context too that may be of interest...
posted by whatzit at 4:11 PM on August 24, 2005