A man is a social animal surrounded by various known and unknown species of the same kind. Human history emerged from a natural state shaped by our social history and the philosophy of our culture. However, the planet we live on is an essential element of our identity, race, and religion. When we mention social history and the natural state, we also discuss the ‘survival of the fittest’. The essay focuses on the work of the Ecocritical perspective of the Natives’ pastoral landscape and highlights the concept of anthropocentrism. Writers like Silko have portrayed the lives of Natives’ livelihoods and their dependency on nature and surroundings. The concept of ‘territory’ has always been a vital interest to ecocentric literature as ‘the place’ is interconnected with the historic/daily life of humans and physical aspects of the environment, where imagination plays a centric role in media and literature. The imagination focused on the bioregionalism discourse where authors talk about the place sense, traditional landscape, and human identities linked to the clan allying with flora and fauna in that region (SILKO 1948).
The cultural narratives and expressions of Native Americans include the natural contract connecting non-humans with humans to stop the loss of planet earth’s resources. Their cultural activities include hunting, artists’ storytelling and ritual practices, which convey their main narrative. They believed in ‘spirits’, which differed in plants, animals and themselves; their food consumption also differed as they had a philosophy of what to eat and what to feed other living creatures, including plants (SILKO 1948). For instance, in the novel Bless me Ultima, the character Ultima is a traditional healer who knows the healing properties of herbs and the usage of botanical medicines and harvests them for the cure. When Tony was helping her with herbs, he said, “speak to the plant and tell it why we pulled it from its home in the earth” (36). While curing, they used plants like yerba del manso, OSHA, etc., the sacred plants of the Pueblo Indians.
(SILKO, 1948) Pueblo, one of the Native American groups, centred its life around agriculture, trade, and religious practices. They used ‘corn’ to sprinkle on Mother Earth for Rain as it was symbolized as a blessing in their religious ceremonies. The ancients believed Mother earth was a creator and related ‘Corn’ as her sister, which merges with the land, occasionally wishing for green land. They believed “a bolt of lightning was a fortune and hoped for rain”. They were spiritually connected with the dimension of the spirit, which requires a shape or a form of a ‘lifelike’ and their very purpose of hunting was to contact these animals’ spirits. Their primary survival method was maintaining harmony within the family and with the rocks and mountains. They believed that Mother Earth and the sky are related as sisters. By maintaining harmony in the region, the sky would continue to bless her dear sister with Rain, bringing their survival prosperity. The ancient Pueblo had collective memory and depended on oral narratives, which carried on to their successors. They embraced their human experiences, the geographical detailing of their land, mountains, and the rare rocks and trees in certain regions.
Austin has pointed out women from urban places yearning for connection with nature and confessing in the essay how she tried making the basket but failed to do so. She thought of it as the spiritual power these women have gained from nature, which many others cannot achieve. Life is not easy in such regions because of the fewer resources and robust patriarchal system followed by indigenous women, which also captivates the comparison between women and nature. Sevayi earns money by making baskets, raising her son and not having a husband shows the independent life of urban women.
Women in such regions survive in the deserts, just like the quotes. Therefore, such examples give readers the idea that nature has an answer for every uncertainty. Apart from the aesthetics of nature, it is strange how mysteriously capable nature can be, which also allows humans to explore the wilderness and raw beauty to know the mystery of nature’s inner being. Austin talks about the Desert that offers “a sense of presence and intention,” an intimation of “eternal meaning”. On the other hand, everywhere in nature, she senses “purposes not revealed” (184).
“The Land of Little Rain”, written by Mary Austin, a nature lover, glorified nature in the collection of essays describing geographical features of flora and fauna. Throughout her essays, she has appreciated the scenery and wildlife, involving them in different storylines with the message of an excellent natural way of living and depicting the consequences of technological advancement where humans have lost touch with nature.
Mary Austin has explored the wilderness of the Desert, described snow and mountains, and observed the locality involved in their culture. Human beings sustained under harsh conditions, flora and fauna growing there reflect the concept of anthropocentrism. Austin observes the Desert as a “land of lost rivers”, which creates a sense of flourished place but lacking at the same time, which showcases the psyche of human beings who view everything as lacking, which does not favour them.
“Bless me, Ultima” written by Rudolfo Anaya is a semi-autobiographical novel recounting his memory of his childhood in his town in New Mexico. His personal experience relates to his historical background and cultural conflict during WWI and Spanish colonization. Colonization aimed to acquire their land and convert the Pueblo Indians. The novel talks about the Chicano movement, where the central character named Antonio Marez, a Mexican American boy, settled with his family in New Mexico. His father, Marez, is from a wild vaquero family, whereas his mother, Luna, belongs to Catholic farmers, depicting two cultures in one family. When Ultima comes to live with his family, Antonio views her as wise and depends on her guidance. The novel talks about the everyday life of the New Mexican in the wake of the Chicano movement characterizing a deep connection with natural elements, the evolution of syncretic culture, and hybrid identities.
In the novel, “Bless me Ultima”, the narrative begins with {Ultima staying at Marez’s house as they want to pay back her gratitude and show her profound respect. She took him under her wing when settling down with Antonio and his family. She spent some time teaching ‘curandero’ (a religious belief of practising herbal medicine and white magic and performing witchcraft-related rituals). “She passed him botanical knowledge, which exploited his inquisitiveness, and as a result, they loved enjoying the environment together”. (Anaya, 2022) Young Antonio felt confusion regarding choosing between religious beliefs and culture as his mother was a catholic and his father belonged to native American culture.
Nevertheless, his encounter with Ultima led his consciousness towards self-awareness, and he could recognize his true nature. Anaya has illustrated the double culture problem and identity crisis in the novel, which made Antonio look up for guidance from Ultima. He was often told that his maternal side was more valued than his paternal side. For example, when Antonio returns home after disappearing and hopes no one notices his absence, he dreams of his brother returning home and says, “We must all gather around our father, I heard myself say. He dreams of riding westward in search of new adventure… and we must travel that road with him. My brothers frowned. You are a Luna, and they chanted in unison, you are to be a farmer-priest for mother!”. (Anaya, 2022) Antonio’s dream highlights his inner conflicts, emphasizing his intuitive consciousness, describing his dream as a ‘window’ of the unconscious world. Antonio has always supported his father’s wish but was shut down for not hurting his mom. He has always listened to his brother by prioritizing his mother’s wish to become a priest. Antonio has spent most of their time listening to his mother preaching about becoming a priest and never objected to her wish. At the same time, Luna has alienated him from his paternal that is Marez culture and heritage. When Antonio’s brother returned from WW1 and was beginning to depart soon, his brother and mother, Luna, were talking about her dream and quickly soothed. This suppression of Antonio’s identity only caused him to resurface with clout. In his life, he was always told to look up to his mother’s expectations and dreams, and on the other hand, Antonio is repressing his support and will to take after Marez’s bloodline. After realizing that he cannot overlook his identity as a Marez, he chooses to become his true self, carrying both names with the weight of cultural responsibility, which makes him stronger. His quest to understand the world with increased knowledge and explore the environment formed him into a strong character rather than succumbing to despair.
In the novel “The Land of Little Rain”, Austin has detailed innumerable people to describe the relationship between the land and the Native Americans. She is fascinated by Natives’ interaction with the land, their interpretations of plants yielding secret powers, and their connection with the land, which they regard as their home. She sympathizes with them and believes it was cruel of the U.S. government to remove them from their land and inducted homesickness that cannot be cured. “Hardly anybody takes account of the fact that John Muir, who knows more of mountain storms than any other, is a devout man.” (Austin, n.d.) This statement is from ‘Nursulings of the sky’ where Austin concedes the fact that one of the most prominent scholars, John Muir, a religious man, found spirituality in the natural world and believed there is a spiritual quality to weather, denoting one can learn facts about science by observing from a different perspective.
Anaya has used the two major symbols, ‘the moon’ and ‘the sea,’ to showcase the protagonist’s conflicting family values. The moon showcases his maternal side, the Lunas therefore the translation of the name Luna means moon representing the family revolves around farming. Thus, this process involves the moon being tied to the earth; as the quotation suggests, “I learned that the moon’s phases ruled not only the planting but almost every part of their lives. That is why they were the Lunas! Moreover, the moon was kind to them.” This represents how nature affects their life in unordinary ways. The sea showcases his paternal side being in constant motion simultaneously as the sea experiences constant waves and tides. This site remains restless, quoting, “These were the people of my father, the vaqueros of the llano. They were an exuberant, restless people, wandering across the ocean of the plain.” (Anaya, 2022) This statement also suggests how the Chicano community centred their relationship with the earth. The supernatural representation of the spiritual connection between Antonio and Ultima becomes strong and metaphysically powerful as Antonio’s spiritually inclined nature differs from his brother. Anaya has given many visual representations of supernatural elements such as ghosts, witches, healers, owls’ souls, etc. With magical realism, the supernatural becomes part of the protagonist’s day-to-day life which involves Antonio’s existence surrounded by magic. There are many natural imageries in the novel, for instance, “But I know every rock and tree and creature Has a life, has a spirit, has a name…Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains? Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?” (Anaya, 2022) Here Antonio is learning to sing in sync with the voices of mountains, learning to paint with the colours of the wind. Antonio’s yearning for self-discovery builds his deeper connection with nature and gives him a broader perspective on the environment around him. For his mother, the land is something to harvest, and she relates it to their traditions.
Nevertheless, Ultima teaches him the connection of humans to the earth and its entity. From the ecocritical perspective, Anaya has depicted the natural element of the world powerfully. This novel is an example of a bildungsroman. Antonio is a protagonist on a quest for his inner spiritual truth, exploring the world in context with humans and the environment, allowing himself every possible opportunity to view and learn through a new lens to observe. He also questions the old traditions and Catholic doctrine.
In the novel “The Land of Little Rain”, the author is passionate about flora and fauna and takes her time to write about nature. She has described landscapes, deserts, and their livelihood by appreciating the work of God. For instance, Austin suggests from the book of Genesis, “The mesquite is God’s best thought in all this desertness.” (Austin, n.d.) This statement describes the mountain range by creating a sense of wonder and alluding to the point: “When those glossy domes swim into the alpenglow, wet after rain, you conceive how long and imperturbable are the purposes of God.” (Austin, n.d.) The statement describes dramatic experiences like thunderstorms and calls them “the fume of the gods rising from their meeting place under the rim of the world” and “the visible manifestation of the Spirit moving in the void.” (Austin, n.d.) She also compares thunderstorms with destruction to emphasize their apocalyptic force. She also appreciates the natural ways of land by quoting, “For one thing, there is the most divine, cleanest air to be breathed anywhere in God’s world.” (Austin, n.d.) By creating a myriad of personifications and metaphors, the author depicts the feeling that the mountains and the land are alive. Austin condemns the people for distorting God’s creation and the earth’s connection with heaven. Her belief about nature is powerfully strong as she believes in the superiority of animals’ instincts rather than humans’ rational thinking. She says, “Man is a great blunderer going about in the woods, and there is no other except the bear makes so much noise. […] no scavenger eats tin cans, and no wild thing leaves a like disfigurement on the forest floor.” (Austin, n.d.) The statement suggests humans’ way of giving back to mother nature, disrespecting, and destroying the balance within the ecosystem—through human activities such as camping, trekking, and cooking. People on journeys tend to litter waste around the mountains and jungle which can impact the environment in innumerable ways. The author describes the “Country of Lost Borders,” located “east away from the Sierras, south from Panamint and Amargosa.” Austin talks about the Desert, a different landform with distinct inhabitants. She mentions ‘desert’ but relates the word with nurturing but sometimes deadly by quoting, “As for food, that appears to be chiefly a matter of being willing.” (Austin, n.d.) She states this quote to describe the living environment that the Desert presents to the inhabitants. She describes the hostile environment of the Desert but with enough food sources to easily survive what nature provides. There are berries and seeds, but also turtles and lizards that are the source of food for the natives. Austin has written her insight on a particular region of California, from the Sierra Nevada to the Mojave Desert. She has depicted the landscape, plants, weather, and people through her keen observation that inhabits the region. Her collection of essays is examples of regionalism and attributing mythologies of particular places in nature writing. The natural setting in the novel is emphasized as the characters themselves by mentioning models or archetypes. She weighs more on Native Americans inhabiting the land as the towns’ settlers and as the men who mine for ore. By this, she has painted a picture as it depicts the region as a truce between the settlers from the west and the natives who have inhabited the land for thousands of years.
The general concept of representing fauna in the novels is to showcase positive and negative contextual meanings expressing feelings of empathy, contempt, etc. Anaya has brilliantly showcased Chicano culture’s cultural and historical values in context with the natural environment and the description of zoonyms, which plays an essential role in the novel. Ultima’s Owl plays a significant role in the novel. Ultima, who is a curandera, lives according to the law of nature and knows the absolute truth about life on the planet. She implants part of her soul into the Owl to be alive as long as the Owl lives. Thus, her life is in sync with her Owl’s life, which is mystic and mysterious. The image of the Owl is empowered with certain human qualities. “Then she would lead me to the plant her owl-eyes had found and ask me to observe where the plant grew and how its leaves look” (Anaya, 2022) The Owl and Ultima are a single entity which also shows their resemblance in manifestation as a result. The writer depicts the interrelation between nature and man and how they coexist inseparably. The Owl represents Ultima’s powerful presence and religious mysticism, implying a figure of comfort in Antonio’s life. The Owl used to sing softly at Antonio’s window, which shows Ultima’s protective power of her mystic and powerful magic. In the end, when Tenorio kills the Owl, with the killing of her Owl, he also destroys Ultima’s spirit, which results in her death. The golden carp represents the idea of religious tradition, not related to Catholicism, which implies lessons about the world. Antonio rejects the carp as it equates with old values and moral guidance. He later understands that drawing help from different religious sources already presented in his family, then crafting himself by finding new learning opportunities.
In the novel “The Land of Little Rain”, Austin discusses animals like buzzards and coyotes inhabiting the Desert and surviving such heat. This gives her an insight into nature, that nothing is wasted, and everything moves in a cycle, including energy in the hot sun. She has mentioned drought, which led to a shortage of food for cattle, and they are dying in numbers. This led to an increase in buzzards, which gives an insight to the author on how nature tunes with its ways to survive. “Man is a great blunderer going about in the woods, and there is no other except the bear makes so much noise. […] no scavenger eats tin cans, and no wild thing leaves a like disfigurement on the forest floor”. In the following statement, the relation between animals and humans is showcased, how bears also eat and live the same way as humans, by only eating a tin can of food and no wild leaves or anything to harm the ecosystem. “Probably, we never fully credit the interdependence of wild creatures and their cognizance of the affairs of their kind”. (Austin, n.d.) These lines speak to the interdependent relationships between prey, predators, and scavengers in the Desert and how they depend on one another to survive. The coyote, buzzard, and ravens rely on one another to communicate information on where to find carrion. All desert animals appear to understand their place in the overall scheme. “Live long enough with an Indian, and he or the wild things will show you a use for everything that grows in these borders”. (Austin, n.d.) The writer learns that the people who have the most in-depth knowledge and comprehension of the flora, wildlife, and weather are the Native Americans and the wild animals. They have been here the longest and have lived closest to the earth. The writer is amazed that she and other white settlers still find the idea alien and challenging, even if this is primarily due to survival and efficiency. The author is endlessly fascinated and ponders the knowledge about animals being passed through generations of humans and animals.
The ecocriticism wave relied on theories, different kinds of localism, place sense, and local belonging. Their emphasis was on localism as the foundation of nature writing, which became the thought in the emergence of a new American literature discourse. The focus was on the “locations” and the “sites” of the community, manifesting in a range of critical and creative approaches. In the writings of local inhabitants, the authors usually envisioned male characters exploring landscapes and wild jungles or engaging in agricultural activities. In other writings, Native American writers or Ecofeminists emphasized “collective modes of inhabitation”, meaning how the communities are impacted by social injustice, political revolution, technology, and environmental threats. With urbanization, large-scale social change was taking the front seat in modern society, challenging the knowledge and experiences of small-scale communities and their livelihood.
The vision of the modern environmentalist was to create an agenda of “Think globally, act locally” (Patrick Geddes). Their motive was to connect the audience with the notion that the environment should not only become aesthetically sensually pleasing but should add socio-cultural value to the communities.
Ecocriticism played an essential role in celebrating the Native American mythologies and their regional “sense of place”, emphasizing their exposure. With the continuous approach to their topic, the focus shifted to their functioning in racial and ethnic injustice in the USA. Many ecocritics, such as “Patrick Murphy”, stated, “appreciate cultural diversity as a physical manifestation of biological diversity”. Such arguments included an indigenous way of life, their secret knowledge about plants and animals, medical practices, etc. forming cultural diversity and emerging as new ecological factors.
Many writers acknowledge such points and attributes in their writings, including Rudolfo Anaya, who showcased the Chicano perspective. Antonio struggles between his mother’s farming heritage and his father’s dream of the Spanish conquistadors, discovering his true self by learning from Ultima. The essential elements in the storyline were landscapes and nature in Anaya’s fiction novel, Bless me, Ultima. He acknowledged that “the forces moulded his earliest memories in [his] landscape: sun, wind, Rain, the llano, the river. And all these forces were working to create the people that walked across [his] plane of vision” (ANAYA – SHIFTING SENSE OF PLACE), which concludes his fiction writing comes from the origin of his personal experience and his relationship with the community land, and how they relate with the environment that creates the metaphors in the landscape. He quotes that “On one pole of the metaphor stands man, on the other is the raw, majestic and awe-inspiring landscape of the southwest; the epiphany is the natural response to that landscape, a coming together of these two forces” (“A Writer Discusses” 1977: 46). Human actions have reached a point where we need to check on consumption of natural resources. Humans are different from animals in terms of biological functioning such as body, brain, etc.
Many thinkers believed that man is a social animal but with rational intellect, this dignified human beings identity as a superior being and ascribes others as subordinates or coexisting creatures. After several years of studying the Indian community, Mary Austin writes about their land and its inhabitants that “Trust Indians not to miss any virtues of the plant world! Nothing.” (THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN) Her themes were mainly the interest in the environment, government injustice, segregation, racism, etc. She believes in an animal’s instinct to be superior to the rational thinking of human beings. She devotes an entire chapter to the scavengers and how they play an important part in the chain of life. She mentions statements like “interdependence of wild creatures, and their cognizance of the affairs of their kind”, “how much of their neighbour’s affairs the new generations learn , and how much they are taught about their elders.” (THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN – SCAVENGER HUNT) Austin believed that people are unaware of the freedom of wild creatures and turn out to be the blunderers in their surroundings, altering other creatures’ presence and food. She describes the wild animals’ social qualities and states facts about their survival. She talks about buzzards and how they do not kill other animals on their own and wait for them to die. She describes the world of buzzards and observes their communication by observing their noises. The culture of Native Americans adheres to nature ethics by emphasizing the importance of giving respect to their environment and coexisting with it in harmony. Humans do not come at the top rank in the natural cycle. We all must obey mother nature’s laws and natural ways that can restore us to the pure situation of the golden times. Therefore, in Western discourse, nature represents a physical world that distinguishes humans from it. Native Americans do not pursue lavish lives of materialistic wealth out of nature and tend to live without the benefits of science and technology. To them, land defines their identity as an individual and tribal. Their concept of self is related to their place or location, and the land has shaped their character as human beings. “Environmental factors play a crucial role in the physical, emotional, and even spiritual configurations that determine our ideas of who we are” (Devastation of Earth: an Ecocriticism Study in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road). The utopian aspiration of the people as a nation created the dehumanization of the community and the destruction of flora and fauna. “It may also be argued that other religions provide more inclusive attitudes towards nature as in Pantheism or forms of Earth (or “Gaia”) Worship. So, religion is of importance in forming attitudes towards nature.” Because of the influence of religion, writers have maintained their balance with nature throughout history.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hume, B. A. (2012). Austin’s consuming “Desertness” in the land of little Rain. Journal of American literature, culture, and theory, 68(4), 61–77.
Scheick, W. J. (1992). Mary Austin’s disfigurement of the southwest in the land of Little Rain. Western American Literature, 27(1), 37-46.
Garrard G. (2012). Ecocriticism. Routledge.
Place and Chicano Writing. Pdf.
write