Nature vs Man :How it Affects Relationships; Aborigine, Mbuti and Lele.

Essay by RatchitUniversity, Master's August 2005

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People in different societies often have different understandings of their relationships with their natural environments. Examine such differences studying at least THREE contrasting societies. Do these differences reflect the relationships that people have with one another in these societies?

In this essay I shall examine the understandings of mans relationship with their natural relationship by examining such relationships in four separate societies. These being; the Mbuti of the Congo region/ Zaire; the Mardu Aborigines; the Lele of the Kasai and in contrast our own western society and the changes throughout history.

Western Society is inevitably influenced by the teachings of the Bible. However throughout history the interpretations have varied throughout history as each generation has inevitably drawn what it wished to suit there own cultural situation and also inevitable the interpretations of the Christian church have also inevitably been influenced by philosophy and popular pools of thought throughout time.

For Aristotle, everything had a purpose; plants were there for animals and animals there for the use of man.

There were, for him three elements to the soul, but only man was capable of having a rational soul. The Stoics also believed that "nature existed solely to serve mans interests." (Thomas 1983: 17) Our society has grown with this background of belief. Theologians could readily look to the bible to back these theories up. It was interpreted that in the Garden of Eden man had god given control and rights over everything (nature) within. After the fall or original sin this right was lost and man and beast no longer had the harmonious relationship of the past. Plant life itself became harder to manipulate, domestic animals required coercion into service and wild animals with claws and sharp teeth threatened mans survival. After the Flood and Noah God returned man's right over...