Deep ecology and the environmental crisis: An anthropological inquiry into the viability of a movement

Abstract

This thesis explores the contemporary environmental movement termed deep ecology. Deep ecologists attempt to understand root causes of the present environmental crisis by investigating values and beliefs that Western industrial nations hold about human relationships to nature. Deep ecologists envision a future society based on egocentrism rather than an anthropocentric orientation. The lifestyles they endeavor to create and propagate are based on the belief that all living things are intrinsically valuable. Deep ecologists borrow ideas from religious traditions around the world expressing parallel notions about the value of non-human life. This thesis will investigate the contributions of two of these traditions, Taoism and Transcendentalism. The paper will also include ethnographic examples of deep ecology living derived from the field experience of the author. There will be a discussion of deep ecology's relevance to ecological anthropology, to understand the potential impacts that both disciplines can have on each other.