In our nonprofit center in the Peruvian Upper Amazon (www.asociacionsachamama.org) we are regenerating a pre-Columbian soil that archaeologists have named “anthropogenic”, meaning a soil made by the indigenous pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Amazon basin.
Archaeologists have dated this soil as being 8,500 years old and have asserted that its fertility has lasted till today and given rise to the first civilizations in the Americas, with large cities and ceremonial centers. Furthermore, soil scientists have discovered that this soil, full of a special type of charcoal they have named ‘biochar’ , sequesters from the atmosphere an astonishing 20% of greenhouse gasses. Our indigenous collaborators in our center have taught us that this soil was made together with the spirits of the earth, treated as kin, such as the sun, the moon, the stars, the water, the forest among others. In other words, it is not an anthropogenic soil but one made together with and in reciprocity with earth others. Offerings or libations are made to these spirits of the cosmos/nature by the humans.
In other words, this Amazonian Black Soil is much more than a technology for sustainable farming, it is a whole spirituality and worldview. We need to learn from these indigenous practices and worldviews in order not only to resolve the climate crisis but to resolve our own alienation and mental health epidemics in modernity.
Session Date and Time 15th, Friday, 9:00 AM Peru | 7:30 PM India | 4:00 PM CET | 7:00 AM PT
Duration: 90 mins
