Contemporary Controversy Between Indigenous Religious Beliefs and Modern Development: Environmentalism VS Economic Growth

Abstract

This paper was originally written for Jason Brown Global Humanities 130 course Introduction to Religious Studies. The assignment asked students to do a research on a contemporary controversy on selected religion and give suggestions. The paper uses Chicago citation style.

This paper explores the controversy between Indigenous religious beliefs and modern development, which emanates from the conflicting worldviews in regard to the relationship between humanity and nature. Modern industrial development is economically driven and focuses on infrastructure, energy production and agricultural growth; it often implies environmental destruction and loss of Indigenous sacred sites. The paper discusses how development disrupts ecological balance and violates traditional Indigenous values through examining the cases of the Dakota Pipeline, the Amazon hydroelectric power plants, the Arctic oil drilling and the deforestation in Brazil due to the expansion of soybean cultivation. Indigenous values interconnectedness and sustainability, in contrast, modern development models generally focus on resource extraction for profit. The paper concludes with suggestions for strengthening legal protection of Indigenous lands, enforcing negotiation, and incorporating traditional ecological knowledge into the planning of developments, toward a balance between economic development and cultural and environmental protection.