Endemophilia

Endemophilia: the particular love of the locally and the regionally distinctive in the people of that place. The English word, ‘endemic’, is based on the French word, endémique and has the Greek roots, endēmia (a dwelling in) and endēmos (native in the people) and philia (love of). [Albrecht 2010]

I have created the term, ‘endemophilia’, to posit an emplaced and home-based counter to traditionally defined nostalgia. Endemophilia captures in one word the particular love of the locally and regionally distinctive in the people of that place. It is similar to what Relph called “existential insideness” or the deep, satisfying feeling of being truly at home with one’s place and culture.

Endemophilia is a counter to the alienation and isolation expressed by the term nostalgia when a ‘local’ person is separated from their home environment. To have an emplaced love of home and its distinctive ecocultural qualities and characteristics is a precondition for having a negative experience when absent from home. In order to experience genuine homesickness, you must have already experienced ‘homewellness’ or endemophilia.

Eutierria

Eutierria: a positive feeling of oneness with the earth and its life forces where the boundaries between self and the rest of nature are obliterated and a deep sense of peace and connectedness pervades consciousness. (eu =good, tierra = earth, ia = suffix for member of a group of {positive psychoterratic} conditions). [Albrecht 2010] (Pronounced: You tee air ia)

In contrast, to ecoanxiety, ecoparalysis and global dread, when the human-nature relationship is spontaneous and mutually enriching (symbiotic) we experience a state of ‘eutierria’. As indicated above, I define eutierria as a positive feeling of oneness with the earth and its life forces. Eutierria now exists as an alternative to what has previously been described within religious and spiritual writings as “that oceanic feeling”. This feeling is one where the boundaries between self and the rest of nature are obliterated and a deep sense of peace and connectedness pervades consciousness. As indicated above, I have always had a strong affinity with the land (terra) so for me, it has always been “that earthly feeling” that best captured an emotion or state of being that I would now like to call eutierria.

Alexander von Humboldt described this experience thus:

Nature can be so soothing to the tormented mind, a blue sky, the glittering surface of lake water, the green foliage of trees may be your solace. In such company it is even possible to forget the reality of one’s personal existence. It lends wings to our feelings and thoughts. (von Humboldt 1829: Letter to brother, in Von Humboldt 1995:xliii)

 

Sumbiosity and Sumbiosic Development

Sumbiosity and Sumbiosic Development
(to be used mainly in the human social context)

Glenn Albrecht PhD.

Professor of Sumbiosity,

Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia.

11^th April 2013.

Sumbiosity: An emergent state actively created by humans in all domains that conserves and/or achieves an ongoing balance and permanent interdependence between humans, all other life forms and the life support systems of the earth (biogeochemical cycles).

{Greek sumbiosis, companionship, Greek sumbios = living together, Greek bios = life, Pronounciation: ‘soom-bi-os-ity’}

Sumbiosity is a state of living which achieves ongoing ecological balance with other life forms on earth (a state formerly called sustainability). ‘Sustainability’ is inadequate as a concept because it does not specify what is to be sustained and over what time frame it is to be sustained and as such has been abused and devalued as a term.

Sumbiosity solves the problem of what it is that must be ‘sustained’ and over what time frame … what must be sustained are sumbiosic actions and attributes on the part of humans that create sumbiosity for all humans and all other life forms indefinitely into the future.

Sumbiosic: Those cumulative types of active and purposive relationships and attributes created by humans that enhance mutual interdependence and mutual benefit for all living beings so as to conserve and maximise a state of sumbiosity.

{Greek sumbiosis, companionship, Greek sumbios = living together, Greek bios = life, Greek suffix ic = adjective form of sumbiosity, Pronunciation: ‘soom-bi-o-sic’}

Use, for example: “By actively growing and nurturing native species of plants in his garden, Glenn developed a sumbiosic relationship with the birds of his region.”

Sumbiosic Development: A process of active invention and creation on the part of humans to achieve and conserve a state of sumbiosity where humans and other life forms can live together indefinitely in mutually supporting relationships. A form of development that has sumbiosity as its goal or end state.

‘Sustainable development’ as a term is inadequate because it also fails to define what it is to be sustained. Hence we have tortured issues like ‘sustainable growth’ or ‘sustainable mining’.

Use, for example: “The commencement of sumbiosic development has seen the exponential increase in the use of biomimicry in technological design.” 

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Cognate Concepts

Symbiosis, Symbionment, Symbiocene (used mainly in the biological and biophysical contexts)

Symbiosis: Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both. Also, a relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

[Greek sumbiosis, companionship, Greek sumbioun, to live together, Greek sumbios, living together. Greek bios, life.]

Symbionment = the combination of natural and built environments as created by evolution and sumbiosic development… what we live in (formerly called ‘the environment’)

Symbiocene = the era or epoch that we will live in if we have sumbiosic development creating sumbiosity.