Ökologische Problemlösungen in traditionalen Kulturen: Ableitung und Deutung autochthoner Potentiale anhand eines Fallbeispiels aus der östlichen Himalayaregion

Abstract As an introduction, this contribution shows some general basic conditions for the existence of traditional cultures. In the following the traditional notion of ecology is developed, mainly considering the tribes of the North-East Himalaya who are living either on slash-and-bum agriculture or on wet-rice cultivation on terraced fields. These cultures are characterized by animism, Hinduism and Buddhism. The study tries to draw parallels between these systems of religious notions and the philosophy of nature of E.Haeckel, the founding father of ecology. The problems of western ecological theory that followed evolutionism and anthropological research lead to a descriptive analysis of the Rai culture, an Old-Nepalese tribe of the Himalaya. This case study analyses the Rai ecology, their autochthonous notions of ecology and their capacity to solve ecological problems. The conclusions of this study are related to westem, modern notions of ecology.