(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
In the cosmology of Walbiri and Pitjantjatjara Aborigines, there are two temporal
eras. One is present and near past, the other ancestral time called "dream time" or "djugurba". Under djugurba the ancestors formed laws, rules and not least: the landscape. The creation of the landscape took place in several ways, including: "metamorphosis", in which an ancestor was transformed into the landscape; "Imprint", where an ancestor's touch shaped the landscape; "Externalization", in which an ancestor "pulled the landscape out" – for example by laying two eggs, two round stones were created. All three methods have one thing in common: the ancestor – subject – transformed, created or otherwise shaped the landscape – object. The object is thus part of the subject, and vice versa. Land and man are the same thing and cannot be separated.
By subjecting nature to the aborigines, the aborigines created indelible bonds to the nature and the landscape around them. They wander through the desert, lightly stroking a round rock and thinking, "This egg left my ancestor." It is a personal relationship where their identity can be found in every little rock, every creek and every towering mountain.
Fascinatingly enough, we in the "western, modern world" also identify ourselves through objects, but in a completely different way. Aborigines identify themselves through natureobjects as we identify through consumerobjects. This is shown in the houses we live in and the things we decorate them with – be it a hip wooden room on Tøyen with retro furniture-
laughing and girlish bike, or villa with sea views, unused canoe and a better used bar cabin. It is shown in the student at the Faculty of Social Sciences who replaces jeans and Buff with harem pants and Palestinian scarves to remove any doubt about which subculture he or she belongs to. It appears in the person who is constantly updating to the latest version of iPhone, iPad, and iPod to appear as up to date. Why is it like that?
Marshall D. Sahlins once said, "Money is for the West what kinship is for the rest".
Social anthropologist Marshall D. Sahlins once said, "Money is for the West what kinship is for the rest." There is something in it. We have none djugurba to relate to, and then it is perhaps not so strange that we have a more separate relationship with nature. Unlike the Aborigines, it is easier for us to cut down a tree – after all, it is not a tippoldemor's finger that you crack. Unlike the Aborigines, we do not find ourselves in the nature around us or feel proud because our ancestors created the solid mountains and the trickling streams. But like the Aborigines, we look for an anchor point for our subjectivity, and like the Aborigines, we lower anchor in the sea of objects.
Maybe we're sailing on a new course now. Hellevik and Hellevik have mapped "Norwegian values" on behalf of Norsk Monitor. From 1985 until today, Norwegians have become less materialistic and more idealistic. One possible reason is that most Norwegians nowadays have what they need. It can also be a result of our values not being created in a vacuum (no matter what election campaign debates about brown cheese and the burqa may give the impression of), but in a society that is dynamic and vibrant. A society that is now well on its way to riding a "green wave". A society in transition where people value leisure rather than more pay and question the spout-and-run oil policy. Where structural systems are challenged.
But we have to raise anchor if we are to ride the wave out. And by moving the anchor point from consumer objects to natural objects, we can create a greener society – a new, green djugurba.
