Saturday 11 May 2013

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)