Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth

by Darcia Narváez, Wahinkpe Topa

"A collection of 28 excerpted passages from Indigenous leaders that reflect the wisdom of Indigenous worldview precepts, accompanied by analysis"--

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous, Philosophy, Nature, Spirituality, History, Environment

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2022

Reviews

[Andrew Child · Rating 5 out of 5]

anyone criticizing this for being redundant or having an unconventional layout maybe skipped the introduction here. I loved this book and loved the cyclical ways it references back to itself, contradicts itself, and self-critiques, because it practices what it preaches and shows a possibility of a collectively-written book that reflects the nuances of dialogue and conversation

[Brady Heyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars: good but not great

The core wisdom that underlies this book is fantastic and indispensable. Unfortunately, the writing and formatting get in the way of this wisdom. The redundancy of many of the sections, along with the clunky analysis from the co-authors makes it hard to recommend this otherwise important book.

[Kaitlyn (ktxx22) Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the format of this and a lot of what this book is proposing and saying, however it’s also really woo woo and I don’t get down with that crunchy patronizing BS. Especially in regards to child rearing. You can encourage joy, play, and a love of the outdoors a lot of different ways. But to criticize the “white” mom with her baby because she brought a blanket and toys instead of letting the kid crawl around all over the grass and explore. You can bring all the things and still let the kiddo wander it’s being prepared for anything at that point. Also the male author really has a thing about making sure people aren’t overweight 👀 and says lack of physical activity blah blah blah. Yo fat people can be incredibly physically active. Drop the BS that because my body is larger than others it’s not capable of doing physical activities.

[Ian Fife · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone looking to start a journey of reconciliation or an interest in Indigenous traditions and belief systems this is a good book to pick up. It has a similar intention as Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer in that the authors are introducing Indigenous traditions but presented in a different way. The authors have taken 28 excerpts of interviews, conversations, speeches and presentations and used them as precepts to discuss traditional Indigenous worldviews in greater detail and compare them to the current dominant worldview (i.e., Western ideas).

The book is written as a back and forth conversation between the two authors discussing the 28 Indigenous worldview topics from across the Americas ranging from rebalancing nature through identifying “other-than-humans” as equals to gender fluidity in humans to individual and community spirituality.

The only issue I had with the author’s viewpoints is there was little to no mention of two-eyed seeing. For those unaware of this phrase, it refers to using both the dominant worldview and the traditional worldview in concert to achieve balanced results of our current worldviews. Instead, it comes across as coming back to the traditional worldviews because they are better and to leave the dominant worldview behind. That said, the authors don’t come across as self-righteous but more that this viewpoint would be a better way. I understand the topic of the book is traditional worldviews but as our world is becoming a global society, this seems impractical and two-eyed seeing is an important concept to consider to bring value back to our current egocentric society.

Other than that, there are many truths that can be hard to swallow in this book for a person accepting a dominant worldview. Many values held by traditional worldviews such as living in a nonhierarchical, non-materialistic, and matrilineal society are accentuated. The precepts and authors describe hierarchical societies are viewed as oppressive (easy to see in our current capitalist system); or, in a non-materialistic society where there is no such thing as possession or an accumulation of things and the thing to be possessed is not to be kept but to be gifted to other members of the community especially if that gift serves a better purpose to those that need it; or, a society where women are treated as equals, and in some cases, more important than men. Personally, these are important values that have been lost in our current worldview.

The most important lessons I learned from these teachings are generosity and gratitude. Not that I thought I wasn’t generous or thankful before but they taught me a different way to see how to be generous and grateful.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know how to rate this one. While I think there is a lot of good information in here, there is also some problematic stuff that makes me say proceed with caution if you pick this up. Maybe a 2.75.

This book is set up to introduce each precept by different Indigenous voices, which means you get a lot of perspectives and may be introduced to a lot of new voices. After each precept is introduced there is commentary from the two authors- this commentary is a mixed bag. It sometimes feels like you are reading a podcast transcript and other times gets really dense and academic, and sometimes problematic.

In the chapter on Non-anthropocentrism one of the authors says "Heart-impaired, ecologically autistic people mindlessly carry out this destruction" (referring to mistreatment of the earth). As an autistic person this made me want to DNF right here.

At about 50% I was thinking about DNFing because while I was appreciating the precept info, I felt like the commentary was really long and getting a bit repetitive. Then the audiobook became available so I switched to that an continued. After a few chapters, I thought about skipping the commentary completely and just reading the precept parts. I'm not sure why I pushed through because the last chapter was particularly ableist.

There are a number of references to healing cancer by not doing chemotherapy and using alternative and nature-based medicine and ceremony. I'm just not into this anti-science stuff and having lost people to cancer it is rather hard to read.

The last precept is about disease and illness happening to us because we are out of balance, while this can sometimes be true- overworking causing issues, etc. The commentary here really leans into alternative medicine and illness being a lesson or due to something we did by "being out of balance" and that healing is "within us" if we were "living a careful life". As a chronically ill and disabled person, this is triggering as fuck to read. Had this leaned more into health issues cause by capitalism, I think this would have been much stronger and less ableist.

So, while I did find a lot of value in a lot of this, I can't recommend it without acknowledging the problematic ableist and anti-science parts. I think you could easily just read the precept introductions to each chapter and skip the commentary and still get a lot out of this, but I'd still skip that last one.

I will also say, many of the ideas in here are covered in Braiding Sweetgrass, so if you haven't read that I would recommend that instead. There are also a lot of authors who introduce the precepts for more reading.

[Charity · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think it's frankly stupid that a book written by a marginalized community uses slurs to marginalize the disabled community.

Know better. Be better.

Edit and rerelease.

Edit: Stop using "autistic" to describe people you don't like. The 90s are back In but... Not like that.

[Alanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to live in a world where everyone has read this book.

[ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read 'Restoring the Kinship Worldview' very slowly over the winter and spring. The truth is that I was reluctant to finish it, reluctant to walk it back to the Hamilton Grange Library, dread to cast a friend down a metal chute after it had kept me warm for so many months. It followed me to the train, to the couch, to the box office, to dates, cafes, museums, and classrooms. In a season of hard decisions and heartbreak, it reignited my spirit with voices of healing, wisdom, and hope. I am going to keep it with me a little longer before I let it be found again and again by someone who will treasure it just as deeply x

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fascinating, it expands on what I've learned from Ishmael (Daniel Quinn) and Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer.) The authors comment on each precept after is introduced, mentioning their experiences and family histories. My interesting thought though is that if nature controlled the human population is it does wildlife, would there be so many humans on the planet, as there are now? Anyways, I love these precepts, and how they can balance out the problems that we have created from the colonial days to the present.

[Janette Ozoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it weird to say that this book is now my bible?

There's so much in here that resonates with me, and the content and structure of the chapters were/are helpful to my unlearning-relearning process.

Each chapter starts off with a precept shared by an indigenous individual or group of individuals, their background and relevant life experiences, and a transcript of Four Arrows and Narvaez expounding upon the precept. They frequently discuss how the different philosophies fit in (or don't) in the dominant worldview, and offer ideas of what society could look like if more were to adopt indigenous ways of living.

The chapter I vibed with the least was the one on self-initiated healing. I'm not sure how comfortable I am renouncing Western medicine, but that's also not what the chapter was advocating for. It simply shared alternate ways of healing that could work for some people. Maybe not always in the physical sense, but more in the emotional/spiritual sense, which is just as valid depending on your priorities.

I also do recognize certain gaps that exist. For example, one of the chapters discusses a different way of handling justice and problem solving. The idea is that the "crime" is a symptom of a social malady, and instead of punishing the "criminal," it is up to the community to help that individual heal, which then filters into community healing. While I do agree in the idea that lots of crimes are symptoms of systemic issues and that a good way for the community to come together to try to fix these issues is to vote for more compassionate, egalitarian laws, I'm struggling with how this applies to violent crimes and white collar crimes.

Overall, it was an amazing read and I'll probably read it over and over again.

[Emily Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents 28 principles of what the authors describe as an Indigenous worldview. These tenets are important and worth engaging with carefully. I especially enjoyed the biosketches and citations that introduced each precept. These offered inspiring examples of what these precepts can look and feel like and the myriad ways Indigenous peoples have resisted colonization and held onto essential lifeways. For me, these were the highlights of the book.

This important content was sometimes muddled by the book's methodology. In the dialogues between the authors, they get caught up responding to one another making lots of connections between the precept and their own experiences and academic learning. This had its merits, but sometimes lost the thread in a tangle of citations and asides and made me feel like I was reading private, unfocused, and even unedited correspondence. As other reviewers have noted, the authors’ reliance on jargony language and an academic tone undermine its intention of sharing this wisdom with everyone. Further, I was disappointed to see the word “autistic” used in a perjorative sense in Chapter 13 and the term “hermaphrodite” used in a discussion intended to affirm sex and gender fluidity and self-determination. These were hurtful mistakes.

Like others have said: good, but not great.

[Tim Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book two reviews: a 5 for the selection and scope of indigenous thinkers and writers discussing kinship (with others, and with all living things); and a 1 for the commentary by the compilers, who manage to perform a two-person academic circle jerk while simultaneously patting themselves on the back…I wound up reading the words of the elders and thinkers, and skipping the commentary. I would suggest others do the same. Four pages of blah to every page of actual indigenous world-view. Buy it used and treat it as an introduction to some very cogent, inspiring thoughts on our connectedness to one another and the living world around us.

[Amelia Maness-Gilliland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel fortunate to have received an advanced reader copy of this forthcoming book, Restoring the Kinship World View.

This book is precisely what we need right now. This information, graciously shared from the wisdom of Indigenous people, is too important not to be in everyone's hands.

This quote is from the publisher's description of this book:

"Indigenous worldviews, and the knowledge they confer, are critical for human survival and the wellbeing of future generations. Editors Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez present 28 powerful excerpted passages from Indigenous leaders, including Mourning Dove, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Winona LaDuke, and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez."

Each chapter of this book reflects the wisdom of the Indigenous worldview. Topics covered in the essays include: trusting the universe versus living in a fear-based culture, the laws of nature as a rule for living, learning to honor the earth as sacred, focusing on more than just self-gain, and recognizing the importance of generosity and the greater good and several more beneficial and critically important world views.

The essays underscore the importance of shifting away from living without a strong social purpose, and in a world that feels very "me-centric," this is refreshing. As a society, we need to recognize the interconnection between all living things and that it is all sacred. This shift in worldview requires us to use more than just our brain for processing information; we need to also listen to our hearts.

This is an important book that includes many important voices. This book would make a fantastic gift!

[Shelby Thoutt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the introduction, but found the rest of the book to read much like an advertisement for the two authors’ other works. It became very repetitive, and sits very heavily in both victim mentality (understandably, but perhaps too strongly) and superiority of indigenous beliefs over all other belief systems. I am grateful for what I learned from this book about American indigenous values, but I think there are much better books out there.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are someone who knows we need a new path forward in the world but are uncertain of what it should look like or how we will get there this is the book for you. So many beautiful concepts shared that will help us move from the model of power over to empowerment.

[Cora Galpern]

I really struggled with this book and did not like it very much. I read it with my Detroit Street book club and we had some meaningful conversations, but I would not recommend it.
Each chapter starts with a vignette from an Indigenous leader and I think the book could honestly just be those because I thought they were the most impactful.
The two authors make some really bold claims and use a lot of inaccessible language to describe the Indigenous worldview. In the beginning they talk about the importance of nuance and continuum when thinking about the dominant and Indigenous worldview and then proceed to throw that away completely. I felt like they romanticized Indigineity and totally contradicted their stated goal of finding meaningful grey area in otherwise rigid binaries.
Then we find out 3/4 of the way through that one of the authors is actually a white Irish man and after that I was even more annoyed.
Idk maybe I am being ignorant and I am open to pushback but this book really got on my nerves. There were some good points but overall not a fan

[Samantha Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly believe if everyone read this book and adopted certain ethos herein, humanity might have a real chance at establishing something that feels a lot like world peace. I am going to review the content rather than the formatting, though I found it a bit odd with the biosketch reading like a podcast transcript.

4 stars because it took me around 5 months to make it through the first two chapters, then about 1 to finish it. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself after finally finishing Chapter 2 (Nonhierarchical Society) because it felt like a gateway to entry. What a dense topic to begin on.

Take a shot every time the word "egalitarian" is mentioned... jk don't do that you would die. Even though I do love learning about nontraditional and nonhierarchical styles of governance, I did not want to read about it upon first opening this book. Se la vie.

The whole book and its concepts feel expansive in a world full of capitalism and colonialism.

[Carly Basch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of wisdom, teachings and understandings

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a phenomenal read! Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez use each chapter to discuss an essay or other writing that demonstrates indigenous thought and worldview. I was a bit nervous at first at this format because it's not the typical structure of books I read. By the end, I was incredibly thankful for that format because it broke it down into more digestible sections. This is not a book you can power through or speed read. You will likely need to read many of the sections multiple times to fully understand the meaning (especially if you grew up with Western precepts/concepts.

The lessons and knowledge these 28 precepts precepts are truly capable of changing your opinions and worldviews. But you must let yourself be open to them. Hear what all the voices in this collection have to say and think on them. I would read a chapter, then pause and reflect on what I had read. Some of the concepts I learned were so significant that I put the book down and meditate to reel in my emotions.

[Laura Slotemaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible. This is a systematic approach to de-colonize our thinking, an excellent resource to slowly meditate through.

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this title on the always-wonderful University of California, Berkeley’s The Greater Good Science Center site and was intrigued (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/arti...), having a profound interest in Native American perspectives, ancient and contemporary. Restoring the Kinship Worldview combines both to champion the ideology of kincentrism to restore place-based knowledge and return to an Earth-based consciousness in this Anthropocene era. Whatever version of a “god” one wants to believe in, through this ideological lens they all get rebranded as Nature. Sadly, “western” culture has nearly separated life from every corner of Nature, and thus we have created our own hell (p. 128). We collectively need to re-embrace a Nature-as-god, Earth-as-fragile-home mindset, if not as religion. Freud called this an “oceanic feeling”; to Maslow it was “peak experience”, and, to Sagan it was the romantic association of us being “made from stardust”. Beautiful, romantic, poetic.

Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) speaks of a pet theory he has, where:

“ . . . starting with Hinduism, all of the organized religions have a foundation that relates to original Indigenous worldview. I propose that the enlightened founders, all the way up through Jesus Christ, saw the devolution of human civilization and created ideas for returning to our original loving nature. My theory is that religions are an effort to rectify the horrors of hierarchy and the loss of egalitarianism and Nature-based thinking. Indigenous worldview is thus prevention oriented, knowing about the potential but not experiencing life based on greed and division. Over time, the teachings of the religious founders were modified by the political and social mores of the times to create orthodoxy that weakened the original intent. Post-contact efforts became conventional for maintaining the religion itself.

If generosity is learned by observing the natural world and our place in it, as I believe it is, Indigenous worldview is a necessity for returning to life based on generosity, it seems” (pp. 162-3).

While my opinion couldn’t mean any less, I agree with him, even if I choose to ignore the “spiritual” or sentient nature of Nature. Lovelock and Margulis’s Gaia Hypothesis/Paradigm works well for me. The Indigenous worldview aligns with so much of “paganism”, Buddhism, Wiccan, druidic, and Transcendentalist perspectives too. This is an incredibly OLD way of looking at the world and understanding our humble place within in, and one I embrace wholeheartedly, but I’m nowhere near perfect yet. This is not a peace-on-earth perspective, though sometimes the readings feel that way. On the one hand, it is our relationship with and to Nature that needs to drastically metamorphose, and on the other it is our relationship to one another that needs to be dynamically reorganized. This all needs to be done quickly too. Time is not on our side here. Humankind needs to endure some growing pains in this transformation, but ultimately it will lead to greater reward for all life on Earth, finding balance and equilibrium, and nurturing a symbiotic relationship to Gaia.

If you haven’t yet seen the doc film The Year the Earth Changed on Apple TV, hosted by Sir David Attenborough, please do so. The COVID-19 pandemic was a monstrous occurrence (still ongoing) that’s severity could have easily been avoided if morons (beholden solely to their financial portfolios over human lives) weren’t in charge of half the world. One of the only good things the pandemic did was convincingly illustrate how when humankind slows down its consumption, traffic, pollution, and waste, the Earth and its biosystems can vigorously heal. This film is a teaching moment for tectonic change and shows that when humanity is encouraged to act differently, truly incredible things can happen, growing pains included.

Change is happening of course, but it is both equally small and yet equally significant, from nuclear fusion to quantum computing, from reversible-rust batteries to the growing use of solar panels and wind turbines, from “green concrete” to the proliferation of backyard gardens, discussions about “the future of work”, and the surging e-bike movement across the globe. Momentum, investment, and mind-shifts are required from everyone on the planet. We need to accomplish more with less. We need to consume less, waste less, breed less, and crave less. Replacing the mining of oil with the mining of lithium with the mining of cobalt won’t help. Listening to the voices of the global Indigenous community can lead us into a better future, but we must turn our ears and open our minds to what they have to say. This book is a fantastic starting point, and the sources they cite will help empower every reader to pursue the Indigenous worldview more purposefully. I’ll include my list below to make it easier on folks, but there are plenty more mentioned in the text (I���ve already read several of them, such as Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta). Here’s to a better, more peaceful, inclusive, and humanistic-driven future.


Spirits of Blood, Spirits of Breath: The Twinned Cosmos of Indigenous America by Barbara Alice Mann (2016)

Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture, and Wisdom by Darcia Narvaez (2014)

Mother Earth Spirituality: Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and Our World by Ed McGaa (2011)

Unlearning the Language of Conquest: Scholars Expose Anti-Indianism in America by Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs) (2010)

Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism by Jack Forbes (2008)

Concentric Ecology: Indigenous Perceptions of the Human-Nature Relationship by Enrique Salmon (2000)

The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram (1997)

Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior by Marimba Ani (1994)

Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples by Jack Forbes (1993)

[Christopher Buchheit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ideas taken to strange lengths.

I appreciate the core tenants of this book, and I want to learn more about indigenous worldviews.

However, the book has some major problems, the first being the presentation of all indigenous worldviews as the same. I would have been more interested in exploring the commonalities between indigenous worldviews while also acknowledging all nations have their own values and views.

The other big problem is applying modern day concerns to ancient peoples. The authors claim to understand, for instance, how indigenous peoples would have viewed LGBTQ people, which strikes me as presumptuous. It is possible to be indigenous and also have problematic views. It is also possible to be white and European and maintain many positive qualities, and I wish that both had been acknowledged as well. No view or culture is perfect, nor should any culture be revered as such.

Lastly, the authors commentary struck as too self-congratulatory, to the point of being unnecessary at best, and annoying at worst.

I'm still very interested in learning more about indigenous worldviews, and I'll be sure to check out other similar books.

[G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me begin by saying that it took me 3 months to read this book. I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher’s giveaway on Goodreads several months ago, and truly looked forward to reading it straight through. The subject matter was surely interesting and important enough for a quicker more focused read. The issues I ran into were the language and the writing style.
The text was peppered with terms like “epigenetics”, “identitarianism” and “nonanthropocentrism”. While I can appreciate that both authors hold PHDs and teach graduate level classes, I fear they may miss their target audience.
The back and forth commentary, while insightful, often only referenced the author’s own personal experience. We may have benefited by hearing more from the quoted indigenous speaker whose insights opened each chapter.
Overall the importance of the message in this book should rate 5 stars. However the 2 star writing style required work on the reader’s part just to finish. So I can only rate this book at 3 stars.

[Jeffrey Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Restoring the Kinship Worldview examines 28 precepts in total. These precepts are compared and contrasted between dominant Western and Indigenous cultures. Each chapter introduces a precept while a notable person of the Indigenous community sheds some light on its significance among humans, non-humans, plants, and Mother Earth. Each chapter is also followed by an interview among two authors, one being a medical psychologist of the Indigenous community and the other an educational psychologist of Western culture, discussing the specific precept. Both authors provide insightful information based on their psychology backgrounds and life experiences. It’s truly a fascinating take on how deranged and toxic Western thinking and linear structure is in comparison to the kinship view of Indigenous Peoples. Great read overall!!

[Sarah Askew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many books I read are trauma-heavy and don’t offer healing. This book made me feel restored. Not only do the authors offer insight to origin of Indigenous concepts we take for granted, but they also present ways to connect to community and to ourselves. We’ve been told that love and self-acceptance are out of reach, while this book gives concrete examples of quite the opposite. This book has changed my worldview and makes me want to relate to others in a more compassionate way. Please read if you desire to connect to yourself and others.

[HadiDee · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the plus side, this introduced me to some indigenous writers and thinkers that are new to me. On the other side the extracts/ quotes were too short, and the commentary did not, for the most part, add much to the extracts.

[Jacob D. Salzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. A great dialogue that envisions a better past and a better future.

[Kevin Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the format of this book, each chapter offering three perspectives on 28 different precepts for a kinship worldview. So much wisdom in this book. Will be recommending this book to friends.

[Laurie Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read. This. Book.

[the_abinator · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an anthropology graduate,this book should not be outside of my comfort zone but without having read Jeremy Lent’s “Web of Meaning”, I doubt I would have fully absorbed this.

Other than some assertions I don’t fully agree with or believe, this book is chock full of useful learnings, values and triggers that help destabilise many of the beliefs I have from Western philosophy that I find particularly harmful.

As a social scientist embedded in the climate and nature crisis, I wanted to look for tools that can help set us back on track, as it became clear to me some years ago that everything from our science, models to our technology is inadequate to meet these crises. We need a fundamental change in values, thought processes and practice. I really appreciated all the references to child-rearing which is not something I considered much before and will be certain to explore what evolutionary biology and psychology has to say about this. (I have been meaning to read Hrdy’s works on this for ages)

Another thing I appreciated is the format. At first I found it repetitive. I thought the authors sometimes veered away from the precept. However the format practiced circular thinking. Everything is connected and many of the ideas are repeated throughout. It helps to embed the ideas.

What blows my mind is how I just realised that I spent so many years studying anthropology and not once did we read books from indigenous people explaining their own thoughts and values.

I will close off with a few random things I appreciated:
-Wall Kimmerer starting sentences with “as a human who cannot photosynthesise” which destabilises the typical human animal hierarchy and reminds us we cannot do so much
- the emphasis on animals and many other species as our older brothers and sisters (in fact so many came before us, I like the idea we are still young and rather silly children)
- the idea we cannot learn from non human entities. I will ponder what I can learn from my dog and the trees in my garden