Love Sustains Life: Jkyo jkwainï and Allied Strategies in Caring for the Earth

Abstract. This essay is an impassioned epitaph conveying the teachings of Jotï wise persons from the Venezuelan Amazon who passed away recently. It honors their wish to spread the philosophy of jkyo jkwainï, which holds that loving-caring for everyone and everything around us is an essential human trait that holds the key to sustaining all life. If this innate faculty is nurtured, it gives people the power to maintain or even enhance the living world; if suppressed, its absence will inevitably lead to the degeneration and demise of the world. Their essential message urges everyone to use the dynamism of love already present within us to reverse the dominant trend of exploiting nature selfishly. An environmental ethic of loving-caring can actually be found in disparate cultural traditions, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. (Re)establishing loving-caring as a central guiding principle for organizing human ecological dynamics is already taking place in different urban and rural settings globally. Vital connections between ancient eco-philosophies and contemporary ecosocial movements are highlighted in order to show that real possibilities exist for building ecotopias moving forward. These arguments are attuned to postulates for biocultural conservation endorsed by ethnobiologists, Indigenous rights advocates, and environmental activists. Case studies are mentioned to stress the common ground shared by a diverse assortment of stakeholders.