ABSTRACT
The deep ecology movement and the anthropocentric detour are historical as well as theoretical. The deep ecology platform provides a basis for an expanded praxis of teaching and learning music. This chapter describes the stories "The Good Samaritan" and "The Birth of Pecos Bill" to frame an ecocentric valuing of non-human musicking. Rootedness is important to the social foundations of music education. The deep ecological praxial arrangement of music within place and nature compels me to appraise musicking within the context of lived-in soundscapes. Ecofeminists have theorized how the "unjustified domination of women" parallels the "unjustified domination of non-human nature". The valuing structure can be challenging to move music teachers and students beyond the current anthropocentric valuing—part of the patriarchy that unjustly dominates women and nature—to ecocentric valuing. Because deep ecology discusses non-human life and nature in terms of "rights", deep ecology provides a metaphor about nature that is both useful and problematic.
