ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ideas of Yanomami leader and shaman Davi Kopenawa about the connections between knowledge and life, about the ways in which non-indigenous Western peoples tend to connect the two, and how this is related to their tendency to destroy the natural environment. Through the exploration of the particular philosophy of language and of the self that structures Kopenawa’s understanding of personhood and the relationships between beings, a radically new perspective on the environment – and on knowing the environment – emerges, challenging well-established assumptions about the current environmental crisis and the role that science plays in it.
