Jun 21

Jun 21 Prof. Darcia Narvaez on "Restoring Connective Tissue"

Professor Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D., and editor Tom VandeStadt have a wide-ranging, academic discussion on the importance of "Nesting", "Kinship", and a Kinship Worldview to human social, psychological, cognitive, and identify-development and happiness. She shares some of the universal characteristics of healthy nesting, child-rearing, and social sustainability.

Ms. Narvaez, Professor Emerita of Psychology at Notre Dame, is a fellow at the American Psychological Association, a fellow at the American Educational Research Association, and author / co-author / editor of more than 20 books. She has an MDiv from Luther Seminary in St. Paul. Her recent book, Neurobiology and The Development of Human Morality won the William James Book Award. Her newest book is Restoring the Kinship Worldview.

Listen to Darcia’s interview here, or click the image below.

Highlighted Quotes

Everything the baby experiences engraves the brain for life. So you want to make sure you don’t distress the baby because then you’re shifting the trajectory away from wellness towards illness or ill-being.

(In a) welcoming social climate, the mother feels supported, the baby is wanted, the community is delighted with having the baby around, and the baby feels like they belong, that they can make a difference, make other people smile and laugh…

The mother is there to be affectively attuned to the baby’s emotional systems to keep maintaining the best bio-chemistry for growth.

You want to let children have that self-directed play experience when they’re young so they can build self-confidence.

We can get caught up in ruminations, because of this left brain, especially if we weren’t raised in a nurturing way, we’ll have OCD, worry, depression…
In the primal wisdom, the kinship worldview, life is relationships with everything, animals, plants, spirits, etc.

You would not survive in a community, dependent on others, if you were vicious. So, virtue is part of our heritage as well.

The way to be human isn’t just to be in this thinking mind, that left brain ego-consciousness.

The left brain thinks it knows everything.

We forgot that we need to nurture, nurture the heart. And, you have to be immersed in relationships to build the empathy, the sensitivity, and the understanding, and the willingness to forgive, and be generous… All that is part of the Indigenous way, you’re immersed in that kind of social, loving community. And this then allows you to grow your human potential. Which is another thing we’re not doing…

Generosity is part of who you are as a human being. But what Capitalism has done (to the Gift Economy) is stop that flow and allowed people to hoard resources…

Writing “Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality” brought me to the realization that Indigenous wisdom, the kinship worldview, is our heritage. It is what comes about when we honor our physicality, our embodiedness, our species wisdom…

The Western wisdoms tell us, "Clear your heart, clear your fear, clear your ego, and then be open to divine energies.”