Dr. Darcia Narvaez is Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame and a research pioneer integrating work on child flourishing, human moral development, healthy psyche, and Indigenous Peoples' social values. Professor Narvaez talks about her breakthrough work, the meaning of "The Evolved Nest," and her new book, "Restoring the Kinship Worldview."

About Darcia

Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Psychology Emerita at Notre Dame, a fellow to the American Psychological Association, and a fellow to the American Educational Research Association. She's written, co-authored, and edited more than 20 books. Her book, Neurobiology and The Development of Human Morality won the William James Book Award.

References

• The Evolved Nest
• Neurobiology and The Development of Human Morality
• Restoring the Kinship Worldview
• Four Arrows (co-author / co-editor of “The Kinship Worldview”)
• 9 components of the Evolved Nest
• Alloparents
• Iain McGilchrist, The Master and his Emissary
• Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Honorable Harvest (from Braiding Sweetgrass)
• Linda Hogan (Chickasaw Nation)
• Genevieve Vaughan, Maternal Gift Economy
• Nature’s Gift Economy
• David Abram, Spell of the Sensuous
• Human microbiome
• Symbiosis
• Melvin Konnor
• James Prescott
• Allan Schore, neurobiological attachment
• Jon Young, Coyote games
• Tamarack Song, games to develop intuition
• David Bohm, physicist, “The real intelligence is insight intelligence and it comes in from the outside.”

Program

0.00 Welcome & Intro

I. THE KINSHIP WORLDVIEW

2:50 What is a “worldview”?
4:30 What is a “Kinship” worldview?

6:58 Contrast the Indigenous worldview of connection with the Western worldview of disconnectedness

II. THE EVOLVED NEST

9:35 What are the characteristics of an “evolved nest”?

11:35 Components of the Evolved Nest:

11:45 Soothing perinatal experiences

13:00 Breast feeding

14:25 Lots of affectionate touch, no negative touch

15:20 A welcoming social climate

16:25 Alloparents who are responsive

16:55 Self-directed play with multiple-age playmates

17:55 Nature connection

19:14 Routine healing experiences

22:20 On being an animal

III. RESTORING THE KINSHIP WORLDVIEW

24:55 Talking about the book -- What are you trying to convey with the precepts?

30:18 Darcia: To understand our Nature as a Human species is to understand what Thriving looks like

happy, calm, quiet minds
gleeful, childlike

sense of humor that’s not hostile

holding hands, sitting together, enjoying being together…

try to make the other person laugh and feel safe

there’s no big ego, it’s “us”.
32:00 The Honorable Harvest, Darcia shares favorite quotes,
“Sustain the ones who sustain you and the Earth will live forever.”

34:50 What healing medicine feels like , Tom shares a quote

37:05 Darcia: We have a lot of unhealed grief and trauma we pass on, instead of taking time to heal

37:30 What is the relationship between the Sacred Feminine and The Maternal Gift Economy?

40:25 Communion, holy union, co-creation, and our interconnectedness

41:10 Darcia on Nature connection, or “Ecological Attachment”, experiment

42:30 Rooted and connected: “our roots extend out from our skin and our other body cavities”

43:20 The microbiome; We are communities

44:00 Where does your passion for restoring the kinship come from, how are you teaching this?

IV. RESTORING OUR WORLD
48:10 What should we be doing to restore the nest?

Make sure you yourself are centered; Nature connection is one of the best ways to heal.

Learn to get back to social joy.

Learn to guide the conscious mind into connection; build the communal imagination.

52:12 What is sustaining your spirit right now?

I sing to the 6 directions

I sing on my land

Lying on the Earth, leaning against a tree, huggling with spouse

Try to make my husband laugh, sing and dance together

Keep aware: I am and always will be part of the Earth

V. CONCLUSION

54:30 Final thoughts

The first precept: the recognition of spiritual energy in Nature; find that guardian spirit...

57:00 Tom reads a final quote, on Community Welfare (Dona Enriqueta Contreras)

57:56 End

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 or adversity.”“(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 as they are made to smile and laugh…”

“The mother is there to be affectively attuned to the baby’s emotional systems to keep maintaining them in 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. . . When you don’t provide the nest, in general, you’re deflating that individual…”

“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… all this stuff that goes on when you’re un-nested… So we need healing practices to get back into centeredness, into relational connection with others and the natural world, back into gratitude and into our bodies…”

“Our sociology relies on good biology…”

“If we’re raised in these nested communities, virtue is a byproduct, is the result. You would not survive in a community, dependent on others, if you were vicious. So, virtue is part of our heritage as well.”

“In the primal wisdom, the kinship worldview, life is relationships with everything, with All other relations, animals, plants, spirits, etc.”

“We’re trying to get back to connection, to understand that we are all connected, and that part of being connected properly is to be present, to honor the spider, the tree, the Earth, the computer, these are all things that people are relating to…”

“We are embodied creatures, we’re bio-social.”

“Another piece is holism. The way to be human isn’t just to be in this thinking mind, that left brain eco-consciousness. It’s actually quite distressing to be there.”

“The left brain thinks it knows everything.”

“If your survival systems are overdeveloped and you’re easily triggered, the authoritarian is going to be easy to pull you in. . . 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 a human being. But what Capitalism (to the Gift Economy) has done is stop that flow and allowed people to hoard resources, and force others to not have any 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, and it’s what will save us…”

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

This podcast is part of our series, Restoring Connective Tissue.
Produced and edited by Chris Searles.