The idea that connection to "nature" is necessary to human health is popular among people in the ecopsychology movement. They look to sociobiology for scientific legitimacy and inspiration:
(From: gbraakma@knoware.nl (Gert Braakman) in an email message announcing the World Wide Web site: Project NatureConnectAccording to Pulitzer-Prize winning sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D., of Harvard, people have an inherent biological need to be in contact with the out-of-doors. He calls it "biophilia", and believes that nature may hold the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction. Our childhood love of animals and natural myths and fairy tales may be early evidence of our basic affinity for nature and its instructive and healing properties.
3 "The Dreaming or Dreamtime,
has become a handy phrase used to describe what is in fact a sophisticated and
interconnected mosaic of knowledge, beliefs and practices concerning the creativity
of Ancestral Beings, and the continuity and values of Aboriginal life. At contact,
this rich cosmology provided the means by which every individual was bound,
from before birth to after death, into an intimate, personal identification
with the land and specific sites within it. This was not only an economic and
social relationship, but also a deeply spiritual bond. Vibrant ceremonial and
religious life of the Northern Territory people generated a spectacular array
of art forms, including body painting and personal ornamentation, ground sculpture,
bark painting, wood carving and rock painting and engraving."
--Ken.Saunders@webnet.com.au
Koori Home Page Linkname: Australian Indiginous Population.
Filename: http://webnet.com.au/koori/homekori.html - link is dead see instead:
Aboriginal
Culture Center - The Dreamtime - http://www.dreamtimepacific.com.au/cs_dreamtime.htm
and
In The
Beginning Was the Dreaming - http://www.joyzine.zip.com.au/australia/dreaming/dreaming.htm