naturebuild. Nature also checks, transforms and canalizes already existing cul-
tural forms. Nature can exercise either a direct or an indirect influence
upon a culture. In the former case, nature operates independently of cul-
tural activity, whereas an indirect influence is culturally conditioned. The
direct influence tends to be more mechanical in the sense that the natural
environment, for instance, can shape the economic system. Thus, due to
the natural environment, nature might eliminate growing certain crops.
With the indirect type of influence, culture produces the external physical
conditions for nature to have an effect upon it. For the most part, nature
does not disturb the cultural balance because any new impressions of
nature are associated with already existing conditions.
Native American Indians of the western plains region identify with a
cosmic totality, symbolized by the cross, circle, or world tree, and nature
is a part of this totality. This does not mean that Indians exist in harmony
with nature because they are both a part of nature and separated from it.
This apparent paradox can be explained by the fact that Indians are alien-
ated from nature because it is their economic source of life, which means
that it is necessary to exploit it. At the same time, nature functions as the
Indian’s spiritual source of life. Indians thus manifest ambivalent attitudes
towards nature: positive feelings associated with nature’s bounty and
negative feelings connected to the terrible and wrathful power of nature.
In conjunction with these feelings, Indians generally recognize that they
are dependent upon nature for their survival. In fact, some Indian societ-
ies, such as the Pueblo and Zuni, believe that they came from the earth.
Among Native American hunting societies, there is manifested a sense
of kinship with the animals because they are equivalent to humans and guilt
because Indians are destined to exploit their relatives in order to ensure
human survival. The guilt associated with killing animal kin can be over-
come by asking forgiveness for its destruction, which also includes the
practice of burying the bones of the animal in anatomical order so that they
can be resuscitated. Within the context of this type of practice, there is the
belief in animal guardians, acting as supernatural rulers with the function
of exercising stewardship over the world animals and thus protecting them.
The animal guardian, with each species possessing their own, sees that
animals get a correct burial, sanctions or prevents a hunter’s slaying of
them, and gives luck in hunting. The intimate relationship between an ani-
mal and a hunter suggests that the latter can take part in its power.
Native American Indians do not love the whole of nature, but they
rather revere certain locations. This reverence for specific places is called
geopiety. At these locations, Indians associate them with the sacred and
power, with which they desire to live in close proximity. These places are
sacred because the spirits of nature reveal themselves at them. This does