Anthropocentricism In New England

The ecological state of New England has evolved drastically over time. Most of this change can be attributed to the arrival of the first Europeans, and their views of the land and the natives already established on the land. They not only impacted the land on which they lived, but also drastically changed the Indians by introducing them to resource commodification and disease which took out large numbers of their population. Through this combined effort the Europeans took a land of plenty and transformed it into a land of scarcity. While the broad implication was the over use of the land, much more came with the Europeans from their homeland. One of the most important things they brought was a new way of anthropocentric thinking, or the idea

The origin of this anthropocentric way of thinking is difficult to pin down, but many ecologists believe religious beliefs were a main driver. As White put it “…we shall continue to have a worsening ecological crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man” (White p. 69). It is not hard to understand that thinking the land was only as important as what it could give to humans was extremely detrimental to resources. It also gave Europeans the idea that if the land was not being used for what they though was important, then it was not being used at all. This led them to take land from the natives as their own, because they were going to cultivate it unlike the Indians had done. Again it goes back to the savage view that Europeans had of the Indians and how it became justification for stealing their land. William Cronon quotes Benjamin Rush whose main point was that clearing and taming of the land was directly correlated to the taming of civilization. In other words the land, like the people were “uncivilized”, and only with European help could they become “civilized” (Cronon p.5). While this does not seem directly related to religion, this viewpoint came from the time of the enlightenment, where religion again became a main focus of life. It is more then just the religion as a whole, but how Europeans viewed the Indians as savage because they were not part of them. This was shown not only through their direct treatment of the Indians, but in the ways that they treated the land, which was in all respect, not