Una trenza de hierba sagrada (Braiding Sweetgrass): Sabiduria indigena, conocimiento cientifico y la ensenanza de las plantas (Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants)

Escrito por Robin Wall Kimmerer

Narrado por Marco Lubián

Como botánico, Robin Wall Kimmerer ha sido entrenado para hacer preguntas de la naturaleza con las herramientas de la ciencia. Como miembro de la Nación Ciudadana Potawatomi, abraza la idea de que las plantas y los animales son nuestros maestros más antiguos. En Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer reúne estas dos lentes de conocimiento para llevarnos a "un viaje tan mítico como científico, tan sagrado como histórico, tan inteligente como sabio" (Elizabeth Gilbert).


Basándose en su vida como científica indígena, y como mujer, Kimmerer muestra cómo otros seres vivos —asters y goldenrod, fresas y calabazas, salamandras, algas y dulces— nos ofrecen regalos y lecciones, incluso si hemos olvidado cómo escuchar sus voces. En reflexiones que van desde la creación de Turtle Island hasta las fuerzas que amenazan su florecimiento hoy en día, gira hacia un argumento central: que el despertar de la conciencia ecológica requiere el reconocimiento y la celebración de nuestra relación recíproca con el resto del mundo vivo. Porque sólo cuando podamos escuchar los idiomas de otros seres seremos capaces de entender la generosidad de la tierra, y aprender a dar nuestros propios dones a cambio.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: BookaVivo
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 13 jul 2021
• ISBN: 9781638110729

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her first book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. Her writings have appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

Comentarios para Una trenza de hierba sagrada (Braiding Sweetgrass)

[gailnyoka · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

You might call the chapters in Braiding Sweetgrass, essays. I call them stories, and stories within stories. This book is a love song to the earth. Robin Wall Kimmerer weaves together scientific research and the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples in such a way that she reminds the reader a to see, touch and hear the beauty around us - in a raindrop, or the life-cycle of lichen - things we could so easily rush blindly past.In these stories, she gently leads us to consider reciprocity, and to learn a way of thinking and being that was almost lost as the missionaries and settlers vigorously attempted to stamp out indigenous language and culture. Each of the stories here gives us a challenge, and a chance, to reconsider, to appreciate, to act and to lovingly braid the sweet-smelling hair of Skywoman.

[dele2451 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Should be required reading in all science and cultural studies programs, but of great value to the general public as well. Kimmerer is in the relatively rare position to see how ancient indigenous traditions and practices may provide the scientific answers we need to insure the future viability of the human species as well as the planet. I'll never look at a cattail marsh the same way again.

[hemlokgang · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

This is a lovely collection of essays about the link between nature, culture, and science. The author is a Potawatomi tribal member, a mother, a writer, and a Ph.D Botanist. She lays out the nature of sweetgrass, which must be given as a gift, and then proceeds to describe the metaphor of nature's bestowing of gifts and the obligation of humans to recognize, acknowledge, and be grateful, along with our obligation to put our own gifts out in the world to benefit others. A lovely, thought-provoking book.

[justchris_1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Braiding Sweetgrass is by Robin Wall Kimmerer, who also wrote Gathering Moss, which I have not yet managed to acquire and read, though I love mosses and would love to have a moss garden. A friend told me that Robin Wall Kimmerer is being considered a modern-day Emerson. I can see why.Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientifc Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants is organized into five sections: planting, tending, picking, braiding, and burning sweetgrass, each representing a different aspect of the ritual relationship with this culturally significant species. The book opens with the creation story of Skywoman and exlains the traditional meaning of sweetgrass for many indigenous Americans (Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potowotami Nation). This essay is followed by many others, each illuminating the inter-relationship among ecology, traditional practices, cultural teachings, American history, and personal and family experiences. Kimmerer is an ecology professor and compares and connects her Western scientific training with her traditional ecological knowledge. This book is also a call for societal transformation to undo the damage to community (in every sense of the word) from unchecked capitalism and technological "progress" at great human and ecological cost.The writing was very personal and personable, both accessible and engaging. And after finishing it, I had an epiphany. I live in the land where Aldo Leopold is revered, and his A Sand County Almanac introducing his land ethic is celebrated. Of course, it is exactly the same philosophy that is central to many indigenous cultures as exemplified in this book, but of course once it's been repackaged and introduced as an original concept by a white man, well then, whole different story. I guess that makes Aldo Leopold the Elvis of environmental writing. My understanding is that similarly, the founding of the democracy of the United States of America was cribbed pretty heavily from the model of the Haudenosee Confederacy, but somehow we don't acknowledge the Native American source for the great American political experiment.This book doesn't dwell on any of that. Instead it introduces us to many key species in American ecosystems, including pecans, strawberries, asters, goldenrods, maples, witch hazel, water lilies, black ash, lichens, and of course sweetgrass, plus key species of Indian agriculture, especially the famous three sisters of corn, beans, and squash. Each essay shares something ecological and then uses it as a metaphor to explore social, historical, cultural, economic aspects of life. The book also shares various aspects of indigenous ethics.I think what struck me most was comparing the Skywoman creation myth to the Garden of Eden creation myth. "Can they, can we all, understand the Skywoman story not as an artifact from the past but as instructions for the future? Can a nation of immigrants once again follow her example to become native, to make a home?" versus "Look at the legacy of poor Eve's exile from Eden: the land shows the bruises of an abusive relationship. It's not just the land that is broken, but more importantly, our relationship to land." That's really something to think about--how our stories both show and shape our perceptions and values and priorities. This book has a lot to teach us.

[lgcullens · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Both a shameful reckoning and a hopeful emergence, in essence this writing presents a perspective that is at odds with our horse-blinkered, materialistic culture's views of the natural world. The perspective is not one of an idealistic utopia, but rather one of respectful coexistence with all life, and balance with the natural world that in providing a conducive environment is essential for our existence — one of honest appreciation for the gifts that enable being, and of meaningful reciprocity to further the continuum of all life. This from a merging of Native American perspective and hard science, which I find more credible in intent and practicality than Janus-faced offerings of our money-grubbing, destructive mores. [You might find the allegorical chapter, Windigo Footprints, telling in its succinctness, and the allegorical chapter, Defeating Windigo, instructive.] Together with the beneficial evidence of following this path is the hard evidence of how at our hand so far our little blue canoe is changing at an accelerating rate, which has the potential of leaving us behind in like haste. To me, it is unadulterated hubris to ignore Nature's sway and the diminishing circle of life that supports our being.

Each chapter builds on the premise with accomplished writing to further evidence the perspective, and increase one's understanding of the circle of life, which results in a longish book. To those with a like understanding it may seem overdone, and to those in denial it may be exasperating in exposing the ignorance of our materialistic tainted erudition. In my view, the thoroughness and accuracy of the book are necessary to enlighten those desiring a better understanding of practicable mitigation of the consequences of our increasing biosphere plight.

I found this a meaningful and heartwarming work of literature. If only more had such wisdom and respect for the little blue canoe that gives us life. Finding it difficult to discover books that I consider meaningful and thought provoking, and that I haven't yet read, I'm thankful I came across this one. Thank you Robin Wall Kimmerer for this honest, articulate, and insightful rendering of how humankind could be a beneficial component of Earth's biosphere.

In grateful receiving, unasked giving, and caring, the heart grows. In taking, keeping, and wasting, the heart shrivels. The fire of life may seemingly have all the fuel in place to blaze, but without the spark of true wisdom it won't sustain your inner being.

[laytonwoman3rd · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This is lovely reading...a naturalist, botanist, indigenous spirit teaches us how to learn from the earth and all its "people", including the non-human ones, and offers hope that we may not be doomed after all. There is a fair amount of science, but it's all digestible. And there is a lot of soul-food as well. Highly recommended.

[snash_44 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Beautifully written using the metaphors of the stories of indigenous peoples, and the workings of nature to illustrate the error of viewing the earth as a resource rather than a gift to which we need to reciprocate. It tries to be hopeful and positive but upon reading it, it often feels too late and hopeless. By robbing the earth we've expanded the human population such that I fear returning to a caring approach to the earth can not sustain the population.

[japaul22 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

[Braiding Sweetgrass] by [[Robin Wall Kimmerer]]Braiding Sweetgrass is a collection of essays exploring Indigenous relationships with plants and the earth. Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and also a botanist who teaches at traditional American universities. She explores the differences in how her Indigenous culture and the typical American culture teaches interaction with their environments. This book flipped a lot of narrative for me; even from our earliest origin stories, our cultures have a different relationship with the world. The Christian origin story of being shut out of the garden of Eden and of having the earth provided for our comfort and use is a huge contrast with the reciprocity involved in most Indigenous origin stories. My writing of that is hugely over-simplified, so please don't take offense. There isn't any culture-bashing here, even when the author takes a hard look at choices we've made as a nation. Kimmerer takes 385 pages to provide context and examples of how we can all treat our earth better - benefitting the plants and animals here and also benefitting ourselves in a reciprocal relationship. She has many essays on specific plants and how, seemingly by design, our responsible use can benefit both the plant and the human. I learned so much about sweetgrass, maples, strawberries, leeks, and many more native plants. I highlighted hundreds of passages in this book. Some books change your point of view and thinking for the better and this one definitely verbalized a perspective that I was ready to hear. I loved Kimmerer's sentiment that everyone is Indigenous to some land. As a nation of immigrants in the U.S. and Canada (her focus areas) we should strive to create an indigenous mindset to our current land by learning about our national landscape and how we can live in a reciprocal relationship with the mutual environment that we share with plants and animals.Certainly, there aren't easy answers here. We are a transient population. It's hard to connect with the land when you move through multiple diverse regions. It's hard to connect with the environment when you live removed from green spaces. It's hard to connect with plants when they are endangered from our actions. I think it's best to look at this book as a way to inspire a desire to connect with our environment. By spending time in it, I think most people will naturally want to protect it. I will say that one of the few highlights of this pandemic has been the incredible amount of time I've spent in our local woods behind our house with my two young boys. We've spent countless hours hiking through barely navigable paths, splashing in our creek, scrambling over rocks, looking at mushrooms and weird bugs. And they've spent countless more hours playing - masked :-) - with a small group of friends creating a whole world back in the woods. I feel lucky that we ended up living in an area that is both incredibly suburban and beautifully wooded. I highly recommend reading this book. It's a slow book, a challenging book, and an uncomfortable book at times, but it really challenged my perspective in a good way and the ideas will definitely now make up a part of my worldview. Original publication date: 2015Author’s nationality: Citizen Potawatami NationOriginal language: EnglishLength: 385 pagesRating: 4.5 starsFormat/where I acquired the book: library kindleWhy I read this: came up in searching for books on Indigenous culture

[spinsterrevival · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This was beautiful and moving and fascinating and sad, and I cried listening to many parts of it. The loss of land and place and language is incomprehensible, yet the Indigenous people who have had so much taken from them are still taking care of the earth/Earth.

[rivkat_2 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Biologist tells the stories of plants and human relationships with them from a Native perspective, arguing that Native ways of knowing provide key insights for the appropriate relationship of gratitude for and engagement with the natural world.

[mutantpudding · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

A must read if you are into ecology and foraging, or if you are an American wanting to learn about the land you live on and the people that inhabit it with you (both past and present).

[bell7_1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and botanist, reflects on our relationship with the earth, indigenous teaching about our interactions with the environment, what has broken and what might heal. In lovely prose and with astute observations, her essays challenge us to rethink mainstream American culture and imagine another way of treating everyone - human, animal, plant - on earth.The subtitle "Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants" made me imagine a science-y book that explained how indigenous folklore meshed with how plants worked. That's not at all what this book is. Don't get me wrong, there is science (the essay on lichens especially taught me a lot), and perhaps because it was the antithesis of an academic paper I probably learned more than I realize. What Kimmerer does is gently challenge us to reevaluate our relationship with the natural world. In one essay, she discusses the differences in creation narratives and its effect on how we treat the earth. In another, she talks about how she cleaned out a pond, restoring an ecosystem but also making trade-offs, knowing that she was killing organisms to get there. There's a lot to mull over or discuss with a book club.

[sonorandreamer-1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This is an excellent book, not only about plants and indigenous wisdom, but about finding reasons and hope to participate in saving our living planet.

[jennybeast · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Really spectacular— I appreciated the melding of traditional beliefs and current botany. It really illustrates for me how the two complement each other, and I am grateful that Kimmerer is willing to share her thoughts. I also really deeply appreciated that the book is so hopeful — it shows a way forward into healing for both culture and planet, if only we are willing to listen and act. I also adore the perspective that humans are a necessary part of the ecosystem and that we can give back to plants. Lots to think on in here.

[3wheeledlibrarian · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I listened to this as an audiobook from NYPL. Read by author. It’s absolutely amazing. I’m still processing all the moments I really connected with what she was saying. She is an incredible writer. I really, really recommend this book.

[terran_9 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

There is so much to recommend this book. The science is reliable because the author is a trained botanist. Her text is poetic as she ties her scientific knowledge to the traditional, indigenous teaching of her Potawatomi family and community. She shares teachings from the culture that have been almost lost which explain so many things that scientists spend years studying in the laboratories. It is very long and took me longer to read because I wanted to hear her voice and repeat sections for the observations of nature and the relationships between strawberries, pecans, cattails, salamanders, maples and of course sweetgrass. Fascinating.

[sheenasharp · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This book describes a worldview that brings our major societal issues into focus and describes an ethic that shows interrelationships and could heal them all.

[elenchus_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

We must say of the universe that it is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. [55, quoting Thomas Berry] This initial reading I was deliberately sensitive to affinities for Batesonian cybernetics: there were multiple points of resonance, and though RWK never mentioned Bateson by name, I would be surprised were she not familiar with his ideas. Certainly her blending of science and sacred knowledge is sympathetic; as is her appreciation of metaphor as epistemological project. See the essay "Asters and Goldenrod", and RWK's stated intent: "I wanted to learn about why aster and goldenrod looked so beautiful together", asking "what is the source of this pattern?" [37-39]. Nevertheless a second reading could benefit from shifting my focus, allowing me to pick up other points of emphasis, different angles of insight.It is an odd dichotomy we have set for ourselves, between loving people and loving land. We know that loving a person has agency and power -- we know it can change everything. Yet we act as if loving the land is an internal affair that has no energy outside the confines of our head and heart. [241]RWK raises the principles of Original Instructions, an indigenous understanding of how living things should live on Earth; of the Onandaga Thanksgiving Address [101]; of the gardening style "Three Sisters" [124]; of the Honorable Harvest [170]; of Old Growth Cultures, living alongside old growth forests [270].Braiding Sweetgrass turns out to be one of those books I take months to read, but never give up on, and really never "tune out" from. I did not anticipate this, given what I knew of it before reading, but my unhurried passage through the various essays fits both the substance and the outlook. I fear that a world made of gifts cannot coexist with a world made of commodities. [364]//A handsome Milkweed Edition: hardbound, with a muted design both in palette and selected line drawings.

[viviennestrauss · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I listened to the audio version, read by the author - incredible. One of those books that makes you realize you really know nothing at all.

[aronfish · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Part personal identity and discovery, part environmental teaching, part poetry, this book was my favorite read of the year. Understanding indigenous knowledge of plants and planting, incorporated with one woman's deepened journey to her Native American heritage was incredibly touching, and the writing is beautiful.

[cbloky · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Loved the book, gave you a good insight on how Native Americans treated nature and raised. Covers a bit on how the government tried to remove their language from them. Starting the book i had a respect for nature but upon finishing the book i had a much greater respect for nature and how to treat her even better. Look forward to reading her other book.

[José Manuel Morales Lagunes · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Es uno de esos libros que te cambia la vida. Es largo y hay que ser paciente, pero vale mucho la pena.

[plancultivatecreate · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

A beautifully written account of ecology, economy, and heart braided and interweaving the macro and micro. Listened to the author reading the book, and truly enjoyed the experience.

[steve02476 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

There’s some good writing here, but it’s just not a book for the likes of me. Native American religious beliefs may be a welcome change to those that have grown up (and are disenchanted with) with religions from the Middle East and Europe - but either way, I guess I’m not convinced. Good to respect traditional religions and learn about them, but I’m just not a spiritual person.

The author clearly knows science and she talks about it a little bit, but her heart is clearly much more aligned with religious traditions. That’s fine, but it’s not my cup of tea.

[wiserwisegirl · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I recommend the audio book. Robin Wall Kimmerer uses her soothing voice to share her Pottawatomie and Scientific wisdom. I did not know what I did not know about my plant sisters. I have learned to listen for their language and have begun receiving great gifts of blessing from my older sisters and brothers of creation.

[loraineo_8 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Well balanced combination of Ms. Kimmerer's knowledge of botany from her studies and nature from her American Indian background. She has a beautiful gentle writing style, but so passionate. A book I will re read many sections over again.

[chris.wolak · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Amazing audiobook. I'm captivated by the way Wall Kimmerer weaves her own experiences with Native American teaching & traditions with academic botany. I've also dipped into the written book but prefer the audio because her voice is so warm and intimate.

[waldhaus1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

The writer calls both upon her native American heritage and her knowledge as a biologist/botanist to create a work of great feeling and insight. The problem of global warming has become all the more immediate since the book's publication. People are great about waiting for an emergency to respond. We can hope that our resilience and ingenuity will bring is to an effective response I remember listening to the story of the windego while sitting around campfires. Greed has brought us great discoveries and great tragedies. Time will show of we can Tame the windego.

[lisapeet · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Many folks who know me pretty well recommended this book to me this summer, so I was predisposed to like it, and I did. Kimmerer has a very nice touch when it comes to layering Indigenous practices and mythology with the natural sciences, and what she has to say never felt preachy or hyperbolic—not an easy task, I think, when it comes to talking about deeply held beliefs and the need to be better stewards of the earth and its denizens. There was a lot here, and some of the essays were slower-paced than others—I spent a while with this book—but altogether it was thought-provoking and of value, even in my urban day-to-day (which does include raccoons, possums, and skunks, so maybe that's not so far-fetched).

[jbarr5 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer This story starts out with a legend that was told by generations of the tribe. The sky woman landed and animals and birds helped her to land on a turtle.They all came together to put dirt under her-mud and it created Turtle Island. So many morning ceremonies to give thanks. Love learning about the three sisters, i was growing ours in separate gardens, now i know differently.Camping in NY during summer months and all the things they learned growing up. Love the garden and what it symbolizes to her and her children and how it effects them as they are planting gardens, far from home...Wisdomisms are plentiful: only take what you need, thank earth, take half of what you need.Knowledge gained: so much I've learned from reading this book, about trees, gardening, weather, climate change and pay attention to the signs.Love field studies, nothing better than hands on strawberry vines if you watch, witch hazel, 3 sisters, weaving cattails. learning braid sweet grass. Warmarsh shopping. hilarious! Such a super blend of scientific and honest to goodness down to earth explanations.First learned of this book while attending an AARP bookclub meeting in Oregon., It was not the book picked for the next meeting but I liked the summary and sought it out at my local library.A KEEPER for fun knowledge and tales.Borrowed this book from Overdrive from my local library and via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.