Potter - Listening To Our Sisters And Brothers: Navajo, New Materialism, and Jain Knowledge Toward An EcoEpistemology

2020·1.2 MB·English

by  Jay Donald Ozburn Potter

LISTENING TO OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS:
NAVAJO, NEW MATERIALISM, AND JAIN KNOWLEDGE TOWARD AN
ECOEPISTEMOLOGY

A Dissertation
presented to
the Faculty of
Claremont School of Theology

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

by
Jay Donald Ozburn Potter
May 2020
Copyright © 2020 by Jay Donald Ozburn Potter
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NT S C HOOL OF
T
O H
M E
O
E L
R O
A G
L Y
C
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This Dissertation completed by

Jay Donald Ozburn Potter
has been presented to and accepted by
the Faculty of the Claremont School of Theology
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
of the degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Faculty Committee
Dr. Philip Clayton, Chairperson
Dr. Ann Hidalgo
Dr. Clayton Crockett

Dean of the Faculty
Dr. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook

May 2020
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ABSTRACT

LISTENING TO OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS:
NAVAJO, NEW MATERIALISM, AND JAIN KNOWLEDGE TOWARD AN
ECOEPISTEMOLOGY
by
Jay Donald Ozburn Potter

As we begin to deal with the major effects of global climate change and its consequences
on the ecological systems of the earth we must confront the systems at play, and not merely
blame average consumers for their choices. These systems of production and consumption have
become the normalized worldview for most Americans, especially white Americans. Though we
should be directly confronting those systems for their participation in ecological catastrophes, we
also must look for ways of understanding and living within this world that do not come from the
white, westernized epistemic hegemonies of Americanized Christianity and scientism. It is my
contention, then, that we listen to a plurality of epistemic views, of which I have chosen three:
Navajo, New Materialism, and Jainism.
The Navajo have developed their modes of knowledge over hundreds of years, and their
worldview and practices stem directly from their sources of knowledge, centered around their
origin stories as historical narratives. These historical narratives of how the Navajo people came
to be provide a wealth of knowledge locally embedded in Dinétah, the land of the Navajo people.
From these narratives and through observation of the intra-related dynamics of nature the Navajo
people further developed modes of knowledge acquisition through divination processes whereby
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the earth communicates with the Navajo for a plurality of reasons, often for health and healing of
her people.
New Materialism has developed out of the context of continental philosophy, and as such
has tended towards a Euro-American white context, though explicitly feminist in its creation.
New Materialism works to find space between the constructs of dualism from religion on one
side and scientific reductionism on the other. This liminal space provides room for thought
outside of white heteronormativity, that has the potential, if it is taken up further, to develop a
greater sense of person and place as a school of thought moving beyond the confines of a Euro-
American background.
Jainism provides for a philosophical worldview wholly different from the standard white
westernized philosophical construct. It is a thoroughly material religious perspective of the world
that views every living being as working towards the potential of release from karmic bonds, and
as such an ethical component is developed from the smallest of microbes to the largest of
systems. The Jains have developed a very detailed and systematic approach to epistemology that
provides for as many perspectives as is possible for any given object. This can provide a helpful
tool for working outside of the comfort of making universal claims from the constructs of white
heteronormativity. However, the issue is further complicated in attempting to utilize this
framework outside of the Jain tradition, in that it is explicitly based on the presence of
enlightened beings, the kevalin, who have been removed from the process of rebirth, and are thus
able to perceive the universe in its entirety. If the intent of this dissertation is to provide an
embodied localized performative knowledge, then recourse to an omniscient being is problematic
for the schema as I have envisioned it.
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In order for these various modes of knowledge to destabilize the normative white western
worldview, in the final chapter I utilize the conflation of sound through audiological diffraction.
This plays on the image of diffraction that Karen Barad elaborates in her seminal work Meeting
the Universe Half Way and combines the image with the theme of listening that began this
project. This forces the white listener to become destabilized, put off balance from our
perspectiveless perspective, and causes us to sit and relax, to listen to difference as stability, to
reorient our lives around earth-centered processes and rhythms. The hope is to restabilize as
performative emergent creatures living with the earth and her many peoples, human or
otherwise. The health and sustainability of this planet depends on us unveiling our whiteness,
releasing our grip on knowledge, and listening to our sisters and brothers.

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CONTENTS
Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv
Dedication ........................................................................................................................ viii
Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. ix
Prologue ............................................................................................................................ xii
I. Thinking Ecologies .......................................................................................................... 1
II. Harmonies of Destruction ........................................................................................... 39
III. Sacred Kinship Knowledge ......................................................................................... 77
IV. Transformative Materiality ....................................................................................... 123
V. Wellbeing of the Souls of the Earth ........................................................................... 159
VI. Entanglements of Knowledge ................................................................................... 186
Epilogue .......................................................................................................................... 203
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 206
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To Ansel and Jakob, leave the world a better place than you found it.

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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my wife for seeing the best in a wandering jobless artist and
encouraging me to do what I needed to do, namely, to complete my education and write this
dissertation. Without her enduring patience I would most likely still be a wandering jobless artist.
I would like to thank my parents, Jeff and Cyndi Potter, for always encouraging me to pursue my
passions, and most importantly, to help me to understand that what I do should always positively
impact others. And to thank my grandparents for telling the stories of their lives, and imbuing in
me a sense of history and place.
I would like to thank the friends I have had along the way, for allowing me to rant about
the world and still wanting to spend time with me. Most especially for Erin McDermott Perkins,
Drew McElvany, Tim Wilson, Dustin McCurry, Brian Ogsten, Jason Romero, Dave Massey,
Shelly Ogrens, Jon Isaacson, Garrett Brown, Ben Brown, Eric Parker, Rob Kroeler, Cory Quigg,
Nicki Segura, Siobhan Egan, Tyler Moore, James Calhoun, and Cory and Tricia Templeton. And
a special thanks to my graduate school friends Trevor Brisbin for always asking the right
questions, Eliezer Rolon-Jeong for always reminding me of the excluded, and for Pablo Diaz,
Joshua Mendez, Anna Rossi, Girim Jung, and Jose Morales for all of the great conversations.
With a special thanks to Kristin Ritzau for her inspiration and helping our family to find a town
to call home.
There is a special place in my life for music, for the musicians who work tirelessly to
bring light and beauty into the world. I would like to thank Aaron Weiss and the members of
mewithoutYou for your truth and honesty about the world and your faithful doubts with this
thing we call religion. For Dustin Kensrue and the members of Thrice for crafting timeless riffs
and heartfelt lyrics while charting a path through belief, certainty, and doubt, and for still holding
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strong. For Michael and Lisa Gungor in your pursuit of truth and beauty in spite all of the
obstacles. For A Tribe Called Red for speaking out against the oppressive forces of colonization
through a synthesis of traditional drum rhythms and electronica. And for Propaganda for always
speaking truth to power.
And last, I would like to thank my academic mentors for which I would not be here if it
were not for their encouragement and guidance. For my undergraduate professors Scott Key,
Todd Bates, and Duncan Simcoe for always pushing me to think deeper about the problems of
the world. Warren Pettit for telling me that “there will always been garage bands to play in.”
William Chaney and Tim Holler for their encouragement to pursue a career in teaching. For
Monica Coleman for introducing me to Womanist theology and Black thought, to which I am
forever grateful. And last, but certainly not least to my dissertation committee. For Ann Hidalgo
for pushing me to amplify voices of the oppressed, and Clayton Crockett for listening to my
ramblings and believing I had something to tell the world. And most especially for Philip
Clayton for responding to that email six years ago and constantly guiding my erratic mind
towards the finish line. Without all of you, this would not have been possible.
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