The principle of living in harmony with Nature – The Old European way of life has teachings for modern environmental protection

People living in Old European communities lived according to the rhythm of Nature. Their way of life was bound to a dynamic concept and practice called kairos. Kairos refers to the flow of internal energy, and the controlling of this energy for the best possible use at the best possible time. People's inner sources of energy were connected to every other living thing. They were able to use their subsurface knowledge in their lives and activities. This attitude was a valuable precondition for people to harmonize their lives with Nature. In Old Europe, living in harmony with Nature was a core value – indeed, it was a self-evident skill, based on the worldview of that era. Old Europeans had no need to discuss a subject which has become a major one in today's world, overshadowed by the climate crisis: the subject of environmental protection.

According to the religion of the Old Europeans, Nature had a strong protectress: Mother Earth, or Mother Nature, looked after the entire world. She attended to the lifespans of animals and people. People were grateful for Mother Nature's gifts and Nature's bounty. Natural resources and offerings included clean water, wood, metal deposits, fertile soil, fruits, olives, vegetables and grain harvests. People accepted these gifts while honoring a basic principle: "take only what you need."

An olive tree.

The archaic myth of the "Golden Age", when people lived in harmony with Nature, was preserved in Greek mythology. This myth is recounted in Works and Days, a famous work by Hesiod, a poet who lived in the 6th century BCE. The Great Goddess Astraea watched over the order of the Golden Age. In Cratylus, one of Plato's dialogues, the philosopher explains that the name "Golden Age" does not refer to material value (i.e. gold) but to people's attitudes, which were good and noble. According to the myth, an upheaval took place during the Bronze Age, when people first began getting into conflicts and going to war. Is it a coincidence that there were also great upheavals in Southeast Europe during the Bronze Age (since circa 3000 BCE), when the steppe nomads wandered into Greece? According to the myth, the goddess Astraea left Earth for the heavens, where she can still be seen in the stellar constellation of Virgo. She holds the scales of justice.

Since antiquity, Nature has been robbed and people have taken more than their fair share. Because of this, Nature has become overstrained. Some consequences of this are e.g. extreme weather conditions and natural catastrophes which threaten the future of humankind. There would be much to learn from the Old European lifestyle, which research has shown to have been harmonious with Nature, as well as affluent and sophisticated in many ways. The Old European principle of "take only what you need" has never become outdated. This principle is a cornerstone of e.g. Genevieve Vaughan's gift economy model. 

As part of her life's work, philosopher Genevieve Vaughan (1939–) has developed and made visible  the Maternal Gift Economy, an economic model which relies on maternal care. It is practiced by people and cultures that emphasize collective responsibility and the significance of sharing collective resources. Although the model is based on maternal care, one doesn't have to be a mother or even a woman to practice it or the gift economy model based on it. The mechanism of maternal care could be expanded from the family circle to encompass society on a broader scale. When a mother takes care of and raises her child, she responds unconditionally to the child's basic needs without expecting anything in return. The idea behind this gift economy model is that maternal care could transfer to the child such values as intimacy, communality, the importance of gift-giving in social relations, as well as empathy and solidarity. When people's empathy and solidarity are extended on a wider scale to more than just their own immediate social and physical surroundings – i.e. to all people and other living things – society can avert problems related to the environment and inequality, which have in turn been produced by short-sighted capitalism. In a gift economy-based society, peoples' real needs would be met, instead of the artificial needs produced by creating demand.

It is high time to devote more precise study to how Old Europe's functioning gift economy became derailed by outside influences, and how important this old civilization's teachings are as documentary support for a modern gift economy. When these sources of information and insights are brought together, we might create a foundation for a future model of society in which care and living in harmony with Nature are more important as common values, rather than competition and the seeking of personal economic success.

Harald Haarmann, Kaarina Kailo and Virpi Lehtinen

Read this blog in Finnish here.