国連大学高等研究所セミナー
“Toward the Indigenized Value of Water: The Case of Canada and the United States”
日時：２００９年５月２８日（木）14:00?15:30
会場：国連大学高等研究所大会議室
プログラム
14:00?14:05 開会挨拶 スニータ M. スブラマニアン 国連大学高等研究所リサーチアソシエイト
14:05?15:35 講演 松井健一 筑波大学生命環境科学研究科準教授
15:05?15:30 質疑応答、ディスカッション
概要
This talk makes two propositions that are argued to be essential in understanding the values of the life-giving quality of water or what the United Nations calls “water for life.”[1] First, a historical investigation will be presented on the relationship between people and water or watersheds, in order to better understand current problems with water quality and quantity. Modern society’s disconnection from water’s life giving-qualities can be traced back to the early development of the water rights doctrines and their heavy emphasis on the utilitarian idea of beneficial use. This examination is particularly relevant because much of the ideas behind current legislation in Canada and the United States took shape during the period between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. There, the idea of use-it-or-lose-it still somewhat dictates the basic administrative mechanism in implementing the legislation.
Second, the cultural values of water are examined in dealing with our serious concern about the shrinking access to water. A focus is placed on indigenous ways of understanding natural rights to water, although this approach can also enrich the understanding of water for life among non-indigenous communities. The indigenized values include not only indigenous peoples’ access to sufficient quantities of water for beneficial purposes or safe drinking, but also their secure access to traditional cultural value systems germane to water.[2] These rights include not only bodily sustenance but also the maintenance of culture, identity and dignity that have been “harvested” from water. Prominent environmental ethicist Holmes Rolston III succinctly states that “we want to get ourselves defined in relation to nature, not just to define nature in relation to us.”[3] The examination of indigenous cultural value of water will make an excellent contribution to this task of understanding ourselves.
講演者略歴
Kenichi Matsui is assistant professor of Sustainable Environmental Studies at the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba. After receiving his Ph.D. in history at the University of British Columbia, Canada, he taught at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. He has recently published Native Peoples and Water Rights: Irrigation, Dams, and the Law in Western Canada from McGill-Queen’s University Press.
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