What does it mean that our righteousness needs to "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees"?

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What does it mean that our righteousness needs to "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees"?

What does it mean that our righteousness needs to "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees"?

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Jeremiah Kaaya 

Pastor at Springs of Power Church, Teacher by professional

When the Bible in Matthew 5:20 says; "For I say unto you that unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven", it means there could be two versions of righteousness.

1) The self perceived and self styled righteousness

2) Righteousness that we receive by way of letting Christ into our lives.

Now, which version do the Pharisees and the scribes ascribe to so that Jesus said ours has to exceed theirs, and which version do we ascribe to which Jesus said has to exceed theirs?

The Pharisees ascribed to the version of the self perceived and self styled righteousness. But also note that it is not called righteousness because it is, it is called so because it appears to be so. It is intended for the observers and it is not rooted in the heart. It is only to get praise from men. Jesus gives us many parables of such righteousness.

In Matt 23:27, Jesus tells the Scribes and the Pharisees that they are like whitewashed tombs which appear clean on the outside but are full of bones and all uncleanliness in them. He actually calls them hypocrites. Meaning, this version of righteousness is only for hypocritical purposes.

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus gives us another parable of this version of righteousness. When the Pharisee went to the temple to pray, he only boasted of how he can fast and give a tithe of all of his income. He was actually challenging God if at all He had any case against him. On the other hand though, the tax collector couldn't even look toward Heaven. For he knew he was already a sinner. He only came to God to seek for help. Jesus said it is the tax collector who left justified not the Pharisee.

The Pharisee was convinced that he could be righteous by himself. The tax collector on the other hand knew that he couldn't by himself. The Pharisee therefore is a good example of a person who perceive themselves righteous, and the tax collector is a good example of a person who needs help from God so they can be righteous.

It is very important for us to pray, to fast, to read the Bible, but it is not the reason we are counted righteous. Righteousness is exclusively of God and can be accessed by those who come to God through Christ His Son. For Jesus' is the only acceptable sacrifice before God and it is only of Him that we can be counted righteous. We could thus say; righteousness or unrighteousness is the state of your/my heart. The only shaper of an acceptable heart by God the FATHER is Jesus. No human therefore should ask what wrong they have done if they are asked to repent (Luke 13:1-5)

Righteousness can therefore only be possible if we let Christ into our lives. It is only Jesus, the only one to have put on flesh and to have overcome it. Jesus is the Son of God and only His blood is the blood of God. Only Jesus came from Heaven. Only Jesus successfully overcame the world and the cross. Jesus was never moved by how much people wanted Him to appear insulted. For He had only one mission; to recreate the precious lost relationship between man and God. Had Jesus only been righteous by His own style and perception, He would have failed somewhere and given in to one of the wiles of the devil. Self styled and self perceived righteousness can easily collapse just like a pack of cards. But Jesus is far over and above all such. Jesus is therefore not to acquire righteousness, for He is righteous. Thus to say; righteousness is of Him.

In all this, we should be able to learn that to be righteous is not only to be seen and perceived to be one, but we must be transformed from inside out, not from outside inside, for it can't simply be (Mat 15:18), (Lu 6:45). For the Pharisees and the Scribes, it was about to be seen to be righteous. But when Jesus came, He wants us by Him to rise above this. All we do must truly be from deep inside our hearts. It should not only be for the observers. We can only be counted righteous by God. God is the rewarder.

September 10 2014 • 1 response • 

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Stringio Nathan Toronga Christian Elder.

The righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was legalistic.

Philippians 3:3-6, 'For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for RIGHTEOUSNESS BASED ON THE LAW, FAULTLESS.'

So, by strictly observing the Law, the Scribes and Pharisees had some form of righteousness. 

Now Jesus is saying, our righteousness must exceed this level. This is the barest minimum. So what is beyond this level? There's obedience - yes, OBEDIENCE - based on FAITH. That's what He's saying.

Romans 1:5, 'Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the OBEDIENCE that comes from faith for his name’s sake.'

Romans 16:25-26, 'Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the OBEDIENCE that comes from faith'

I know the current hype to run away from the Law of God, but Peter warns us,

2 Peter 3:17, 'Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.'

People who don't OBEY are referred to as 'LAWLESS' in the bible.

Jesus did not preach lawlessness. That is the lot of the devil. 

The antichrist is also known as 'the man of lawlessness.'

2 Thessalonians 2:3, 'Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.'

Bless you all.

April 17 2015 • 

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Data Bruce Lyon Elder: Restoration Fellowship Assembly

What does it mean that our righteousness needs to "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees"?

The scribes and pharisees ascribed to the "oral law" which is an addition to the law that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. They claim that this oral law was also give to Moses at that time, although a lot of the "oral law" contradicts the law given to Moses which he physically recorded. Jesus made enemies of this group by telling them the truth that by their adding the so-called "oral law" they were in fact adding the law given by God to Moses.

Which of an by itself put them in a position of breaking the law.

Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahovah your God which I command you.

The pharisees both added to and diminished the law give to Moses at Mount Sinai and as a result Jesus said the were following the traditions of men rather the obeying the law give by God to Moses that they were supposed to obey.

To-day in modern Judaism the words spoken by various Rabbi's are considered to be in fact equal to the law given by God to Moses. They have perverted that which they were given and Jesus called them on that fact.

He did so as the Messiah they would not recognize because if they had recognized him as such they would have had to give up their positions of authority and stop deceiving their people. Thus they planned to have him killed! This is always the result of people who are confronted with the truth that convicts them to the core of their being. They will either accept the truth or persecute and deny what has convicted their hearts and minds.

If Satan or his minister who appear to be righteous cannot deceive you then he/they will persecute or try to destroy you. If we are doing the works of Jesus as we should, i.e. preach the gospel message about the soon coming kingdom and be willing to lay down our lives for our brethren we will be persecuted.

Matthew 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Galatians 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

Luke 6:47-48 Whosoever comes to me, and hears my sayings, and does them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

Psalms 89:26 He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

In doing these things we will exceed the "righteousness" of the Pharisees.

If we follow the creed of Jesus given in Mark 12:28-32 which is to love God with all our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves we will have exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees one hundred fold!

September 09 2014 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

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Data Bruce Lyon Elder: Restoration Fellowship Assembly

We are told this in Revelation 12:17 And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, that keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus:

The commandments of God that were Jesus creed are explained clearly in Mark 12:28 ¶ And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 

And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. - Amazing statement coming from a scribe!

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

Indeed enabled by the Spirit - Breath - Love of our God Yehovah we can keep the royal law as James refers to it - the law of love, the law that is what governs the new covenant.

Love fulfills the law completely for we are to worship our God in spirit and in truth or with a true spirit of His love flowing through us outwardly to all we come in contact with. As the scribe said the law of love is better than offering whole burnt offerings and sacrifice to God, greater than Temple worship. If we live according to the law of our God flowing through us we become slaves to righteousness and reflect what it means to be new creations in God's anointed one Jesus.

May 01 2016 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

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Ari Ariel HaNaviy Messianic Jew and Torah Teacher with Messianic Congregation 'The Harvest'

This is a great verse to teach on the importance of genuine, Spirit-led, God-honoring commandment keeping (viz, Torah observance), all the while avoiding the dangers of stone-cold, people-judging, legalism.

A fellow Torah Teacher and good friend of mine explained the verse to me this way, “…it seems to me, that while Yeshua (Jesus) emphasized the utter necessity of heart obedience if one intended to keep the commandments, He did not in any way negate the requirement of outward performance. That is to say, one surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees not by neglecting the outward performance of the mitzvot (commandments), but by performing them as the fruit of a heart given over to the true worship of God. Another way of saying it is this: if the commandments are received as purely obligation, it would be impossible, from God’s perspective, to keep them. But if they are received rather as divine blessing and privilege, then the keeping of them is pure delight. However, only the heart borne out of faith in God is able to so receive the commandments as blessing, and it is this kind of “keeping” which Yeshua teaches His disciples… The point is simply this: “far surpassing the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” cannot exclude the performance of the commandments.”

Since we know beyond doubt that mere performance of commandments will not merit eternal life, then Yeshua’s words cannot be meaning what they seem to be saying at face value. In like fashion, Yeshua challenged other 1st century people he met with the seeming offer to grant them eternal life if they would faithfully follow the commandments (Jn 5:39, 40 Matt 19:17). Also, it seems the apple did not fall far from the tree where Yeshua’s disciple Paul was concerned. For indeed, Paul uses similar cryptic language:

Rom 2:13

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

What do all these verses have to do with our righteousness exceeding that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, and how is heaven attained? Simply that, our salvific righteousness is not our own. If you are in Christ then your righteousness is that which flows from him into you, by his grace, through faith, and by his blood. Period. If you have put on the righteousness of Christ then your righteousness WILL exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, and you WILL enter heaven, amen? We cannot earn a righteousness that will grant entrance to heaven, no matter how many commandments we keep, and no matter how perfectly we think we are keeping them. So Yeshua’s words are also a warning against this legalistic mindset. To be sure, it was a veiled indictment against those religious readers within earshot of his words that day.

Paul’s words in Romans 10:9, 10 (as rendered from the KJV since they use the word “righteousness”) warrants our attention at this point:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

We don't keep Torah to BECOME saved. We keep Torah because we ARE saved.

My fellow Torah Teacher’s concluding words are fitting to end this short study: “We ought to guard ourselves from any satisfaction which derives from equalling the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. For according to Yeshua’s words, those with such righteousness will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. Only those who surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees are viewed as truly righteous. To whatever extent, then, we consider our mere meeting the obligation of the Law as sufficient righteousness, we misunderstand both the Law and Yeshua’s teaching here. Only as our love for God enables us to understand the commandments as a blessing from Him, will we be enabled to keep them as He intended.”

September 04 2015 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

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Andy  3 photo Andy Mangus I am a Christian since October 1979 & devoted truth seeker.

It means that true righteousness is by having faith and trust in God's one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ; "for there is no other way but for the sacrificial lamb of God and His precious blood that was shed on that cross of Calvary". " For in Him, through His shed blood by which He removed your sins and my sins for eternity, that we may have a home in heaven with our Lord Jesus". Praise God! --Andy--

June 04 2016 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

천사의 드러남과 승천

 

천사의 드러남과 승천

 

박유진, 일요서비스(2013.3.17.)

 

감사합니다, 재형님. 저도 이 며칠 간 그리고 특히 어제, 일선님만이 아니라 어떤 한 몸체를 통해서 작은 빛의 폭발 같은 것을 느꼈습니다. 한 존재가, 한 천사가 온전하게 살았을 때 드러날 수 있는 빛을 우리가 함께 경험할 수 있었습니다. 일선님이 돌아가시는 이 과정을 통해서 이것과 관련된 몇 가지 주제를 더 나누고 싶습니다. 몸의 죽음, 그 몸에 있었던 천사의 해방, 그 해방과 함께 그 천사의 드러남, 그리고 승천. 이 주제들을 다루고 싶습니다. 우리가 이 며칠 동안 경험한 것이지요.

 

우선 그 몸에 있던 영혼, 천사가 그 몸을 놓고 떠났을 때, 그 뒤에 며칠 동안에 드러나는 경험에 대해서 먼저 나누고 싶습니다. 재형님께서 얘기하신 것처럼, 그 몸이 죽고, 죽은 후에 거기 있었던 존재, 천사가 나오고 해방되면서 생기는 어떤 현상이 있는데, 우리의 의식과 가슴이 그 방향으로 열려있지 않으면 그것을 인식하지 못한다는 것입니다. 제가 이것에 대해서 두 번 강한 경험을 한 적이 있는데 그 이야기를 나누고 싶습니다. 재형님께서 오늘 아침에 반짝이는 전기 줄, 반짝이는 휴지 얘기를 하셨습니다. 우리의 가슴이 열려 있을 때, 우리 주변에 있는 그 모든 것에서 빛이 남을 느끼는 것을 얘기하신 것이지요. 그리고 구름을 쳐다보았더니 일선님이 그 모든 구름 안에 있는 것을 느낄 수 있었던 것에 대한 이야기를 하셨지요.

 

저도 일선님이 떠난 그 날 오후에 장례식장 옆에 있는 숲에 잠시 갔었습니다. 손님을 계속 맞이하는 그런 공간이 아니라 일선님하고만 교감할 수 있는 공간을 찾아갔습니다. 그냥 일선님하고만 있고 싶었습니다. 그래서 그 숲에 들어갔는데, 전혀 기대하지 않았지만 들어가자마자 그 숲이 일선님으로 가득 차 있는 것을 느꼈습니다. 그런데 그것이 그냥 일선님으로서 만이 아니라, 일선님의 희열, 해방된 자유로움, 넘쳐흐르는 기쁨, 사랑, 그리고 고마움이 차서 울리고 있는 것을 느꼈습니다. 그러면서 저절로 울음이 올라오면서 처음에는 조금, 그 다음엔 더 많이, 울었습니다. 그런데 그 눈물이 무엇이었냐 하면, 일선님의 사랑과 고마움이 내 가슴에 빛의 충격파처럼 몰려오면서 내 가슴 안에 있었던 아픔, 무거움이 씻겨나가는 것이었습니다. 그 씻어 내리는 눈물로서 계속 흘러내렸던 것이지요. 그러면서 제가 깨달은 것이, ‘아, 지난 2년 반 동안에 일선님을 간병하고 일선님 곁을 지키면서, 일선님이 겪었던 과정의 아픔들을 내 몸 안에 품고 있었구나.’ 그것을 의식하고 있지 않았는데 그것을 느꼈습니다. 그러면서 그 사랑의 충격파가 그것을 다 움직여서 흘러내려가게 하는 것을 경험했습니다. 울음이 많이 올라오더군요. 그러면서 일선님의 메시지가 느껴졌는데 ‘사랑해, 고마워, 미안해’ 이 세 가지였습니다. ‘미안해’라는 부분은 또 전혀 생각하지 못했던 부분입니다. 그 ‘미안해’ 의 메시지가 무엇이었냐면, ‘내가 내 몸 안에 갇혀있는 동안에 유진을 이해하지 못한 부분이 많이 있었던 것을 이제 확실히 알게 되었어. 내가 유진을 더 사랑할 수  있었는데, 더 이해할 수 있었는데 그렇게 하지 못했던 것에 대해 미안해. 그런데 이제는 유진의 마음, 그리고 유진을 알아.’라는 것이었습니다.

 

제가 이 이야기를 하는 이유는 일선님에 관한 것 때문만이 아닙니다. 우리의 가슴이 존재에 대해서 열려있을 때, 누군가가 떠날 때 이 경험이 열려있다는 것입니다. 제가 오래 전에 마샤 아버지가 이 세상을 떠나셨을 때, 그 떠나신 날 거의 똑같은 경험을 한 적이 있습니다. 그날 마샤 아버지의 혼이 느껴지면서 마샤에게 ‘사랑해, 고마워, 미안해’를 꼭 전해달라는 강한 메시지가 저에게 온 것을 느꼈었습니다. ‘내가 내 몸에 갇혀있는 동안 마샤를 너무 이해하지 못한 것, 그리고 더 사랑하지 못한 것에 대해서 너무 미안해, 너무나 사랑해.’ 라는 것을 전달해달라는 메시지였습니다.

 

그런데 이 두 경험, 일선님과 마샤 아버지의 떠남을 보았을 때, 그 천사, 그 영혼이 몸에서 나왔을 때, 몸에 갇혀 있는 동안에 알지 못했던 것, 몸 뿐 아니라 가슴이 닫혀 있었기 때문에 이해하지 못하고 알지 못하고 사랑하지 못했던 것을 확연히 알게 되면서 ‘너무나 미안해. 내가 몰랐어. 너무나 사랑해’를 전달한다는 것입니다. 그래서 그 영혼이 몸을 떠난 그 직후 얼마 동안이 상당히 중요한 기간입니다. 그때 우리의 의식이 깨어있고 열려있을 때, 살아있는 동안에 다 풀어지지 않고 다 나누어지지 않은 사랑이 나누어지고 더 온전한 떠남이 있을 수 있다는 것을 말하고 싶습니다. 그렇게 되면서 나중에 가능하게 될 수도, 즉시 일 수 도 있는 것은, 그 사람 그 지구복, 그 인격체와의 관계의 기억이 아니라, 그 관계의 기억에서 있었던 아픔이 다 씻겨나가고, 그 넘어 존재했던 천사, 존재, 영혼과의 뚜렷한 관계가 맺어지는 것이 있을 수 있다는 것입니다. 지금 제가 일선님을 떠올리면 온전히 해방된 일선님, 빛으로, 환희로, 기쁨으로, 사랑으로 가득 찬 일선님이 남아있습니다. 이것은 상당한 어떤 과정을 통해서 그 관계에 있었던 모든 치유가 있었기 때문에, 그리고 끝까지 나의 사랑을 완전히 주고 사랑을 받았기 때문에 그럴 수 있는 것입니다.

 

오래전에 제 아버지와의 관계도 이렇게 되었었습니다. 저의 아버지가 살아계셨을 동안에는 관계가 그냥 괜찮은 관계였지만, 그렇게 깊은 관계는 아니었습니다. 그런데 그 이후에, 그리고 또 어떤 부분은 한참 이후에 그 관계에 남아있었던 어떤 것들, 그리고 또 제 아버지의 지구복, 에너지 체에 남아있었던 아픔을 내 안에서 애도하면서 사랑으로 가득 감싸면서, 그 지구복 영혼 안에 아직 씻겨지지 않은 아픔을 내가 온전히, 울면서 사랑으로 씻어냈었습니다. 그러면서 다 씻겨나간 이후에, 저희 아버지의 근본의 모습이 확 드러나면서 제가 살아 계신 동안에는 전혀 몰랐던 천사의 모습, 존재의 모습, 하늘에 계신 나의 아버지의 모습을 경험할 수 있었습니다. 그리고 그 후에는 내 안에 그 모습으로만 남아 계십니다. 그 모든 아픔은 다 없어지고. 깊은 사랑 안에서 내가 사랑했던 사람의 아픔을 참 애도로서 느껴주면서, 울어주면서 흘려주는 작업을 우리가 할 수 있습니다. 그래서 그 아픔이 온전히 씻겨나가게, 그리고 그 뒤에 있는 천사만, 빛의 존재만 남게 해줄 수가 있습니다. 그러면서 예수님의 기도가 더 온전히 이해가 되었습니다. ‘하늘에 계신 나의 아버지.’ 나의 개인적 아버지였지만 이제는 그 모든 아픔이 다 씻겨간 후에, 하늘에 계신 나의 아버지가 내 경험에 온전히 느껴질 수 있었습니다. 때로는 붙잡는 애도가 있을 수 있습니다. 그러나 붙잡는 애도가 아니라 사랑으로 깨끗이 씻어주고 흘려보내주는 애도가 있을 수 있다는 것입니다. 그렇게 사랑으로 온전히 씻어 내주는 울음은 그 사람의 오오라체, 에너지체의 아랫부분, 아픔이 맺혀있는 아래 부분을 씻어주고 그것이 풀어지게 해줄 수 있다는 것입니다.

 

그리고 가까이 했던 사람이 떠날 때 중요한 한부분에 대해서 잠깐 더 얘기하고 싶습니다. 그것은 그 사람이 떠나는 마지막 순간과 그 후의 짧은 시간이 굉장히 섬세하고 민감한 시간이라는 것입니다. 그래서 보통 보면, 어떤 어르신이 돌아가셨을 때 즉시로 앰뷸런스를 부른다든지, 아니면 돌아가시려고 할 때 앰뷸런스를 부르려고 하는 관습이 있는데, 그것은 별로 도움이 되지 않는 관습이라고 생각합니다. 어떤 분이 떠나실 때, 진짜로 떠나실 시간이 되었다면, 그 순간에 그분을 살리려고 하는 것은 우리의 필요 때문이지, 진짜 그분을 위해서는 아닐 수도 있다는 것입니다. 그분이 떠나실 때가 되었다면, 그분이 자연스럽게 떠나시도록 도와주는 것이 필요하지, 그분을 우리의 필요 때문에 어떻게든지 살리려고 하는 것은 그분에게 도움이 안 된다는 것입니다. 일선님이 병원에 계실 때, 이런 장면이 바로 옆의 침대에서 있었습니다. 그리고 간병인이 그것을 보고 우리에게 전달해주었는데, 거기 계시던 어르신이 숨이 가빠지면서  숨이 머질 것 같은 그런 상태가 되니까 빨리 의사들을 불러와서 인공호흡을 했는데 가슴 뼈가 뿌러지고 피를 토하는 장면이 있었다고 합니다. 그러면서 힘들게 돌아가셨습니다. 자연스럽게 그 마지막 과정을 경험하지 못하게 된 것이지요.

 

그래서 그 마지막 숨이 멈춘 뒤 몇 분간을 옆에서 사랑으로 축복으로 지켜주면서 고요로 어튠먼트로서 충분히 그 영혼이 그 몸에서 조금씩 나오기 시작하는 이 소중한 시간을 사랑으로 잘 감싸고 지켜주는 것이 중요하다는 것을 말하고 싶습니다. 그래서 성스러운 사랑과 어튠먼트와 기도로서 그 영혼이 조금씩 조금씩 나오기 시작하는 이 과정을 둘러싸 준다는 것이지요. 사실 그 시간이 충분하면 좋은데, 돌아가신 직후 사망증명이 필요하다는 이유로 앰뷸런스를 빨리 부르지 않으면 안 된다고 하더군요. 이 상황에서는 우리가 한 40분정도는 일선님의 호흡이 멈춘 후에 그렇게 충분히 고요하게 사랑으로써, 어튠먼트로써 지켜드릴 수 있었습니다. 그 시간이 굉장히 소중하고 중요한 시간이었습니다. 어떤 한 영혼이 떠날 때 슬픔이 흔히 있을 수 있으나, 슬픔 뿐 아니라 그 해방됨에 대한 기쁨, 이제 이 천사가 빛으로 돌아갈 수 있다는 것, 온전히 몸의 제한에서 나왔다는 것에 대한 기쁨을 우리가 함께 나눌 수 있습니다. 이 문화를 우리가 만들어갈 수 있습니다.

 

일선님의 사랑이 우리주변에 아직도 맴돌고 있음을 느끼면서 아주 훌륭하게 살았던 천사가 떠날 때, 그 승천의 과정에 자그마한 빛의 폭발들이 일어나는 것을 인지합니다. 그래서 그 빛, 그 천사, 그 영혼이 승천하면서 입고 있었던 오오라체를 내려놓으면서 작은 빛의 폭발, 어찌 보면 그것이 축복의 폭발인데요. 그 빛이 폭발하면서 그 사람을 사랑했던 사람들의 가슴 안으로 쏙쏙 들어가는 것을 우리가 경험할 수 있습니다. 그것을 우리가 일선님과 관련해서 다들 느낄 거라 생각합니다. 그러면서 그 빛이 그 천사를 사랑했던 사람들의 가슴 안에 들어가면서 빛의 씨앗이 되어서 그 빛이 더 자라고 있겠죠. 지금 일선님의 혼이 승천하면서 수많은 빛의 씨앗들을 심고 있는 것이 느껴집니다. 그러나 그런 큰 천사가 아닐 때에도 몸에서 해방되면서 지금까지는 갇혀있던 사랑이 해방되면서, 그 사람을 사랑했던 사람들의 가슴에 그 사랑이 이제 심어질 수 있다는 것이지요. 그래서 몸은 죽고 해체되나, 거기에 있었던 천사, 존재는 더 온전히 드러나고 승천하면서 함께했던 사람들을 축복하면서 승천한다는 것을 말하고 싶었습니다. 그 사랑을, 그 축복을 충분히 받아들이고 그 축복을 확대해 나갑시다.

Animism in Contemporary Japan | Voices for the Anthropocene from Post-

Animism in Contemporary Japan | Voices for the Anthropocene from Post-

Animism in Contemporary Japan

ABSTRACT




‘Postmodern animism’ first emerged in grassroots Japan in the aftermath of mercury poisoning in Minamata and the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. Fusing critiques of modernity with intangible cultural heritages, it represents a philosophy of the life-world, where nature is a manifestation of a dynamic life force where all life is interconnected. This new animism, it is argued, could inspire a fundamental rethink of the human-nature relationship.

The book explores this notion of animism through the lens of four prominent figures in Japan: animation film director Miyazaki Hayao, sociologist Tsurumi Kazuko, writer Ishimure Michiko, and Minamata fisherman-philosopher Ogata Masato. Taking a biographical approach, it illustrates how these individuals moved towards the conclusion that animism can help humanity survive modernity. It contributes to the Anthropocene discourse from a transcultural and transdisciplinary perspective, thus addressing themes of nature and spirituality, whilst also engaging with arguments from mainstream social sciences.

Presenting a new perspective for a post-anthropocentric paradigm, Animism in Contemporary Japan will be useful to students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, philosophy and Japanese Studies.



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter|40 pages
Introduction
A theoretical map: Reflections from post-Fukushima Japan 1
Abstract
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Part I|2 pages


Animism as a grassroots response to a socio-ecological disaster


Chapter 1|36 pages
Life-world
43A critique of modernity by Minamata fisherman Ogata Masato 1
Abstract
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Chapter 2|30 pages
Stories of soul
Animistic cosmology by Ishimure Michiko 1
Abstract
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Part II|2 pages


Inspiring modernity with animism


Chapter 3|48 pages
Animism for the sociological imagination
110The theory of endogenous development by Tsurumi Kazuko 1
Abstract
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Chapter 4|46 pages
Animating the life-world
Animism by film director Miyazaki Hayao
Abstract
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Chapter|26 pages
Conclusion
Postmodern animism for a new modernity
Abstract
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Chapter|7 pages
Epilogue
The re-enchanted world of post-Fukushima Japan 1
AbstractYou do not have access to this content currently. Please click 'Get Access' button to see if you or your institution have access to this content.


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Video: Shoko Yoneyama on 'Miyazaki Hayao's Animism and the Anthropocene' — Theory, Culture & Society | Global Public Life

Video: Shoko Yoneyama on 'Miyazaki Hayao's Animism and the Anthropocene' — Theory, Culture & Society | Global Public Life
Video-Abstracts
19/08/2021


Shoko Yoneyama introduces her Theory, Culture & Society article ‘Miyazaki Hayao's Animism and the Anthropocene’ (Open Access).



Abstract

The need for a reconsideration of human-nature relationships has been widely recognized in the Anthropocene. It is difficult to rethink, however, because there is a crisis of imagination that is deeply entrenched within the fundamental premises of modernity. This article explores how ‘critical animism’ developed by Miyazaki Hayao of Studio Ghibli can address this paucity of imagination by providing alternative ways of knowing and being. ‘Critical animism’ emerged from the fusion of a critique of modernity with informal cultural heritage in Japan. It is a philosophy that perceives nature as a non-dualistic combination of the life-world and the spiritual-world, while also emphasizing the significance of place. Miyazaki’s critical animism challenges anthropocentrism, secularism, Eurocentrism, as well as dualism. It may be the ‘perfect story’ that could disrupt the existing paradigm, offering a promise to rethink human-nonhuman relationships and envisaging a new paradigm for the social sciences.



Further Reading

Yoneyama, Shoko (2012) Life-world: Beyond Fukushima and Minamata. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 10 (42).

Yoneyama, Shoko (2020) Rethinking human-nature telationships in the time of coronavirus: Postmodern animism in films by Miyazaki Hayao & Shinkai Makoto. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 18 (16).

Yoneyama, Shoko (2019) Animism in Contemporary Japan: Voices for the Anthropocene from Post-Fukushima Japan, Oxon: Routledge.

Bulbeck, Chilla (2019) Postmodern Animism for a new modernity: How to reconcile with a post-industrial world and its self-imposed disasters (book review). Green Magazine, 5 July 2019.

Yoneyama, Shoko (2017) Animism: A grassroots response to socioenvironmental crisis in Japan. In: Morris-Suzuki, Tessa and Soh, Eun Jeong (eds) New Worlds from Below: Informal Life Politics and Grassroots Action in Twenty-First-Century Northeast Asia. Canberra: ANU Press.

animismAnthropoceneclimate changehuman nature relationshipMinamataMiyazaki HayaoStudio GhibliShoko YoneyamaTCS


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Rethinking Human-Nature Relationships in the Time of Coronavirus: Postmodern Animism in Films by Miyazaki Hayao & Shinkai Makoto | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

Rethinking Human-Nature Relationships in the Time of Coronavirus: Postmodern Animism in Films by Miyazaki Hayao & Shinkai Makoto | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus







Rethinking Human-Nature Relationships in the Time of Coronavirus: Postmodern Animism in Films by Miyazaki Hayao & Shinkai Makoto
Shoko Yoneyama
August 15, 2020
Volume 18 | Issue 16 | Number 6
Article ID 5455






Abstract: Issues we are confronted with in the age of the Anthropocene, such as climate change, extinction, and the coronavirus pandemic demand a fundamental rethink of human-nature relationships, but at the same time we are faced with a ‘crisis of imagination’, which is highlighted by the paucity of stories or narratives that enable us to fully engage with these issues. We have a ‘climate crisis’ as well as a ‘crisis of culture’ and both derive from the same source: epistemological limitations in the paradigm of modernity. The most problematic limitation is the fact that our social scientific knowledge has blind spots when it comes to nature and spirituality which makes it almost impossible for us to rethink human-nature relationships in a meaningful way. Miyazaki Hayao and Shinkai Makoto, however, directly illuminate these blind spots by making nature and spirituality central features in their animation films. This opens up new epistemological and ontological spaces in the hearts and minds of a global audience, making it possible to imagine something new. And that ‘something new’ is ‘postmodern animism’ which emerged from the fusion of a critique of modernity with the intangible cultural heritage of grassroots Japan. Postmodern animism is a philosophy that sees nature as a combination of the life-world and the spiritual-world thus enabling us to engage with climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic in a radically different way. It helps us to conceive a new paradigm that is more suitable for the Anthropocene.

Key words: coronavirus, COVID-19, climate change, Anthropocene, animism, postmodern animism, nature, spirituality, human-nature relationship, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli, Shinkai Makoto, life-world, spiritual-world, Tenki no Ko, Weathering with You



Korean translation published in a magazine Green Review is available here.



1. Introduction

As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps around the world, it is not hard to predict that ‘there is going to be a quite radical rethinking about our way of life’.1 The longer this crisis lasts, the deeper this rethink will be. But how deep, should or could it go? For example, the need to rethink human-nature relationships has been felt widely for some time in the context of climate change. Some even say that the coronavirus crisis ‘will give us the jolt we seem to need to start behaving and thinking in a different way’.2 But again, how deep, should or could this rethink go?

In The Great Derangement: The Climate Change and the Unthinkable, Amitav Ghosh suggests that it is hard to address climate change outside science because the climate crisis entails a ‘crisis of imagination’ plus a ‘crisis of culture’.3 We do not have stories that enable us to fully engage the crisis, Ghosh argues, because both the climate crisis and literary fiction derive from the existing modern paradigm which is based on the enlightenment. Although Ghosh presents detailed analysis of different genres of stories, the issue is probably not so much about the actual genre but is more about the fundamental epistemological limitations that cut across stories of all genres. Whether it is literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, or a disaster story (including climate fiction or ‘cli-fi’), an epistemology of a human-nature relationship that is different from the one we now have is rarely presented in the context of everyday life in our contemporary society. In other words, stories of climate change are rarely told with a sense of the ‘here and now’, while at the same time providing epistemology other than modernity,4 namely, anthropocentrism based on the human-nature dichotomy.

It is in this context that I see the significance of the works of Miyazaki Hayao and Shinkai Makoto, two renowned animation film directors from Japan who have enormous global influence. Although their films may appear to be ‘fantasy’, using the medium of animation to present images of the unseen world as well as the super-human powers of their protagonists, their stories often address the seriousness of every-day life struggles. This makes it difficult for their stories to be dismissed as purely ‘fantasy’ (this will be discussed more later). More importantly, I argue that their works play a significant role in the Anthropocene, which is inundated with existential threats such as climate change, extinction, and the threat of further zoonotic pandemics. Their works are important because, I argue, they provide a cultural frame of reference that helps us imagine a new kind of human-nature relationship.

A need to rethink human-nature relationships has been recognised since the 1990s by social scientists such as Latour, Haraway, and Descola.5 More recently, even the Vatican publicly announced a need to re-interpret biblical human–nature relationships.6 This, however, is not an easy thing to do. As Plumwood points out, human-nature dualism is a ‘western-based cultural formation going back thousands of years’,7 which conceives that the human is superior to non-human because the human essence is thought to be ‘the higher disembodied element of mind, reason, culture and soul or spirit’,8 which gives justification to use non-human (i.e. nature) as a mere resource or instrument for humans: this is anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism increased during the Enlightenment, which further elevated the position of humans as the users of science which enabled us to control nature for our benefit, a trend which is even more pronounced in modernity through industrialisation and the advancement of technology. As a consequence, we now live in the Anthropocene (the ‘age of humans’), a geological age in which the planetary impact of humans is recognised. It is even predicted that some humans who control our meta-data will soon be ‘Homo Deus’ (‘human god’).9 Even within social science, the rethinking of human-nature relationships has been dominated by the ‘culturalisation of nature’ where ‘“natures” are seen as the outcome of human agency, or of a hybrid form of agency’,10 suggesting that the human-nature divide has been rethought to remove the dichotomy, but in a way that augments anthropocentrism.11

The COVID-19 pandemic is defying the arrogance of anthropocentrism. Sooner or later, the virus will be controlled as a vaccine or effective treatments become available. But we are now experiencing an overwhelming sense of uncanniness that has engulfed the entire human society. In the midst of the Anthropocene, an unexpected ‘Anthropause’ has occurred: a global slowing of modern human activities:12 when not just the virus but also ‘nature’ is suddenly present in surprising ways -- a kangaroo appearing in the CBD of Adelaide, mountain goats roaming the streets of Llandudno in Wales, wild boars trotting around the city of Haifa, etc.13 Ghosh suggests that this sense of uncanniness has been present with climate change for some time. He writes:

No other word [but uncanny] comes close to expressing the strangeness of what is unfolding around us. For these changes [associated with climate change] are not merely strange in the sense of being unknown or alien; their uncanniness lies precisely in the fact that in these encounters we recognize something we had turned away from: that is to say, the presence and proximity of nonhuman interlocutors (emphasis added).14

He writes that: ‘we have now entered a time where wild has become the norm’;15 ‘nonhuman forces have the ability to intervene directly in human thought’;16and ‘one of the uncanniest effects of the Anthropocene [is] this renewed awareness of the elements of agency and consciousness that humans share with many other beings, and even perhaps the planet itself’.17

But again, do we have stories that enable us to imagine the different epistemology and ontology needed to rethink human-nature relationships (or more precisely, anthropocentrism) in order to respond to the sense of wonder that comes with the COVID-19 pandemic, or the ‘Anthropause’— an uncanny yet powerful sense of wonder such as that captured in a song composed during the pandemic, being inspired by Rachel Carson: ‘Nature Came to Me’?18

My argument is this: Miyazaki Hayao and Shinkai Makoto provide stories that are significant at this historical juncture because they provide a cultural frame of reference that presents epistemology based on a different notion of human-nature relationships. They do this by centering nature and the spiritual world at the core of their work. As I argued in my book, Animism in Contemporary Japan: Voices for the Anthropocene from Post-Fukushima Japan (Routledge 2019), nature and spirituality constitute two blind spots of our modern paradigm, the fundamental way the world is perceived and understood in the knowledge-base of social sciences, or more broadly, the west.19 In other words, nature and spirituality are precisely the concepts that need to be reconsidered when we rethink human-nature relationships in order to engage the Anthropocene, climate change, and the zoonotic pandemic.

Our conceptualisation of spirituality is the key here as it is the hallmark of humanity that places us next to god and above nature in western civilisation. Precisely because of that, within western ontology, it is difficult to imagine something radically different in the endeavor to rethink human-nature relationships. Miyazaki and Shinkai help us to take the first step, to imagine something totally different, a different epistemology and ontology, because they not only address the question of nature and spirituality but also visualize and give actual images of the unseen world, that reach millions of people around the world.

With this thesis in mind, let me discuss their work more closely, first Shinkai’s, then Miyazaki’s. Special attention is paid to Shinkai’s 2019 film, Weathering with You, as it directly addresses climate change and the Anthropocene. This work will be contextualized with reference to Miyazaki’s work which presents a more robust philosophical foundation on the topic of human-nature relationships, more specifically, (postmodern) animism.



2. The Anthropocene and Weathering with you

Climate change manifests mostly as abnormal and often destructive weather patterns. Weathering with You (Tenki no Ko天気の子, literally, Children of Weather) directed by Shinkai Makoto is the first animation feature film to have climate change and the Anthropocene as its main theme. The film was released in Japan in July 2019 and became a ‘mega hit’ with box-office revenues exceeding 13 billion yen in the first 10 weeks.20 It has also been released in many other parts of the world, 140 countries in total.21

The use of the word ‘Anthropocene’ in the film is limited, however. It appears only once, and only for a second, and in katakana (アントロポセン), in a university brochure the protagonist is reading. The word is not translated in the subtitles, either in English or Chinese, and is therefore unlikely to be noticed by most audiences. The scene does not appear in the trailer or any other promotional materials, nor does the word appear in either the novel version of the story written by the director and released simultaneously with the film,22 or in the official visual guide23 published shortly after the release of the film. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the Anthropocene, which encapsulates climate change and abnormal weather, constitutes the social and ecological milieu in which this story unfolds.24

Weathering with you is a love story between a 15-year-old girl (Hina), who, using the power of prayer, is able to change rain to clear weather, and the protagonist, a 16-year-old runaway boy (Hodaka), who is from a small island and is determined to live in Tokyo. Neither of them has a guardian to care for them in Tokyo. The film presents super-realistic illustrations of the everyday lives of desperately poor young people. Hodaka had no money to buy food and so stayed in McDonald’s over a cup of coffee for days. Hina gave him a hamburger but was fired for that and consequently almost drawn into the sex industry.

In order to survive, the pair start an online ‘weather business’ that promises 100% delivery of fine weather at the specified location and time. Hina becomes a highly-sought-after ‘sunshine-woman’ (hare-onna晴れ女) in a world which is engulfed in abnormally rainy weather, particularly, localised torrential rain.25 Hina is a contemporary ‘shinto maiden of weather’ (tenki no miko 天気の巫女) ‘known to exist in ancient times in every village and every county’ in Japan, an elderly monk in the story explains.26 Weather maidens are like ‘an extra fine thread that connects the sky and people’ and are ‘a special kind of person who can listen to people’s earnest wishes and convey them to heaven’, the monk explains further.27 The sad fate of a weather maiden, however, is that her life ultimately has to be sacrificed to calm down the crazy weather.28 Thus, Hina and Hodaka are forced to choose between Hina’s life and the ‘public good’, i.e. good weather for all, which is a solution for one of the detrimental impacts of the Anthropocene. In reality, however, it is too late. Hina has used so much of her power before she learns about the fate of a weather maiden that her body has become transparent. Her disappearance/death from this world (i.e. her human sacrifice) results in dazzling sunshine in Tokyo.

Hodaka who is in love with Hina is determined to save her, even after her disappearance/death. He goes through a shrine gate (Torii 鳥居) on the rooftop of a dilapidated building, which Hina had discovered to be a gateway to the other world (higan 彼岸). Hodaka’s strong wish takes him to Hina who he finds lying on a grassy field on top of a cloud, the gateway to the world of the dead.29 He eventually rescues her, and they travel back to this world. As they fall down from the sky holding each other’s hands, Hodaka shouts that he does not want good weather; he wants Hina more than he wants blue skies; and says it is okay to leave the abnormal weather as is.30

Hina’s return to this world indeed caused the abnormal weather to return. At the end of the story, Tokyo has had nothing but rain for three solid years, leaving one third of the megalopolis submerged. Tokyo has become a completely different place. Hodaka realises that the two of them changed the fate of the world when he chose Hina over ‘normal’ weather and they rejected Hina becoming a human sacrifice (hito-bashira 人柱).31

The anime image of inundated Tokyo, that appears toward the end of the film became almost a reality when the megalopolis was flooded by Typhoon #19 (Hagibis) in October 2019 (officially named as Eastern Japan Typhoon, Reiwa 1 令和元年東日本台風) when the highest rainfall on record occurred in north-eastern Japan,32 killing 104 people and leaving 3 missing.33 In another devastating downpour that hit Kyushu in July 2020 (officially named as Torrential rain of July, Reiwa 2 令和２年７月豪雨) 78 people lost their lives with 7 missing (as at 20 July).34 The number of downpours with rainfall of 50mm or more per hour was 82, surpassing the record set by Tyhoon Hagibis in the previous year.35 The first two years of Reiwa have thus extended a devastating record of rainfall. This, however, is part of the long-term trend. The Meteorological Agency reports that in the previous four decades (1976-2018), the incidence of torrential rain of more than 50mm an hour, increased by about 50 percent; and even heavier rain of more than 80mm per hour increased by about 80 percent.36 And Japan is not alone in experiencing increasing rain, and water-related disasters. Similar trends and disasters have been observed in China.37 It is likely that more disasters caused by heavy rain will occur in Japan and other parts of north-east Asia for years to come.








The damage caused by Tyhoon Hagibis & Tokyo at the end of Weathering with You.39




In this compelling reality of climate change, what would be the take-away message of the film? Is it ‘Pursue your own interest and forget about climate change’? The answer is ‘No’.

First, both Hina and Hodaka did their very best for the public good (i.e. to bring about clear weather) to the extent that it killed Hina. Second, precisely because of his sense of responsibility (and guilt) about choosing Hina’s life over ‘climate change’, it became Hodaka’s life project to tackle climate change. After rescuing Hina from the world of the dead, Hodaka kept thinking ‘for two and a half years to the extent that the brain gets worn out’ about how he could help mitigate climate change, and he decides to study for a degree in agriculture to learn something useful for climate change.40 Third, for Hodaka who feels guilty about ‘changing the world’ (i.e. depriving it of fine weather by rescuing Hina), Director Shinkai gives words of assurance to negate his feelings of guilt. One is the point made by the ‘old-lady’ Tachibana, for whom Hina & Hodaka had previously failed to deliver fine weather. When Hodaka apologizes for having ‘caused’ the flooding which necessitated her moving out of her beautiful traditional house into a small high-rise apartment, she says smiling, ‘why do you have to apologize?’ She tells him that the inundated bay area was originally sea, reclaimed by humans, and therefore it simply returned to its original landscape.41 The other assurance is the words of Suga, a calculating ‘middle-aged-man’, who had previously sheltered Hodaka. When Hodaka confessed that he and Hina had ‘changed the world’, he laughs the idea off, saying ‘weather had been out of sync in any case’ before they tried to change it,42 suggesting that it is unfair to blame youth for not being able to solve climate change.

The director himself writes that he would not impose a story on a young audience where climate change is solved at the expense of their lives. He is also keenly aware that mitigating climate change will be incredibly difficult and thus, in the movie, should not be solved ‘easily’ by sacrificing Hina’s life. Shinkai deliberately chose to present this story that may be taken as ‘politically incorrect’, because the take-way message of the film is not so much ‘solve climate change!’ but ‘live!’ in an age when it has become increasingly difficult for the young to live.43

In the time of coronavirus, the take-away message - ‘Live!’ - has become even more relevant especially for the young who have limited employment prospects now and in future. Before further elaborating on the film’s central message (‘Live!’), let me come back to the main concern of this article: the human-nature relationship, as it is also inseparable from the theme of the film (‘Live!’). The point here is that Shinkai (as well as Miyazaki) presents nature as a source of spirituality and life, negating the human-nature dichotomy in a way that is different from the ‘culturalisation’ of nature.




3. Nature, Spirituality & Life

Nature and spirituality are the central features of Shinkai’s two major films: Weathering with You and Your Name (kimino na wa 君の名は), among others. Shinkai is also renowned for his exceptionally beautiful and detailed illustrations of scenery, in particular, light, rain, clouds, and sky. Spirituality is a constant theme in his films and his illustrations of light convey a strong sense of spirituality. Moreover, the presence of the other world (the unseen world or the world of the dead) is presented as reality in his films. The distance between the dead and the living is blurred or almost non-existent and the main characters are able to travel between both worlds in both Weathering with You and Your Name.




Spiritual Image in Weathering with You ©2019 Tenkinoko Sakusei Iinkai44



The cosmology underlying the films is expressed clearly by two elderly women. For instance, the grandmother in Your Name explains the significance of the concept of musubi (産霊):



The guardian deity of the land is called musubi in the old language. This word has many profound meanings. … To tie threads is musubi, to connect people is musubi, for time to pass is musubi. We use the same word for all of them. It is the way to refer to kami [god, deity, spirit] and the power of kami. … To eat or drink something like water, rice, sake, is also musubi, because what we take in is connected to our soul.45



Likewise, Tachibana, the ‘old-lady’ client in Weathering with You explains that obon (お盆), 13-16 August, is the time when the deceased return to this world from the sky, from higan (彼岸 Pure Land/Heaven). She conducts a ritual burning of a small ceremonial bonfire (mukaebi 迎え火) to welcome the souls of her ancestors, so that her late husband can come back, carried by the smoke from the fire. She encourages Hina to walk across the small bonfire, so that she can be protected by the soul of her mother who had died the previous year.46

While musubi, obon, and higan, are not original concepts of Shinkai’s films, but are part of Japanese culture,47 the fact that they constitute key elements of his stories is significant. Furthermore, nature is also seen as a spiritual source of life in his work. Even rain, the cause of all the problems in Weathering with You, is presented as a source of life, rather than a problem to be dealt with. Shinkai has the protagonist Hodaka say:

The sound of the rain was much gentler and more intimate, it was like the beautiful sound of a drum from afar played just for us – a special sound like a drum that comes from a far-away place taking a long long time to reach us. That sound knows our past and future, never denounces us for decisions or choices we make, and quietly accepts all history. Live! The sound was saying. Live. Live. Just Live (my translation).48

The sound of rain connects Hodaka with all the memories of life from ancient times and commands him to live no matter how difficult it is. Here again, the notion of nature presented by Shinkai is not only spiritual but is also closely connected to life, the source of life, or life itself. I argue that this notion of nature as the source of spirituality and life is something Shinkai has inherited from Miyazaki. Shinkai himself acknowledges the strong influence Miyazaki had on him.49

Miyazaki Hayao of Studio Ghibli is renowned for his magnificent and detailed illustrations of nature. Underlying his artwork is his distinct view of nature as he himself explains:

The major characteristic of Studio Ghibli – not just myself – is the way we depict nature. We don’t subordinate the natural setting to the characters. Our way of thinking is that nature exists and human beings exist within it. … That is because we feel that the world is beautiful. Human relationships are not the only thing that is interesting. We think that weather, time, rays of light, plants, water, and wind – what makes up the landscape – are all beautiful. That is why we make efforts to incorporate them as much as possible in our work (emphasis added).50






‘The Forest of Shishigami no.5’ in Princess Mononoke
©1997 Nibariki・GND/Yamamoto Nizo





Miyazaki’s perception of nature, however, is not limited to its physicality. It is coupled with a sense that ‘there is something there’,51 and his illustrations of that ‘something’ have played a key role in his films. As I wrote elsewhere,52 Totoro in My Neighbour Totoro is an embodiment of that ‘something’, as is the Forest Spirit (Shishi-gami) in Princess Mononoke. The best expression though of this ‘something’ in Miyazaki films are the kodama, thousands of spirit-like beings that appear in Princess Mononoke. As he explains below, he wanted to express the spiritual-world in nature.

I wondered how to give shape to the image of the forest, from the time when it was not a collection of plants but had a spiritual meaning as well. I didn’t want the forest just to have many tall trees or be full of darkness. I wanted to express the feeling of mysteriousness that one feels when stepping into a forest – the feeling that something is watching from somewhere or the strange sound that one can hear from somewhere. When I mulled over how I could give form to that feeling, I thought of the kodama. Those who can see them do, and those who can’t don’t see them. They appear and disappear as a presence beyond good or evil.53




Kodama ©1997 Studio Ghibli





The most radical aspect of Miyazaki’s depiction of that ‘something’ in the unseen world is that he considers it to be not just spiritual, it is actually life itself. In other words, for Miyazaki, spirits are living; spirituality is life rather than a purely religious concept. He writes:



I have felt that ‘there is something in the forest’. … Well, it’s a feeling that ‘something is there’. It might be life itself.54



Miyazaki’s perception of nature is closely related to his sense of spirituality, which in turn is closely related to his notion of life. Because they are underpinned with this notion of nature having extra layers of meaning (i.e. spirituality & life), Miyazaki’s films convey an image of nature that is radically different from the dominant understanding of nature in our modern society. In our modern (largely ‘western’) civilisation, nature is juxtaposed with humans, it is the antithesis to humanity, with spirituality, or lack of it, being the distinguishing factor. In the modern/western world spirituality resides in humans but not in nature.55

This nature-spirituality-life nexus presented by both directors has significant theoretical implications. Through their art, both Miyazaki and Shinkai embed in the minds of millions of people from all parts of the globe, the epistemology that humans are part of nature, instead of being a separate category, and nature is a vital force containing both the spiritual world and life. And as I argued in my book, Animism in Contemporary Japan: Voices for the Anthropocene from Post-Fukushima Japan, this nature-spirituality-life nexus is represented by the concept of animism, in particular, the concept I call ‘postmodern animism’.



4. Postmodern Animism

In Animism in Contemporary Japan: Voices for the Anthropocene from Post-Fukushima Japan, I argue that what I call ‘postmodern animism’ emerged as a grassroots response to the socio-ecological disaster in Minamata.56 My argument is based on the biographical analysis of four prominent intellectuals from postwar Japan: Miyazaki Hayao as well as Minamata fisherman Ogata Masato, ecocritical writer Ishimure Michiko, and sociologist Tsurumi Kazuko. Postmodern animism represents new knowledge that arose from the fusion of critiques of modernity and the intangible cultural heritage of grassroots Japan. It represents a philosophy of the life-world, where nature is seen as a manifestation of a dynamic life force in which all forms of life are interconnected. It is animism imbued with modernity while deliberately keeping the core components of animism: i.e. nature and spirituality.

As I touched upon earlier, nature and spirituality are the two lacunae of our social scientific knowledge, a big void in our paradigm of social science. We do not talk about nature, instead we talk about the environment. We have ‘environmental problems’, not ‘problems of nature’. In particular, we do not consider nature to have spiritual elements within it. This is because, as discussed earlier, nature has been seen in contrast to humans in our modern paradigm which is based essentially on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and spirituality/soul has been considered a key factor distinguishing humans from nonhumans.

Furthermore, as pointed out by Max Weber, modernity is constructed on the notion that the world is disenchanted.57 Thus, animism, and recognition of spirituality in nature is considered the antithesis of modernity. In other words, animism has been viewed as anti-modern, and modernity is anti-animistic. Precisely because of its contradiction of modernity, animism presents a powerful theory and philosophy to illuminate our modern society in order to bring about the fundamental change demanded by destructive repercussions of the Anthropocene such as climate change, extinction, and zoonotic pandemics.

Postmodern animism is a reflexive animism for modernity, instead of being a ‘premodern’ and uncritical faith in spiritual beings in nature. It critiques modernity and constructs knowledge that can break through the theoretical and philosophical barriers that prevent action on climate change. In the Anthropocene - the age of humans - postmodern animism decenters humans and enables us to fundamentally rethink human-nature relationships. It attempts to bring back nature and spirituality to the core of our social scientific imagination and expands our knowledge base into different epistemological and ontological spaces.

One of the most influential advocates of animism in contemporary Japan is Miyazaki Hayao and communicating the significance of animism has been his life project.58 He states for example that: ‘I do like animism. I can understand the idea of ascribing character to stones or wind’.59 He also says that: ‘Animism will be an important philosophy for humanity after the 21st century… I seriously believe this’.60 His concept of animism is best represented by the comic book version of Nausicaä in the Valley of the Wind, a prodigious work of over 1,000 pages which took Miyazaki twelve years to complete. Through the process of writing this massive piece of work, he established his philosophy, which is animism. It is crystallised by the words of Nausicaä: ‘our god inhabits even a single leaf and the smallest insects’;61 and ‘life is light that shines in the darkness’.62 Although Miyazaki does not use the phrase ‘postmodern animism’, his concept based on his reflections and critique of modernity is nothing but postmodern animism.






The comic version of Nausicaä in the Valley of the Wind




‘Our god inhabits even a single leaf and the smallest insects’63



Shinkai also does not use the word animism to explain his films. However, as discussed earlier, his cosmology and the perception of nature as the source of life and the spiritual world is precisely that of animism. In the sense that nature=life=spirituality is presented through the experiences and beliefs of the young protagonists, his philosophy can also be considered as postmodern animism.



While the need to rethink the human-nature relationship has long been talked about, nothing radically different has been produced. As mentioned earlier, this is due not only to a lack of cultural frames of reference in modern scientific knowledge but also in modern stories, which are nothing but a product of modernity. In order to imagine something new, we need a new frame of reference, something new to open up our imagination to a radically different epistemology and ontology. The animation films by Miyazaki and Shinkai provide exactly that: a very powerful cultural frame of reference that enables us to imagine different ways of perceiving and living in the world, where nature and spirituality are core to our thinking and feeling. Nature and spirituality are also the core components of animism. Miyazaki and Shinkai, through their reflective and critical observation of modernity, presents in their films postmodern animism as a radical new epistemology of human-nature relationships.

Through their enormous influence at the global level, the two film directors have embedded in the hearts and minds of millions of movie viewers around the world, images, visions, and stories that introduce a new epistemology and new (but at the same time old) ontology, that are missing from the paradigm of modernity. Both provide stories that embolden us to imagine a new way of relating to nature and spirituality, which then challenges the very foundation of our uncritical approach to modernity that led us to the Anthropocene. Both directors inspire a fundamental rethink of human-nature relationships and contribute to the Anthropocene discourse from a transcultural and transdisciplinary perspective. They build a new kind of knowledge from Asia that may help us respond to the crises of the Anthropocene: climate change, extinction and zoonotic pandemics. In that sense, the works of Miyazaki and Shinkai are extraordinarily radical and significant.64

Putting this theoretical and philosophical significance of their films aside, both directors provide a more immediate, take-home message to the global audience, especially to young people: ‘Live!’. This message is highly relevant during the coronavirus pandemic when people who are socially disadvantaged in any way are directly confronted with an existential threat to their everyday lives, through the risk of infection, disability and even death; unemployment and an uncertain future; isolation; depression and anxiety; climate despair and pandemic despair……




5. Live! (ikiro 生きろ!)

The most direct take-home message of Miyazaki Hayao and Shinkai Makoto to the global audience is this: ‘Live!’. For Miyazaki, live (ikiro 生きろ!) has been a consistent message throughout his films, especially in Princess Mononoke, Nausicaä in the Valley of the Wind, and The Wind Rises. Although Miyazaki and Shinkai have never communicated directly with each other, Miyazaki had an enormous influence on Shinkai as pointed out earlier,65 and apart from the depiction of nature, Live! is another message that Shinkai ‘inherited’ from Miyazaki. In the context of climate change, Shinkai allowed the ‘dead’ (Hina) to return to this world to continue living. He embedded a message in the sound of rain: ‘Live (ikinasai 生きなさい)! Live. Live. Just Live’66 as seen above. When Hodaka and Hina are returning to this world and making a wish as they float through the air, they hear: ‘Our hearts say, our bodies say, our voices say, our love says, Live!’.67

The worlds of the protagonist in the films by Miyazaki and Shinkai are rarely rosy. Although Princess Mononoke is set in the Muromachi period (1336-1573), it is actually about the present time as the director himself states.68 San and Ashitaka represent young people who choose to live at the edges of the two competing worlds of humanity and nature, to be true to themselves: San on the nature side and Ashitaka on the human side, while at the same time pledging to love one another. Nausicaä in the Valley of the Wind illustrates a post-nuclear-war apocalyptic world. In the comic version, which is Miyazaki’s philosophical compilation, Nausicaä chooses to live in a polluted world knowing that her choice may lead to the end of the world; she does so because she believes in the power of life in the darkness, and does not believe it is possible to live in perfect purity. In the words of Donna Haraway, Nausicaä chose to ‘Stay with the Trouble’ (2016), i.e. she chose to live with others in the harshest and most hopeless conditions because Miyazaki believes in the sanctity of life no matter how small and powerless it is and no matter how difficult the conditions it has to endure.

Likewise, the title of Shinkai’s film, Weathering with You (instead of the more literal translation, ‘Children of Weather’) resonates well with Donna Haraway’s idea of ‘staying with trouble’.69 Both Hodaka and Hina choose to live in a world irrevocably impacted by climate change. Shinkai states that he wanted to present a story of a boy and a girl who chose to live in chaos rather than in a ‘normal’ world attained after they did the ‘right thing’ (i.e. to sacrifice themselves for the public good) because such a ‘happy ending’ would feel hollow and artificial.70 It is these orientations of both directors that make their animation films incongruent with the category of ‘fantasy’.

Where then can we, ordinary people, get the power needed to surmount such difficulties that are largely beyond our control? It is perhaps from a sense of connectedness – as Shinkai’s films suggest. First, is the sense of connectedness with people we love or feel are important to us. For Hodaka, it was the connection with Hina that gave him hope, aspiration, connectedness, love and courage, all of which were unknown to him before he met her.71 Interestingly, what connects them most closely is prayer. It connects them to each other, as well as to the spiritual world/nature, the world that is the source of all life (as suggested by the description of gentle rain above), or what I call the ‘life-world’ (いのちの世界).72 Prayer permeates this story. It begins with Hina’s prayer that she wants the rain to stop so that her mother can recover from illness and they can walk with together again under the blue sky.73 This prayer endowed her with the power to stop rain and bring about sunshine, which she then used to help others. Later, Hodaka prays to go to the world of the dead so he can see Hina again.74 His prayer indeed takes him to Hina, and he finds her lying in the gateway to the other world. She is then woken up by the image of his prayer, their prayers overlap and become one75 which then enables them to return to this world. In the very last scene, Hodaka returns to Tokyo after a three-year absence and finds Hina praying on the street, praying for him to return to her.76

Although they pray a lot, they are not the type of prayers that people use to ‘pray to God only when we are in trouble’ (苦しい時の神頼み). In this film, the prayers are more like an expression of the protagonists’ will or strong wishes (強い願い),77 which means they were connecting with themselves and each other more than with a spiritual entity. The solution suggested in the film is for each person to think hard about what they can do for themselves, or for people around them. Hodaka for instance states in the novel: ‘I have kept thinking about what to do to the extent that my brain feels worn-out, and I decided to major in agriculture at the university. I wanted to learn something necessary for this time that has been altered by climate change. Even this rather vague aim has helped me to breath slightly easier’, as quoted earlier.78 He intends to study agriculture at university. Indeed, this was the path he decided on as a personal response to climate change. It is in this context that the word ‘Anthropocene’ is shown in the film: on the university brochure that suggests that agriculture provides education for the Anthropocene.

The protagonist of Weathering with You thus learns to connect: 1) with the people he loves, 2) with nature as both a spiritual and a life force, and 3) with his own self by thinking hard about the issues affecting him. And as a result, he has developed his own response to a world threatened by climate change.

The ending of the film is positive. Shinkai concludes the story by saying that they will be all right (daijobu 大丈夫). He has Hodaka say: ‘No matter how wet we get, we are alive. No matter how much the world changes, we will keep living’.79 And that means for Hodaka to be all right in Hina’s eyes, rather than making Hina all right, as the lyrics of one of the movies theme songs, sung by the Radwimps, tell us. In other words, it is not ‘you’ll be all right’ in the eyes of society as defined by adults, but ‘we’ll be all right’ Hodaka says to Hina, after they have chosen to live together regardless of what happens in the world around them.80 Shinkai’s affirmation of personal judgements and the sanctity of life are the same as the two main messages Hayao Miyazaki gives Princess Mononoke: 1) to see the world properly without prejudice (くもりのない眼で物事を見定めるkumori no nai manako de monogoto o misadameru) and, 2) live (生きろ！ikiro!).81 Films by Miyazaki and Shinkai where the protagonists live bravely and meaningfully by choosing to ‘stay with the trouble’82 are exactly the kind of stories needed in today’s world which is full of unprecedented levels of uncertainty and anxiety: the age of the Anthropocene punctuated by the Coronavirus.

More theoretically, at the same time, films by Miyazaki and Shinkai provide a frame of reference for rethinking human-nature relationships, by stimulating our imagination about nature and spirituality, and directing us toward a new epistemology and ontology for the Anthropocene. This is extremely difficult to achieve through academic work especially on a global scale, but their films have already started to achieve this, by redressing our ‘crisis of imagination’,83 and by providing stories ‘that are just big enough to gather up the complexities and keep the edges open and greedy for surprising new and old connections'.84








Notes
1

Mackay Hugh (2020) ‘Building community in a crisis’, ABC Radio: Conversations, 9 April 2020, 13m56s.
2

Diprose, Kirsten & Neal, Matt (2020) ‘Jane Goodall sayas global disregard for nature brought on coronavirus pandemic’, ABC South West Victoria, 11 April 2020.
3

Amitav Ghosh (2016) The Great Derangement: climate change and the unthinkable, University of Chicago Press, Kindle edition. p.9.
4

Ibid, p.72.
5

As represented by the works such as: 1) Latour, Bruno (1993) We Have Never Been Modern, Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition; 2) Haraway, Donna (1991) Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge; and 3) Descola, Philippe and Pálsson, Gìsli (eds) (1996) Nature and Society. London: Routledge.
6

Pope Francis (2015), Encyclical Letter Laudato Si of the Holy Father Francis on Care for Our Common Home, Vatican Press, Vatican City.
7

Val Plumwood 2015, ‘Nature in the active voice’, in Graham Harvey (ed.), The Handbook of Contemporary Animism, Routledge, London & New York, p.445.
8

Ibid.
9

Yural Harari (2015) Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
10

Jacques Pollini (2013) ‘Bruno Latour and the ontological dissolution of nature in the social sciences: A critical review’, Environmental Values, 22, p.26.
11

The exception to this trend is the discourse called new animism that surfaced in the end of the 1990s. However, this does not as yet seem to have constituted a strong current in social sciences.
12

Christian Rutz, Matthias-Claudio Loretto, Amanda E. Bates, et al (2020) ‘COVID-19 lockdown allows researchers to quantify the effects of human activity on wildlife’, Nature, Ecology and Evolution, published on 22 June.
13

Ian Connellan (2020) ‘The “anthropause” during COVID-19: Wildlife going wild. What can we learn?’, Cosmos Magazine, 25 June. (viewed on 9 August 2020)
14

Ghosh (2016) Derangement, p.30
15

Ibid, p.7.
16

Ibid, p.31.
17

Ibid, p.63.
18

Thrush Song: Composer Paola Prestini and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City Celebrate Rachel Carson’s Legacy
19

Yoneyama, Shoko (2019) Animism in Contemporary Japan: Voices for the Anthropocene from Post-Fukushima Japan, Routledge, London & New York, pp.1-40. See a book review by Chilla Bulbeck (2019) ‘Postmodern Animism for a New Modernity’, Green Magazine, 5 July 2019.
20

Animehakku henshubu (2019) ‘Shumatsu anime eiga rankingu: “Tenki no ko” koshu 130 oku en toppa, “Hello World” wa 6-i stato’ [Weekend anime-film ranking: Box-office revenue for “Tenki no ko” exceeds 13 billion yen, “Hello Worlds” starts with rank 6]. (viewed 9 August 2020)
21

Eiga.com news (2019) ‘“Tenki no ko” Indo kokai kettei! Mumbai, Deli nado 20 toshi de 10 gatsu 11 nichi kara fugiri’, 10 August, (viewed 10 August 2020)
22

Shinkai, Makoto (2019) Tenki no ko (novel), Kadokawa Bunko, Tokyo.
23

Kato, Hiroyuki et al (eds) (2019) Tenki no Ko: Koshiki [official] Visual Guide, Kadokawa, Tokyo.
24

Ibid. pp.60-61, for Shinkai’s project proposal.
25

Shinkai (2019) Tenki no ko (novel), p.26.
26

Ibid. p.143.
27

Ibid.
28

Ibid. p.203.
29

Ibid. p.267.
30

Ibid. p.270.
31

Ibid. p.294.
32

Japan Meteorological Agency (2019) ‘Reiwa gannen taifu 19 go to sore ni tomonau oame nado no tokucho yoin ni tsuite’[Characteristics and factors of Tyhoon no.19 of Reiwa era and its associated rain], (viewed 18.11.2019)
33

Fire and Disaster Management Agency (2020) ‘Reiwa gan-nen higashinihon taifu oyobi zensen ni yoru higai oyobi shobo kikan to no taio jyokyo (dai 66 ho)’ [Damage and management by fire-brigade and other agencies towards the Reiwa 1 Eastern Japan Typhoon and heavy rain in Reiwa 1 – Report 66] 令和元年東日本台風及び前線による大雨による 被害及び消防機関等の対応状況（第66報）
34

Fire and Disaster Management Agency (2020) ‘Reiwa 2-nen 7-gatsu gou ni yoru higai oyobi shobo kian to no taisaku jyokyo (dai 30 po)’ [ Damage and management by fire-brigade and other agencies for the heavy rain in Reiwa 2 July – Report 3] (viewed on 3 July 2020)
35

Japan Meteorological Agency (2020) Reiwa 2-nen 7-gatsu gou no kansoku kiroku ni tsuite [On the observation record of the terrestrial rain in July 2020]
36

Japan Meteorological Agency (2019) ‘Oame ya moshobi nado (kyokutan gensho) no kore made no henka’[Trends of torrestial rain and extreme heat [extreme phenomena], (viewed 18.11.2019).
37

Au, Bonnie and Tsang, Yuki (2020) ‘Why has flooding been so severe in China this year?’, South China Morning Herald.
38

TeleTo News (2019) ‘Tyhoon no.19 Damages known so far’, (15 October, YouTube Video, counter 15 seconds)(viewed 9 August 2020)
39

Kato (2019) Tenki no Ko: Visual Guide, p.45.
40

Shinkai (2019), Tenki no Ko (novel), p.283.
41

Ibid, pp.286-7.
42

Ibid, p.292.


43

Shinkai, Makoto (2019) Tenki no Ko Visual Guide, Kadokawa, Tokyo, p.61.
44

Kato (2019) Tenki no Ko: Visual Guide, p.13.
45

Shinkai, Makoto (2016) Shosetsu Kimi no Na wa [Novel – Your Name], Kindle version, Kadokawa, Tokyo, location 780-793 of 2436 (my translation).
46

Shinkai (2019) Tenki no ko (novel), pp.138-140.
47

See for instance Rambelli, Fabio (ed) (2019) Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan, Bloomsbury Academic, London & New York.
48

Shinkai (2019) Tenki no ko (novel), p.202 (my translation).
49

Tsugata, Nobuyuki (2019) Shinkai Makoto no sekai o tabisuru [Journey to the world of Makoto Shinkai], Heibon shinsho 916, chapter 4.
50

Miyazaki, Hayao (2008) Turning Point: 1997-2008, trans. Beth Cary & Frederik Schodt, Viz Media, San Francisco, p.413.
51

Miyazaki, Hayao (1996) Starting Point: 1979-1996, trans. Beth Cary & Frederik Schodt, Viz Media, San Francisco, p.359.
52

Yoneyama (2019) Animism, p.182.
53

Miyazaki (2008), Turning Point, p.82.
54

Ibid.
55

Yoneyama (2019) Animism.
56

Yoneyama (2019) Animism.
57

Talcott Parsons [1930] 1974, ‘Translator’s note’, Chapter IV, Endnote 19, in Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons, Unwin University Books, London (citation on p.222)
58

Yoneyama (2019) Animism, pp.179-198.
59

Miyazaki (1996) Starting Point, p.333.
60

Miyazaki, Hayao(2013) Kaze no kaeru basho [The place where the wind returns], collection of interviews by Ibuya Yōichi conducted 1990-2001, Bungeishunjū, Tokyo. p.199.
61

Miyazaki, Hayao (2012) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Comic version: Deluxe edition 1), trans. David Lewis & Toren Smith, Viz Media, San Francisco, vol.2, p.158.
62

Ibid. p.511.
63

Miyazaki (2012) Nausicaä Comic, vol.5, p.518.
64

Miyazaki and Shinkai are not alone in presenting nature and spirituality in their work. Illustrations of the invisible world are one of the main attractions of Japanese pop-culture such as manga, anime, and computer games, all of which are part of a broader body of Japanese literature and scholarship. However, Miyazaki and Shinkai are at the pinnacle of the global influence of this aspect of Japanese pop-culture. Only Pokémon would perhaps carry the same ‘caliber’ as Miyazaki and Shinkai in its global influence and Pokémon is also firmly based on animism. However, Pokémon does not give a story in everyday life of human society.
65

Tsugata (2019) Journey, chapter 4.
66

Shinkai (2019) Tenki no ko (novel), p.202 (my translation).
67

Ibid, p.271.
68

Miyazaki, Hayao (2013) Zoku kaze no kaeru basho [The place where wind returns – The sequel] Rockin’ on, Tokyo, p.220.
69

Haraway, Donna (2016) Staying with the Trouble, Duke University Press, Durham.
70

Kato (2019) Visual Guide, pp.60-61.
71

Shinkai (2019) Tenki no ko (novel), p.249.
72

Yoneyama (2019) Animism, pp.43-78.
73

Shinkai (2019) Tenki no ko (novel), p.12.
74

Ibid, p.262.
75

Ibid, p.266.
76

Ibid.
77

See for instance Shinkai (2019) Tenki no ko (novel), pp.207&262.
78

Ibid. p.283.
79

Ibid. p.296.
80

Ibid. p.295.
81

Napier, Susan (2019) Miyazaki World (Japanese translation, Naka, Tatsushi trans.), Hayakawa Publishing, p.65, p.282.
82

Haraway (2016) Staying with the Trouble.
83

Ghosh (2016) Derangement.
84

Haraway, Donna (2015) ‘Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making kin’, Environmental Humanities, vol.6, pp.159-165. Quotation on p.160. For this point, Haraway references James Clifford, Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-first Century (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), p.160.