Naming beings by name is how humans forge relationship and forestall species loneliness

Evidence

Most people don’t know the names of these relatives; in fact, they hardly even see them. Names are the way we humans build relationship, not only with each other but with the living world. I’m trying to imagine what it would be like going through life not knowing the names of the plants and animals around you. Given who I am and what I do, I can’t know what that’s like, but I think it would be a little scary and disorienting—like being lost in a foreign city where you can’t read the street signs. Philosophers call this state of isolation and disconnection “species loneliness”—a deep, unnamed sadness stemming from estrangement from the rest of Creation, from the loss of relationship. As our human dominance of the world has grown, we have become more isolated, more lonely when we can no longer call out to our neighbors. It’s no wonder that naming was the first job the Creator gave Nanabozho. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 753

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘species loneliness’ — a usable technical concept for the polyad connecting place, listening, and Indigenous knowledge.
• XREF: Connects to ch10’s naming vs knowing distinction and to Reading-the-Landscape’s identification-as-attention method. — connects to: Naming a plant falls far short of knowing the plant itself — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 155; Learning names of beings transforms attention and belonging; Perceiving other beings’ agency is required to overcome species loneliness — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 494 (+7 more)
• SEED: Essay angle: species loneliness as the diagnosed condition that environmental education — naming as relationship rather than taxonomy — can treat.

Broader Connections

• Learning names of beings transforms attention and belonging #expands (0.92)
• Naming any being by name is an act of respect that builds relationship #corroborates (0.90) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 81
• Naming species is a first step toward kinship, not a distancing taxonomy #corroborates (0.88) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 492
• Perceiving other beings’ agency is required to overcome species loneliness #expands (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 494
• Scientific taxonomy and indigenous song can jointly overcome species loneliness #expands (0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 493
• Society names both actual human networks and the abstract forms of sociality #expands (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 896
• Fictive kinship terminology activates altruistic norms toward co-religionists #exemplifies (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 385
• Animal reproduction is driven by felt deficiency between individual and genus #complicates (0.70) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 539