Our current understanding of interdependence is rooted in ancestral, spiritual and/or indigenous practices found in communities across the globe. Rotating savings clubs, or the practice of pooling money for the greater community, is common in cultures across the globe.
Rotating savings clubs where communities pool money collectively.
One of the Adinkra symbols—two links in a chain—representing human connection and the concept that each person is incomplete without others.
Genealogy understood as a living web connecting people to their ancestors, kin, and the surrounding land and water.
Lifelong circles of friends beginning in childhood, lasting decades, pooling resources and supporting one another. Researchers connect them to Okinawan longevity.
“Joint bearing of burdens”—communities perform heavy labor together, from harvests to building, sharing the results.
The spirit of neighbors collaborating, exemplified by a village collectively lifting and relocating a house using bamboo poles.
A Nguni word meaning “I am because we are,” expressing that personhood develops through relationships with others.
“All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you.” — Octavia E. Butler