Are Anthroposophists Environmentalists?
In: Public Anthropologist, Volume 1, Issue 2, p. 208-223
ISSN: 2589-1715
Can anthroposophists be considered environmentalists? Based on the author's recent ethnographic research, this article seeks to delineate the profile of the anthroposophical environmentalist, a figure belonging to a particular form of environmentalism. In the last two centuries, anthroposophy (founded by Rudolf Steiner, 1861-1925) has elaborated a universalistic narrative named "spiritual science." Today, through a "salvific approach" and a "karstic life," anthroposophy informs different, blended, environmental practices intertwined with ecological and social issues that include spirituality, anti-modernism, human-nonhuman relationships and alternative sciences. Consequently, the ecological movements inspired by anthroposophy have a wide and increasing diffusion globally and this, in turn, stimulates anthropology to produce appropriate ethnographic knowledge of this form of environmentalism.