Browsing by Author "Myles, N.O."
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Item Akan Religious Ontology and Environmental Sustainability in Ghana(Brill, 2022) Golo, B.K.; Majeed, H.M.; Myles, N.O.In this paper, using ethnographic field data from three indigenous Akan communities, we show that Akan religious ontology about the natural world provides a formidable resource and framework for managing the environmentally destructive tendencies of the human being. We further prove that while these ontologies about the natural world emerge from the intense religiosity of the Akan and the metaphysical worldview of the indigenous Akan, they contain strong environmental ethical norms and values worth resourcing for environmental sustainability in Ghana. We, consequently, argue that significant attention ought to be paid to these religious ontologies—beliefs, norms and practices—of the indigenous Akan, as an effective means of achieving environmental sustainability. We, therefore, propose the resourcing and adoption of indigenous religious ontologies on the natural world that have the potential of informing and enhancing environmental policies and initiatives towards environmental sustainability in Ghana.Item ‘I have a Dream’: Ghana in 2057,” In: Kwame Gyekye (ed.), Ghana @ 50 Anniversary Lectures(The National Planning Committee of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations, pp. 373-379, 2010) Myles, N.O.This ideal picture of the future cultural situation in Ghana in 2057 features a resolution of today’s prevailing tensions over ethnic identity.Item Multiculturalism and the Notion of Cultural Identity(2013-12-09) Myles, N.O.This paper focuses on ‘cultural identity’. I ask what constitutes the notion, what conditions, if any, prevail in the determination of ‘cultural identity’ or what does the term refer to. I make this enquiry as a means of analyzing what is meant when people worry that their cultural identity will be affected, diluted or even contaminated from its ‘pure state’ when it is not preserved in a multicultural context where they are exposed to other ways of life. So-called “cultural preservationists” have advanced arguments in defense of preservation of “the authentic cultural identity of a people.” They stress that identifying with a group is crucial to the life options available to an individual, but such group identity is threatened by the presence of a medley of ethno-cultural groups, a feature characteristic of contemporary nation-states such as Ghana and Nigeria. I analyze the notion also as an attempt to respond to a concern raised about which culture the individual will identify with, the constituent culture or the larger multicultural society. I ask why the individual cannot identify with both. I will devote the final pages to ’cultural change’ and the basis of its legitimacy. I ask which change would be legitimate, and which would constitute a ‘contamination’ of one’s cultural identity given the dynamic nature of culture. My examination of the notion ‘cultural identity’ will ultimately seek to show that perhaps the concerns raised by so-called cultural preservationists are not intractable after all, if not illusory.