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1	Property, human ecology and Delgamuukw Cheney, Thomas 22 July 2011 (has links) This thesis has two central goals. The first is to theorize the confrontation of Indigenous societies and European settler society as, among other things, a conflict between two opposing conceptions of the human relationship with nature — human ecology. The Western/settler view is that nature is external to humans and instrumental to their development. John Locke’s philosophy provides an excellent example of this type of thinking. In contrast, the world-view of many Indigenous societies is characterized by a sense of ontological continuity between humans and the ecology. The second aim of this thesis is to contribute to ecological political theory by exploring the contrast between these two divergent views of human ecology. It is suggested that this contrast provides a theoretically fertile site for an ecological politics suitable for a post-modern, post-capitalist future. These theoretical observations are grounded in a concrete case study: the Delgamuukw legal episode. / Graduate delgamuukw environmental studies John Locke philosophy Indigenous politics Gitxsan Wetsuwet'en Indigenous philosophy property rights colonialism dispossession political theory ecological political theory improvement Aboriginal rights nature land-use modernity non-modern capitalism state subject-object