Vocabulary Session

Language for a Sustainable Culture

The vocabulary we learn focuses on a sustainable lifestyle as a point of convergence and learning between anglo and hispanic-influenced cultures.

• Food - cooking, gardening and farming words
• Natural landscapes - plants, animals, hills, valleys, rivers, shorelines, etc.
• Community - relationships among people: neighbors, family, community politics
• Tools, materials and trades - words to describe materials used in building and fixing stuff
• Arts and crafts - more practical stuff for producers

The vocabulary we study and in fact all content of the course is based on basic principles of caring for the earth, caring for people, and equitable sharing of resources. The approach is:

• Human-scale
• Practical
• Land-based
• Visionary
• Low-tech

This curriculum has been developed (and you as a student, of course, also help to deepen its development) along with the Field Glossary, an English-Spanish Dictionary designed for sustainable development and permaculture. A discussion of the philosophy of language which underpins this endeavor may be found in the Preface to the 2005 Research Edition of the Field Glossary.

The cost of course tuition includes a copy of the current edition of the Field Glossary. Additional texts will be supplied by the instructor.