Re-nesting Humanity – Darcia Narvaez

Local Futures Podcast

Darcia Narvaez is a Professor Emerita of Psychology (University of Notre Dame), and Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She employs an interdisciplinary approach to studying morality, child development and human flourishing, integrating disciplines like anthropology, neuroscience, developmental psychology, evolutionary biology, and more. Darcia’s publications include 'Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom', 'Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth', and, most recently, 'The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities'.

In this episode, Darcia describes “the evolved nest”, which is the set of conditions needed for healthy human development. Stemming from our deep evolutionary past, these conditions include close-knit community, affection, care, play, and connection to nature. She sheds light on the way so many of us, in the disconnected world of modernity, experience great insecurity, dysregulation, and lack of self-understanding because of the myriad developmental challenges that arise from being “un-nested”. As such, Darcia calls for localization - at both the structural level and in practice at the community level - in order to restore our wellbeing.

To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.

The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.