Cultural Influences
Our current understanding of interdependence is rooted in ancestral, spiritual and/or indigenous practices found in communities across the globe. Learn more about interdependence has been articulated and practiced.
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Rotating savings clubs, or the practice of pooling money for the greater community, is common in cultures across the globe.
Susu, tanda, stokvel, hui, chama
Susu, tanda, stokvel, hui, chama
worldwide
One of the Adinkra symbols, two links in a chain, standing for human connection and the idea that each of us is incomplete without the next.
Nkonsonkonson
Nkonsonkonson
Akan, Ghana
Genealogy understood as a living web that ties people to their ancestors, their kin, and the land and water around them.
Whakapapa
Whakapapa
Aotearoa, Māori
Lifelong circles of friends who start as children and stay committed for decades, pooling money and showing up for each other. Researchers tie them to Okinawans' long lives
Moai
Moai
Okinawa, Japan
"Joint bearing of burdens." A community does the heavy work together, from harvests to building, and shares what comes of it.
Gotong Royong
Gotong Royong
Indonesia
The spirit of neighbors pitching in together, captured in the old image of a whole village lifting a house onto bamboo poles and carrying it to a new spot.
Bayanihan
Bayanihan
Philippines
A Nguni word often translated as "I am because we are." It holds that a person becomes a person through other people.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
South Africa
“All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you."
— Octavia E. Butler