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Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos

The principal energy of the Sun does not operate along a straight line, fertilizing this or that aspect of the Creation, but constitutes mainly a huge closed circuit in which the entire biosphere participates. The Desana imagine this circuit as having a fixed quantity of energy that flows eternally between man and animal, between society and nature.

The quantity of energy being fixed, man must remove what he needs only under certain conditions and must convert this particle of "borrowed" energy into a form that can be reincorporated into the circuit. For example, when an animal is killed the energy of the local fauna is reduced; when the game is converted into food, however, the current continues, now in the field of society, because the consumers of the food acquire energy that previously belonged to the animal.

This, then, is a process of feedback. Any human action that participates in the circuit restores energy to nature that, for its part, acts on society again. The individual should never cause an interruption in the circuit; that is, he should never use energy without restoring it again.