The Human Relationship with the Land and Each Other

The Human’s Relationship to the Land and Each Other
From the Perspective of Anthropology, Human Ecology, Evolution and

Bowen Theory

A two-day conference featuring Joanne Bowen, PhD, and Daniel V. Papero, Ph.D., LCSW

June 13 and 14, 2025
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Presented on Zoom

Fee: $325
Social work CEUs $20

REGISTER

 Conference overview

The goal of this conference is to deepen our current understanding of the 8th concept in Bowen theory, emotional process in society, and work towards its expansion. Bowen theory, based in the natural sciences, mainly biology and evolution, has enhanced our understanding of human behavior. Putting the human family in the context of the natural environment, interacting with the land, its resources, varied species and social groups; all seeking to procure food, reproduce and survive in a changing environment. We look to expand our knowledge base by exploring other disciplines such as anthropology, ecology, biology and evolution in order to enhance our thinking regarding the complex relationships between living organisms and the land upon which they depend.

Murray Bowen explored multiple disciplines in his quest to bring psychiatry into the world of accepted science. He thought the greatest gain from the family movement would come not from therapy, but as the basis of new theories about man and his efforts to adapt (Bowen 1978). Dr. Bowen was keenly aware of the impact of the physical and emotional environment on the human and other species and his theory and lifetime effort reflects this.

Sociobiologist and entomologist, E.O. Wilson also valued crossing disciplines in search of a greater understanding of the human, writing in 1999 that the “greatest enterprise of the human mind has always been and always will be the attempted linkage of the sciences and the humanities” (Wilson, 1999 ). He defined consilience as “a ‘jumping together’ of knowledge by the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation, leading to a higher degree of certainty regarding the human condition (Wilson,1999). 

Featured Speakers

Joanne Bowen
Dr. Joanne Bowen is the former curator of zooarchaeology and senior curator of environmental collections at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and former research professor of anthropology at the College of William and Mary. She is also a director of the Murray Bowen Archives Project.

One of her key insights is the connection of the human family to the land. Dr. Bowen describes how families organized around the land and each other, and will bring to this conference her extensive knowledge in anthropology, archeology, ethnography and ecology, as well as Bowen theory. She will broaden our vision of the family as a social and economic unit, and invite us to explore the biological basis of culture and human settlements.

Daniel Papero

Dr Daniel Papero has been associated with Bowen theory and the Bowen Center in Washington, DC, for over 40 years. He has led workshops on this approach all over the world. He is a skilled teacher and practitioner who serves on the faculty of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. He consults with organizations in both the private and public sectors about the impact of relationships on functioning and the emotional process of organizations.

He will address the challenge of complex human systems, natural systems thinking, collective behavior, Bowen Theory and shifting levels of competency (differentiation of self) to enhance functioning in order to solve problems effectively.

Please direct questions about the conference to Ann V. Nicholson, annvnicholson@gmail.com

Presentations

Science, Anthropology, and Bowen Theory: The Search for the Human Connection to the Land

Joanne Bowen, Ph.D.
As Charles Darwin studied plant and animal life, and Murray Bowen observed human behavior during times of war, daily life, and clinical settings, anthropologists have examined the rich tapestry of human groups living in diverse habitats and social systems. This presentation will explore how the comparative methodology of anthropology has generated evidence for understanding the adaptation of Homo sapiens to their environments, emphasizing how the emotional family unit functions as the core societal unit. Part Two will explore how families in hunting and gathering societies have adapted to their surroundings and each another to form the building block for societal formations.

Living in a Turbulent and Polarized World: Can Bowen Theory Assist?
Daniel Papero, PhD
Although the intensity of the global pandemic now seems like ancient history, major challenges continue to confront the global society.  Many of these challenges stem from human processes and activities.  Economic and social forces coalesce to threaten the survival of individuals and families. The human population of the planet continues to increase, the effects of climate change intensify, human migration continues to grow, and broad demographic change challenges economic and political stability.  Governmental structures appear shaky and incompetent to address the compounding challenges faced. 

Across the globe the general human emotional response to challenge leads to polarized processes that effectively block effort to address pressing problems.  Increasing chaos and stasis result, and crises deepen.  In the face of such widespread chaos, the individuals often feel helpless and withdraw from engagement.  Bowen theory’s concepts of differentiation of self and of the triangle may provide some guidance to those seeking to maintain engagement with challenge.  This talk will explore these concepts and the relevance of theory to guide functioning in a turbulent and polarized world.

Letters to My Paternal Great Grandfathers – One Family’s Agroecology Story of Immigration and Relationship to Place from Pre-American Revolution to the Present

Mary Catherine (Kitty) Bass, M.Div., MSW, LCSW

Using letters, the story of immigration and the evolution of one family in relationship to the agriculture and the land they came to inhabit from the British Isles – Scotland and Ireland – to the present, is briefly told. The letters reflect the development of religious and cultural influences, demographic changes, political pressure, perplexing economics, research and development as well as one family’s emotional process, cut-off, as well as societal regression and endless triangles, projections, and reactivity.  Interpretation is left to the audience  — as well as diagnosis and treatment planning.

Exploring the Human Connection to the Land – Lessons from the Yanomamo Tribes of the Amazon Rainforest

Ann Nicholson, RN, MS, CS

There is little doubt in our highly technological world, the human’s connection to the land and each other has changed markedly during our 300,000-year history. In fact, we often do not see ourselves as part of the land. Rather we see ourselves as above the land often behaving in a dominant position in relation to it. 

Research of the Yanomamo tribes gives us a broader view of human functioning over the millennia in relation to the land. This paper will attempt to address how the human’s relationship to the land influenced their relationship with each other and continues to do so to the present day. It is seen as a reciprocal process rather than one of dominance. It will also address how the effort to integrate a new discipline into our current understanding of  human behavior may offer us a more fact based understanding of human functioning in relationship to the land, each other and all the other species dependent on the land for their survival. 

Variation in Individual Relationships to the Land and to Each Other in Hunter Gatherer Society

Laurie Lassiter, PhD

The physical environment provides challenges for people to find food and shelter. The specific nature and quality of the land leads to adaptations in both tool use and social relationships in order to be successful. At the same time, variation in human groups shows differences in how individuals interact with the land and with each other.

Anthropology research of hunter gatherer societies in the early 1960s includes observations of variation in human groups that were less affected by economic inequality and the stresses of socioeconomic status as we know it. Are natural differences in emotional functioning within groups still present in their lives?

Robert Sapolsky posited that the social challenges of primates is greater than the challenges of finding food, water, and shelter. Does the early human, as a primate, show these struggles?

Natural Systems Thinking about Environmental Challenges

Randall T. Frost, M-Div.

One of the challenges presented by climate change is humanity has never faced a comparable threat since we emerged as a species 300,000 years ago. Greenhouse gases accumulate slowly and the full impact of what we do now won’t be evident for decades. We can’t look back and learn from the last time human behavior drove a comparable rise in global temperatures. So, it can be easy to minimize the threat. We can, however, learn from variation in how nations have managed their responses to a different, slow developing threat to a limited, but valuable natural resource — fisheries. Every factor that will influence the outcome of global warming has affected fisheries throughout the world — the impact of technology, the use and misuse of science, partisan politics, financial hardship for affected families and businesses, not to mention considerations of national sovereignty. The intensity of the emotional process and how leaders think about the problem has contributed to variation in the outcome — whether fisheries flourish, collapse or muddle through. Lessons learned from the challenge of managing fisheries can inform how we respond as a species to the global challenge of climate change.

Vulnerability and Viability – The Role of Ecology, Adaptation and Culture in the Jewish Response to Antisemitism

Eileen Gottlieb, M.Ed., LMFT

How has the history of a landless and unsettled community contributed to both their vulnerability and viability? What does ecology, adaptation and culture teach us about the remarkable resilience of a projected upon people over centuries of their existence? How do we account for it? What might be predictable given their past functioning and future challenges? What difference might it make to the broader question of human adaptation in an ever challenging world?

The Family as an Economic Unit and an Emotional Unit

Stephanie Ferrera, MSW

The evolving relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world is reciprocal, changing both the nature of the environment and the nature of human societies. In humanity’s time on earth, the economic conditions for raising a family have changed dramatically. This presentation will identify the turning points in those economic conditions and describe how families adapted as life became increasingly complex and socially stratified. The instinctual emotional process in the family and its parallel emotional process in society drove humanity along a growth trajectory that has taken us from the simpler life of our forager ancestors to what some call the “global economic superorganism.” 

Ants as Teachers in The Age of a Changing Climate

Leann Howard, LSCSW, LSMFT

Ants first appeared on planet earth 140-168 million years ago. Collective behavior in ants has been a research focus by Dr Deborah M. Gordon for many years. I joined the research team in 2004 and have returned every August to study collective behavior in ants as climate change has intensified. Human families and society also are impacting and impacted by a changing climate. This presentation will discuss lessons from the ants and cooperating efforts between natural systems disciplines of ecology and human family and society,

The Functioning of Society and Its Basis in Cultural Ecology and the Human Emotional System

Laura Havstad, PhD

Julian Steward, a contemporary of Murray Bowen, was an anthropologist known for developing Cultural Ecology. His key idea is that the natural environment influences human social relationships. Drawing on ethnographic studies of subsistence cultures, Steward proposed that ecology, population, and technology together shape social organization, forming a society’s “cultural core”—its essential organizing principle. The values embedded in this core can either support or hinder adaptation, aligning with Murray Bowen’s view that outdated cultural beliefs and misconceptions often persist across generations, maintaining values and practices disconnected from reality. Wendell Berry also explores how ecological, agricultural, and cultural changes have disrupted human relationships with the land and with each other in recent history. Still, positive trends are emerging among those who are deepening their understanding of the human-environment relationship and adjusting their practices accordingly, despite opposing economic pressures.