The emergence in Zimbabwe today of organisations and the promulgation of many pieces of legislation all meant to protect various aspects of the environment do not imply that Zimbabwean societies have never kept a positive eye on their environments. Traditional societies, the Shona in this case, have largely been particular about and enjoyed a sound relationship between the people and their environment. This article is an eco-critical exegesis of Shona taboos, known as zviera, with intent to lay bare the positive attitudes and approaches that traditional societies pay to, and inculcate in members towards various aspects of the environment. It observed that traditional Shona societies use taboos as one of the most powerful environmental awareness and conservation genres, wherein human life is shown as hinged on the animal, vegetative and physical environments which are then supposed to be identified, named, meaningfully and economically exploited and safeguarded from pollution, over-extraction and depletion for the well-being of humanity. These findings have a strong bearing on the positives inherent in Shona traditional ways of achieving environmental awareness even in the contemporary world, and on further research.

今天津巴布韦出现的组织和许多旨在保护环境各个方面的立法的颁布并不意味着津巴布韦社会从未对其环境保持积极的关注。在这种情况下，传统社会，即绍纳人，在很大程度上特别关注人与环境之间的良好关系并享有良好的关系。这篇文章是对绍纳族禁忌（即 zviera）的生态批判性诠释，旨在揭示传统社会所采取的积极态度和方法，并向成员灌输环境的各个方面。它观察到传统的绍纳族社会将禁忌作为最强大的环境意识和保护类型之一，其中人类的生命取决于动物，植物和物理环境，然后应该被识别、命名、有意义和经济地开发和保护免受污染、过度提取和耗竭以人类福祉。这些发现对绍纳传统的实现环境意识的方式（即使在当代世界）中所固有的积极意义以及进一步研究具有重要意义。