Session 3: Considering People and Nature

1) New item / thought provoking item of the day;

2) Group discussion;

3) Chapter 2: Separating Humans and Nature;

4) Lecture on Nature and Environmental Determinism & Human Use of Nature.

September 12, 2013

Bay of Fundy, Canada

Norton, W. (2005). Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, and Inequalities. Oxford University Press, Don Mills.

Readings: Chapter 2 of Norton – Separating Humans and Nature; Environmental Determinism; Human Use of Nature

New item / thought provoking item of the day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e6_cY3-J3o

Richard Louv - Nature Deficit Disorder

Author and co-founder of Children and Nature Network

Instructions:- Work as a group of 3 or 4 and answer the questions;- Take approximately 5 minutes to answer each question; - Designate a note taker and one person to respond to each question

Questions1. Is Richard Louv’s ‘nature deficit disorder’ something that relates

to culture? Please elaborate on your answer.

2. What does it mean to be connected with ‘nature’? Does culture or place have any bearing on this?

3. What does Richard Louv mean by the ‘transformative power of nature’? How does this relate to ‘wilderness’ as a concept?

4. Why do you think the environmental movement is struggling with diversity and finding new forms of leadership?

Class exercise – perceptions of nature

The trouble with cultural evolution and ‘primitivism’

Cultural evolution (different from understanding culture as changing):

- savagery: hunting & gathering, limited technology;- barbarism: agriculture, settled villages and towns;- civilization: writing.

“Primitive societies”- based on the concept that societies become more

‘civilized’ throughout time;- imposes a hierarchy on practice and different relationships

with nature;- implies that some are better or “more evolved”

(value implication: better instead of just changed) - fails to acknowledge different forms of knowledge such as

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as being valuable.

Nature and Environmental Determinism

Source: Norton 2005, Figure 2.1, pg. 44

One of the first popular approaches to cultural geography – Ratzel, German geographer

Based on positivism: Cause – effect relationship between culture and the natural environment

Typical assertion: “people in temperate climates were both more talented than those in the colder north and more energetic than those in the warmer south”

justified cultural relativism: used to justify slavery and other forms of gross & more subtle forms of oppression

*Quote: page 46

Social Darwinism – survival of the fittest cause of much discrimination

Anishinaabe teachings

Norton (2005, pg. 48): “embarrassingly simplistic”, though popular until the mid 20th century

Naïve as the quote on pg. 48 illustrates

“Stop and Go Determinism” (Taylor 1951) – humans control rate but not direction of progress; human dependence and connection to natural systems

Source: Norton 2005, Table 2.1, pg. 49

“Greek and Judeo-Christian ideas about the inherent responsibility of humans to organize, change, and complete nature” (pg. 49)

Cultural Geography Interpretations

Possibilism – Vidal & Vidalians (followers), “physical environment regarded not as determinant of human activities but as a factor that sets limits on the range of possible human options in an environment” (pg. 50)

Variation Probabilism *Quote pg. 51

Included rational for the way that groups perceive

Human Use of Nature

“Use” – is a concept, social construct, and loaded term

“dominion” over “nature” and “others” has deeply affected the

Example: the concept of conservation and protected areas

significant shifts in policy and the way “protection” is modeledhowever much of the same continues

Images: National Geographic

Long history of colonization by the British – deemed them incompatible with nature

separation of humans and nature

Parks established without the prior consent of the Maasai

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) played a major role in this.

“It is we Maasai who have preserved this priceless heritage in our land. We were sharing it with the wild animals long before the arrival of those who use game only as a means of making money. So please do not tell us that we must be pushed off our land for the financial convenience of commercial hunters and hotel-keepers. Nor tell us that we must live only by the rules and regulations of zoologists…If Uhuru (independence) means anything at all, it means that we are to be treated like humans, not animals" (Amin, 181).

Source: Julie Narimatsu, http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/Jones/maasai.htm#Problem

World conservation paradigm

Shifting towards acknowledging that people are part of nature

in policy and the passing of motions through specialized commissions

CEESP: Commission for Environmental, Economic and Social PolicyWCPA: World Commission on Protected Areas

Promote the TILCEPA working group: Theme on Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas

“...concerned with the social aspects of Protected Areas. Particular attention is given to the participation, rights, values, livelihoods and contributions of indigenous peoples and local communities living in or affected by Protected Areas"

Ways of including communities in ‘resource’ management

Different models for co-management

CS

S C

S C

C S

S: State

C: Community

Source: Carlsson & Berkes, 2005

Session 4: The Landscape school: Details, challenges, and transitions

September 17, 2013

Tablelands, South Africa

Norton, W. (2005). Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, and Inequalities. Oxford University Press, Don Mills.

Readings: Chapter 2 of Norton – The Landscape School; Towards Holistic Emphasis; Chapter 3 – Spatial Analysis

1) News item / thought provoking item of the day (10 mins);

2) Lecture: The Landscape school of human geography

3) Worldview mind-mapping exercise

4) Holistic emphasis

5) Intro to concepts of spatial analysis