Nature Identification: The Power of Pointing and Naming

Abstract

Pointing and naming is a basic practice of using communication to discern nature. This study illustrates connections between this symbolic action and ecocultural relations. I focus on a transnational site of wildlife tourism to explore ways nature identification has historically mediated perceptual, behavioral, and political transformations. I also examine contemporary practice, illustrating ways identification uses and meanings delineate endangered whales as unique, complex, intrinsically valued subjects, as well as generate humanature connections and protections. In discussing restorative implications and limitations for endangered species, I suggest dialectically integrating an ecological lens with the powerful individualizing discourse of nature identification.

“Tree Is Life”: The Rising of Dualism and the Declining of Mutualism among the Gedeo of Southern Ethiopia

“…Closer to the present study's site, the Lower Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia is understood by conservationists as wilderness, by the state as wasteland, and by indigenous communities as home (Turton, 2011). The central argument in all such cases is that environmental discourses are produced, reproduced, in tension, and transformed on the basis of people's ontological notions of humanity's place in nature, and these discourses in turn shape perceptions and interactions with/in/as nature (Cantrill and Oravec, 1996;Milstein, 2011).…”

Communicating a “New” Environmental Vernacular: A Sense of Relations-in-Place

“…In examinations of American and Canadian tourism discourses revolving around endangered whales, Milstein (2008Milstein ( , 2011 found whales are perceived as something to be identified, protected, sublimely experienced, and as a doorway or deadend to more sustainable humanature relations; however, tourist discourses largely position nature as something out there, separate from human culture and social relations. In examining meaning-making about water in New England, Morgan (2002Morgan ( , 2003 argues aspects of nature are made relevant according to local systems of communication based upon differing, deeply felt cultural premises, such as nature is something to be tamed or is a system of which people are a part.…”

‘More Than Just Human Heroes’ the Role of the Pigeon in the First World War

“…16 As such, pigeon fanciers far and wide given the commonality of their activities are tied together as "… goal-directed people, with an agenda, a project" in a bond of "… fictive kinship". 17 The wide diffusion of pigeons in European military circles furthermore contributed to a high media profile and recorded both "prolonged practices of identification" 18 and what Jerolmack in a different context has called "… phenomenologically compelling descriptions of the men's lived descriptions of this animal practice". 19 Furthermore, close interaction with animals in general also "… mediates ways of knowing that are both the means and ends of forging caring orientations to another species".…”