This volume sets out to construct a tentative bridge between the physical and perceived (academic) worlds, between the understandings of culture and nature, their spatiality and temporality by tackling the spatiality of culture phenomena across disciplinary boundaries. The contributions are arranged around a general question of how humans organise the spaces in which they live. The book is divided according to three themes: the humanities and ecosemiotic approach to nature, constructing nature, and examining environmental and landscape change. The first provides an historical review of the humanities and expands on the more theoretical themes. The second section discusses some ways in constructing (wild) nature with specific examples. The final one illustrates the changes that various cultures have brought about in the environment examining landscapes and domestication. The space of culture and the place of nature in various cultures are discussed critically throughout the volume in a way that challenges their ontological separations and invites to discuss culture-nature relationships on a more balanced basis.
Author(s): Tiina Peil (ed.)
Series: Approaches to Culture Theory Series, 1
Publisher: Tartu University Press
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 192
Notes on the Editors and Contributors 7
Acknowledgements 10
Introduction / Tiina Peil 11
Humanities and Ecosemiotics
Eight Historical Paradigms of the Human Sciences / Roland Posner 20
Pre-modern Ecosemiotics: The Green World as Literary Ecology / Alfred K. Siewers 39
Foundations for Ecosemiotic Deep Ecology / Kalevi Kull 69
Constructing Nature
The Positioning on the Landscape of Culture and Mind: Methods for the Social Construction of Nature / Maaris Raudsepp 78
Mapping Human Impact – Expanding Horizons: Interdisciplinary Integration / Morten Tønnessen 93
Writing the Environment: Finnish Written Nature Narratives / Kirsi Laurén 197
Landscapes and Environmental Change
Changes of Environment in the Stockholm Region: Preconditions and Perspectives / Urve Miller, Jan Risberg, Sven Karlsson 122
Jōmon Style and Yayoi Style: A Worldview Transition within Neolithisation in the Japanese Archipelago / Junzo Uchiyama 136
The Civilising Hero, a Question of Domestication in Yakutia / Emilie Maj 153
Fire Cultivation in Estonian Cultural Landscapes / Liisi Jääts, Marge Konsa, Kersti Kihno, Pille Tomson 165
A World of Domesticated Landscapes / Mats Widgren 181
Index 186
