Separation of Nature and Humans
I really thought the section discussing how Greek ethnographies differ from the dominant white Western environmental discourse due to the separation of humanity and culture from nonhuman nature. Unfortunately, the white Western environmental separation of nature and culture has hindered all levels of environmental practice. The quote from William Cronon on page seven really stood out to me. It makes a clear connection to the separation of nature from humans and its effect on environmentalists very clear. He says that if we only think of nature as wild and untouched, nature doesn’t exist wherever humans are. There is no way to determine or visualize a way for humans to live sustainably or ethically with nature.
It was also interesting how that information was followed by information on the environmental discourse of Greek ethnography. The author mentions Greek ethnographies suggest that people are represented by both the culture and the material that surrounds them. She mentioned earlier that people were described by certain things they ate and where they took their cows to graze. The line that discusses how if a community is separated from other human communities, collaboration with nonhuman communities is encouraged. I think that idea is very interesting. Since this class started, I have been thinking about how nature went from something that was worshipped (yeah maybe with some fear thrown in there) and embraced, to people like the Puritans who were terrified of nature and thought it evil. I know Puritans are a much later group but that has just been something on my mind.