People and Places of Nature and Culture (Book)

Using the rich and vital Australian Aboriginal understanding of country as a model, People and Places of Nature and Culture affirms the importance of a sustainable relationship between nature and culture. This book demonstrates the problems inherent in the notion that humans have a mastery over the Earth and projects what needs to change.

Edition

Using the rich and vital Australian Aboriginal understanding of country as a model, People and Places of Nature and Culture affirms the importance of a sustainable relationship between nature and culture. While current thought includes the mistaken notion—perpetuated by natural history, ecology, and political economy—that humans have a mastery over the Earth, this book demonstrates the problems inherent in this view. In the current age of climate change, this is an important appraisal of the relationship between nature and culture, and a projection of what needs to change if we want to achieve environmental stability.

Rod Giblett is director of the Centre for Research in Entertainment, Arts, Technology Education, and Communications at Edith Cowan University in Australia.

Preface: From Sustainability to Symbiosis
 
PART I: CULTURAL NATURE

Chapter 1: The Nature of Natures and the Cultures of Natures

Chapter 2: Is the Public Sphere to the Biosphere as Culture is to Nature (as Male is to Female)?
 
PART II: LANDSCAPE AESTHETICS
 
Chapter 3: Nature's Fairest Forms: Aesthetics of Nature 
Chapter 4: Pleasing Prospects Revista’d: The Gentleman's Park Estate 
 
PART III: COLONIAL COUNTRY
 
Chapter 5: Home in the Wilds: Wild(er)ness as a Cultural Category
Chapter 6: Riding Roughshod Over It: Mateship Against the Bush
 
PART IV: NATIONAL PARKLANDS
 
Chapter 7: Nature Sanctuarized: 'Our' National Parks as Modern Cathedrals 
Chapter 8: Sites and Rights of Enjoyment: Nature and Native Title in National Parks 
 
PART V: INDUSTRIAL LAND USE
 
Chapter 9: Eating Earth: Mining and Gluttony 
Chapter 10: Kings in Kimberley Watercourses and Wetlands: Sadism and Pastoralism 
 
PART VI: LAND SYMBIOTICS
 
Chapter 11: 'We are the Land Ourselves': Aboriginal Country is a Cultural Landscape
Chapter 12: Home is Here: Livelihood, Bioregion and Symbiosis

This book offers a wealth of insights and new ways of seeing and debating complex and enduring environmental questions' – David Hollinsworth, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management

Related Titles