Viewing Nature:

1
Viewing Nature

• Cultural Understanding of Nature/Wilderness
  during the 19th Century in Indian and Britain

2
Interaction and Perception

• Various human activities shape our view of and
  interactions with nature
• Aesthetics culturally mediated through art,
  literature, poetry, which change over time
• Folk tales and mythologyex. Woods in Grimms
  Fairy Tales
• Popular culture
• Resource utilization/experience depending on
  our location (urban, rural) occupation (farmer,
  student, etc) we might consume nature
  differently
• Extractivefarming, timber, fishing
• Leisure activitiestourism, hiking, diving

3
Perception is historically bounded

• As societies change, perception changes with them
• In many places in the world, nature is no longer
  seen as divine (Gods of norse/vedic mythology)
• If the continuation of a specific activity is
  necessary and/or desirable, societies strive to
  create a system of sustained use
• Might not produce a pristine balance, but
  manages an ecological system to create a
  favorable outcome for human activity (ex. Managed
  forests)
• Historically emphasis has been on utility not
  preservation (ex. Hunting estates)
• As social uses/values change, perception does as
  well
• Is also bounded by class

4
Fox hunting in UK, then and now
5
Britain in the 19th C.

• New wave of Romantic literature (Wordsworth, Sir
  Walter Scott) views nature as a respite from the
  modern world, truer to core values
• also romanticizes noble savage
• Aesthetics of parks and managed wilderness
• Utilitarian woodlands continued to be used for
  timber, cleared for farmland
• Desirability of keeping certain types of trees
  over others
• Management of fauna for game preserves

6
Sir Edwin Landseer

• Famous for large paintings of historical figures,
  particularly Scottish
• Hunting prints of historical and contemporary
  works in which hunting is valorized as masculine,
  chivalrous, natural

7
Landseer, taking the deer
8
Perception of Wilderness in S. Asia

• Sacredconcept of sacred groves, association of
  particular tress with gods
• Aestheticthe forest as a retreat from the world,
  place for meditation, sport, also associated with
  the rasa of love in classical painting and
  literature
• Utilitariandeforestation occurs in waves all
  through history despite these associations,
  primarily for farmland forests also home to many
  tribal groups such as Bhils, Gonds

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Areas Inhabited by Tribal Groups, c. 19th c
santals
Gonds
Gujjars Bhattis
Bhils
Bedars
10
The Wilderness in the S. Asian imagination

• As a place associated with sages and mystics
• Constant occurence in epics as the site of
  adventure
• In love poetry as the place for amorous sports
• In oldest Vedic texts (c. 1500 BCE) contrast b/w
  savage and civilized stronger, but less so in
  later epics and folktales
• Panchatantra and animal stories

11
The place of Hunting, 1200-1800

• Hunting associated both as royal sport and as the
  domain of certain tribes, who have a more
  ambivalent place in Indian society
• For kings, opportunity to practice skills valued
  in warrior societies
• Large hunting preserves reserved for royal use
• Traveling for hunts also serves to allow ruler to
  inspect remote places, build ties with local
  communities, keep an eye on officials
• For tribal communities hunting is necessary for
  survival
• As meat-eaters, they are stigmatized by a largely
  vegetarian Hindu peasantry (notice difference
  created by social status in treatment of tribal
  v. warrior groups)

12
Hunting in Colonial period

• Colonial officials influenced by emerging ideas
  of muscular christianity also by its place as
  an elite sport in both British and Indian
  traditions
• Princely rulers see it as one of the last
  remaining privilege, also as a chance to meet as
  equals with officials
• Large hunting parties become popular by late 19th
  C
• Its use as a protective practice used as
  justificiation, although concerns about
  over-killing grow
• New forms of hunting evolve
• Use of machans (stationary platforms)and beaters
  on unprecedented scale
• Pig sticking

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