ABSTRACT

This chapter offers a brief taste of diverse nature–culture relationships. Conceptions of culture and nature as separate entities, symbolized most profoundly in Western thought by the two cultures of the humanities and the sciences, have had many implications for environmental management. The Western conceptualization of nature and culture as separate realms has been challenged from a number of different directions. Unsettling the boundaries between human and nature, tame and wild, has also challenged the notion that cities are places of pure culture, outside nature. Increasing recognition of the diverse philosophical bases of human interactions with the nonhuman world has contributed to the growing interest in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and its potential contribution to sustainable living. Interest from scientists and environmental managers acknowledges that TEK is built up over long periods of time, and that diversity in knowledge systems is both a cultural and an ecological resource.