ABSTRACT
The notion of pristine nature is not only ideologically, but also on a very practical level historically, linked to that of indigenous peoples. It has very often been incarnated in precisely those landscapes that have been colonised and cultivated by people who have been excluded from ‘civilised society’ by the European colonial powers. In a colonial context the representation comprised a legitimising function; with the support of a principle derived from Roman law – ferae bestia – which was the alleged lack of a particular type of exploitation of ‘nature’ to justify the adoption of colonial forms of governance. The degree of intervention that could be justified was, therefore, determined by the geographic placement of a people on the intended development ladder, which gained a central role in the modern representational world. 1
In addition to comprising the people at the bottom of this ladder, the concept of ‘primordial nature’ came to be the object of strong emotive manifestation and symbolism that were borne by preservation movements that began to sprout particularly during the second half of the nineteenth century. For these the colonised world, unsurprisingly, constituted an important arena, not least in respect of the establishment of national parks. The exchange between colonial ideology, domination and nature preservation interests is an area of research that has already yielded good returns through studies based on several different contexts. 2 Together they accumulate into a history that appears with a greater depth through being genuinely global in character.
