ABSTRACT
The nature–culture dichotomy is perhaps one of the most critical legacies of anthropological thought. Nature has long occupied a position of vital importance in the way in which people are understood to imagine their own and others’ worlds. Given this, it is not surprising that nature has been employed by anthropologists as an analytical heuristic and, historically, as an ultimate reference point from which to make sense of human behaviour. Nature is, also, a concept with great power and rhetorical weight for the people who anthropologists encounter in the field, not least in the Western world. Diverse examples from moral panics about genetically modified foods, to the spread of government-enforced waste recycling schemes, to concerns about ‘reproductive tourism’ show that claims about nature are never politically, emotionally or morally neutral. For many, notions of naturalness structure ethical choices, both in terms of how people live (or want to live) their lives and in guiding our sense of right and wrong, justice and truth.
