ABSTRACT
The cultures of trees are both rich and dynamic. Trees are imagined according to a plethora of cultural constructs, circulating on different scales sometimes in hegemonic fashion, but often contested at more local levels. Arbori-cultures will be found folded and entwined within any particular place of trees. The calls for the recognition of non-human agency in the performance of the world appear to us to be compelling. There remains, however, a considerable tension between the notion of relational agency - when that of any individual (be it human or otherwise) is subsumed by and incorporated into some creative network - and the notion that beings and things of various kinds do perform some kind of particular individual agency. Ethics should not just be about the contribution others make to the community nor about the assumption that if the contribution is meaningful then they are incorporated into the ethical fold.
