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Japanese Images of Nature: Cultural Perspectives. Pamela J. Asquith and Arne Kalland. eds. Richmond Surrey, UK: Curzon, 1997. 290 pp.

▪ Abstract  This review discusses changes in Amazonian indigenous anthropology since the synthesis presented in the Handbook of South American Indians. The past few years have seen the emergence of an image of Amazonia characterized by a growing emphasis on the complexity of indigenous social formations and the ecological diversity of the region. This new image of society and nature is taking shape in a theoretical context characterized by the synergistic interaction between structural and historical approaches, by an attempt to go beyond monocausal explanatory models (whether naturalistic or culturalistic) in favor of a dialectical view of the relations between society and nature, and by hopes of a "new synthesis" that could integrate the knowledge accumulated in the fields of human ecology, social anthropology, archeology, and history.

"Die Soziologie beschäftigt sich mit den Selbstorganisationsleistungen sinnhafter Kommunikation, mit Gesellschaft als dem Ensemble aller Kommunikationen. Die Natur kommuniziert nicht, weder mit sich selbst noch mit der Gesellschaft. Also ist die Natur das Außen der Gesellschaft, nicht einmal (mehr) das Gegenüber. Allerdings ist die Natur Thema einer Vielzahl von kommunikativen Bemühungen, ihr eine (sinnhafte) Ordnung zuzuschreiben. Natur wird als Ensemble von Naturgesetzen in den (von der Physik bestimmten) theoretischen Naturwissenschaften modelliert. Sie wird als 'Lebensgemeinschaft' von Lebewesen mit ihrer unbelebten Umwelt in den beschreibenden Naturwissenschaften wie etwa der Ökologie gefaßt. Sie wird als lebender Organismus ('Gaia') in der Sprache der Umweltschutzbewegung oder der Literatur gedacht. Diese Versuche der gesellschaftlichen Beobachtung der Natur, die sich oft als Beobachtungen der Gesellschaft von der Natur aus verstehen, gehen implizit oder explizit von der Differenz von Gesellschaft und Natur aus. Diese Differenz kann Thema der Soziologie sein, weil sie als Außenbeobachtung der Gesellschaft (Beobachtung des Außen oder Beobachtung von außen) beschreibbar ist. Die Soziologie, die grundsätzlich nur die Selbstbeobachtungen der Gesellschaft beobachten kann, kann nun die diversen Formen der Beobachtung der Natur als Selbstbeobachtungen der Gesellschaft behandeln. Insofern kann es keine Soziologie der Natur, wohl aber eine Soziologie der 'Naturen' geben." (Autorenreferat)

The environmental conflict about the construction of a large cement factory in Tmaň, a small town South of Prague, bordering the nature protected area of the Česky Kras, embodies some of the central features of post-socialist society: the privatisation of state-owned firms by foreign capital, the emergence of citizen initiatives, the formation of new democratic structures on the local level, and the creation of a public sphere through independent media. Nature conservation and limited resource use entered as new elements into the debates of opposing political fractions that had previously turned around concepts of planned and market economy. Differences of worldviews and projects for society that went beyond the divide into capitalist or socialist ideas took shape and became visible. The article analyses the arguments of the proponents and opponents of the project and examine what ideas about society the images of nature recreated and nature preserved evoke. It then shows in what larger historical and political context these ideas inscribe themselves and how they are negotiated and transformed in the current local political context. Key words: post-socialist society, privatization, conservation of nature, images of nature, local politics, Czech Republic.

The environmental conflict about the construction of a large cement factory in Tmaň, a small town South of Prague, bordering the nature protected area of the Česky Kras, embodies some of the central features of post-socialist society: the privatisation of state-owned firms by foreign capital, the emergence of citizen initiatives, the formation of new democratic structures on the local level, and the creation of a public sphere through independent media. Nature conservation and limited resource use entered as new elements into the debates of opposing political fractions that had previously turned around concepts of planned and market economy. Differences of worldviews and projects for society that went beyond the divide into capitalist or socialist ideas took shape and became visible. The article analyses the arguments of the proponents and opponents of the project and examine what ideas about society the images of nature recreated and nature preserved evoke. It then shows in what larger historical and political context these ideas inscribe themselves and how they are negotiated and transformed in the current local political context. Key words: post-socialist society, privatization, conservation of nature, images of nature, local politics, Czech Republic.

Abstract: This paper compares British and French representations of caste in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a formative period in the development of sociology and social anthropology in the two countries. The concepts of 'nature' and 'culture' in the two sociological traditions are examined with respect to their analyses of caste. The two discourses are also analyzed in relation to their respective colonial histories and national political cultures during this epoch.1

"Political Economy, Race, and the Image of Nature in the United States, 1825-1878 is an interdisciplinary work analyzing the historical origins of a dominant concept of Nature in the culture of the United States during the period of its expansion across the continent. Chapters analyze the ways in which "Nature" became a discursive site where theories of race and belonging, adaptation and environment, and the uses of literary and pictorial representation were being renegotiated, forming the basis for an ideal of the human and the nonhuman world that is still with us. Through an interdisciplinary approach involving the fields of visual culture, political economy, histories of racial identity, and ecocritical studies, the book examines the work of seminal figures in a variety of literary and artistic disciplines and puts the visual culture of the United States at the center of intellectual trends that have enormous implications for contemporary cultural practice. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, American studies, environmental studies/ecocriticism, critical race theory, and semiotics"--

The article has an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on research from gender, media, sport and cultural studies. It considers the discourses of nature and sport in advertising which targets mainly men, in the editorial context of two examples of British and German news magazines, namelyThe EconomistandDer Spiegel, from a critical cultural and gender studies perspective. It aims to outline the relational nature and hierarchical structure of gender reflected in constructs of popular culture; to assess whether promotional discourses of nature and sport are conceived to assert a uniform, global hegemonic masculinity, or whether nationally distinctive target-groups are addressed in specifically national ways. It analyzes the particular gender ideologies contained in commodity advertising that use metaphors of untamed nature and competitive sports to address audiences who are considered to be opinion leaders in Britain and/or Germany. The aspiration towards global competitiveness or neo-colonial domination visualized by wild, virgin landscapes and global sports will be questioned in relation to the concept of global or national identity.

Alors que les travaux scientifiques consacrés aux villes des pays du Sud sont très abondants, d'une part, et que ceux portant sur la nature en ville le sont tout autant, d'autre part, peu nombreux sont ceux figurant à l'intersection de ces deux champs thématiques, à savoir la nature dans les villes du Sud. En effet, l'étude des liens entre la nature et le monde urbain fait l'objet d'un regain d'intérêt presque exclusivement centré sur les villes des pays riches.L'article est consacré à la nature à Antananarivo, capitale souvent décrite comme désagréable à vivre car polluée et saturée, par ses habitants comme par les visiteurs de passage, et dans laquelle la place de la nature peut de prime abord sembler secondaire. Sont tout d'abord présentés les paysages de la nature dans l'espace urbain : agriculture urbaine, squares et jardins de l'époque coloniale, mais aussi efforts de végétalisation, tant domestique que dans l'espace public. Les usages de la nature sont ensuite analysés : récréatifs, voués à l'intimité difficile à trouver dans les logements, ou cultuels (rites ancestraux discrets). Le désir de végétaliser son logement, fût-il très modeste, comme quête de beauté et indicateur de citadinité, est également pris en compte. Enfin, le statut de la nature en tant qu'objet d'aménagement est étudié : de plus en plus, celle-ci est utilisée par les pouvoirs publics pour tenter de promouvoir une image internationale valorisante de la ville, sous couvert de discours marqués du sceau du développement durable. Des plans d'aménagement, séduisants sur le papier mais non fondés sur les besoins effectifs des habitants, sont ainsi conçus. Ainsi, même dans une ville très pauvre, où les préoccupations écologiques et la prise en compte du bien-être des habitants sont secondaires, la nature est désormais considérée comme un atout valorisable dans le cadre d'une politique de marketing urbain, ce qui permet de contribuer à son maintien.