Cultural Models of Nature

Drawing on the ethnographic experience of the contributors, this volume explores the Cultural Models of Nature found in a range of food-producing communities located in climate-change affected areas. These Cultural Models represent specific organizations of the etic categories underlying the concept of Nature (i.e. plants, animals, the physical environment, the weather, humans, and the supernatural). The adoption of a common methodology across the research projects allows the drawing of meaningful cross-cultural comparisons between these communities. The research will be of interest to scholars and policymakers actively involved in research and solution-providing in the climate change arena.

Giovanni Bennardo is Presidential Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Cognitive Studies Initiative and Environment, Sustainability, and Energy Institute at Northern Illinois University, USA.

Introduction: Cultural Models of Nature of Primary Food Producers in Communities Affected by Climate Change 1. Vernacular Explanations of Rainfall Variability in Highland Ethiopia 2. Cultural Models of Nature in Tonga (Polynesia) 3. "Plants are Cooking Under the Soil": Food Production, Models of Nature, and Climate-Change Perceptions among Indigenous Peasant Communities (Amazonia, Brazil) 4. Lithuanian Farmers in a Time of Economic and Environmental Ambiguity 5. Ecuadorian Quichua-Speaking Farmers' Cultural Models of Climate, Change, and Morality 6. Cultural Models of Nature and Divinity in a Rain-Fed Farming Village of Punjab, Pakistan 7. The Salience of Woodland in the Dolomites (Italian Alps) 8. Human Nature of Nature: Cultural Models of Food Production and Nature in the Northern Kanto Plain of Japan 9. Domesticating Categories of the Wild Environment: Eliciting Cultural Models of Nature among Haiom 10. The Earth is Getting Old: Personification of Climate and Environmental Change by Tagalog Fishermen 11. Flowing Between Certainty and Uncertainty Rhythmically: Spirits' Power and Human Efforts in a Kachin Cultural Model of Nature and Environment in Southwest China 12. Conclusion: Comparison of Cultural Models of Nature and the Role of Space in Cognition