Abstract
This paper is concerned with changing social representations of the ``wild,'' in particular wild animals. We argue that within a contemporary Western context the old agricultural perception of wild animals as adversarial and as a threat to domestication, is being replaced by an essentially urban fascination with certain emblematic wild animals, who are seen to embody symbols of naturalness and freedom. On closer examination that carefully mediatized ``naturalness'' may be but another form of domestication. After an historical overview of the human-animal, domestic-wild construction, an anthropological approach is used to interpret the social representation of wild animals held by different social actors – farmers, hunters, and tourists – within the context of an inhabited National Park, that of the Cévennes in south east France. Within the Park, the domestic and the wild, along with agriculture, hunting, conservation, re-introduced wild animals, and tourists co-habit. It is argued that changes in the representation of ``wildness'' may well be an important indicator ofchanges in the social representation of nature.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Adams, C., The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (Continuum, New York, 1990).
Adams, C., Neither Man or Beast: Feminism and the Defense of Animals (Continuum, New York, 1994).
Audiot, A., Races d'Hier pour l'Elevage de Demain, INRA Editions (Paris, 1995).
Baudrillard, J., Simulations (Semiotext[e], New York, 1983).
Benoit, G. and G. Valéro, “Agriculture et Environnement dans le Parc National des Cévennes: Le Lancement de l'Opération 'Agneau de Parcours,” Bulletin de la Société Languedocienne de Géographie, 3-4 (1997), 101-121.
Birch, T., “The Incarceration of Wildness: Wilderness Areas as Prisons,” Environmental Ethics 12(1) (1990).
Bobbé, S., “Hors Statut, Point de Salut: Ours et Loups en Espagne,” Études Rurales, 129-130 (1993), 59-72.
Brady, G., Les Légends du Gévaudan (Mende, 1958).
Budiansky, S., Nature' Keepers: The New Science of Nature Management (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1995).
Cote, M., “Reboisement sur les Causses,” Bull. De la Soc. Lang. De Geog. 1(2) (1967), 153-167.
Calvet, C., Les Représentations de la Nature dans les Sociétés Modernes: L'Example Francais de la Réintroduction du Vautour Fauve (Gyps fulvus) dans le Parc National des Cévennes. Mémoire de D. E. A. d'Ethnologie, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (1995).
Clutton-Brock, J., Domesticated Animals from Early Times (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1981).
Crosnier, C., “Administrer la Nature: Enjeux Biologiques et Sociaux dans le Parc National des Cévennes,” in P. Baudot, O. Bley, B. Brun, N. Pagezy, and L, Vernazza (eds), Impact de l'Homme sur lesMilieux Naturels: Perceptions etMesures (Edition de Bergier, Grasse, 1996).
Dawkins, R., The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1976).
Descola, P. and Pàlsson, G. (eds), Nature and Society: Anthropological Perspectives (Routledge, London and New York, 1996).
Descola, P., In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994).
Digard, J-P., “Jalons pour une Anthropologie de la Domestication Animale,” L'Homme, 108, oct-d'ec, XXVIII (4) (1988), 27-58.
Douglas, M., Purity and Danger (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1966).
Durand-Tullou, A., Le Loup du Causse (Document Payot, Paris, 1994).
Ellen, R. F., “Introductory Essay,” in R. F. Ellen and D. A. Reasons (eds.), Classifications in their Social Context (Academic Press, London, 1979).
Emel, J., “Are You Man Enough, Big and Bad Enough? Ecofeminism andWolf Eradication in the USA,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 13(6) (1995). 707-734.
European Commission, Twenty Sixth Financial Report Concerning the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, 1996 Financial Year, COM (96) 504. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg (1997).
Estes, C. P., Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype (Ballantine Books, New York, 1992).
Evernden, N., The Natural Alien: Humankind and Environment (University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1985).
Feh, C. and S. C. Carton de Grammont, A Natural Herd of Przewalski Horses on the Causse Méjan: Technical and Scientific Report (1993-1995). Association pour le Cheval de Przewalski-TAKH, Le Villaret, Meyrueis (1995).
Friedberg, C., “Representations, Classifications: Comment l'Homme Pense ses Rapports au Milieu Naturel,” in M. Jollivet (ed.), Sciences de la Nature, Sciences de la Société: Les Passeurs de Frontiéres, CNRS Éditions (Paris, 1992), pp. 357-372.
Friedberg, C., “Classifications Populaires des Plantes et Modes de Connaissance,” in P. Tassy (ed.), L'Ordre et la Diversité du Vivant. Quel Statut Scientifique pour les Classifications Biologiques? (Fondation Diderot/Librairie Fayard, Paris, 1986).
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, I., Acclimatation et Domestication des Animaux Utiles (La Maison Rustique, Paris, 1861) (Re-Edited, Paris: Flammarion, 1986).
Glacken, C., Traces on the Rhodian Shore (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1967).
Hell, B., “Enraged Hunter: The Domain of the Wild in North-Western Europe”, in P. Descola and G. Pàlsson (eds.), Nature and Society: Anthropological Perspectives (Routledge, London and New York, 1996).
Howell, S., Society and Cosmos: Chewong of Peninsular Malaysia, 2nd. edn. (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1989).
Ingold, T., “Growing Plants and Raising Animals: An Anthropological Perspective on Domestication,” in D. R. Harris (ed.), The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism (UCL Press, London, 1996), pp. 12-24.
Ingold, T., What is an Animal? (Unwin Hymen, London, 1988).
James, A., “Eating Green(s): Discourses of Organic Food,” in K. Milton (ed.), Environmentalism: The View from Anthropology (Routledge, London and New York, 1993), pp. 205-218.
Lardon, S., C. Lhuillier, P. Osty, and P. Triboulet, “Elevage et Eleveur du Causse Méjan (Lozère): Les recompositions de l'espace rural,” Cahier de l'Economie Méridionale 21 (1996), 25-64.
Leash, G., “Introduction: Nature Under Fire,” in E. Soulé and G. Leash (eds), Reinventing Nature: Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction (Island Press, Washington, DC, 1995), pp. 3-15.
Lizet, B. and P. Daszkiewicz, “Tarpan ou Konik Polski? Mythe Contemporain et Outil de Gestion Écologique,” Anthropozoologica 21 (1995), 63-72.
Lizet, B., “'C'est la Montagne qui le Donne.' Le Pottok, Petit Cheval du Pays Basque,” Production, Pastorale et Société 18 (1986), 72-90.
Leynaud, E., L'État de la Nature, Edition du Parc National des Cévennes (Florac, 1985).
Mathieu, N., Solidarité, Identité, Innovation: Les Tensions Fondatrices de la Société Méjanaise, Annales du Parc National des Cévennes, tome 4 (Florac, 1989), pp. 229-261.
Micoud, A., “Vers un Nouvel Animal Sauvage: Le Sauvage 'Naturalisé Vivant.'” Natures Sciences Société 1(3) (1993), 202-210.
Milton, K., “Nature, Culture and Biodiversity,” in F. Arler and I. Svennevig (eds.), Cross-Cultural Protection of Nature and the Environment (Odense, University Press, 1997).
Monjauze, A., “Un Parc Adapté aux Vieilles Civilisations.” Options Méditerranéennes, 9th Octobre, 1971, pp. 87-93.
Nash, R., Wilderness and the American Mind (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1967).
Potter, C. and M. Lobley, “Landscapes and Livelihoods: Environmental Protection and Agricultural Support in the Wake of Agenda 2000,”Landscape Research 23(3) (1998), 223-236.
Potter, C., Against the Grain: Agri-Environmental Reform in the United States and the European Union (CAB International, Wallingford, 1998).
Planiel, M., Droit Civil (Paris, 1928). Librairie Général de Droit et de Jurisprudence.
PNC-Parc National des Cévennes, Programme d'Aménagement 1994-1999 (Florac, 1994).
PNC Brochure, Przewalski: Le Dernier Cheval Sauvage (Parc National des Cévennes, Florac, 1995).
Le Réveil Lozère, Bulletin de la Chambre d'Agriculture, “Le Causse Méjean: Pour le Maintien de la Population sur l'Ensemble du Plateau,” 410, 29 Mai (1997).
Richard, G., “'Domestication,'” in Encyclopaedia Universalis V (1968), 748-752.
O'Rourke, E., “The Causse Méjan: Changing Relationships Between Agriculture, Environment and Society within a French National Park,” Landscape Research 24(2) (1999), 141-165.
Shepard, P., “Our Animal Friends,” in S. R. Kellert and E. O. Wilson (eds.), The Biophilia Hypothesis (Island Press, Washington DC, 1993), pp. 275-300.
Shepard, P., “Virtual Hunting Reality in the forests of Simulacra,” in M. E. Soulé and G. Lease (eds.), Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction (Island Press, Washington, DC, 1995), pp. 17-30.
Sigaut, F., “Critique de la Notion de Domestication,” L'Homme 108, oct-déc, XXVIII (4) (1988), 59-71.
Snyder, G., The Practice of the Wild (North Point Press, San Francisco, 1990).
Soulé, M. E., “The Social Siege of Nature,” in M. E Soulé and G. Lease (eds.), Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction (Island Press, Washington D.C., 1995), pp. 137-170.
Spiegel, M., The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery (New Society, Philadelphia, 1988).
Stephani, A., La Culture Vivant dans le Monde Lozère: Approche Anthropologique d'une Culture Oral (Institut National d'Education Populaire, Marly-Le-Roi, 1972).
Thoreau, H., “Walking,” in TheWorks of Henry Thoreau, Walden Edition, 20 Vols. (Boston 1906).
Vanhecke, C., “Les Paysans Face au Parc National des Cévennes,” Le Monde 1er Janvier 1969 (1969).
Vourc'h, A., “La Chasse en Cévennes Lozèriennes-Elements d'une Problematique Sociologique,” PIREN Causse-Cévennes, Programme d'Appui, 11 (CNRS, Paris, 1982).
Vourc'h, A. and V. Pelosse, Chasser en Cévennes; un jeu avec l'animal (Édisud-Éditions du CNRS, Paris, 1988).
Vourc'h, A. and V. Pelosse, “Du Bestiaire au Paysage: (Ré)introduire des Espéces Animales,” Études Rurales, 129-130, Janvier-Juin (1993), 51-58.
Wilson, A., The Culture of Nature: North American Landscapes from Disneyland to the Exxon Valdez (Blackwell, Cambridge MA, 1992).
Wolch, J. and J. Emel, “Bringing the Animal Back,” guest Editorial, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 13(6) (1995), 632-636.
Worster, D., “Nature and the Disorder of History,” in M.E. Soulé and G. Lease (eds.), Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction (Island Press, Washington, DC, 1995), pp. 65-85.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
O'Rourke, E. The Reintroduction and Reinterpretation of the Wild. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 13, 144–165 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009593919595
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009593919595