In his essay \u201cThe Wilderness Narrative and the Cultural Logic of Capitalism,\u201d Carl Talbot quotes Robert Nash as having stated that \u201cwilderness is a matter of perception \u2013 part of the geography of the mind\u201d (330). Along with Talbot\u2019s passage about the Wilderness Narrative, I also selected Chief Luther Standing Bear\u2019s \u201cIndian Wisdom\u201d and David Harmon\u2019s \u201cCultural Diversity, Human Subsistence and the National Park Ideal\u201d in order to develop my definition of American wilderness. After reading these essays, I would align myself with Nash and argue that the \u201cAmerican wilderness\u201d is a culturally constructed perception that emerged during the early ages of European settlement in the Americas \u2013 and continues through the present day \u2013 that nature is untamed and therefore must be controlled by or otherwise separated from humans. <\/p>\n
In \u201cIndian Wisdom\u201d Chief Luther Standing Bear argued that prior to the arrival of white European settlers in North America, there was no such concept of \u201cwilderness.\u201d To the Native Americans, all things in nature were tamed, and humans were merely surrounded by the wonders of the \u201cGreat Mystery\u201d (201). It was the white men, he said, who first distanced themselves from nature by trying to control it and thus first developed the idea of the \u201cwilderness\u201d (205). In effect, Chief Luther demonstrated that American \u201cwilderness\u201d first emerged as a result of being molded by the culture of white men. This theme continues to the modern day as reflected in Talbot\u2019s essay. Talbot stated that \u201cnature was organized so as to meet the spatial, economic, and psychological needs of capitalism\u201d (326). By pairing the idea of wilderness with the growth of white and capitalist cultures in, these writers depict how \u201cAmerican wilderness\u201d is a continually renewed cultural construct throughout American history.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Talbot and Harmon aid in illustrating how nature is incompatible with mainstream American culture. Harmon used words like \u201cprotected,\u201d \u201cownership,\u201d and \u201cmanagement\u201d to describe modern national parks. These words connote meanings directly in contrast to a word like \u201cnature,\u201d which emphasizes a lack of manipulation by humans. Talbot also asserted that for many the \u201cwilderness is a leisure resource\u201d and has been commodified for the modern world (325, 328). We can take this to mean that because \u201cnature\u201d is not a piece of mainstream American culture, it needs to be cordoned off into an occasionally visited segment of society. Nature in its purest form is too inconvenient for Americans. Moreover, while places like national parks are often considered the most natural pieces of our culture, even they fail to be truly natural. This idea ties back into our discussion last week about how even the places which we feel resemble nature in Davidson have actually been the most manipulated by humans. <\/p>\n
After reading Manish\u2019s post I agree with his claims about Turner\u2019s method to achieving an understanding of the environment. I think we can see some similar sentiments in Chief Luther Standing Bear\u2019s essay. Both highlight the distance that man has put between himself and the environment. In order to regain an understanding of the wilderness, man needs to once again immerse himself in nature. This in turn goes back to Chief Luther Standing Bear and how he recalled the Lakota living among nature, rather than dominating it. It is fascinating to see how two men like Turner and Chief Luther Standing Bear \u2013 writing in very different times and with very different perspectives \u2013 ultimately reached similar conclusions about how Americans need to understand \u201cnature\u201d and \u201cwilderness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his essay \u201cThe Wilderness Narrative and the Cultural Logic of Capitalism,\u201d Carl Talbot quotes Robert Nash as having stated that \u201cwilderness is a matter of perception \u2013 part of the geography of the mind\u201d (330). Along with Talbot\u2019s passage about the Wilderness Narrative, I also selected Chief Luther Standing Bear\u2019s \u201cIndian Wisdom\u201d and David … <\/p>\n