Culture and Enviornment

This paper draws from research on small-scale maize production in Mexico’s Central Highland region to discuss the geopolitical implications of everyday agricultural practices. An overwhelming majority of maize farmers in this region, as well as in the country more broadly, continue to cultivate locally-adapted maize varieties they have bred themselves – criollo maize is the vernacular term – despite decades of concerted government attempts to effect the widespread adoption of commercially-bred and licensed hybrid varieties. This state effort to restructure agricultural systems and food security according to nationalist and capitalist priorities is one tactic in a long and violent struggle for control over peasant land and labor in Mexico. By integrating feminist scholarship in geopolitics and in political ecology, I am following the lead of geographers who regard the materialities of everyday life as a foundation for political tensions and conflicts that are constantly unfolding along intersecting lines of difference. Though geopolitics has rarely turned its attention directly to theories of intimate socio-ecological relations, I argue that the field has much analytical and political leverage to gain by engaging with political ecology, and that feminist geographic imaginaries provide a crucial space in which to do so.  This approach allows for an analysis of how a dominant geopolitics of land and agriculture is being undermined through the routine production of criollo maize, revealing new potential for creating broad political alliances with social movements that are currently working toward alternative visions of agriculture and food security.

Guardians of Nature is a clearly written and very insightful view of the political economic, environmental, and social-cultural transformations reshaping lives and livelihoods on the Tibetan Plateau. Written as a first-hand narrative account of his work over several years with Hashul villagers in Yulshul, Tsering Bum’s perceptive book discusses key issues of contemporary Tibetan pastoralism: mining, the importance of the caterpillar fungus economy, resettlement, co-ops, education policy, human-wildlife conflict, and sacred mountains. It also explores quite new phenomena, such as Tibetan pastoralists hiring Han Chinese and non-local Tibetans as herding laborers while living off of caterpillar fungus income, and the rise of feral dogs as a result of the sharp drop in Tibetan mastiff prices. Tsering Bum’s analysis is informed by critiques of nature-culture binaries and illustrates the many effects of perverse policy incentives. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in understanding Tibetan pastoral areas today.

Guardians of Nature is available  at-cost print versions

http://tinyurl.com/hjw6zr6 (hardback)

http://tinyurl.com/h2lzt33 (paperback)

༼རང་བྱུང་ཁམས་ཀྱི་སྲུང་སྐྱོང་བ། བོད་ཀྱི་འབྲོག་པ་དང་ཕྱི་སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན།༽གྱིས་དེང་སྐབས་མདོ་དབུས་མཐོ་སྒང་གི་སྐྱེ་ཁམས་ཁོར་ཡུག་དང་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་རིག་གནས་ཀྱི་འགྱུར་ལྡོག་གིས་ས་གནས་འབྲོག་པ་མི་དམངས་དང་རང་བྱུང་ཁམས་ལ་ཐེབས་པའི་ཤན་ཤུགས་སོགས་ཞིབ་ཏུ་བརྗོད་ཡོད། ཀླུ་ཚང་ཚེ་རིང་འབུམ་གྱིས་མིའི་རིགས་རིག་པའི་ཁྱབ་ཁོངས་ཀྱི་མི་རིགས་རིག་པའི་ཞིབ་འཇུག་ཐབས་ཤེས་བཀོལ་ནས་རང་བྱུང་དང་རིག་གནས་གཉིས་ལྡན་གྱི་འགལ་ཟླས་གྲུབ་པའི་སྐྱེ་ཁམས་ཀྱི་གནད་དོན་མང་པོ་ཞིབ་བརྗོད་བྱས་ཡོད་དེ། དཔེར་ན། དབྱར་རྩྭ་དགུན་འབུས་བོད་ཁུལ་གྱི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་དང་རིག་གནས་ལ་ཐེབས་པའི་ཤན་ཤུགས། རྩྭ་ས་དོ་དམ་གྱི་གནད་དོན་དང་སྲིད་ཇུས། མི་དང་རི་སྐྱེས་སྲོག་ཆགས་བར་གྱི་འགལ་བ། གནས་རི་དང་ཡུལ་ལྷ་གཞི་བདག་རིག་གནས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱེ་དངོས་སྣ་མང་རང་བཞིན་སྲུང་སྐྱོབ་ལ་ཐེབས་པའི་ཕན་ནུས་སོགས་བརྗོད་ཡོད་ལ། དེ་མིན་བོད་ཁུལ་གྱི་འབྲོག་པ་མི་དམངས་ཀྱིས་གནད་དོན་འདི་དག་ལ་བརྒྱབ་པའི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་དང་དེར་བརྟེན་གྱི་སྐྱེ་ཁམས་སྲུང་སྐྱོབ་ཀྱི་ལག་ལེན་སྐོར་ཞིབ་བརྗོད་བྱས་ཡོད་པས་ན། དེབ་འདི་མདོ་དབུས་མཐོ་སྒང་གི་སྐྱེ་ཁམས་ཁོར་ཡུག་དང་འབྲོག་པའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་རིག་གནས་ལ་དོ་སྣང་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་འོས་སྦྱོར་བྱས་པ་ལགས།

《自然的守护者: 藏地牧民与他们的生态世界》一书讲述了青藏高原数十年来生态环境、经济及社会文化的变迁，以及这些变迁对自然生态和本土牧民生活的影响。作者鲁仓才让本运用人类学民族志的手法，展示了自然、文化二元对立的思维结构造成的社会和生态问题。全书叙述了冬虫夏草经济对藏区经济、文化的影响，草原管理及其相关政策议题，人兽冲突，藏地自然圣境对生物多样性保护的作用，以及藏区牧民对这些问题的解读和应对等内容。谨以此书献给对青藏高原游牧社会、生态环境议题感兴趣的人。

The main aim of the present study is based on the observing cricket players that they have too many and different type cricket bat keeping and carrying with themselves. This cricket bat with detachable handle of changing length contains two sections of the handle. Section 1 remains fixed with the blade of the cricket bat. Section 2 may be more than one having distinctive lengths and can either be detached or attached with section 1, as per the requirement of the batsman. Along with this, this invention leads the batsman to reduce the weight of their kitbags that results in the transportation to bear half of the load during teams’ journey from one place to another which not only contribute economically but it will improve the environment as just half the quantity of timber will be required to manufacture and satisfies the supply demand of the cricket market.

T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain (1995) begins by paying homage to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939): Boyle’s epigraph, quoted from Steinbeck’s novel, creates a direct analogy between the Okies and the Mexican immigrants, their (im)migration and their subsequent fate. Indeed, both novels protest against the Californians’ attitude toward the weakened “Other” who struggles to make a living in their home-State. As critics have noted, the parallels between the two novels are visible in various features, structural as well as thematic. Similar themes include the Californian Edenic dream, the economic depression and a critique of consumer culture. I argue that a deeper similarity between the novels is their common preoccupation with filth. This focus, overlooked by scholars, can be read as part of an entire sub-genre which I call “filth-fiction”. Exploring the novels’ shared interest in the racial and socio-economical significations of filth and the latter’s connection to the ecological aspects, my paper demonstrates how Tortilla—like the entire corpus of novels within this sub-genre—carefully follows Steinbeck’s lead despite the fact it depicts a different racial layout. As my analysis shows, the impact of The Grapes of Wrath on contemporary U.S. fiction is evident, both in the representations of filthy “Others” and in the environmental awareness.

What role have the processes and institutions of international development played in creating and propagating ideas around the world? This paper demonstrates that networks of development- focused civil society institutions can form global epistemic bridges even where communication technology, global markets, infrastructure, or state services do not reach. Given the penetration of these ‘civil society knowledge networks’ throughout the world, it is crucial to understand how these networks form, and how they create and spread ideas, mediating between global discourses and local needs. This paper builds on a multi-sited case study of one such civil society knowledge network, which includes an international foundation, its partner non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Kenya, and one village where these NGOs run a forest conservation project. The case study provides a closely textured analysis of the mechanisms of knowledge production and consumption in the network, including personality politics, language, technology, political connections and the power dynamics of knowledge flows. It demonstrates the ways remoteness and disconnection are overcome through the epistemic reach of institutional networks involved in development interventions.

Reintroductions look to restore a species, lost originally due to human action. This relatively new branch of ecology lies squarely at the cross roads between biology and sociology with economics and law increasingly more involved. Reintroductions are increasing in popularity based on the acceptance that they are a valuable conservation tool. The reasons for reintroducing a species are often complex. They should be objective and well defined, but any discussion on the matter usually involves a subjective element especially when charismatic or culturally important species are considered. Of course all reintroduction schemes should primarily and directly benefit the target species and take precedence over any human desire. This review will focus on reintroduction in an Irish context; extinct native and naturalised species, the legislation regarding the reintroduction of species and review three reintroduction programmes taking place in Ireland today. A review of their success and failures will help inform future reintroduction policy among the conservation and governmental bodies. Numerous future reintroduction projects are considered.

Oil palm crops have transformed the environment due
to the global demand for raw materials to produce biofuels,
the domestic policies of import substitution and
the agro-industrial development model. This article
presents the main results of a multi-temporal and spatial
analysis in the municipality of San Carlos de Guaroa
(Meta Province, Colombia) with the aim of identifying
and analyzing land use transitions for the years 1985,
2000 and 2016. The change patterns were estimated for
three specific land covers: gallery forests, oil palm crops,
and agricultural areas. Between 1985 and 2016, 19,38%
of the gallery forests disappeared (1.845,45 hectares)
with an average annual reduction rate of 3,22% (59,53
hectares). These forests were replaced mainly by oil
palm crops. The expansion of this crop in the analyzed
period of time was in average 1.312,56 hectares per year.

At one time, both myMother and myFather knew how deeply indebted they were to the optimal functioning of the planet, the animals, the water and the land that supported them. All the creatures of Earth brought sustenance, joy and amusement into their Home (Earth). The animals (including humans, cows, chickens and pigs) lived in harmony with the planet’s balance. All the creatures intuitively knew of their dependence on one another … all the animals of the planet made up one Family; dependent on each other for existence.

I met Nainital first time in the monsoon of 2001. The whole valley was filled with fog. Actually it was like a burning jungle where everywhere smoke scattered. The small clouds were kissing my cheeks as I was ascending towards Stoneleigh Compound. When reached at destination I was mesmerized, hallucinated and completely lost. I am still feel what I felt then..after almost 14 monsoons passed..

Breaking down the dichotomy between city and wilderness and recognizing that cities are in wilderness.  Wilderness permeates cities.  We see the need for parks, beaches, open spaces but more we see wilderness throughout the city environment. Cites are in fact within the wild, weather we recognize it or not.