The following entry is adapted from a fragment taken from the following open access article: Ares-López D. & K. Beilin. “Estudios culturales-ambientales Ibéricos: fundamentos teóricos y conceptos clave.” Letras Hispanas 13 (2017): 166-182. Special Issue: “Contemporary Iberian Ecocriticism and New Materialisms.” Ed. Luis I. Prádanos. Web.https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6550899.
Cultures of Nature are cultures that promote conscientious interaction between people, plants and animals. These interactions can occur in many different contexts: within a shared ecosystem or during travel; up close or through texts and images. A culture of nature is not defined by its spatial location, but rather its ability to weave together shared historical ways of thinking, perceiving, and responding to non-human life and matter. These practices often involve ongoing discussions, planning and management that connects urban offices and labs with rural or remote areas.
Cultural practices within a culture of nature can occur in the workspace, in the religious sphere, or during leisure or care work. Examples range from hiking and landscape painting to hunting, fishing, territorial and urban planning, environmental activism, caring for pets, gardening, vegetarianism, agriculture, biology research and more.
The term “culture of nature” challenges the distinct concepts of “culture” and “nature” by merging them into one definition. Members of cultures of nature — people, living beings, inanimate matter, technology, techniques of observation, texts, images, institutions, etc.) — they circulate and relate to each other dynamically, giving rise to not only different cultures but also different “natures.” This multitude of “natural” states represents different ways of perceiving, inhabiting, and moving through the world and its constituent parts.
The constant friction and overlap between different cultures of nature can lead to mutual support or hybridization just as easily as it can lead to tensions or violent conflicts. For example, sport hunters often justify their activities from a conservationist point of view. Many Spanish hunting reserves, however, are managed based on productivist logic: to produce the highest possible number of animals and the highest possible number of deaths. This view of wildlife as a “resource” or “hunting product” is in tension with the aesthetic and spiritual appreciation of wildlife and with the value that the animal rights movement gives to the right of every animal to avoid suffering and live as long as possible.
