Wilderness: Origins and Evolution of the Concept

The movie Avatar begins with showing the skyline of the Eywa’s planet to the treetops. In the movie, the Master Narrative of Avatar is that a planet so connected to itself and the life on it that Eywa, a narrative self, brings all living creatures, civilized, wild, and savage alike, together to preserve itself from the humans that have an Anthropocentrism mentality. The purpose for the Avatar Program (mission to Pandora) is to persuade the Na’vi the native tribe, to move away from the Unobtainium ore deposits so they can gather these resources for their personal human need. However, not everyone realized that the Na’vi, worship all of the natural resources that their world has to provide.

The company that sent the humans were led by base commander Parker Selfridge and the military commander Colonel Miles Quaritch, which had a dualism approach to the mission in that they believed that the humans were inferior to the Avatars and were going to take the minerals Unobtainium, (a Paradigm for humans as a potent source of energy that sells for millions a kilogram) that can bring cheap power back to a dying Earth from the land, at any cost. The Organic Worldview/Holism of Pandora (the planet that the Avatars lived on) is Eywa. Jake Sully and Dr. Grace Augustine were taught the Romanticism of Pandora by Neytiri (a female Avatar of the Na’vi tribe that Jake met on his first trip to the Frontier of the Avatar people and the wilderness of the Avatar) and the Na’vi people. After the trip Jake Sully has an abundance of information to say about Pandora. He explains the importance of the “Home Tree”. Home Tree sits on a major supply of Unobtainium; however Jake Sully’s time for the mission to get the resources are running out. His only choices are to convince the Na’vi to move in the next three months, or the Colonel will take matters into his own hands.

Soon enough several months pass by, and it shows that Jake is starting to change as the more he gets experience as an Avatar in the Pandora world. As a result to this the Colonel tells him that his tour is up, and he will be returning back to Earth that very same day, and he tried to give him an incentive by telling him that he will be getting his legs fixed when he returns. However, he objects to being shipped out and wants to delay his departure because he says that he is so close to being accepted into the Na’vi tribe. The Colonel lets him return but felt as if he didn’t get the task done fast enough, so he took things into his own hands and went with soldiers to get the job done himself. As a result of the learning process, Jake realized that what the company was doing was brutal and selfish thus ultimately becoming an Avatar at the Sublime Tree of Life after Eywa called out to all living things to conquer the humans.

In Wilderness: Origins and Evolution of the Concept, Alan Wilson, explains that when society believes that they are improving/developing nature, which the way the Avatar Program scientist and military viewed the mission to Pandora, isn’t always the right decision. While the humans invaded the Na’vi’s land and destroyed their “Home Tree” for Unobtainium ore deposits to get rich. It showed that the Colonel and Parker Selfridge did not realize how one tree could have such an intrinsic value, and that it can bring a civilization together in a time need.








Alan Wilson, states, “Aldo Leopold, founder of the Wilderness Society, explicitly inverts the former utilitarian belief that society invests nature with value by ‘improving’ and ‘developing’ it, arguing instead that “the raw wilderness gives definition and meaning to the human enterprise.” Similarly, the natural world used to be seen as the servant of civilized society, now it has been elevated by some to a position of mastery. The land should again be given the freedom to be ’self willed’.”


This quote sums up by saying that the Humans and Military didn’t think about the Nav’i’s when they were trying to gather the Unobtainium ore deposits for their personal needs. Never once did they think twice about the Worldview for them, and destroying another civilization and thinking that it couldn’t affect them in some kind of way.

Dualism in Foreign Lands

The blockbuster movie Avatar is set in the future on a beautiful moon that inhabited ten foot tall Na’vi. The movie is form the point of view of Jack the soldier who was injured soldier he is told that has new assignment to be transported on to body of an Avatar to help convenes the locals to move off there land to utilize an natural mineral that is on the Na’vi’s land. “It obsesses all manner of scientists who “love” her to death in an attempt to ‘penetrate and understand all her secrets. (Collard pg.4) The scientist within the movie is using technology to take advantage of nature not make it better. Visually the there is a very obvious dualism between the natives and the humans. Humans are masculine depending on logic, machines, progress, greed, affluence and overall science as a reason for its actions. At some point Jake describes what earth is like at that time dirty used with no vegetation, it probably is cold polluted. While the Na’vi reminiscent of people of the world before they were colonized by Europe, have an much feminine view point, with there focus being an spiritual connection to nature, valuing life, emotions and tradition over progress. The world is lush and colorful full of life is abundant, the landscapes are something to marvel at and respect. Which leads to linking postulates in every aspect of the cultures and there ideas, the treatment of each group’s world is reflective of their overall ideals. Unable not make the “right” decision it is up to the humans who just so happen to be at the to of the pyramid hierarchical making their voice the master narrative which also the most profitable. On multiple occasions the Parker the manager of the project referred to the Na’vi as savages and blue monkeys, his tone and language gives off the feeling that he thinks that is better then the natives in everyway mostly intellectually. “ The poor are mapped as animal an as children”(Plumwood pg.45) to humans unable to see the true potential of what is in front of them This is the mentality of most of the humans using radical execution, it is easier to think of them as the other an not like oneself. Towards the end of the movie when final battle is taking place the soldiers are unable to feel sympathetic to natives because of Relational Definition because they are not like them it is easier to kill them and destroy there home. “Identify is expressed most strongly in dominate conception of reason, and gives rise to a dualised structure of otherness an negation.” Plumwood pg 42) The patriarchy of the elite male how only cares about the bottom line how much revenue can be generated. Once against the master of the story is the one with the most influence and power which always boils down to money. So the one calling the shots always excludes the other or the defiant ones. The science that resonated with me is the last battle between Jack and the Colonel. Jake, who has now switched sides to join up with the underdogs to defect his own people. This story really is about Jake realizing that his ideals of brute force isn’t the best way to persuade people. So Jack gets injured again and it is up to Neytiri to defect the Colonel, this was one the most symbolic part of the movie. “The hunter loves not nature but how he feels in it as he stacks his pray”. (Collard pg. 4) The Colonel brute, cold logical sexist racist murdering against the ethereal Neytiri pure, loving Na’vi fighting to save her home. There clothing even their weapons used representative of their cultures and society, the knife simple minimal damage vs. the gun which is loud is unnecessarily cruel when used. In the end The Na’vi are able to over come the intruders kicking them off their plant, there for restoring peace to the Navi and nature itself.

Avatar (2009)

Plumwood and Collard Reading

https://ecampus.unt.edu/webct/urw/lc5122011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

Angelica Bigsby

The Disenchantment of a Golden God

The revolutionary degenerate art/ political advertisements created by the Guerrilla Girls have been causing uneasiness to the status quo for over two decades. In 1985 a group a of female artist were outraged that the Museum of Modern Art, an representative of America Art community as a whole, had only 13 woman and even less minority artist of the one hundred and sixty nine featured in the show. They became the Guerrilla Girls, and are unafraid of stepping on a few toes. Their use of cleaver imagery and text they are able to uncover and bring for fount injustice within the art realm, The Guerrilla Girls have since expanded their fight to the theater and movie industry. The Guerrilla Girls are always shown with Guerrilla masks and take on pseudonyms of dead female artists, and have released books and billboards.

The art piece “ The Anatomically correct Oscar” was a controversial billboard, which was erected to bring to light that women and people of color are underrepresented at one of the most prestigious awards in the world. The master story of the Academy Award is that the best of best win the prestigious win the award, but many fail to see that almost all of the winners are white males, is this because they really are the best within their category, or are those who are equally good aren’t even nominated simply because of there outer appearance.

Every year the Academy Awards are watched by millions and are thought to be a complete representation of the best of what the film industry has to offer, but this allusion of chiffon gown and tuxedos is a lie. The real story is the ones that managing the awards and all of the film industry are the masters of this story controlling are the ones that cast the parts, finance the movies, and hold all the power.

“Dualism can also be seen as an alienated from of differentiation, in which power construes and constructs difference in terms of an inferior and alien realm” (Plumwood 42) The one that holds the cards controls the game, and know one wants to upset the status quo. Intersectionality is very evident, in 1963 was the first year that an African American won awarded for Best Actor, this was only after he was snubbed five years earlier. If one does not in the mold of what is deemed desirable then they are rejected “and male ideals which lay claim to universality for men often invoke the elite make identity of the master” ((Morgan 1989:121) Plumwood46) The Awards are formed and “…defined by exclusion … “((Morgan 1989:121) Plumwood 46) by not excluding the minority it is greatest way to maintain control. The main dualism is the privilege powerful rich white man against the world, and the later is winning creating a false idea of equality. When in actuality the true “ way of looking at the world characterize of the dominant, white, male Eurocentric ruling class, a way of dividing up the world that puts an omnipotent subject at the centered and constructs marginal Others as sets of negative qualities. (Nancy Hartsock, Pulmwood 44) This mind set is so engraved in peoples minds, meaning everyone and the media is partially to blame, adding to stereotypes that have been viewed for centuries In the words of one of the greatest minds philosopher Aristotle the“ male by nature are superior, and the female is inferior”(46), this idea has unfortunately rains true within society, without any oppositions to wrongs. It isn’t a coincidence that the Oscar remains the ideal Greek male, perfect commanding and should always be envied of all others, a golden reminder of the many who had to fight for the right to stand on a stage bask in the glory of genuinely being the best.

The Anatomically correct Oscar billboard campaign was put up in 2002 on the sunset strip in Hollywood California. At the time many believed that the Oscars were fair, with their decisions of the winners. Sense then a woman has one for best director, and many more people of color have won awards that they might have one before. It took a bunch of crazy feminist in guerrilla mask to show how truly barbaric and oppressive our “seemingly progressive society.”

Plumwood reading

https://ecampus.unt.edu/webct/urw/lc5122011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

Guerrilla Girls website

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/

Angelica Bigsby

Destroying the Livable World

Avatar has been pointed out since its release, as a movie that illustrates the anthropocentrism felt by world powers today. In the movie, the military is on a foreign planet to obtain a needed resource known as “unobtainium”. A peaceful tribe called the Na’vi live on this planet. The Na’vi worship the natural resources, so much as to even have a master narrative in which a tree is a god-like figure. The military has been given orders to take the “unobtainium” by any means necessary. The native tribe does not want to give up their sacred lands to be destroyed. The Colonel of the military does not see the (narrative) self of the Na’vi. After an extended period of time trying to talk with the Na’vi shows no success a massive battle breaks out in which hundreds of Na’vi, and their environment dies.

The tree where the Na’vi live is known as “Home Tree” and sits atop the largest concentration of “unobtainium”. In one scene the military decides to destroy the “Home Tree” knowing it is the home of the native people. Before tearing down “Home Tree” they choose to “gas-out” the Na’vi to be “humane”. After they are forced out of their habitat, the Na’vi, choking, are forced to watch “Home Tree” fall to the ground. At this point the movie visuals switch from bright blues and greens, to dark greys and black illustrating the pain a viewer can see in the Na’vi’s eyes. When the shot switches to the military men, there are smiles on their faces.

(http://www.bluemousemonkey.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/avatar-movie-lush-landscape-600x338.jpg)

There is a paradigm in Avatar in which the Military were unable to see that the Na’vi viewed the environment and “Home Tree” as valuable for more than money. Conversely, the Na’vi were unable to see the intentions of the military and that they would not be able to fight them alone.

There is a common dualism in Avatar of feminine/masculine. The military is masculine, taking down the feminine Na’vi and the Colonel of the military refers to himself as “pappa”, while referring to the soldiers under him as “ladies”.

In “Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World” Carolyn Merchant points out atomism which is how the military viewed the planet the Na’vi lived on; as having individual parts for them to pick (unobtainium) and destroy (“Home Tree”). The Military in Avatar have a Mechanistic Worldview seen in their willingness to destroy not only “Home Tree” but the entire environment just to dig up “unobtainium”, and laughing when people try to point out to them that those are living things. The Military’s decision to “gas-out” the Na’vi from “Home Tree” in order to tear it down is an example of reductionism because they is was an easy way to get them out and was “humane”. The military was not able to see the individual, in the Na’vi or even in their own ranks; everyone was the same. Carolyn Merchant states that

“the organic framework was for many centuries sufficiently integrative to override commercial development and technological innovation, the acceleration of economic change… began to undermine the organic unity of the cosmos and society.”

This quote sums up the way that the Military came to the Na’vi’s home, and at first did not destroy it. Then when the need became to great, the paradigm grew stronger and the environment was destroyed. 

(http://reeldealmw.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html)

Avatar Midterm: Cross-Cultural Conservation

Jake Sully is caught between two essentially different cultures. He initially come from the humans’, whose master narrative is the inherited belief that the world is theirs, and natural resources should be utilized for profit. They believe their culture and way of life is the only way to survive, and thus rely on utilizing and colonizing alien worlds after Earth’s resources have been depleted. The movie takes place in the year 2154, where the RDA corporation is trying to convince the native people of the Earth-like moon Pandora, to move away from their native village of Hometree, so the corporation can mine the rich deposit of Unobtainium underneath it. Jake is to become an ambassador to the Na’vi, learn their ways, and find a way to make them peacefully leave their ancestrial home. 

From his first interaction with the Na’vi Jake starts to change. After first meeting Neytiri, the Na’vi princess, her mother tells Jake that other Sky People have tried to learn the Na’vi way before, but says, “It is hard to fill a cup which is already full.” They accept Jake into their manhood ritual so they can learn about the sky people warriors, but by the time his training is over, Jake is more sympathetic to the Na’vi cause. He admires how they respect their world and all living things. How they protect their “Earth Mother,” Eywa, unlike the humans that killed theirs. He knows that they are entrenched into their beliefs, their paradigms, and their home, and will never give up their home to the humans. The humans, now seeing the Na’vi has hostile enemies, Jake included, attack and destroy Hometree. In the most cliché of ways, Jake eventually gains their undying trust and becomes their leader. Eventually Jake and the Na’vi force the humans to leave Pandora.

The story of Jake and the Na’vi is one told a hundred times before: a story of Heroic ethics, a story where a white male is made aware of a marginalized peoples and attacks his own people. By doing this he ignores the billions of people affected by the underlying problem of colonialism and resource utilization, dooming his original people to Eco-disasters and most likely the exploitation of different worlds. Instead of helping to fix their beliefs, he reinforces the “Us versus Them” mentality. He dooms those people to their dualistic beliefs, “back to their dying world,” back to their doomed way of life.

This movie if formed around dualisms. Both sides of the battle are based on the other being completely evil. There is no middle ground. Gaard says we “need to  improve and expand  our knowledge and understanding  of nondominant cultures by reading about those cultures, building working relationships  and friendships across the boundaries of culture, and visiting other cultural and ethnic communities in away that best positions us to learn.” We must become World-travelers, allowing our ideas and Self to be transformed. Only then will we be able to understand the eco-community, all sides of the story, and form resolutions that benefit all those involved. In Avatar, Jake Sully has ultimately changed nothing. He’s momentarily prevented the destruction of Pandora by stopping a corporation with a small unit of military forces. He’s done nothing to try to fix the fundamental belief system the humans are locked into, instead only blindly following the new ideas he’s found with the Na’vi.

What is the Real Meaning of Wilderness?

What is the Real Meaning of Wilderness?

The Evolution of Wilderness as known to humans has had a radical turn from beginning of time to present. From what is known from the Bible to the present knowledge we have gained from the environment.

As read in the article, in the beginning, humans believed that “wilderness” was a place that we were cast into or exiled to for punishment or to be tested. It was a type of Hell for Jesus to endure temptation, and Moses to wander with his people. Wilderness was thought to be a desolate place where entry was denied.

As the word evolved, it became more of a challenge to the brave and a quest for man to show his ability to become a man. Indians were sent out to show they have grown to the age of manhood by hunting in the wilderness and coming home with a prize kill.

Time past, and frontiers made the Wilderness there home. Indians used the wilderness as there refuge from the new settlements that took their land. More and more people were happier away from the changing industrial lifestyles.

Upon the turn of each century, people saw a different light on what wilderness meant. It became a place of refuge and solidarity as opposed to deserted, savage, or desolate. It was sought out and preserved by man instead of destroying and industrializing. We came to realize that wilderness was something we needed to preserve in the good of the World.

As these changes evolved, people discovered the need to preserve the most prominent areas such as Niagara Falls, which was the first to undergo preservation, but it was soon followed by the Catskills, the Adirondacks, Yosemite, and Yellowstone. Even further on the evolution side, people discovered the need for some of these places on the Ecological side.

It wasn’t stated in the article, but forests (also known as wilderness) such as Rainforests are the species-richest ecosystems on the Earth. They cover only 5% of the Earth's surface, but contain more than half of all the plant and animal species on the planet. Many of our modern medicines come from rainforests. More than 70% of plants that have anti-cancer properties are found in rainforests. They also act as huge water pumps that balance water availability by absorbing it when it's plentiful and releasing it when it's scarce. This prevents flooding and erosion during the wet season and stops large rainforest river systems like Amazon and Congo from running out of water during the dry.

Today we see Wilderness as a place to vacation, relax, be at peace, and gaze at Gods wondrous creations. Wilderness has changed from a Hell, to a Glorious Heaven for many. The more we learn the value of wilderness to our ability to survive on this earth as a species, the more humans need to take more steps to change society’s actions against all wildernesses.

http://www.nature.org/rainforests/explore/video.html

Lucretia Biery
03/08/11