Towards a corporeal aesthetics of plants: Ethnographies of embodied appreciation along the wildflower trail

Ryan, John Charles

doi:10.1080/10304312.2010.489721

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…His ideas speak to the importance of taking a broad view of people-plant relationships in research, so as to include the memories, aesthetic values, and sensory experiences that make place-based relationships so personally meaningful at the level of individuals. In regions where people have become emotionally alienated from local landscapes and flora, Ryan (2010) proposes using experiential relationships with plants to help foster a "corporeal aesthetics of plants" (543) and re-engage people with their own geographies of place through an appreciation of Indigenous flora. Conventional dichotomies between nature and society are increasingly being challenged by authors such as Whatmore (2002), who has looked to the relational approaches of hybrid geographies to envision a shared space at the intersection of human and non-human actors.…”

Section: Perspectives On People-plant Relationships In Geography and mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Shared Stories of People and Plants: Cultural and Ecological Relationships Between People and Plants in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada)

Oberndorfer¹

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People and plants live in complex networks of cultural and ecological relationships. In northern Canada, plants are important to cultural practices, just as cultural practices shape plant communities. This research responds to research priorities identified by Makkovimiut, residents of the Inuit Community of Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada), on people-plant relationships (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). These priorities shaped the research objectives, which form the three central chapters of this integrated thesis: i) learning how to respectfully approach research on people-plant relationships in Makkovik; ii) learning about Makkovimiut relationships with plants; iii) learning about the effects of cultural practices on plant communities.Chapter 2 details and evaluates approaches in Indigenous methodologies that guide the research. As a non-Indigenous student, I rooted research questions in personal meaning and community relevancy, which I sought to understand through preliminary research, the ongoing guidance of community advisors, and by going as a learner to Makkovimiut plant mentors. An iterative approach to learning helped build relationships with Makkovimiut plant mentors and plants. Chapter 3 discusses Makkovimiut plant knowledge and practices. Plants support life and livelihood for Makkovimiut, and sustain cultural practices such as fishing, which reciprocally support plant communities. Plants are more than objects: plants are present in memory, well-being, and sharing, and have voices of their own. In actively managing-caring for-plants, Makkovimiut nurture the ecological and cultural values that create healthy communities for both people and plants. These values are expressed in the stories people tell about plants.My thanks start at the beginning, with my family. My parents Carol and Dieter Oberndorfer have taught by example through their respect, curiosity, care, and love for the natural world. These early lessons have been the gifts that have directed the course of my life. My brother Derek, my original outdoor companion, shares an appreciation for this great world that continues to bring our family closer. Thank you, Mom, Dad, and Derek, for all the gifts that are beyond measure and beyond thanks. v their warm welcome and friendship. There are so many kindnesses small and large that are so freely given. These are the lasting lessons of this work.

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Section: Perspectives On People-plant Relationships In Geography and mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Shared Stories of People and Plants: Cultural and Ecological Relationships Between People and Plants in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada)

Oberndorfer¹

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“…An example from my research into popular aesthetic attitudes toward the indigenous flora of the Southwest corner of Western Australia may further clarify the above exposition of transdisciplinarity (see Ryan 2009Ryan , 2010. Questions of nature aesthetics are most typically constrained to the disciplines of philosophy and art history.…”

Section: Toward Transdisciplinary Ecological Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Botany: Toward a Model of Transdisciplinary, Embodied, and Poetic Research into Plants

Ryan

2011

Nature and Culture

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Since the eighteenth century, the study of plants has reflected an increasingly mechanized and technological view of the natural world that divides the humanities and the sciences into separate areas of knowledge. In broad terms, this article proposes a context for research into flora through an interrogation of existing literature addressing a rapprochement between ways to knowledge. The nature-culture dichotomy, and more specifically the plant-to-human sensory disjunction, follows a parallel course of resolution to the schism between objective (technical, scientific, reductionistic, visual) and subjective (emotive, artistic, relational, multisensory) forms of knowledge. The foundations of taxonomic botany, as well as the allied fields of environmental studies, ethnobotany and economic botany, are undergirded by universalizing, sensory-limited visual structuring of the natural world. As the study of everyday embodied interactions of humans with flora, expanding upon the lens of cultural ecology, "cultural botany" provides a transdisciplinary research approach. Alternate embodied cultural engagements with flora emerge through a syncretic fusion of diverse methodologies.

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Towards a corporeal aesthetics of plants: Ethnographies of embodied appreciation along the wildflower trail

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

The Shared Stories of People and Plants: Cultural and Ecological Relationships Between People and Plants in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada)

The Shared Stories of People and Plants: Cultural and Ecological Relationships Between People and Plants in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada)

Cultural Botany: Toward a Model of Transdisciplinary, Embodied, and Poetic Research into Plants

Botanical memory: Exploring emotional recollections of native flora in the Southwest of Western Australia

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