GEOG 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 36: Wildlife Trade, Natural Resource Management, European Colonialism
6 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
GEOG 1000
February 28, 2018
Popular Images of Africa: Wilderness
Wilderness is something we created, not something that exists where we can go
Africa as Wilderness
● Discourse of untamed Africa as an untouched place
● Timeless place, wild untamed spirit
● Relatively new concept
● Imposing Wilderness (book)
Philosophical foundations
● Ominous (pre 1850s)
○ Something to be feared, where you didn’t enter unless you had to
● The sublime (post 1850s)
○ Pure, awe-inspiring, can encounter God’s power
● Sense of nostalgia & anti-modern sentiment
○ Nostalgic for something that has been lost
● Fear: the closing of the American frontier
○ Encountering the unknown, the frontier played a role in the way Americans
saw themselves
○ The moves to protect land were taken by those who were modernizing
America
○ Push to preserve past that was being lost: establishment of national park
● Yellowstone: first national park
● Distinct separation between society and nature
● People living in this space kicked out: people are not part of wilderness
● Bounded space, controlled by centralized bureaucratic authority
● The National Park Ideal
○ Preserved from human intervention
○ A place where you visit not where you live
● Chapultepec
○ Aztec established a national park hundreds of years prior to Yellowstone
○ Not separated from humans
Exporting Wilderness
● An idea/concept/trope can travel
● Idea of protecting wild resources: logic of protecting nature in colonialism emerged
● Rationales:
○ Conservation: native African species dwindling
○ Justified colonial control of land
○ Sport hunting and adventure
○ Africa as Europe’s frontier
○ Rationales were tied to European colonialism
○ Leads to the creation of “spaces of wilderness”
Document Summary
Wilderness is something we created, not something that exists where we can go. Discourse of untamed africa as an untouched place. Something to be feared, where you didn"t enter unless you had to. Nostalgic for something that has been lost. Fear: the closing of the american frontier. Encountering the unknown, the frontier played a role in the way americans saw themselves. The moves to protect land were taken by those who were modernizing. Push to preserve past that was being lost: establishment of national park. People living in this space kicked out: people are not part of wilderness. Bounded space, controlled by centralized bureaucratic authority. A place where you visit not where you live. Aztec established a national park hundreds of years prior to yellowstone. Idea of protecting wild resources: logic of protecting nature in colonialism emerged. Leads to the creation of spaces of wilderness . See africans as part of the fauna.
