Linking Culture and the Environment

232 Cultural Inscriptions of Nature
19
Illustrated in Soper (1995).
20
The double helix model used to explain the continual ‘dialogue’ and dynamic relationship
between the physical ‘reality’ and cultural representations is explained in
more detail in earlier work (Staiff, 1995). Soper describes the relationship in slightly
different terms but the metaphor remains relevant (Soper, 1995).
21
Brown (1997).
22
See, for example, Beder (1996) and Smith (1997b). In Smith, a collection of essays
that addresses practical implications in the ‘third world’ (to use their term) the emphasis
is almost entirely on the ecology/natural resources/economic interface.
23
These other negotiations and possibilities (including a re-conceptualization of the
sustainable development model) is explored in Griffiths (2000).
24
Brown (1997) and Griffith (2000).
25
This rather poetic irony is explored more fully by Simmons (1993). Also see Soper
(1995).
26
MacCannell was the first to suggest the importance of semiotics in his groundbreaking
work on tourist attractions (MacCannell, 1976). This work has been taken up
in a number of contexts by both theorists and tourist researchers. See Eco (1986),
Culler (1988) and Urry (1990). A recent application of semiotics to material culture is
that of Gottdiener (1995) and Hall (1997).
27
UNESCO MAB Reserve Directory. Available at: www.unesco.org/mab/br/brdir/asia/
chi3.htm
28
There is very little published about Mount Dinghu, even in UNESCO literature.
Nearly all the observations presented here arise from a site visit in April 2000.
29
For the description and analysis of Mount Dinghu, I am indebted to the expertise of
those who accompanied the research team: Dr Julie Wen from the University of
Western Sydney and Mr Baojian Hu from Xijiang University.
30
‘Heritage’ is a much contested term especially in the context of tourism. See Herbert
(1995) and Hollinshead (1998). The ‘strict sense’ referred to is that of preserving/conserving
material objects from the past and presenting them in their present state without
undue reconstruction. Problems always arise when a built heritage site is still in
use. The extensions at Mount Dinghu would appear to be an attempt to enhance the
site as a tourism attraction rather than enhance the Buddhist history of the place. Of
course, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
31
All translations are by Dr Julie Wen.
32
Cheng (1994).
33
These observations are from McDonald (1994).
34
Cheng (1994).
35
The translation is that of the curators of Asian Art at the Art Gallery of New South
Wales (McDonald, 1994).
36
One way to mark the differences between nature in Chinese representations and
nature in European representations is to note how in Chinese painting, for example, it
is the underlying forces/processes/dynamisms of nature which are essential (see
Cheng, 1994), whereas in European traditions, representations tend to freeze the natural
world into a static entity which is invested, in its sheer materiality, with a source of
power and authority (see Andrews, 1999). For writers like Sober (1995) and Parker
(1999), the western tradition with its implicit and explicit emphasis on power and dominion
and mastery (both in the execution and in the subject matter) produces a deep
problem when images are used in the context of nature conservation. Ross, in a purposely
provocative book, argues that the contemporary ecological appeal to the ‘power
and authority of nature’ (an appeal which replicates the origins of natural law, the rightwing
ideologies of the first half of the 20th century CE and, more recently, genetic