Taming the untamable

Although our systems of thought have long accustomed us to differentiate sharply between the human world of ‘culture’ and the animal world of ‘nature’, both sides of this very influential dichotomy are entangled in complex and indissoluble ways. The civet cat and its very special perfume—civet—provide a perfect example of this ‘merging’. The idea of taming the untamable, expressed in paintings of civet cats and textual sources, has been especially fruitful and became a promising preoccupation especially for artists like Joris Hoefnagel to enrich their work with an intellectual hybridity. The article shows how—in painting, perfume, and writing—nature and culture complemented one another, rather than standing in opposition. Owing to the animal’s odour, its mysterious nature, and debates about its (un)tamability, the image of the civet cat served as a focal point through which early modern Europeans wrestled with and redefined the realms of human and animal, of art and science, and of culture and nature.

Satisfaction Factors That Predict Loyalty in Ecotourism: A Study of Foreign Tourism in Costa Rica

Recently, foreign tourists have revealed a growing interest for natural environment enjoyment. This study aimed to: (a) identify the service satisfaction factors and (b) analyze the influence that satisfaction factors exert on the loyalty of ecotourists. The empirical analysis was carried out in Arenal National Park and Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge in Costa Rica, a country with international prominence in ecotourism due to the wealth of resources in its protected areas. A factorial analysis and the stepwise multiple regression method were performed for the data analysis of 246 surveys made in situ. Results show three satisfaction factors in ecotourism: “nature and culture”, “infrastructure”, and “service”, where “nature and culture” was the most influential predictor of tourists’ loyalty. The study also found a positive correlation between satisfaction and loyalty in ecotourism. This research will provide relevant insights to public institutions and private companies efficient planning and benefit the community and protected areas.

Laughter as a Semiotic Problem

Purpose. The article is aimed to substantiate the view on the phenomenon of laughter as a subject of semiotic analysis, which leads to the following tasks: to reveal the possibilities of semiotics application in the study of laughter nature; to analyze the phenomenon of laughter as a cultural and natural phenomenon, as a sign and as an attribute; to consider the place of laughter in culture, which is understood as a sign system. Theoretical basis. The semiotic approach proceeds from the fact that human lives in the world of signs, all the surrounding reality can be interpreted as a sign system. The basic concept of semiotics is the concept of a sign. The theoretical basis of the article is understanding the culture as a sign-symbolic system. Laughter is considered as a phenomenon ontologically rooted in human culture. At the same time, laughter is on the edge of culture. The research is based on the work of semiotic authors, cultural researchers, and the researchers of laughter. Originality. The originality lies in the application of the semiotic method to the research of laughter phenomenon, consideration of the dialectics of natural and cultural, signedness and non-signedness, manifested in the phenomenon of laughter. Conclusions. Laughter is considered as a psychophysiological phenomenon (attribute) and as a cultural phenomenon (sign). Laughter acts as an emotional manifestation, a physiological reaction, but socially and culturally mediated. In any case, laughter indicates an emotional or cognitive state of a human. Laughter acts as a process and result of the interpretation of a sign, a reaction to a sign. Laughter is a form and a means of communication. Being a natural phenomenon, in the process of social evolution, laughter acquires signedness, is integrated by culture as a sign system, and, at the same time, maintains a connection with nature. Thus, laughter occupies an ambivalent position between nature and culture. In the phenomenon of laughter, the dual state of human is revealed. In laughter, boundaries are blurred, the unity and opposition of natural and cultural, biological and social, soul and body, thought and feeling, sign and attribute are manifested.

ETHNOCULTURAL CONNECTIONS OF THE FINNO-UGRIC PEOPLES ON THE EXAMPLE OF «CULTURAL CAPITAL OF THE FINNO-UGRIC WORLD» PROJECT

The article examines the ethnocultural processes taking place in the Finno-Ugric community, on the example of the implementation of the program “Cultural capital of the Finno-Ugric world.” For several years, the project has provided an opportunity for the Finno-Ugric peoples to communicate more, exchange experience, allow them to declare their characteristics, show the uniqueness and originality of peoples, nature, and culture. At the same time, it stimulates the cultural and economic development of the regions where the Finno-Ugric peoples live. The title of the capital of culture is awarded after passing two rounds: the first – competitive selection of applications; the second is the presentation of your project. The status of the Finno-Ugric capital is assigned for one year and imposes a special responsibility on the organizers, since the events are attended by a large number of people and they are widely covered in the media. During the course of this program, settlements from Russia, Estonia and Hungary received this title.

Problems and prospects of introduction and distribution of Allium obliquum L. in Ukraine

Aim. To investigate the distribution of a rare perennial species in Ukraine — Allium obliquum L. and prospects for the development of the plant as a vegetable and ornamental crop. Methods. Materials for the analysis of the state of distribution in the area of origin, problems and prospects of development of the species Allium obliquum L. in Ukraine have been studied and generalized based on the results of processing scientific sources of literature. On the basis of own researches of a species, the forecast concerning prospects of introduction of a species in domestic vegetable growing, and also as an ornamental plant, is made; the necessary scientific, practical and organizational measures are identified. Results. Non-traditional species of perennial bulbous plants have significant potential for development in the vegetable growing. These include Allium obliquum L. — a rare relict species of onion in Ukraine with a disjunctive range, now its status — endangered, listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, which has decorative and nutritional value. When used as a vegetable, Allium obliquum L. can grow in one place for 10–15 years. Development of this species in vegetable growing in Ukraine is possible through the introduction into horticulture and ornamental floriculture based on the results of a comprehensive and large-scale study of the species in nature and culture, a long process of acclimatization, reacclimatization and reintroduction. Conclusions. An important stage of the breeding process is the introduction and mobilization of genetic resources to form a collection of source material Allium obliquum L. of various ecological and geographical origins, selection of sources and donors of economically valuable traits and properties, their involvement in the breeding process. An urgent task in Ukraine is the development of methodological and regulatory documentation, which is necessary both at the stage of scientific and technical examination of potentially created varieties, and in the production of seeds and marketable products.

‘What is infrastructure? What does it do?’: Anthropological perspectives on the workings of infrastructure(s)

Infrastructure is often thought of in big material terms: dams, buildings, roads, and so on. This study, instead, draws on literatures in anthropology and the social sciences to analyse infrastructures in relation to society and environment, and so cast current conceptions of infrastructure in a new light. Situating the analysis in context of President Biden’s recent infrastructure bill, the paper expands what is meant by and included in discussions of infrastructure. The study examines what it means for different kinds of material infrastructures to function (and for whom) or not, and also consider how the immaterial infrastructure of human relations are manifested in, for example, labour, as well as how infrastructures may create intended or unintended consequences in enabling or disabling social processes. Further, in this study, we examine concepts embedded in thinking about infrastructure such as often presumed distinctions between the technical and the social, nature and culture, the human and the non-human, and the urban and the rural, and how all of these are actually implicated in thinking about infrastructure. Our analysis, thus, draws from a growing body of work on infrastructure in anthropology and the social sciences, enriches it with ethnographic insights from our own field research, and so extends what it means to study ‘infrastructures’ in the 21st century.

Tourism Market Segmentation Applied to Coastal and Marine Destinations: A Study from Acapulco, Mexico

Coastal and marine destinations offer alternate options for the sun and the beach, options that are related to nature and culture. This empirical study aims to segment the demand of domestic tourism in coastal and marine destinations and its relationship with satisfaction and loyalty. A factorial analysis and an analysis of K-means clusters were used to reduce and group data. Six motivational dimensions are evident heritage and nature, learning, and sun and beach; and physical, authentic coastal experience, novelty, and social interaction. Two segments were found: the “multiple coastal motives,” which returned a high motivation among the motivational variables proposed and are related to all the factors found, and the “beach lovers”, with high motivation in the aspects of sun and beach, resting, and wanting to see things they do not usually see. These two segments are related to the dimensions of sun and beach and novelty. The multiple coastal motives rendered higher levels of satisfaction and in some variables of future behavior, which shows the relationship of the motivation with the visit. The findings are used to develop marketing plans appropriate to the characteristics of the demand found in each group.

Art and Influence, Presence and Navigation in Southern African Forager Landscapes

With earlier origins and a rebirth in the late 1990s, the New Animisms and the precipitate ‘ontological turn’ have now been in full swing since the mid-2000s. They make a valuable contribution to the interpretation of the rock arts of numerous societies, particularly in their finding that in animist societies, there is little distinction between nature and culture, religious belief and practicality, the sacred and the profane. In the process, a problem of perspective arises: the perspectives of such societies, and the analogical sources that illuminate them, diverge in more foundational terms from Western perspectives than is often accounted for. This is why archaeologists of religion need to be anthropologists of the wider world, to recognise where animistic and shamanistic ontologies are represented, and perhaps where there is reason to look closely at how religious systems are used to imply Cartesian separations of nature and culture, religious and mundane, human/person and animal/non-person, and where these dichotomies may obscure other forms of being-in-the-world. Inspired by Bird-David, Descola, Hallowell, Ingold, Vieiros de Castro, and Willerslev, and acting through the lens of navigation in a populated, enculturated, and multinatural world, this contribution locates southern African shamanic expressions of rock art within broader contexts of shamanisms that are animist.

Deep Donkey and Dadirri: asking Creatura out to play

This article is based on the premise that we are currently awakening to the full systemic impact of the emerging global ecological crisis which is already having a devastating effect on the ecosystems of the earth and also a highly destructive impact on psychological well-being. The ecological crisis has coincided with the painful awakening to the social and environmental destruction that has resulted from the legacy of a colonial world view of nature and culture. These events now demand a radical and deep adaption of our view of nature and culture. It is becoming clear that we are facing not only an ecological break down and a narrative collapse, but also a breakdown in how to make sense of what we are facing. This article explores how systemic psychotherapy and Gregory Bateson’s work on the gnostic ideas of pleroma and creatura, can provide a framework to support the Decolonial Turn but also an EcoSystemic Return. This article uses the children’s game of Donkey and the Indigenous Australian practice of Dadirri to playfully explore how we might overcome Bateson’s notion of epistemological error when engaging with systemic practice, Indigenous nature practice and quantum physics. The article suggests an imaginary game of Deep Donkey to overcome the destructive legacy of Cartesian dualism at the core of western culture and to begin to open western imagination to an intra-subjective dialogue with nature. I suggest the game of Deep Donkey could a helpful practice in realigning western thinking with sophisticated and long subjugated Indigenous ecological and cultural wisdom.