Sampling biases shape our view of the natural world

This chapter examines Merata Mita’s Mauri, the first fiction feature film in the world to be solely written and directed by an indigenous woman, as an example of “Fourth Cinema” – that is, a form of filmmaking that aims to create, produce, and transmit the stories of indigenous people, and in their own image – showing how Mita presents the coming-of-age story of a Māori girl who grows into an understanding of the spiritual dimension of the relationship of her people to the natural world, and to the ancestors who have preceded them. The discussion demonstrates how the film adopts storytelling procedures that reflect a distinctively Māori view of time and are designed to signify the presence of the mauri (or life force) in the Māori world.

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The Life of Rural Scenery

Romanticism ◽

10.3366/rom.2020.0464 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 191-201

Author(s):

Paul Chirico

Keyword(s):

Natural World ◽

Abstract Concept ◽

John Clare ◽

Material Basis ◽

The Moment

John Clare observed and described the natural world with an unsurpassed accuracy and intimacy. But his landscapes also bore the memories of life and labour. Like Wordsworth, he sought to create textual objects in transmissible forms, to deliver their reported worlds – expansive, dynamic, somehow inhabitable – to distant readers, drawing them into sympathetic intercommunion with a complex living scene. His intimate descriptive poetry reveals the tangible qualities of light and sound, and the material basis of the apparently abstract concept of time. Memory and imagination are understood to inhabit bodily spaces, provoking ‘real transport’: an observer lost in – and to – the moment. From his place and time, Clare felt solidarity with isolated birds, alienation from labour, estrangement from human communities. Publications such as annuals often showcased formulaic reflections on nature and on memory; Clare exploited textual duplicability, his meditative descriptive poetry spanning the history and futurity of an observed scene.

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Environmental Engagement and Cultural Value: Global Perspectives for Protecting the Natural World

10.3389/978-2-88963-444-6 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Natural World ◽

Cultural Value ◽

Global Perspectives ◽

Environmental Engagement

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The Subaltern Speak- A Study On The Culture Of The Arunachalis With Special Reference To Mamang Dai’s The Legends Of Pensam

History Research Journal ◽

10.26643/hrj.v5i4.6986 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 14-20

Author(s):

Ms. Cheryl Antonette Dumenil ◽

Dr. Cheryl Davis

Keyword(s):

Special Reference ◽

Small World ◽

Natural World ◽

Arunachal Pradesh ◽

North East India ◽

North East ◽

Shared History ◽

History Of ◽

And Gender ◽

Insight Into

North- East India is an under veiled region with an awe-inspiring landscape, different groups of ethnic people, their culture and heritage. Contemporary writers from this region aspire towards a vision outside the tapered ethnic channel, and they represent a shared history. In their writings, the cultural memory is showcased, and the intensity of feeling overflows the labour of technique and craft. Mamang Dai presents a rare glimpse into the ecology, culture, life of the tribal people and history of the land of the dawn-lit mountains, Arunachal Pradesh, through her novel The Legends of Pensam. The word ‘Pensam’ in the title means ‘in-between’, but it may also be interpreted as ‘the hidden spaces of the heart’. This is a small world where anything can happen. Being adherents of the animistic faith, the tribes here believe in co-existence with the natural world along with the presence of spirits in their forests and rivers. This paper attempts to draw an insight into the culture and gender of the Arunachalis with special reference to The Legends of Pensam by Mamang Dai.

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