Colloquium Powerpoint

EcoCultural Conversations: Killer Whale Tales and Other Discourses of HumanNature Relations Tema Milstein Communication & Journalism Affiliated Faculty, UNM Sustainability Program

Research Program: Environment & Culture 

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How are cultural and ecological perceptions and actions reproduced and resisted through communication? How is the self imbricated and altered by culture, environment, and communication? How does nature mediate communication and culture?

The nature of culture and the culture of nature

Environmental Communication My Research Objectives

Zoo study

“A new vernacular”

CVNM study

“Give people a way to write their way back into a reconnection with the land.”

Facilitate StoryTelling in Two Disparate Communities

Digitize Outputs and Upload to Database

Conduct Analysis Based on Newly Developed Models

Apply Derived Characteristics to Architectural/Pl anning/Policy Projects

Connecting Community Voices

Transboundaried Nature Tourism  where

many people were making an effort to be with nature  moments of impromptu communication  site-specific cultural texts

Maps

 endangered

orca whales  an intensive microcosm of human-nature relations in transformation  surprise endangered species ruling  contested tourism

Ethnographic Methodology  focused

exploration  reflexive ethnography  “bring ethnography closer to a set of critical, journalistic practices” – Norman K. Denzin  ethnographic presence – D. Soyini Madison

Participant Observer Fieldwork

Participants  whale

watch industry owners and staff  tourists – water and land  NGO staff and volunteers  secondary participants  the whales

Research Questions:  In

such an evocative nature-human focal point where humans go to seek out an iconic aspect of nature, how does communication construct and/or mediate the human relationship with nature?  Do tensions arise and, if so, how do they emerge?

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Tourist: “The neatest part I think is hearing him. There are no words. Cool, awesome, that just isn’t enough.”

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Local: “She gets that whale energy. She gives me a look that says she knows what I’m talking about. You can see it in her eyes. But she doesn’t have the words. She doesn’t have the language to express it… It exists in other cultures, like Hopi, aboriginal languages, Tibetan, and other languages influenced by Buddhism.”

Local: “One came so close to the shore; I could have reached down and touched them. I don’t have words. What do you say? It was awesome. I just don’t have the vocabulary.” WW boat captain: “The whole world makes sense for a moment seeing these whales. A lot of people would call it a religious experience, but it’s more than that. All the puzzle pieces fit together and you try to explain it to someone and it’s gone – but you never forget it.”

Selected Findings  Constructions:

“Show”  Mediations: Whales “speak for themselves”  Tensions: Responses to expressions of emotive connection

How does communication construct human-nature relations?  Key

symbol: “Show” Tourist: “We climbed down on the rocks when they came by and what a show!” Captains to one another on marine radio: “Enjoy the show!” “You missed some great show up here.” Naturalist: “Mother nature never gives us the same show twice.”

Putting on a show: Tourist: “That was fun. It’s like he knew he was being watched and put on a show.”

Showing off: Captain on a friendly humpback: “He came up and spy hopped close enough for me to touch. I could see the barnacles and sea stuff on his throat. It’s like he was wanting to show off – he was showing off.”

What does show mean? OED: The action or an act of exhibiting to view or notice. Multi-valanced: performance, valued, and/or interactive Extended meaning networks: extensive use of popculture vision-based descriptions whale behaviors as “tricks” aggressive communication

An alternative: “encounter” S: “So, yeah, it’s really quiet and you’re getting a nice little show.” We pull away. S to me: “I said show.” Me: “I am certain I would say show if I were talking to people about what they were seeing all the time. Could you have said encounter to them?” S: “I would say it. I could. But it doesn’t slip off the tongue. They probably wouldn’t understand what I was talking about.”

Why does this matter?

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Connotations of distance Exhibits limits in discursive resources available May help reproduce a particular meaning Using the limited resources available

How does communication mediate nature-human relations?  “mediate:”

communicative issues beyond human that inform human discourse  implies environmental co-presence  a rising concern within the field  “orcagasm” – alas, not today’s topic

Whales “kind of speak for themselves” 

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Tourist: “We knew our kids would be interested in nature once they saw the whales. You can’t help but be entranced by the whales. Those are things that kind of speak for themselves.” In Touch – Tourist: “To have the ocean as your environment – they remind me there are beings, there are animals, that can do that.” Protect – Naturalist: “I want visitors to attach to them, it’s important. Because when there’s an oil spill here or we have global warming, I want them to vote to protect these whales and everything that matters to them.”

 Learn

–“You mean, how these guys are converting people? You know people can be dismissive of this – ‘oh, everyone’s into the charismatic megafauna.’ But the reality is that most of the time this is what gets people hooked and they start to learn everything else related to them, and their ecosystems.”  A central tenet

Tentative Nature Tourism Justification Ranger: “The idea is that if they love it, hopefully they’ll protect it” Captain: “I think showing the whales helps. I hope it helps.” Him: “I forget, do we like whale watching?” Her: “Well, many people are tremendously touched by the experience and feel more connected to the environment from it –” Him: “That drum’s been banged, that’s overdone. Is that really true? Do people really feel changed or are we just harassing the whales? It’s a business.”

Do tensions arise? If so, how?  Tensions

in how people should properly relate with nature  Expressions of emotive connection: feeling, empathy, union  Responses: disciplining, selfmitigating

Disciplinary responses: sarcasm, jokes, reflecting the expression in a teasing manner

Tourists: “Ooooh! Ooooh!” One tourist: “Let’s all sing kumbaya.”

Kayak guide: “The participants made jokes about it for the rest of the trip. They kept repeating ‘It’s an octopus!’ That’s what I screamed when I realized what he had in his mouth. I was totally filterless. I was so excited.”

Self-mitigating Self-labeling: Tourist: “I am a whale person. I just love them. … I guess I’m just a weirdo.”

Self-censoring: Tourist: “My connection is kind of, like, spiritual. I know, it’s weird <eyes roll>. I didn’t want to say it in front of Jessica because she doesn’t believe in the spiritual stuff.”

Self-mocking – Whale advocate: “She swam right under my kayak. She was looking at me. That day after that we were just blown away. That was a religious experience. <pause> I had a silent orcagasm <snickers>. And I broke down later that night on the beach. I was like, oh my god, that was beautiful <exaggerated mocking voice>.” Marking communication – Naturalist: “Another boat had a baby crying and a whale stopped and faced the place on the boat where the baby was crying and vocalized above the water, like, ‘It’s OK, it’s OK.’ <pause> Alright, that’s my last woo woo story.”

Tensions: A tentative interpretation

 Map

the limits of what is culturally acceptable in terms of how one should relate to nature in this setting  Self-mitigating: a safe way, an acknowledgement of limits  Communication as a limited environmental resource

In closing & opening  

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Answers to my questions Raise larger important questions about humannature relations Communication as renewable resource, alternative resource Study can lead to publicly useful scholarship www.unm.edu/~tema/ 2nd 8-week term grad course EcoCulture: Humans and the Environment (C&J 512).