Word Net
wildnessNoun
1 a feeling of extreme emotional intensity; "the
wildness of his anger" [syn: abandon]
2 the property of being wild or turbulent; "the
storm's violence" [syn: ferocity, fierceness, furiousness, fury, vehemence, violence]
3 a state of nature [ant: tameness]
- See also: Wilderness
Human perceptions of wildness
Wildness is often mentioned in the writings of naturalists, such as John Muir and David Brower, where it is admired for its freshness and otherness. Henry David Thoreau wrote the famous phrase, “In wildness is the preservation of the world.” Some artists and photographers such as Eliot Porter explore wildness in the themes of their works. The benefits of reconnecting with nature by seeing the achievements of wildness is an area being investigated by ecopsychology.Attempts to identify the characteristics of
wildness are varied. One consideration sees wildness as that part
of nature which is not controllable by humans. Nature retains a
measure of autonomy, or wildness, apart from human constructions
(Evanoff, 2005). Another version of this theme is that wildness
produces things that are natural, while humans produce things that
are artificial (man-made). Ambiguities about the distinction
between the natural and the artificial animate much of art,
literature and philosophy. There is the perception that naturally
produced items have a greater elegance over artificial things.
Modern zoos seek to improve the health and vigour of animals by
simulating natural settings, in a move away from stark man-made
structures.
Another view of wildness is that it is a social
construct (Callicott 1994), and that humans cannot be considered
‘unnatural’. As wildness is claimed to be a quality that builds
from animals and ecosystems, it often fails to be considered within
reductionist theories for nature.
Wildness in animals
The importance of maintaining wildness in animals is recognized in the management of Wilderness areas. Feeding wild animals in national parks for example, is usually discouraged because the animals may lose the skills they need to fend for themselves. Human interventions may also upset continued natural selection pressures upon the population, producing a version of domestication within wildlife (Peterson et al. 2005).Tameness implies a reduction in wildness, where
animals become more easily handled by humans. Some animals are
easier to tame than others, and are amenable to
domestication.
Rating scales for mouse wildness
In a clinical setting wildness has been used as a scale to rate the ease with which various strains of laboratory mice can be captured and handled (Wahlsten et al. 2003): In this sense "wildness" may be interpreted as "tendency to respond with anxiety to handling". That there is no necessary connection between this factor and the state of wildness per se, given that some animals in the wild may be handled with little or no cause of anxiety. However, this factor does clearly indicate an animal's resistance to being handled.Degrees of domestication
- ''Main article: Domestication
A classification
system can be set out showing the spectrum from wild to
domesticated animal states:
- Wild: These species experience their full life cycles without deliberate human intervention.
- Raised at zoos or botanical gardens (captive): These species are nurtured and sometimes bred under human control, but remain as a group essentially indistinguishable in appearance or behaviour from their wild counterparts. (Zoos and botanical gardens sometimes exhibit domesticated or feral animals and plants such as camels, mustangs, and some orchids.)
- Raised commercially (captive or semidomesticated): These species are ranched or farmed in large numbers for food, commodities, or the pet trade, but as a group they are not substantially altered in appearance or behavior. Examples include the elephant, ostrich, deer, alligator, cricket, pearl oyster, and ball python. (These species are sometimes referred to as partially domesticated.)
- Domesticated: These species or varieties are bred and raised under human control for many generations and are substantially altered as a group in appearance or behaviour. Examples include the Canary, Pigeons, the Budgerigar, the peach-faced Lovebird, dogs, cats, sheep, cattle, chickens, llamas, guinea pigs and laboratory mice.
This classification system does not account for
several complicating factors: genetically
modified organisms, feral populations, and hybridization.
Many species that are farmed or ranched are now being genetically
modified. This creates a unique category because it alters the
organisms as a group but in ways unlike traditional domestication.
Feral organisms are members of a population that was once raised
under human control, but is now living and multiplying outside of
human control. Examples include mustangs.
Hybrids can be wild, domesticated, or both: a liger is a hybrid of two wild
animals, a mule is a hybrid
of two domesticated animals, and a beefalo is a cross between a
wild and a domestic animal.
Wildness in Human Psychology
- ''Main article: Ecopsychology
The basic idea of ecopsychology is that while the
human mind is shaped by the modern social world, it can be readily
inspired and comforted by the wider natural world, because that is
the arena in which it originally evolved. Mental health or unhealth
cannot be understood in the narrow context of only intrapsychic
phenomena or social relations. One also has to include the
relationship of humans to other species and ecosystems. These
relations have a deep evolutionary history; reach a natural
affinity within the structure of their brains and they have deep
psychic significance in the present time, in spite of urbanization.
Humans are dependent on healthy nature not only for their physical
sustenance, but for mental health, too. The destruction of
ecosystems means that something in humans also dies.
Wildness in Political Philosophy
- Main article: State of nature
The concept of a state of nature was first
posited by the 17th century
English philosopher Thomas
Hobbes in Leviathan.
Hobbes described the concept in the Latin phrase
bellum omnium contra omnes'', meaning "the war of all against
all." In this state any person has a natural
right to do anything to preserve their own liberty or safety.
Famously, he believed that such a condition would lead to a "war of
every man against every man" and make life "solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short."
Hobbes's view was challenged in the eighteenth
century by Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, who claimed that Hobbes was taking socialized persons
and simply imagining them living outside of the society they were
raised in. He affirmed instead that people were born neither good
nor bad; men knew neither vice nor virtue since they had almost no
dealings with each other. Their bad habits are the products of
civilization
specifically social hierarchies, property, and markets. Another
criticism put forth by Karl Marx is
his concept of species-being,
or the unique potential of humans for dynamic, creative, and
cooperative relations between each other. For Marx and others in
his line of critical
theory, alienated
and abstracted
social relations prevent the fulfillment of this potential (see
anomie).
David Hume's
view brings together and challenges the theories of Rousseau and
Hobbes. He posits that in the natural state we are born wicked and
evil because of, for instance, the cry of the baby that demands
attention. Like Rousseau, he believes that society shapes us, but
that we are born evil and it is up to society to shape us into who
we become.
See also: