| Papers [1-14] of 100 :: [Page 1 of 8] | | Go to page : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 —> | Search results on "AMERICAN INDIAN WILDERNESS": |
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"The American Indian Wilderness", 2002.
An analysis of the essay "The American Indian Wilderness" by Louis Owens.
650 words (approx. 2.6 pages), 1 source, £ 18.95
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Abstract
This paper will discuss how Louis Owens, in his essay "The American Indian Wilderness", evokes the usage of the essay format to describe the ways of the Native Americans in their habitats and the natural environment that they survived in. By revealing a thesis of Native Americans being here first, he states a thesis that can be readily agreed with. We can see how Owens argues for their ownership of the land before the great Manifest Destiny that eventually wiped them out.
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?Wilderness and the American Mind?, 2002.
Discusses Rodney Nash's book on the American population's changing view of the wilderness.
1,597 words (approx. 6.4 pages), 1 source, MLA, £ 36.95
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Abstract
In the book "Wilderness and the American Mind" by Roderick Nash, the author writes that the attitudes of Americans towards the dichotomy between wilderness and civilization have shifted over time. The book shows how Nash analyzes the reasons for the shift, the nature of the shift and the possible direction for the future. The paper discusses how different attitudes toward the wilderness can be seen as different themes in American history and they are not entirely distinct in time, meaning that they may exist at one and the same time, though one or another will dominate and so be the mark of the age. The wilderness has been seen as something "evil," something to be conquered and tamed. The wilderness can be seen as something involving a form of communion, indicating a belief in the spiritual nature of the wilderness. More recently, the wilderness is depicted as endangered and as something to be preserved and protected.
From the Paper
"This idea would continue to infuse the environmental movement as it shifted to the protectionist mode, for there is often a quasi-religious aura to some of the more radical environmental groups that see protecting the wilderness as a religious act. The idea of protecting the wilderness and preserving it for the future also began in the nineteenth century with the work of men like Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed New York City's Central Park. By the end of the nineteenth century, the work of men like John Muir contributed to the movement to preserve lands as part of a national park system. When these lands were first designated a national forests, it was clear that they had been set aside for consumptive uses, but new priorities and new forces later brought into question many of the traditional guidelines for the use of this land."
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Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World., 2008.
A Critique of Jack Weatherford's "Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World."
1,495 words (approx. 6.0 pages), 1 source, MLA, £ 34.95
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Abstract
The paper discusses that the term 'Indian giver' has come to be a synonym for someone who gives something, only to take it back. The paper further explains that it was the Indians who were forced to give to the Europeans--their knowledge about farming and fishing in the Americas and ultimately their land. The paper discusses that in Jack Weatherford's book, "Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World," the exchange between Europeans and Native Americans was an unequal one, with Europeans taking of the positive benefits of the New World, while the Indians were doing all of the giving. The paper concludes that unwittingly, the Indians found themselves the recipient of the evils of European civilization, like slavery, and a disrespectful attitude to the land.
From the Paper
"According to Weatherford, the early post-Columbian contact of the Europeans with the native populace actually enabled the Industrial Revolution to change Europe, and ultimately the world. "Had Europe and America not come together through Columbus or some other connection, the industrial revolution would never have happened in the way we know it," because Europeans would never have gained access to the metals of the New World, or to Indian mines (Weatherford 57). This contact also generated the money economy of Europe and fueled a shift to a European economy based upon real, hard, convertible currency. Metal-based currency also was critical in fueling industrialism and world trade. By beginning the book with tales of South American encounters with Europe, which were particularly brutal and unequal from the beginning of the Indian-European relationship, Weatherford initiates a tragic tone, explaining how enslaved South American Indians mining gold and silver in Potosi supplied the precious metals for most of the European coins that generated wealth for the Old World at the expense of the liberty of the New World."
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Benign Wilderness and Malign Civilization, 2006.
A new look at the concept of wilderness in the face of Canada's growing population and increasing urbanization and what this means for the relationship between civilization and the wilderness.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 8 sources, £ 36.95
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Abstract
The rhetoric of wilderness is a site of conflict in modern Canada as the traditional concept of wilderness is challenged by the country's growing population and expansion of its urban areas. This essay examines this process in terms of contemporary critical revision of the concept of wilderness as a human construct and the consequent reappraisal of our understanding of the relationship between people and the wilderness.
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William Cronon's "The Trouble with Wilderness..." (1996), 2005.
This paper discusses William Cronon's "The Trouble with Wilderness or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature", which provides a helpful critique of tendencies to encourage a mistake of equating the wilderness with a paradise it is not.
900 words (approx. 3.6 pages), 3 sources, £ 24.95
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Abstract
This paper relates that William Cronon's "The Trouble with Wilderness or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature" explains the escape metaphor attached to the wilderness, which draws attention from ecological work to be done in urban areas. The author points out that Cronon traces the long history of how culture addresses the wilderness, especially since the rise of science. The paper refers to three other articles supporting Cronon's thesis,which serves as a kind of warning to environmentalists of the folly of their ways in conceptualizing the environment and the work that needs to be done more accurately.
From the Paper
"William Cronon's "The Trouble with Wilderness - or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature", provides a helpful critique of tendencies to encourage a mistake of equating the wilderness with a paradise it is not. (1996) This romantic habit of mind does nothing to promote the ecological revolution the world must see if it is to restore and preserve the greater natural environment. Cronon asks that the reader 'rethink', first of all, what is meant by the term of wilderness, noting that there are various kinds of it, and that the wilderness, under any circumstances is not the Utopia that current environmental activists would have us believe is so."
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The Wilderness Bill, 2007.
A brief overview of the 1964 Wilderness Bill.
828 words (approx. 3.3 pages), 5 sources, MLA, £ 20.95
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Abstract
This paper examines how the Wilderness Bill, developed out of the work of the Wilderness Society, led by Howard Zahniser. It looks at how the bill came about as a response to the rapid urbanization and sprawl of the nation, which resulted in a rapid decline in the amount of protected wilderness space. It also shows how, at its core, the bill created a legal definition for "wilderness" and, when the Wilderness Act was enacted on September 3, 1964, it protected over nine million acres of federal wilderness area.
From the Paper
"The parameters of the Wilderness Act are aimed at ensuring real protection to federal lands for the preservation for future generations. According to the Wilderness Act, all land that is protected under its jurisdiction became areas of public land. Further, a designation as being a wilderness is an additional protection given to the land that supersedes any less protection granted by the administrative agency overseeing the national forest, national park, wildlife refuges and other forms of public land. The Wilderness Act also places an emphasis on conservation instead of tourism or public use. "
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"The Trouble with Wilderness", 2006.
A discussion of environmentalism from the book "The Trouble with Wilderness", by William Cronon.
2,114 words (approx. 8.5 pages), 0 sources, £ 45.95
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Abstract
The paper reviews the book "The Trouble with Wilderness" by William Cronon. The paper illustrates the cultural biases inherent in the term, "wilderness". The paper illustrates how wilderness was considered a barren and scary place, but by the end of the 19th century, due to shifts in cultural ideology and the effects of industrialism, the American concept of wilderness changed dramatically. The paper further examines how the Bible presents two dualistically opposed views of wilderness: the Garden of Eden and the dangerous wasteland of the desert and how this dualistic worldview is at the root of the conflicts within the environmental movement. The paper concludes with Cronon's wish that all environmentalists pay attention to the cultural and historical context of wilderness.
From the Paper
"Cronon's main motive in writing "The Trouble with Wilderness" is not to criticize the environmental or conservation movements but to "abandon the dualism that sees the tree in the garden as artificial," (387). All nature is sacred and sublime, including the grasses on the prairies and the marshlands in Florida. Labeling some parts of the natural world as "wilderness" makes those parts valuable in the public consciousness and consequentially, the public may ignore the beauty outside their bedroom window."
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Preserving the Wilderness, 2006.
Argues for the need to preserve the world's wilderness as these areas are a haven for habitat and biodiversity not found anywhere else on earth.
1,975 words (approx. 7.9 pages), 8 sources, APA, £ 43.95
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Abstract
Our entire society is governed by consumerism and competition and in order for our economy to thrive, our appetite for prosperity must continually grow. The paper argues that it is for this very reason that we must take wilderness protection very seriously. As a commercial society we are dependant on our abundance of natural resources and our common wealth of public land to fuel our ever-growing population. The paper argues that even if the average person never visits a pristine forest, their quality of life is seriously affected by its preservation.
Paper Outline:
Introduction
Why Protect Wilderness?
Wilderness as a Resource
Biodiversity
Wilderness as a Laboratory
The Arctic Refuge; An Urgent Risk
Conclusion
Bibliography
From the Paper
"Perhaps a fundamental importance of wilderness lies in its ability to provide a basis for understanding the effects of our current land-use practices. Wilderness offers us "an ecological laboratory" (Miller, 199) where it is possible to examine nature as it was meant to function. Multiple use approaches to land management and other attempts at conservation may well be practical solutions towards preserving wilderness. However, without being able to compare our practices to an area of land that has not been managed or disturbed, it would be almost impossible to judge the difference. In addition, the National Resource Defiance Council, or NRDC, claims that half of our public lands are home to endangered or threatened species. Unspoiled wilderness provides a habitat in which both nature and evolution can progress without disruption."
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Literature of Wilderness, 2005.
This paper compares the use of the concept of wilderness in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby".
1,370 words (approx. 5.5 pages), 2 sources, MLA, £ 31.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that wilderness was a symbolic state used by Nathaniel Hawthorne in "Young Goodman Brown" and F. Scott Fitzgerald in "Great Gatsby" to show their protagonists' realizations that they have lost their meaning in their respective lives. The author points out that, in "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne used the wilderness as the setting for Goodman's path towards discovering and testing his faith in God by describing wilderness as a place where disorder prevails against civilization's mannered characteristic. The paper relates that Fitzgerald's portrayal of the wilderness in "Great Gatsby" shows the harshness of society towards individuals who deviate from its standards of conformity in terms of beliefs and values in life, a setting far less rustic and disorderly as Hawthorne's wilderness in "Young Goodman Brown".
From the Paper
"Even towards the end of the story, Hawthorne continued to haunt his readers with the theme of wilderness inherent in the hearts and minds of humanity. Posing the question, "Had Goodman Brown fell asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?," Hawthorne was actually creating disorder in the minds of his readers, making them also question whether Goodman's confrontation in the wilderness was an illusion or not. This unanswered question unsettled the ending of the story, leaving Hawthorne's readers groping in the "wilderness" of interpretation, just as Goodman had been lost in the wilderness of his heart and mind."
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The Wilderness, 2002.
A creative essay on the surroundings in the wilderness.
958 words (approx. 3.8 pages), 0 sources, £ 23.95
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Abstract
A detailed and abstract essay describing the qualities that the wilderness possesses. The paper describes the nature, the fauna and the river in the wilderness.
From the Paper
"The air is pure, so clean and uninhibited by any foreign debris or pollution. The breeze blows gently and whistles as it passes through the underbrush. It is a rather warm day, approximately ninety degrees. The sky is endlessly blue stretching for galaxies without a cloud. The only sounds are those from lively mockingbirds, that of the wind passing through the treetops, and the river as it flows through its riverbed. The river flows graciously, with careless abandon, stopping for no obstacle in its path."
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In the Wilderness, 2006.
This paper looks at the writings of Henry David Thoreau with regard to the concept of wilderness.
2,295 words (approx. 9.2 pages), 5 sources, MLA, £ 48.95
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Abstract
In this article, the writer discusses author Henry David Thoreau's writings relating to the American idea (and ideal) of the wilderness. The writer explains that Thoreau wrote about the spiritual bond between humans and the natural world and that Thoreau's work ranged widely from writings on nature to justice and truth. In addition, the writer looks at how Thoreau combines the ideas of the study of nature as well as the more transcendental approach of contemplation and unconscious attachment. The writer also looks and compares Thoreau's ideas to the beliefs of John Muir regarding wilderness. Further, the writer discusses the development of Thoreau's ideas in his works.
From the Paper
"In fact, adds Oeschlaeger, Muir does not only go beyond transcendentalism, but includes dimensions that even Thoreau's idea wilderness did not attain. Why is it, then, that Muir does not always have the recognition he deserved? The first reason is that he wrote significantly much more as a naturalistic essayist in the tradition of Gilbert White than a systematic philosopher. Although there is philosophical prose in his work, he does not push his arguments but is discrete in his approach. There is a relentless questioning of anthropocentric viewpoints on nature and a regular acceptance of a biocentric perspective where humans have developed into an empathetic part of nature instead of a scientific observer separate from it.
Secondly, Muir's approach is more theological than philosophical. His love for nature is so great, that he can not divorce his ideas about God from what he sees around him."
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Oelschlaeger's 'The Idea of Wilderness', 2006.
An essay review of the book 'The Idea of Wilderness' by Max Oelschlaeger
2,148 words (approx. 8.6 pages), 0 sources, £ 46.95
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Abstract
This paper reviews Oelschlaeger's 'The Idea of Wilderness' from Prehistory to the Age of Ecology, giving an overview of interaction with nature from the earliest times of human existence until present times.
From the Paper
"There still is a sect of wilderness Buddhist monks, for example, that have been roaming the wilderness of Southeast Asia for centuries, living symbiotically with the jungle. The monks' rules demand they live entirely outside of the market economy, refusing any activities that divide them from a completely wilderness life: agriculture, herding animals, conducting trade or commerce, or storing food. In a sense, they are hunters and gatherers, but since they cannot kill animals, take from plants, or dig up soil, they instead collect from the generosity of the farmers. To repay for the burden put on their supporters, they must make themselves worthy--following the dharma, living frugally and virtuously, keeping their needs to a complete minimum.
The Idea of Wilderness covers Snyder's spiritual ecology and his "Eastern Connection" and interest in Oriental philosophy, psychology and religion. From his contact with the Zen Buddhism, he gained contact with ecology, to "hear the Earth Mother, welling up through the poet's song that sings of ancient sensibilities..." (262) " As Loa Tzu reminds, the name that can be named is not the Tao, the Mother of the ten thousand things."
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"A Season in the Wilderness", 2004.
A review of the book, "A Season in the Wilderness" written by Edward Abbey.
1,168 words (approx. 4.7 pages), 1 source, MLA, £ 27.95
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Abstract
This paper discusses Edward Abbey's "A Season in the Wilderness", a record of his work for three summer seasons as a seasonal park ranger in the Arches National Monument in Utah. The paper contends that the author deserves respect for his ability to describe in great detail all the wildlife in the southeastern Utah desert. The paper claims that Abbey obviously took very good notes and kept an elaborate journal in order to later put a book together packed with rich detail and glowing narrative.
From the Paper
"The author, Edward Abbey, explains to the reader in the Author's Introduction, what it was like to work for three summer seasons as a "seasonal park ranger" in the Arches National Monument in Utah. He kept a journal during those seasons, which recorded his feelings and his activities: the desert where he worked, he writes, is a "vast world, an oceanic world, as deep in its way and complex and various as the sea." But his book isn't just about the stunning beauty of the land in southwest Utah, although Abbey says (1) the desert where he worked "...is the most beautiful place on earth.""
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Wilderness Camping, 2005.
This paper discusses the requirements of wilderness camping on the Tahoe Rim Trail on the ridge tops of the Sierra Nevada mountains along the shores of Lake Tahoe.
1,100 words (approx. 4.4 pages), 3 sources, MLA, £ 26.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that, as long as the camper takes a few precautions, the Tahoe Rim Trail is an excellent location for experiencing wilderness camping and having a wonderful camping adventure. The author points out that, for most of the trail's route, there are no established campgrounds; therefore, campers must follow the U.S Forest Service's (USFS) guidelines for "dispersed camping" along the trail, which means campers can choose a campsite anywhere along the trail, but the site must be within 300 feet on either side of the trail and should not be within 200 feet of a water source. The paper gives instructions for avoiding bear activity along the Trail and watching out for rattlesnakes.
From the Paper
"Clearly, wilderness camping such as that along the Tahoe Rim Trail depends on successful planning before the hike. If campers are planning to hike the entire trail, they will need to plan on carrying enough food and water for the entire trip, which can run into quite a bit of supplies. They can replenish water in some of campgrounds along the way, and there are some water sources along the trail. If water from these sources is used, campers should carry a portable water purification system. Campers should never drink unfiltered or purified water from natural sources. Food will be a major part of the planning effort, and a major portion of the weight carried on the trip."
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