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Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities
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Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities

A special issue of Histories (ISSN 2409-9252). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental History".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 19048

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. em. Dr. Jon Mathieu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of History, University of Lucerne, 6002 Lucerne, Switzerland
Interests: mountain history; family and kinship history; agrarian history
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Simona Boscani Leoni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Historical Institute, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Interests: social history; intellectual history; environmental history; networking; history of science; history of the Alpine region; church history

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Natura is a polysemic Latin word that has accompanied the historical development of the West for centuries, spreading around much of the globe with colonialism and imperialism. It has been adopted in numerous languages. Our relationship with nature has become a highly charged issue at least since the "ecological turn" around 1970. It is as much about the relationship of humans to the environment as it is about the relationship of humans to each other. In the wake of these problems and debates, research has intensified in a variety of disciplines: history, anthropology, philosophy, literature, ecology, etc., each in its disciplinary expression or in interdisciplinary combinations.

Part of this lively, heterogeneous research deals with the level of perception. What images of nature exist in what historical contexts, under what conditions, and with what consequences? Meant are "images" in the broad sense of the word, as an articulated idea, narrative and drawing, taken as representations or equivalences of underlying phenomena. Do these natures stand in opposition to other ideas? Say the ideas of the supernatural, the unnatural, the human, the divine, the cultural, and so on. Furthermore, in what contexts are the images politically activated: colonialism, nationalism, racism, universalism, indigenism?

The collection of articles on "Images of Nature" plans to address these questions in a long-term perspective, from the European Middle Ages through the early modern period to the postcolonial, global present. In doing so, we focus on three influences:

  • Impact of Religion since the Middle Ages: Christianity spread a peculiar view of nature, which was varied in many ways in theological debates; contributions to other faiths that were represented in the West are also possible topics.
  • Impact of Science since the early modern period: Research in natural history gave an enormous boost to the imagery of nature since the 16th and 17th centuries, which continued and intensified during the Enlightenment and further on.
  • Impact of Environmentalism since decolonization: The increasing critique of Western society, religion, and science, brought a turn to ecology and, at the same time, to indigenous peoples, who often functioned as postcolonial models. These are the current tensions structuring much of our research.

Please submit your contribution to the Special Issue to guest editor Jon Mathieu by December 31, 2022 (jon.mathieu@unilu.ch). You can also submit a proposal, by October 31, in order to discuss the topic with Jon Mathieu and Simona Boscani Leoni before the elaboration of the article. After this preview, the articles follow the ordinary manuscript submission proceeding of Histories. There will be no Article Processing Charges for this Special Issue, but a serious single-blind peer review process.

A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Prof. em. Jon Mathieu
Prof. Dr. Simona Boscani Leoni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Histories is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • long-term history
  • views of "nature(s)"
  • role of religion
  • role of science
  • role of environmentalism

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Editorial

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6 pages, 216 KiB  
Editorial
Images of Nature: Introduction to the Special Issue
by Jon Mathieu
Histories 2023, 3(4), 348-353; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3040023 - 18 Oct 2023
Viewed by 971
Abstract
This Special Issue on ‘Images of Nature’ in the longue durée has its origins in a historical conference on ‘Nature’ at the University of Geneva in the summer of 2022 (6th Swiss History Days, 29 June–1 July 2022) [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

17 pages, 325 KiB  
Article
Naturmenschen? Alexander von Humboldt and Indigenous People
by Joachim Eibach
Histories 2023, 3(4), 331-347; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3040022 - 18 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1185
Abstract
In the numerous texts he wrote about his grand voyage to the Americas (1799–1804), the Berlin-born, highly influential, independent scholar Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) considers the people in Spanish America time and time again. While Humboldt was trained as a botanist, geologist, and [...] Read more.
In the numerous texts he wrote about his grand voyage to the Americas (1799–1804), the Berlin-born, highly influential, independent scholar Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) considers the people in Spanish America time and time again. While Humboldt was trained as a botanist, geologist, and mining engineer, he was nevertheless fascinated by indigenous actors who employed specific competencies as they operated in their natural environments and their own socio-cultural contexts, which were distinctly different from those in Europe. His perspectives on indigenous people are complex and refer back to various current discourses of his day. Although these texts address very different topics across a range of disciplines, they nevertheless clearly testify to his intense interest in Latin American society and culture. Humboldt repeatedly reconsiders his approaches to these topics; in a characteristically Humboldtian manner, he attempts to understand quite diverse phenomena by means of precise, on-site observation, comparison, and contextualization. In so doing, his argumentation oscillated between the poles established and defined by contemporary discourse, namely ‘savage’ and ‘barbarism’ on one side of the spectrum, and ‘civilization’ on the other. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
16 pages, 300 KiB  
Article
Daniel Sennert’s Corpuscularian Reforms to Natural Philosophy
by Gabriel Müller
Histories 2023, 3(3), 245-260; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3030017 - 16 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 773
Abstract
Daniel Sennert (1572–1637), professor of medicine and natural philosophy in Wittenberg, defended a highly unusual philosophical system. This paper examines Sennert’s vision of natural philosophy within the context of the rapidly changing environment of the seventeenth century and relates his philosophical innovations to [...] Read more.
Daniel Sennert (1572–1637), professor of medicine and natural philosophy in Wittenberg, defended a highly unusual philosophical system. This paper examines Sennert’s vision of natural philosophy within the context of the rapidly changing environment of the seventeenth century and relates his philosophical innovations to his methodology. The main result is that Sennert’s postulation of corpuscles with substantial forms, though it takes place within the framework of Aristotelian natural philosophy, directly influences his philosophical view of qualities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
17 pages, 2101 KiB  
Article
Nature as a Huge Organism: Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (1776–1837) and Early Ecology in German Romantic Science
by Sophie Ruppel
Histories 2023, 3(2), 112-128; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3020009 - 21 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1939
Abstract
The following article explores ideas of early ecological thinking within the natural sciences of early-19th-century Germany and discusses its possible roots. It tries to shed some light on the work of Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus who developed a holistic understanding of nature. The historical [...] Read more.
The following article explores ideas of early ecological thinking within the natural sciences of early-19th-century Germany and discusses its possible roots. It tries to shed some light on the work of Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus who developed a holistic understanding of nature. The historical background and 18th-century ideas Treviranus relies on will be described—namely, the ‘great chain of being’, the idea of nature as a vast network of interconnected living beings and the question about the existence of vital forces that cause movement, growth or reproduction. Reference will especially be made to Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus’ main work, the six-volume Biologie oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur für Naturforscher und Aerzte (Biology or Philosophy of Living Nature for Natural Scientists and Physicians) published in Göttingen between 1802 and 1822 and the somewhat later synopsis Erscheinungen und Gesetze des organischen Lebens (Phenomena and Laws of Organic Life) printed in Bremen in 1831 and 1832. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
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14 pages, 1041 KiB  
Article
Man as Image of Nature in Magnus Hundt: The Perspective of a Thomist ca. 1500
by Karsten Engel
Histories 2023, 3(1), 32-45; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3010004 - 10 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1818
Abstract
This paper draws on a late medieval example to show that images of nature can also be images of the human body. It presents the Anthropologium de hominis dignitate by the Leipzig magister Magnus Hundt (1449–1519). The Anthropologium is a text that prominently [...] Read more.
This paper draws on a late medieval example to show that images of nature can also be images of the human body. It presents the Anthropologium de hominis dignitate by the Leipzig magister Magnus Hundt (1449–1519). The Anthropologium is a text that prominently integrates the human body into its conception of man and its account of human dignity. The body is not presented as a prison of the soul, but as a perfectly balanced physical counterpart to the soul. The paper shows how Hundt’s reflections were influenced by his commitment to the Thomistic school. Moreover, it reveals how the elevated Imago Dei thesis provides a justification for the study of the human body. Hundt is shown to offer nothing less than a theological–philosophical legitimation for practising medicine. In doing so, he also incorporates images of nature in a literal sense, insofar as he includes images of the human body in his book. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
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Other

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14 pages, 301 KiB  
Essay
Changing Natures: On Theory and Practice of Breeding in the European Middle Ages
by Camille Schneiter
Histories 2023, 3(3), 231-244; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3030016 - 18 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 945
Abstract
While throughout modern history it has been shown how thoroughly biological discourses were shaped by conceptions originating in the theory and praxis of breeding, for the medieval period similar studies are mostly absent. This paper offers a symmetrical history of theory and praxis [...] Read more.
While throughout modern history it has been shown how thoroughly biological discourses were shaped by conceptions originating in the theory and praxis of breeding, for the medieval period similar studies are mostly absent. This paper offers a symmetrical history of theory and praxis of breeding by asking to what extent they shaped medieval conceptions of human ‘race’ and ‘ancestry’ in Europe. For scholarly knowledge of breeding, the analysis relies on Albertus Magnus’ extensive Aristotelian work De animalibus. For the practical knowledge of the breeders, scattered indications from the secondary literature are compiled and promising primary sources are outlined for further research. The paper finds that various concepts and practices whose origins are commonly placed in the early modern period were already present in the Middle Ages, including the concept of reproductive heredity and the view that creation diversified over time through reproductive ancestry. Breeding practices, thus, existed before the rise of genetics in modern biology. The medieval conceptions of ‘race’ and ‘ancestry’ underwent conceptual transfers from the non-human into the human sphere, collapsing the qualitative distinction of the two spheres into one quantitively graded overarching image of nature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
9 pages, 264 KiB  
Essay
A Political Ecology of the Body: Nature in French Anarchist Pedagogy around 1900
by Milo Probst
Histories 2023, 3(2), 189-197; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3020013 - 06 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1405
Abstract
This essay historicizes the concept of nature in French anarchist pedagogy around 1900. I argue that anarchist cosmology was not dualist in the sense that it did not neatly separate the natural from the cultural or social. Nature was rather understood as an [...] Read more.
This essay historicizes the concept of nature in French anarchist pedagogy around 1900. I argue that anarchist cosmology was not dualist in the sense that it did not neatly separate the natural from the cultural or social. Nature was rather understood as an ever-evolving realm that encompassed nonhuman and human entities. This example should encourage historical scholarship to look more deeply into what anthropologists sometimes call “naturalist ontology”. Instead of conceiving it as a fixed worldview, we should investigate its genealogy, transformations, and contestations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
13 pages, 249 KiB  
Essay
‘Apart from the Experiences of Subjects There Is Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Bare Nothingness’—Nature and Subjectivity in Alfred North Whitehead
by Isabella Schlehaider
Histories 2023, 3(2), 176-188; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3020012 - 02 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2067
Abstract
While long ignored, the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead has attracted considerable interest and wide academic reception since the 2000s. One reason for the renewed interest in Whitehead’s work is most certainly that his philosophy and concepts offer a way out of dualistic [...] Read more.
While long ignored, the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead has attracted considerable interest and wide academic reception since the 2000s. One reason for the renewed interest in Whitehead’s work is most certainly that his philosophy and concepts offer a way out of dualistic schemes of thought that have dominated the conceptual framework of the West since modernity. In my paper, I focus on Whitehead’s undoing of the opposition between nature and subjectivity, for it is a crucial aspect of Whitehead’s concept of nature not to exclude subjectivity from the ‘realm of nature’. For Whitehead, subjectivity is a fundamental feature of the whole of reality and by no means exclusively human, leading to a radically non-anthropocentric, pluralistic notion of the subject. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
14 pages, 1296 KiB  
Essay
Harm and Harmony—Concepts of Nature and Environmental Practice in Japan
by Regina M. Bichler
Histories 2023, 3(2), 62-75; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3020006 - 30 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3664
Abstract
Japan is often surrounded by the myth of featuring a unique “love for nature”, and its traditional culture and lifestyle as having been “in harmony with nature” before it was corrupted by modernization and Westernization. In this paper, I employ three examples to [...] Read more.
Japan is often surrounded by the myth of featuring a unique “love for nature”, and its traditional culture and lifestyle as having been “in harmony with nature” before it was corrupted by modernization and Westernization. In this paper, I employ three examples to delineate images of nature in different times of Japanese history and point out the discrepancy between discourse on nature and physical engagement with nature. I argue that the environmental destruction that peaked in the Meiji period (1868–1912) is not primarily derived from a new, dualistic Euro-American understanding of nature. Rather, I demonstrate that environmental harm was already inherent in premodern Japan and was reconcilable with the respective concepts of nature. Therefore, industrialization and the adoption of Western technology solely released the potential for large-scale environmental impact. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
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10 pages, 626 KiB  
Essay
How Great Was the “Great Divide of Nature and Culture” in Europe? Philippe Descola’s Argument under Scrutinity
by Jon Mathieu
Histories 2022, 2(4), 542-551; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2040036 - 16 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2233
Abstract
In his much-discussed work Beyond Nature and Culture, anthropologist Philippe Descola gives central importance to the “great divide” between nature and culture in European history. According to him, the “naturalism” created by this gap is at the heart of Western modernity and [...] Read more.
In his much-discussed work Beyond Nature and Culture, anthropologist Philippe Descola gives central importance to the “great divide” between nature and culture in European history. According to him, the “naturalism” created by this gap is at the heart of Western modernity and distinguishes it from the “others” on the planet. One can certainly agree with Descola that the nature-culture dualism cannot claim universal validity. However, the extent of the “great divide” created in Europe by early modern “rationalist” scholarship remains unclear. Methodologically, one should not limit oneself to the narrow history of science and philosophy, but also examine the linguistic, religious, and social history. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Images of Nature—From the Middle Ages to (Non-)Western Modernities)
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