The word ‘environment’ descends to us from French. The word was created around the year 1600 and meant “The conditions in which a person or thing lives” aka the ‘stuff’ around us1. This is a deeply anthropocentric understanding of nature, yet at the same time it denotes a deep intimacy with nature. Most people during the medieval period were peasants; as a peasant nature was of paramount importance, its presence all-encompassing. In class, we discussed the notion that in traditional agricultural societies people will do anything to maintain their control over their land. Your argument that this impulse to defend their land develops from the notion that it will provide them with sustenance and therefore life, serves as strong evidence to intimate relationship the medieval person had with the land. Even the nobles, who were far removed from the fields, had a deep respect for the land. The land was the source of their wealth as well. Perhaps for nobles, land was even more important. This can be seen in the creation of forests. Forests were areas of
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In this address Thoreau acknowledges ancient human’s deep bond with nature, citing the story of Romulus and Remus. Thoreau says the fact that they drew their nourishment from a wild source (suckling from a wolf) is central to the story. At one point in his address he tells a brief story where a traveler asks Wordsworth’s servant to show him his master’s study, to which the servant replies “Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.” Both Wordsworth and Thoreau were keen on taking long walks in the wilderness: it was this connectedness with nature which Thoreau viewed as fundamental to living a meaningful life. He sarcastically credits shopkeepers and others who spend their lives indoors for not committing suicide long
In this address Thoreau acknowledges ancient human’s deep bond with nature, citing the story of Romulus and Remus. Thoreau says the fact that they drew their nourishment from a wild source (suckling from a wolf) is central to the story. At one point in his address he tells a brief story where a traveler asks Wordsworth’s servant to show him his master’s study, to which the servant replies “Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.” Both Wordsworth and Thoreau were keen on taking long walks in the wilderness: it was this connectedness with nature which Thoreau viewed as fundamental to living a meaningful life. He sarcastically credits shopkeepers and others who spend their lives indoors for not committing suicide long