EcoCultural Conversations: Killer Whale

Tales and Other Discourses of Human-

Nature Relations

Tema Milstein
Communication & Journalism
Affiliated Faculty, UNM
Sustainability Program
Research Program:
Environment & Culture
 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 Story- Digitize Outputs Conduct Apply Derived
Telling in Two and Upload to Analysis Based Characteristics
Disparate Database on Newly to
Communities Developed Architectural/Pl
Models 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?
 Tourist: “The neatest part I think is hearing him. There are
no words. Cool, awesome, that just isn’t enough.”

 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?

 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”
 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, self-
mitigating
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
 Answers to my questions
 Raise larger important
questions about human-
nature 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).