The rigid separation between nature and culture, between human and non-human, is not a universal notion. In some indigenous perspectives on the environment, the opposition between the “cultivated” and the “uncultivated” prevails. For many Oceanians, tuber plantations (taro and yam) are a crossroad between the cultivated and the uncultivated as well as an aesthetic space where one can experience the art of relationship and meditate on the interdependence between living beings.

Adriano Favole is vice Research Director at the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society and professor of Cultural Anthropology and Culture and Power at the Turin University.

SUBSCRIBE