[Last modified: October, 16 2024 09:52 AM]
I was sitting on a park bench in Gordon square park thinking about human-nature relationships and the anthropogenically imposed dichotomies. Though breaking up these dichotomies and multispecies entanglements are status quo in the study of environmental anthropology, it is more difficult to implement this thinking in an everyday setting than to speak about it theoretically. My topic is cashew trees and the use of them by people locally and by the global market.
The setting of the park is related to my topic in the sense that I could watch humans engagement with the trees/nature in the park: Do they come alone, do they walk in groups, do they lay in the grass, do they observe nature? I noticed that most people that came to the park alone sat on park benches, whilst groups tended to stand together in patches of sunlight when there was any. The people alone were– to no surprise– often on their phone on a bench. Another thing I had noticed about this park prior to this day is that singular people mostly occupy an entire bench. Only if every last bench was taken would strangers sit next to each other on one. As I am writing up this information I notice that my anthropological training has very much steered me towards observing human behaviour. I find it not so easy to give the trees as much attention as I did give humans.
I did not feel awkward doing this exercise because I was quite far away from any people and I think it is quite ‘normal’ and socially accepted to sit on a park bench and to be writing something in a booklet. I feel like even people watching is socially accepted in a park. I hope to be able to focus more on multispeciality in future excercises and in daily life.