Prompt: Is wilderness merely a symbolic construction? Does this matter to whether or not you want to protect it?

Our perception and understanding of the word ‘wilderness’ is a symbolic construction. Cox presents the contested history of Yosemite Valley as evidence of this construction, noting that the Mariposa Battalion cleansed the region of Native Americans in order to establish “pristine wilderness.” As a result, Watkins’ famed photographs of Yosemite depict spotless landscapes, untouched by humans, solidifying the symbolic construction of wilderness. Much of the modern perception of wilderness in the United States can be traced back to the events in Yosemite, when humans decided that wilderness meant “an uncultivated, uninhabited region.” By evicting the Native Americans from the valley, they decided that the presence of humans in the wilderness would compromise the wild qualities of those regions.

This distanced, human-free construction of wilderness hinders the ability and drive for humans to protect it. We are inherently driven by gains: economic, interpersonal, individual. Because wilderness is depicted as an isolated system, independent of human life, it doesn’t provide the same motivation to protect as other things do. Our history with Yosemite and cultural definitions of wilderness have forced a disconnect between ourselves and the wild. The symbolic construction of wilderness represents a mental state in which we believe that wilderness is a place that we do not belong since it must be untouched.

In order to protect something, we must find value in it. It must matter to us personally, because it affects us personally. When wilderness becomes relatable, we are more inclined to want to protect it, and by extension protect ourselves. As the symbolic construction of wilderness stands now, there is little incentive to protect, however this does not prevent the symbolic construction of wilderness from changing and becoming more accessible to the public in the future.

Works Cited:

Cox, Robert, and Phaedra C. Pezullo. “Chapter 4 The Environment In/of Visual and Popular Culture.” Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2016. Print.