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In the field of ecological anthropology, attention towards indigenous and non-Western

others has provided alternative models to address the shortcomings of the nature/culture

dichotomy. For instance, the notion of a ‘mutualism of person and environment’ came to the

forefront (Ingold in Bruun & Kalland 1995, p. 8). For example, Kaj Århem suggests that the

Makuna of the Columbian Amazon present an alternative model to culture as oppositional to

nature, representing this kind of mutualism. Through an analysis of Makuna eco cosmology

and food webs he states:

[T]he notion of “nature” is contiguous with that of “society” [footnote cut].
Together they constitute an integrated order, alternatively represented as a grand
society or a cosmic nature...In their essential aspect, human beings, (non-human)
animals and plants are undifferentiated; they belong to the same ontological
category of mortal beings. (Århem 1996, pp. 185-188)

He suggests, ‘the same can be said of many, if not most, indigenous peoples of the world’

(Århem 1996, p. 202). This is an example of what Pálsson terms communalism: ‘hunting and

gathering societies nicely represent the principles of communalism’ (Pálsson 1996, p. 73). ‘In

the hunter's view, there is no fundamental distinction between nature and society’ (Pálsson

1996, p. 74). Pálsson contrasts the communalism paradigm with what he terms orientalist and

paternalist paradigms, the latter reinforcing the nature/culture binary.

Peter Wenz (1997) presents similar ideas of mutualism along with the idea that

promoting cultural diversity offers tools to manage the environment (traditional/indigenous

being representative of that diversity). Contesting what he calls the ‘antienvironmentalist’

position that views environmentalism as a First World decadence that can lead to favouring

protection of the more-than-human at the sake of human oppression, Wenz states:

They ['traditional foragers'] often express the kind of respect for nature that
environmentalists champion. They also live in relatively good harmony with the
environment, as environmentalists prescribe. They do not seek successively more
powerful technologies that overpower nature in the supposed human interest... In
short, they belie the antienvironmentalist claim that, regardless of the society,

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