ЕCO-SAVAGES ARE CONQUERING THE WORLD (The Creation of Ecological Sensibility through the Construction of the "Other")
ЕCO-SAVAGES ARE CONQUERING THE WORLD (The Creation of Ecological Sensibility through the Construction of the "Other")

Summary/Abstract: Contemporary environmentalist discourses employ the notions of "ecological wisdom", "true sustainability" and "religious naturalism" in order to promote ecological awareness. The exotic and non-Western "other", historically subjugated through the means of colonial power, romantic literature and early anthropological theories, gains popularity in these discourses. This paper analyzes how the Other is used as a tool of articulating and a means of propagating models of sustainable living. It questions whether the allegedly profound Western concern for distant and exotic peoples comes as a new popular rhetoric of conquering the "savage". In the conclusion, the paper suggests that the Other can be perceived not just as a building block of Western identity, or a means of exercising the power of the West, but as an equal participant in human interaction.

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