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4 - Human attitudes and values

Tradition and transformation and zombies

from Part I - The historical and contemporary contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2014

By
Peter Corkeron
Edited by
James Higham ,
Lars Bejder  and
Rob Williams
Peter Corkeron
Affiliation:
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
James Higham
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Lars Bejder
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Rob Williams
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
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Summary

Introduction

Tradition is commonly cited in arguments justifying the continuation of commercial whaling (e.g. Morishita, 2006). Rather than explore the meaning and context of whaling traditions, I shall focus on the more general question of how we perceive animals, and what those perceptions mean for how people relate to animals. Then I shall describe the recent transformations in those who support whaling, and those who oppose it, focusing on whale-watching. Finally, I question whether the non-government organization (NGO) support for whale-watching as a replacement for whaling has become, itself, a tradition that has morphed into a zombie.

Zombies may seem an odd addition to the discussion of the role of nature-based tourism in conservation, but here, I discuss a zombie idea, rather than the shambling undead. Recently, the construct of ‘zombie’ ideas has been introduced (Quiggin, 2010) in macroeconomics. A zombie idea is one that should have been killed off long ago, given available evidence that it is wrong, and yet it just will not die. Although the impetus for zombie concepts came from macroeconomics (Quiggin, 2010), the construct has been taken up by authors in other areas: for example, military history (Stockings, 2010), environmental economics (Reyes, 2011) and ecology (Fox, 2011).

Type
Chapter
Information
Whale-watching
Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management
 , pp. 48 - 56
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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  • Human attitudes and values
    • By Peter Corkeron, Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
  • Edited by James Higham, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lars Bejder, Murdoch University, Western Australia, Rob Williams, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Whale-watching
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139018166.005
Available formats
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Human attitudes and values
    • By Peter Corkeron, Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
  • Edited by James Higham, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lars Bejder, Murdoch University, Western Australia, Rob Williams, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Whale-watching
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139018166.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

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  • Human attitudes and values
    • By Peter Corkeron, Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
  • Edited by James Higham, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lars Bejder, Murdoch University, Western Australia, Rob Williams, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Whale-watching
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139018166.005
Available formats
×