The forthcoming edition of Pro Ethnologia (Vol 11, No 18, to be issued October 2004) will focus on the connections between culture and environments, including the symbolic, ideological and cognitive aspects and environmental practices. We would like to concentrate on the role of environments in anthropological (ethnological) theory and in larger social discourse in this issue.

We welcome papers, dealing with the following key words: cultural ecology; culturally constructed environments (from techno-spaces and media spaces to nature); environmental practices; environments and identity; cultural perceptions of the environment, landscape etc.

The aim is to outline various symbols and aesthetic ideals, surrounding and constructing environmental discourses. We also seek for answers, how the cultural perceptions about the environment are born both on the level of practices and ideology, and how they, in turn, influence behaviour, decisions and self-identification.

We are waiting for the papers which approach the topics from different angles: for example, tourism as a phenomenon, commodification of nature, environmentalism, ideas about cultural landscapes in historical and contemporary perspective. The cases may be connected to people’s everyday choices but might also deal with the reflections of worldwide perspectives, where the power of the global consumer society and ideas of sustainable development are continuously contested by each other.

Also the relationship of indigenous peoples with the environment is of interest. The main questions are related to the concepts of environment in non-western cultures, beliefs and surroundings and the relevance of western dichotomy of nature-culture as an ontological distinction. Also the questions about the domestication of space and category of wilderness, patterns of resource use and subsistence economy, state policies and relations of power in environmental practices and discourses are relevant.

Articles may vary widely in length, but long pieces should generally not exceed 20 pages. Shorter pieces might include critical essays, commentaries, discussions and reviews of recent books in Ethnology/Anthropology, and closely related topics. Each paper should include a self-contained abstract in English of a maximum of 150 words, summarizing the article's main points plus 5 keywords.

Pro Ethnologia is a peer-reviewed journal. The editors will consider all manuscripts received, the journal assumes no responsibility for their publication or return.

The deadline for recieving the manuscripts is April 20th, 2004.

Papers should be submitted either by e-mail or with a copy on disk (RTF or MS Word format) to the academic chief editor:

Pille Runnel
Estonian National Museum
Veski 32 Tartu
Estonia
E-mail: runnel@erm.ee

For previous issues online, see http://www.erm.ee/?lang=ENG&node=101