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Throughout history, many cultures have had very strong links with trees. In this post, I will briefly explore the western intellectual tradition and trace how the locus of meaning shifts through time using trees as a reference point. Premodernity In pre-modern times, trees were part of an enchanted world where “charged” objects imposed their meaning on people and thereby exhibited a certain power over them (see 2). For example, in Greek and Roman mythology it was believed that each tree was inhabited by a hamadryad, or spirit, that would punish mortals who harmed trees; this belief protected the trees from being cut down (4). The tree was a common motif to represent reality and was used in many myths and religions.  Modernity Modernity emerged out of the enlightenment. It brought about science and management techniques that offered a detached and calculated way on engaging with the world (). Humans made remarkable strides in understanding the material world and discovered amazing concepts such as the tree of life.  Although the modern age helped get rid of the negative side of superstition associated with mythology, it simultaneously suppressed an important dimension of the human experience that is responsible for giving humans stability and continuity. Consequently, it didn’t take long for the modern era to severe its ties to logic and wither away to postmodern balderdash. Postmodernity The postmodern age can be summarized as a period of institutionalized denigration of man and an objection to the traditional family unit that the patriarchy upholds. It was characterized by the fabrication of an false hierarchy where positions of authority were given to manipulators of words and images. People who chose to have a negative relationship with the state were privileged over those who wanted a positive relationship with the family (bloom). "Power" became more fashionable than truth and science turned into self-referential jargon that was expected to be taken as fact over common sense.  Remodernity We finally arrive at the remodern age―a retrieval of the original tenets of modernity but applied in a decentralized manner. Here, the tree symbolizes the process of individuation (3). Individuation is an “almost imperceptible, yet powerfully dominating impulse that comes from the urge toward unique, creative self-realization… a process in which one must repeatedly seek out and find something that is not yet known to anyone (3).”  It is an undertaking where an individual creates something that is distinctly their own and empowering them to live authentically. The tree, with its slow, powerful growth that differentiates into a specific but unique pattern, is a fitting symbol that represents this process. Conclusion
Although the locus of meaning shifts from external objects to an agentic* perspective over time, trees remain associated with life, strength, health, regeneration, protection, productivity and steadfastness. From pre-modern mythology, to modern science and remodernist symbology, the tree represents the unity of being and the triumph of life and order over extinction and chaos.
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Symbolism is the art of using symbols to represent complex ideas―if a picture is worth a thousand words, a symbol is worth an entire library. Exploring how different cultures use symbols is a great way to identify convergent ideas and similarities amongst various peoples. Naturally, one of the most important symbols is the tree. It is a universal, archetypal symbol that emerges in many different traditions around the world. Tree symbols not only unify diverse groups of people, but often symbolizes the unity of ideas itself. One of the most popular expressions of the tree symbol is the Tree of Life.
Ever wonder why a certain plant is found in one location but not another? An organism's fundamental niche and realized niche are two concepts that will get you one step closer to understanding this. Both the fundamental niche and the realized niche refer to the space an organism occupies in an ecosystem. The fundamental niche is all of the places that a species would be able to live whereas the realized niche is the actual space that it occupies within an ecosystem. In other words, the fundamental niche is the precompetitive area and the realized niche is the postcompetitive area of the species. Let’s look at an example: The black spruce is a transcontinental species that can grow on a variety of sites in Canada. It is found on moist, organic soils in the northern part of its range, but is confined to wet, poorly drained sites towards the southern part of its range. This illustrates that the Black Spruces grow in wet, poorly drained sites towards the south mainly because of competition AND not because it cannot tolerate the other types of soils. Why are these concepts important?
The fundamental niche is an important concept to know when growing trees in a horticultural setting, it allows us to determine whether a species has the physiological capacity to grow at a certain site or not. The realized niche provides us insight into why certain trees are not found at particular locations―a concept that may become increasingly useful as ecology contends with the issue of invasive species. |
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