Paper short abstract:

From linguistic anthropological perspective, this paper analyses a nature interpretation activity, practiced in a Japanese Eco-Institute, as an interactional poetry / indexical icon, i.e., ritual, entextualizing mythical interactional text, which mediates humans (culture) and environment (nature).

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses a nature interpretation activity, practiced in a Japanese Eco-Institute in Yamanashi prefecture, as an interactional poetry/ritual, i.e., indexical icon, entextualizing mythical interactional text, which mediates humans (culture) and environment (nature). Firstly, the research tries to reveal that the discourse of the nature interpretation activity constructs highly stylized 'interactional text' with distinct multi-layered poetic structures in the following three aspects: 1. the verbal expressions with the use of onomatopoeia by the nature interpreter to describe animals in forest, 2. the bodily movements by the nature interpreter to 'imitate' the animals, and 3. the entire discourse structure formed by a series of discursive segments, which consists of dialogues between the nature interpreter and the participants throughout the activity. Secondly, it further investigates the process in which the nature interpretation activity poetically (iconically) mediates/connects 'here and now' and 'there and then', that is, 'humans' and 'environment'. This process allows the nature interpretation activity to achieve three tasks: 1. metaphorically evoking the notion of 'mother nature' ('hahanaru daichi' in Japanese) for the participants, 2. vividly enacting the 'direct experience' with nature for the participants led by the nature interpreter as a 'shamanic' figure in the forest, and 3. 'ritual'-izing the entire interaction. Therefore, the paper endeavors to discursively integrate the two dichotomized disciplinary areas of 'environmental studies' and 'communication studies' based on linguistic anthropology, to enhance the understanding of the environment/nature as pragmatically/culturally constructed through sociocultural interaction, and to promote interdisciplinary approaches in communication studies.