Jungle
A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century.
Etymology
The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jaṅgala (जङ्गल), meaning rough and arid. It came into the English language in the 18th century via the Hindustani word for forest (Urdu/Hindi: جنگل / जङ्गल) (Jangal).[1][2] Jāṅgala has also been variously transcribed in English as jangal, jangla, jungal, and juṅgala.[citation needed] It has been suggested that an
Wildlife
Because jungles occur on all inhabited landmasses and may incorporate numerous vegetation and land types in different
Varying usage
As dense and tangled vegetation
One of the most common meanings of jungle is land overgrown with tangled vegetation at ground level, especially in the tropics. Typically such vegetation is sufficiently dense to hinder movement by humans, requiring that travellers cut their way through.[6][7][8] This definition draws a distinction between rainforest and jungle, since the understorey of rainforests is typically open of vegetation due to a lack of sunlight, and hence relatively easy to traverse.[9][10] Jungles may exist within, or at the borders of, tropical forests in areas where the woodland has been opened through natural disturbance such as hurricanes, or through human activity such as logging.[6][11][12] The successional vegetation that springs up following such disturbance, is dense and tangled and is a "typical" jungle. Jungle also typically forms along rainforest margins such as stream banks, once again due to the greater available light at ground level.[9]
Monsoon forests and mangroves are commonly referred to as jungles of this type. Having a more open canopy than rainforests, monsoon forests typically have dense understoreys with numerous lianas and shrubs making movement difficult,[6][13][14] while the prop roots and low canopies of mangroves produce similar difficulties.[15][16]
As moist forest
Because European explorers initially travelled through tropical forests largely by river, the dense tangled vegetation lining the stream banks gave a misleading impression that such jungle conditions existed throughout the entire forest. As a result, it was wrongly assumed that the entire forest was impenetrable jungle.
The terms "tropical forest" and "rainforest" have largely replaced "jungle" as the descriptor of humid tropical forests, a linguistic transition that has occurred since the 1970s. "Rainforest" itself did not appear in English dictionaries prior to the 1970s.[22] The word "jungle" accounted for over 80% of the terms used to refer to tropical forests in print media prior to the 1970s; since then it has been steadily replaced by "rainforest",[23] although "jungle" still remains in common use when referring to tropical rainforests.[22]
As metaphor
As a metaphor, jungle often refers to situations that are unruly or lawless, or where the only law is perceived to be "survival of the fittest". This reflects the view of "city people" that forests are such places. Upton Sinclair gave the title The Jungle (1906) to his famous book about the life of workers at the Chicago Stockyards, portraying the workers as being mercilessly exploited with no legal or other lawful recourse.[24]
The term "
The word "jungle" carries connotations of untamed and uncontrollable nature and isolation from civilisation, along with the emotions that evokes: threat, confusion, powerlessness, disorientation and immobilisation.[23][25][26] The change from "jungle" to "rainforest" as the preferred term for describing tropical forests has been a response to an increasing perception of these forests as fragile and spiritual places, a viewpoint not in keeping with the darker connotations of "jungle".[23][27][28]
Former
See also
- Monsoon forest
- Arid Forest Research Institute (AFRI)
- Rainforest
- Wilderness
- Grove (nature)
- Amazon rainforest
References
- ^ "Meaning of jungle in English". Lexico. Oxford University Press/Dictionary.com. 2020. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
Origin: Late 18th century from Sanskrit jāṅgala 'rough and arid (terrain)'.
- ^ "Home : Oxford English Dictionary". www.oed.com. Retrieved 2019-04-01.(subscription required)
- ISBN 81-208-1618-8.
- S2CID 141730178.
- Yule, Henry, Sir (1903). Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. New ed. edited by William Crooke, B.A. J. Murray, London. Archived from the original on 2012-07-07.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ a b c Tropical Forests Archived 2012-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Mysterious Journey Archived 2012-07-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Nygren, A. 2006 Representations of Tropical Forests and Tropical Forest-Dwellers in Travel Accounts of ‘National Geographic', Environmental Values 15
- ^ a b "SUNY Oneonta - Grow Intellectually. Thrive Socially. Live Purposefully". suny.oneonta.edu. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
- ^ "Rainforest Biomes". www.blueplanetbiomes.org.
- ^ Kricher JC. 1997. A neotropical companion: an introduction to the animals, plants, and ecosystems of the New World tropics, 2nd edn. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- ^ "Ecology L4.OO". Archived from the original on 3 July 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-11-02. Retrieved 2014-01-05.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Terrestrial Biomes" (PDF). Wku.edu (Western Kentucky University, Department of Geography and Geology). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 27, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ Holguin, G. Guzman, M.A. &Bashan, Y. 1992 Two new nitrogen-fixing bacteria from the rhizosphere of mangrove trees: Their isolation, identification and in vitro interaction with rhizosphere Staphylococcus sp. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 101
- ^ Namdar, A. & Nusrath, A. 2010 Tsunami numerical modeling and mitigation. Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale 12
- ^ Sterling, T. (1983). The Amazon: The World's Wild Places. Time-Life Books. New York
- ^ Baumann, Paul R. (2009). "Tropical Wet Realms of Central Africa, Part 1". Oneonta.edu (State University of New York College at Oneonta). Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ a b Purser, B. 2003. Jungle bugs: masters of camouflage and mimicry. Firefly Books, Toronto.
- ^ Birtles, T. G. 1997: "First contact: colonial European preconceptions of tropical Queensland rainforest and its people". Journal of Historical Geography 23, 393–417.
- ^ M\Iyengar, M. O. T. 1930 Jungle in Relation to Malaria in Bengal. Indian Journal of Medical Research 18:1
- ^ ISBN 9780826518316.
- ^ a b c Slater, C (2003). In Search of the Rain Forest. Duke University Press
- ISBN 0-521-37553-3.
- ^ Fearing, F. (1963) "The problem of metaphor" Southern Journal of Communication
- ^ Jones, J. (1962) "The Thin Red Line". Dell Publishing New York
- ^ Slater, C (2004). Marketing the ‘rain forest’: Raw Vanilla fragrance and the ongoing transformation of the jungle. Cultural Geographies 11:4
- ^ Gustavson, E. 2007 "Rhetoric: How Politicians Manipulate Language and the Media to Shape Public Thought" Hinckley Journal of Politics 8
- ISBN 9780674003026.
- ^ Chinua, Achebe (1977). "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'". Massachusetts Review (18 ed.).
- ^ Koplow, Michael J. (3 September 2020). "The Iron Wall Versus the Villa in the Jungle". Retrieved 11 March 2023.
- ^ Uri Avnery, "Barak: A Villa in the Jungle", Gush Shalom website, July 7, 2007 [1],
- Ha'aretz, Jan. 30, 2006 [2]
External links
- BBC - Science and Nature: Jungle
- "Biomes of the World" by Dennis Paulson