THE NUTMEGS CURSE: CH 4 (Terraforming)

Question 1

Terraforming definition

Answer 1

process of deliberately altering an environment to make it more habitable for human life. It’s often seen as a topic of science fiction writing, assuming the transformation of other planets, but “terra” meaning earth and “forming” meaning shaping, it can also simply refer to transforming the earth.

Question 2

Terraforming in practice

Answer 2

European colonists used renaming to erase the prior meanings of conquered landscapes, replacing them with names derived from their distant homeland, symbolizing a tabula rasa and erasure of indigenous history.

Naming a place “New- something” is a form of Semantic and Symbolic violence.