New definitions of Wild

"The Oxford English Dictionary has it this way:

Of animals - not tame, undomesticated, unruly.

Of plants - not cultivated.

Of land - uninhabited, uncultivated.

Of foodcrops - produced or yielded without cultivation.

Of societies - uncivilized, rude, resisting constituted government.

Of individuals - unrestrained, insubordinate, licentious, dissolute, loose. 'Wild and wanton widowes' - 1614.

Of behavior - violent, destructive, cruel, unruly.

Of behavior - artless, free, spontaneous. 'Warble his native wood-notes wild' - John Milton.

Wild is largely defined in our dictionaries by what - from a human standpoint - it is not. It cannot be seen by this approach for what it is. Turn it the other way:

Of animals - free agents, each with its own endowments, living within natural systems.

Of plants - self-propagating, self-maintaining, flourishing in accord with innate qualities.

Of land - a place where the original and potential vegetation and fauna are intact and in full interaction and the landforms are entirely the result of nunhuman forces. Pristine.

Of foodcrops - food supplies made available and sustainable by the natural excess and exuberance of wild plants in their growth and in the production of quantities of fruit or seeds.

Of societies - societies whose order has grown from within and is maintained by the force of consesnus and custom rather than explicit legislation. Primary cultures, which consider themselves the original and eternal inhabitants of their territory. Societies which resist economic and political domination by civilization. Societies whose economic system is in close and sustainable relation to the local ecosystem.

Of individuals - following local custom, style, and etiquette without concern for the standards of the metropolis or nearest trading post. Unintimidated, self-reliant, independent. 'Proud and free.'

Of behavior - fiercely resisting any oppression, confinement, or exploitation. Far-out, outrageous, 'bad', admirable.

Of behavior - artless, free, spontaneous, unconditioned. Expressive, physical, openly sexual, ecstatic.

Most of the senses in this second set of definitions come very close to being how the Chinese define the term Dao, the way of Great Nature: eluding analysis, beyond categories, self-organizing, self-informing, playful, suprising, impermanent, insubstantial, independent, complete, orderly, unmediated, freely manifesting, self-authenticating, self-willed, complex, quite simple. Both empty and real at the same time. In some cases we might call it sacred."

Excerpt of the essay The Etiquette of Freedom, taken from the book The Practice of the Wild, by Gary Snyder.