| Abstract: | This paper is based on an extensive review of soil fertility in the literature of soil science, agronomy and ethnic studies. The spectrum of scientific opinions on soil fertility was visualized in mind‐maps, definition types were analyzed, and problems within the conceptual approach towards soil fertility were shown. Differently oriented concepts were divided between the terms of soil fertility and soil quality. Soil fertility is not applicable as a technical term in natural sciences as it describes a definite, but dispositional (concealed), soil feature; therefore, it is not fully operationalizable for the natural sciences. Soil quality denotes undefined and interchangeable sets of appreciated soil attributes and functionalities, which are assigned by value judgements. It is a tool that integrates different soil state variables and functions in order to evaluate the capacity of a soil to do what it is expected (i.e. function) or to assess the sustainability of current land‐use practices. The phenomenon of soil fertility appears to the consciousness as an autonomous counter‐instance with its own mental and material qualities, referred to in traditional cultic cultivation. The main features of cultic cultivation of soil fertility are the uniting of the four elements, the religio towards the spiritual side of nature, the sacrificial, and the eros. A reevaluation of the soil fertility phenomenon in modern terms would be an innovative and forward‐looking research program. Practical and scientific work on soil fertility should rediscover and revive the feeling for, and apperception of, the phenomenon of soil fertility in its mental and material aspects. |
