ANTH410: Multispecies Anthropology: Other Species in Human Life

Transcription

1 1 ANTH410: Multispecies Anthropology: Other Species in Human Life Piers Locke, Psych- Soci Room 303, ext.4975, Thursdays 9-12am, Psych- Soci 307 Multispecies Anthropology introduces a new subfield concerned with the interconnectedness of humans and other life forms. Introducing students to perspectives that extend anthropological inquiry beyond humanity, it argues that the human condition cannot be understood in isolation from other species populating shared environments. On this course students will consider the dualist ontologies that have configured Western thinking about humans and their others through posthumanist philosophy. Investigating the limits of anthropocentrism, and considering the meaningful agency of nonhuman others, the course considers how nonhuman entanglements with human lives, landscapes, and technologies might be theoretically incorporated into accounts of human existence. The course surveys new avenues of research being opened up by multispecies approaches, introducing students to cutting edge studies of mammalian interspecies intimacies, to intersections with insects, fish, fungi, and microbes, to issues of extinction and invasion, and to the implications of other species for human bodies, economies, foods, and technologies. Class Format Classes will not feature formal lectures from the convenor, but will instead be organized around the format of a collaborative seminar. The success of the course depends on your active participation, as is appropriate for an honours level course. Please ensure you have engaged with some of the study material so that you can come to classes prepared to make a contribution. You are welcome to seek out pertinent news items, web resources, and journal articles that are not listed in the course outline, but which you feel can contribute to our discussions. You are also welcome to post messages on the Learn page (using the latest news block in the top right hand corner) before class, and I encourage you to use this space for ongoing conversation.

2 2 Learning Outcomes By the end of this course, students will have developed: o A critical understanding of posthumanist theory, dualist thought systems, and the multispecies turn in the humanities and social sciences o Familiarity with the latest research on human intersections with primates, elephants, microbes, fungi, insects, and aquatic creatures o Knowledge of key concepts including coevolution, companion species, mutual ecology, the human microbiome, and the Anthropocene o Substantive appreciation of the role of nonhuman species in configuring human worlds, and of species loss and extinction in multispecies environments o Improved analytic thinking skills, better scholarly research abilities, and greater aptitude in oral and written communication Assessment Oral presentation 20% Research Essay 1 30% 3000 words (due Friday 27 March) Critical Summary 20% 2000 words (due Friday 22 May) Research Essay 2 30% 3000 words (due Friday 12 June) Oral Presentation Students select a topic from weeks 4-12 and give a presentation. Only one student may present each week, so the selection of topics must be negotiated with other class members. Students should aim for a presentation of about 20 minutes. Visual aids (slides, film clips ) may be used, but are not mandatory. The intention should be to give a presentation that can stimulate further class discussion. Research Essays Students develop a topic of investigation in consultation with the course convenor, conduct a modest programme of scholarly research, and produce an essay framed around a particular question or problem in multispecies studies. Usual conventions for essay writing apply. Harvard referencing is the preferred style for citations. It may be helpful to consult the Anthropology Study Guide for further information (provided on the Learn page), or ask the course convenor for advice.

3 3 Critical Summary Students select one title from the list of environmental monographs for the purposes of writing an academic review. The task is to communicate your understanding of your selected book, summarizing its contents in an academically rigorous way. This involves making sense of the research upon which the book is based, the strategy the writer took in organizing and presenting their material, its social and environmental contexts, as well as the theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches employed. You might also consider including some personal reflections on the impact the book had on your thinking, and your opinions. By being attentive to these things you should find you produce a summary that is also critical, i.e. which does more than simply recount the contents of the book, but which also shows you have intellectually engaged with it. Programme of Topics Part 1: Multispecies Thinking - Anthropology Beyond Humanity 1. Anthropology and The Multispecies Turn 2. Posthumanism and Ontological Critique 3. Multispecies Approaches in Related Disciplines Part 2: Intersections with Other Life Forms 4. Ethnoprimatology: Humans and Other Primates 5. Ethnoelephantology: Human- Elephant Relations 6. Microbes, Bacteria, and Viruses 7. Fungi and Gourmet Food Networks 8. Aquatic Entanglements 9. Bees, Mosquitoes, and Slugs Part 3: Extinction, Invasion, and Cohabitation in The Anthropocene 10. Pests and Invaders in Wild and Domestic Spaces 11. Loss and Extinction in Multispecies Environments

4 4 12. Conclusion: Us and Them in The Anthropocene 1. Anthropology and The Multispecies Turn In recent years a renewed concern has emerged with rethinking the role of the other species that help configure human worlds. This week students are introduced to proposals for; multispecies ethnography, an anthropology of life, and an anthropology beyond humanity, which all attempt to rethink the ways we interact, share space, and entangle ourselves with other forms of life socially, historically, ecologically, and physiologically. Fuentes, A & E Kohn 2012 Two Proposals Cambridge Anthropology 30 (2) Ingold, T 2013 Anthropology Beyond Humanity Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 38 (3) Kohn, E 2007 How Dogs Dream: Amazonian Natures and The Politics of Trans- Species Engagements American Ethnologist 34 (1) 3-24 Kirksey, E & S Helmreich 2010 The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography Cultural Anthropology 25 (4) Kirksey, E (ed) 2014 The Multispecies Salon Durham NC: Duke University Press Locke, P & U Münster 2015 Multispecies Ethnography Oxford Bibliographies Online Ogden, L, Hall, B & K Tanita 2013 Animals, Plants, People, and Things: A Review of Multispecies Ethnography Environment and Society: Advances in Research 4 (1) 5-24 Web: The Multispecies Salon companion website (includes multispecies ABCs) salon.org/ 2. Posthumanism and Ontological Critique Other species have always been integral to the anthropological endeavor, yet the tradition of humanist thinking from which it derives is predicated on the privileged isolation of humanity from the other forms of life upon which it depends. This separation of the human is associated with a variety of binary oppositions crucial to the architecture of modernist thought, which include nature and culture, subject and object, human and nonhuman. Posthumanism

5 5 however, represents a philosophical disposition that questions the ontological rupture between humanity and other life forms occupying shared environments. Badmington, N 2003 Theorizing Posthumanism Cultural Critique Castree et al 2004 Mapping Posthumanism: An Exchange Environment and Planning A 36 (8) Holbraad, M & M Pedersen 2014 The Politics of Ontology Fieldsights - Theorizing The Contemporary, Cultural Anthropology Online the- politics- of- ontology Paleček, M & M Risjord 2013 Relativism and The Ontological Turn Within Anthropology Philosophy of The Social Sciences 43 (1) 3-23 Woolgar, S & J Lezaun 2013 The Wrong Bin Bag? A Turn to Ontology in Science and Technology Studies Social Studies of Science 43 (3) Multispecies Approaches in Related Disciplines It is not only anthropology that has embraced a turn towards a multispecies perspective on human life. Indeed, it is part of a broader conceptual reorientation underway in the humanities and social sciences, a reorientation that also seeks to bridge the divide with the natural sciences. This week then, students are introduced to more- than- human geography, trans- species history and multispecies currents in Science and Technology Studies. Latimer, J & M Miele 2013 Naturecultures? Science, Affect and the Nonhuman Theory, Culture & Society 30 (7-8) 5-31 Lorimer, J 2012 Multinatural Geographies for the Anthropocene Progress in Human Geography 36 (5) Panelli, R 2010 More- Than- Human Social Geographies: Posthuman and Other Possibilities 34 (1) Whatmore, S 2006 Materialist Returns: Practicing Cultural Geography in a More- Than Human World Cultural Geographies 13 (4) Ethnoprimatology: Humans and Other Primates This week we begin our exploration of cutting- edge research on human intersections with other species through the field of Ethnoprimatology. This emerging subfield combines the methodologies of ethnography and primatology

6 6 to explore the ways in which humans and other primates are implicated in each others lives, landscapes, and physiologies. We learn how the concepts of coevolution, mutual ecology, and companion species are applied in case studies of human- primate interactions. Fuentes, A 2010 Naturalcultural Encounters in Bali: Monkeys, Temples, Tourists and Ethnoprimatology Cultural Anthropology 25 (4) Fuentes, 2012 Ethnorpimatology and The Anthropology of the Human- Primate Interface Annual Review of Anthropology Gandhi, A 2012 Catch Me If You Can: Monkey Capture in Delhi Ethnography 13 (1) Parrenas, R 2012 Producing Affect: Transnational Volunteerism in a Malayasian Orangutan Rehabilitation Center American Ethnologist 39 (4) Sponsel, L 1997 The Human Niche in Amazonia: Explorations in Ethnoprimatology in Kinzey, W (ed) New World Primates: Ecology, Evolution and Behavior New York: Aldine de Gruyter Video: See No Evil Ethnoelephantology: Human- Elephant Relations This week students are introduced to a new, integrated approach to human- elephant relations. Inspired by Ethnoprimatology, it draws on the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences to explore the social, historical and ecological intersections between humans and elephants. We explore the multiple roles elephants have played in human societies, whether as technologies of war, commodities for trade, symbols of prestige, objects of entertainment, icons of conservation, or intimate companions. We also consider the ethical and environmental problems of conflict and coexistence between humans and elephants, captive and free ranging. Barua, M 2013 Circulating Elephants: Unpacking The Geographies of a Cosmopolitan Animal Transactions of The Institute of British Geographers 39 (4) Jadhav, S & M Barua 2012 The Elephant Vanishes: Impact of Human- Elephant Conflict on People's Wellbeing Health & Place 18 (6)

7 7 Locke, P 2013 Explorations in Ethnoelephantology: Social, Historical, and Ecological Intersections Between Asian Elephants and Humans Environment and Society: Advances in Research 4 (1) Lorimer, J 2010 Elephants as Companion Species: The Lively Biogeographies of Asian Elephant Conservation in Sri Lanka Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35 (4) Münster, U 2014 Working for The Forest: The Ambivalent Intimacies of Human- Elephant Collaboration in South Indian Wildlife Conservation Ethnos Video: Servants of Ganesh (Mark Dugas and Piers Locke 2010) Microbes, Bacteria, and Viruses This week we explore the microscopic life that causes disease, that is integral to the multispecies ecology of the human body, that provides genetic materials for biotechnology, and that facilitates chemical reactions which make human food, which make our planet habitable, and which may provide clues as to the possibility of life on other planets. Students are introduced to a microbial turn in anthropology that investigates the ways in which ordinarily invisible forms of life are implicated in our own, in terms of our bodily functions, our technological imaginaries, or invasive disease. Benezra, A, Destafano, J & J Gordon 2012 Anthropology of Microbes Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (17) Hird, M 2010 Meeting with The Microcosmos Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28 (1) Paxson, H 2008 Post- Pasteurian Cultures: The Microbiopolitics of Raw- Milk Cheese in the United States Cultural Anthropology 23 (1) Paxson, H & S Helmreich 2014 The Perils and Promises of Microbial Abundance: Novel Natures and Model Ecosystems, from Artisanal Cheese to Alien Seas. Social Studies of Science 44 (2) Sagan, D 2011 The Human is More than Human: Interspecies Communities and the New Facts of Life Fieldsights - Theorizing the Contemporary, Cultural Anthropology Online the- human- is- more- than- human- interspecies- communities- and- the- new- facts- of- life

8 8 Video: Inhabiting Multispecies Bodies presentations from the Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet conference, UC Santa Cruz 2014, of- living- on- a- damaged- planet/ 7. Fungi and Gourmet Food Networks This week we explore the work of the Matsutake Worlds Research Group, which has developed new models of scholarly collaboration, and new methods for tracking the connections and enactments between species through a focus on the prized matsutake mushroom. We consider the webs of interaction with tree roots upon which this fungus depends, and its metaphoric application as a way to follow multispecies connections across geographical sites, through commodity chains, and the flow of scientific knowledge. Choy, T 2009 A New Form of Collaboration in Cultural Anthropology: Matsutake Worlds American Ethnologist 36 (2) Faier, L 2011 Fungi, Trees, People, Nematodes, Beetles, and Weather: Ecologies of Vulnerability and Ecologies of Negotiation in Matsutake Commodity Exchange Environment and Planning A 43 (5) Tsing, A 2010 Arts of Inclusion, or How to Love a Mushroom Manoa 22 (2) Tsing, A 2012 Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species. Environmental Humanities (1) Tsing, A & S Satsuka 2008 Diverging Understandings of Forest Management in Matsutake Science Economic Botany 62 (3) Video: The Matsutake Hunter Web: Blasted Landscapes (and the gentle art of mushroom picking) salon.org/tsing/ 8. Aquatic Entanglements This week we explore research that looks at multispecies relations in fluid environments that include seas, rivers, fish hatcheries, and the aquariums of

9 9 scientific marine laboratories. We encounter anthropologists who follow marine biologists into their laboratories, and on their oceanographic expeditions. We learn how aquatic knowledge production connects to the policies and practices of conservation, commerce, and technology, and we consider the agency of marine species in processes of reproduction, domestication, and commodification. Bear, C 2011 Being Angelica: Exploring Individual Animal Geographies Area 43 (3) Bear, C 2013 Assembling the Sea: Materiality, Movement and Regulatory Practices in the Cardigan Bay Scallop Fishery Cultural Geographies 20 (1) Helmreich, S 2003 Trees and seas of information: Alien kinship and the biopolitics of gene transfer in marine biology and biotechnology American Ethnologist 30 (3) Lien, M & J Law 2011 'Emergent Aliens': On Salmon, Nature, and Their Enactment Ethnos 76 (1) Moore, A 2012 The Aquatic Invaders: Marine Management Figuring Fishermen, Fisheries, and Lionfish in The Bahamas Cultural Anthropology 27 (4) Video: Lien, M 2014 Escapee, Homeless, and Those That Wander Off : Salmon as Rubble in Norwegian Rivers Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet UC Santa Cruz 9. Bees, Mosquitoes, and Slugs This week we look at loved and unloved critters from among the insects and the gastropods, sometimes unwanted as pests or disease vectors, sometimes valued for their ecological function and their contribution to human culinary repertoires. We consider the intersections of mosquitoes with human health and ecology through a community programme that seeks to minimize their capacity to spread viral disease. We look at the role of the caterpillar as a technique of coercive interrogation at Guantanamo Prison. We look at gardeners decisions of life and death regarding slugs, and we consider the significance of bees for pollination, military application, and honey production. Ahuja, N 2011 Abu Zubaydah and the Caterpillar Social Text 29 (1 106)

10 10 Ginn, F 2013 Sticky lives: slugs, detachment and more- than- human ethics in the garden Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 39 (4) Kosek, J 2010 Ecologies of Empire: On The New Uses of The Honeybee Cultural Anthropology 25 (4) Moore, L & M Kosut 2013 Among the Colony: Ethnographic Fieldwork, Urban Bees and Intraspecies Mindfulness. Ethnography 15 (4) Nading, A 2012 Dengue Mosquitoes are Single Mothers: Biopolitics Meets Ecological Aesthetics in Nicaraguan Community Health Work Cultural Anthropology 27 (4) Pests and Invaders in Wild and Domestic Spaces This week we consider converging work from the humanities and the ecological sciences that looks at how we conceive and manage relations with species we deem invasive. Always dependent on social, political, ethical, and ecological meanings, we explore invasive species in our homes, our cities, and in disturbed wilderness environments where humans decide which biodiverse life forms belong and are beneficial. Fortwangler, C 2013 Untangling Introduced and Invasive Animals Environment and Society: Advances in Research 4 (1) Helmreich, S 2005 How Scientists Think; About 'Natives', For Example. A Problem of Taxonomy Among Biologists of Alien Species in Hawaii Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11 (1) Nagi, K & D Johnson (eds) 2013 Trash Animals: How We Live with Nature s Filthy, Feral, Invasive, and Unwanted Species Minnesota: University of Minneapolis Press Raffles, H 2011 Mother Nature s Melting Pot The New York Times van Dooren, T 2011 Invasive Species in Penguin Worlds: An Ethical Taxonomy of Killing for Conservation Conservation and Society 9 (4) Loss and Extinction in Multispecies Environments Our contemporary environmental predicaments represent a common theme throughout the multispecies research we have encountered. This week though, we explicitly address research that engages with the natural and cultural consequences of rapid species extinction. Students are introduced to the work of

11 11 The Extinction Studies Group, which explores the dynamics of life, death, and new becomings in multispecies communities around the globe. Chrulew, M 2011 Managing Love and Death at the Zoo: The Biopolitics of Endangered Species Preservation. Australian Humanities Review Fletcher, A 2008 Mendel s Ark: Conservation Genetics and The Future of Extinction Review of Policy Research 25 (6) Kirksey, E Shapiro,N & M Brodine 2013 Hope in Blasted Landscapes Social Science Information 52 (2) Lestel, D 2013 The Withering of Shared Life Through the Loss of Biodiversity Social Science Information 52 (2) Rose, D & T van Dooren 2011 Unloved Others: Death of the Disregarded in the Time of Extinctions Australian Humanities Review van Dooren, T 2010 Vultures and Their People in India: Equity and Entanglements in a Time of Extinctions Manoa 22 (2) Conclusion: Us and Them in The Anthropocene Finally, we review the significance of material encountered on the course in relation to the idea of the Anthropocene; the proposed name for a new geological epoch characterized by the agency of humans as a significant planet- changing force. We consider what it means to depend on, to be shaped by, to interact with, and to make meaning from a multitude of other life forms without which we could not exist as human beings.