This article argues that a paradigm change in political anthropology might be reasonable and realistic as a way of establishing dams against human self-destruction in the Anthropocene.
The essay suggests that what is absent from the scientific discourse on the Anthropocene is a postcolonial perspective that points out the fact that we are not talking about generalizable social, economic, and cultural structures and belief systems, but that instead we are describing very specific political, economic, and discursive regimes of power.
This article looks at the energy investment that goes into the provision of nutrients and into habitat improvement for the subterranean workforce of earthworms on which agriculture depends.
Of the many factors that shaped energy transitions in the twentieth century, the World Wars are rarely considered. Yet the dramatic effects of war mobilization on energy systems and the restructuring of supply lines through new geographies of military action and alliance suggest the importance of war as an external shock or crisis with the power to reshape the political economy of energy systems profoundly. Hydroelectricity in Canada during World War II provides one example of this process. The War consolidated and propelled a transition to hydroelectricity, yet the transition was not simple or linear.
Using the examples of matsutake mushrooms in Japan, the Meratus Dayaks of the rainforests of Kalimantan, and the “rubble ecologies” of post-war Berlin, the article argues that we must pay attention to the cultural and biological synergies through which diversity continues to emerge, even in ruins.
Thneeds Reseeds, a sculptural artwork by Deanna Pindell, is a biotactical intervention aimed at exposing and derailing dominant regimes for managing sylvan life. The “thneeds” are fuzzy softball-sized sculptures made from old sweaters. Left in the forest, these sculptures constitute brightly-colored habitats for forest plants and animals.
The article shows how the Sami of northern Norway are creating new openings and opportunities for more localized management systems based on local environmental knowledge.
With reference to the Satoyama Initiative of the Japanese government, this article looks at how biocultural diversity projects can move beyond reproducing the old dichotomy between “modern” scientific and “traditional” local knowledge.
This article looks at how forest management policies in Ghana have been influenced by desires to maximize timber production, with negative consequences.
David Sumner and Peter Gilmour discuss the arguments relating to radiation mortality, arguing them to be rooted in a utilitarian system of moral philosophy.
