In Animate Planet Kath Weston shows how new intimacies between humans, animals, and their surroun... more In Animate Planet Kath Weston shows how new intimacies between humans, animals, and their surroundings are emerging as people attempt to understand how the high-tech ecologically damaged world they have made is remaking them, one synthetic chemical, radioactive isotope, and megastorm at a time. Visceral sensations, she finds, are vital to this process, which yields a new animism in which humans and "the environment" become thoroughly entangled. In case studies on food, water, energy, and climate from the United States, India, and Japan, Weston approaches the new animism as both a symptom of our times and an analytic with the potential to open paths to new and forgotten ways of living.
Page 1. On the Road with America's Poor . '. - BriJIiant, haun... more Page 1. On the Road with America's Poor . '. - BriJIiant, haunting, powerful, and ultimately inspiring . . . The nation needs to reckon with what Weston has uncovered." -JULIET SCHOR "*'' r\&&m' Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. "Weston ...
BETWEEN MEN ~ BETWEEN WOMEN Lesbian and Gay Studies Lillian Faderman and Larry Gross, Editors Adv... more BETWEEN MEN ~ BETWEEN WOMEN Lesbian and Gay Studies Lillian Faderman and Larry Gross, Editors Advisory Board of Editors Claudia Card Terry Castle John D'Emilio Esther Newton Anne Peplau Eugene Rice Kendall Thomas Jeffrey Weeks Between Men ~ Between ...
... Las familias que elegimos: lesbianas, gays y parentesco. Información General. Autores: Kath W... more ... Las familias que elegimos: lesbianas, gays y parentesco. Información General. Autores: Kath Weston; Editores: Barcelona : Bellaterra, 2003; Año de publicación: 2003; País: España; Idioma: Español; ISBN : 84-7290-222-6. Otros catálogos. ...
As human and nonhuman animals increasingly share space, however enthusiastically or reluctantly, ... more As human and nonhuman animals increasingly share space, however enthusiastically or reluctantly, the concepts of habit, cohabitation, and habituation bear further scrutiny when applied to these makeshift arrangements. Even when researchers have critically examined the work these terms do in discussions of more-than-human relations, they have tended to ignore the temporalities embedded in "habit" and its cognates. A discourse of habit traps animals in an ethnographic present of the sort long critiqued within anthropology in its application to humans. One alternative is to approach more-than-human animals as what Mahesh Rangarajan calls "animals with histories," instead of treating them as members of species with fairly set characteristics who make cameo appearances in ecological histories, ethnographies, and field studies. Studies of human-tiger relations in Rajasthan, India, and auto-ethnographic material on human-bear relations in Alaska suggestively illustr...
In recent debates about climate change, a transmission model of ecological inheritance has apport... more In recent debates about climate change, a transmission model of ecological inheritance has apportioned responsibility for ecological damage to generations portrayed as locked in conflict, while depicting Earth as a worldly possession capable of being assigned to a set of heirs. With a focus on North America, this article examines assumptions about ownership, possession, dispositional authority, and succession embedded in the trope of bequeathing an ecologically compromised world to a receiving generation that worries it might be the last. Many of these assumptions create exclusions for those who already apprehend themselves as dispossessed. Indigenous conceptions of responsibility, temporality, and place suggest ways to begin to decolonise the rhetoric of ecological inheritance, allowing humans to inhabit the everyday under signs other than extinction, regardless of how things turn out.
As human and nonhuman animals increasingly share space, however enthusiastically or reluctantly, ... more As human and nonhuman animals increasingly share space, however enthusiastically or reluctantly, the concepts of habit, cohabitation, and habituation bear further scrutiny when applied to these makeshift arrangements. Even when researchers have critically examined the work these terms do in discussions of more-than-human relations, they have tended to ignore the temporalities embedded in "habit" and its cognates. A discourse of habit traps animals in an ethnographic present of the sort long critiqued within anthropology in its application to humans. One alternative is to approach more-than-human animals as what Mahesh Rangarajan calls "animals with histories," instead of treating them as members of species with fairly set characteristics who make cameo appearances in ecological histories, ethnographies, and field studies. Studies of human-tiger relations in Rajasthan, India, and auto-ethnographic material on human-bear relations in Alaska suggestively illustrate what a historical orientation has to offer by way of moving discussions of multispecies relations beyond a colonial discourse of encounter and the blurring of human/nonhuman boundaries. Acknowledgment that nonhuman animals have historically inflected backstories, even when their memories and experiences are not accessible to humans, is a step in the direction of more expansive possibilities for co-worlding.
In recent debates about climate change, a transmission model of ecological inheritance has apport... more In recent debates about climate change, a transmission model of ecological inheritance has apportioned responsibility for ecological damage to generations portrayed as locked in conflict, while depicting Earth as a worldly possession capable of being assigned to a set of heirs. With a focus on North America, this article examines assumptions about ownership, possession, dispositional authority, and succession embedded in the trope of bequeathing an ecologically compromised world to a receiving generation that worries it might be the last. Many of these assumptions create exclusions for those who already apprehend themselves as dispossessed. Indigenous conceptions of responsibility, temporality, and place suggest ways to begin to decolonise the rhetoric of ecological inheritance, allowing humans to inhabit the everyday under signs other than extinction, regardless of how things turn out.
This essay argues for the value of counterfactual narrative, and more specifically counterfactual... more This essay argues for the value of counterfactual narrative, and more specifically counterfactual ethnography, to anthropology at a time when the unfinished project of decolonizing the discipline has once again come to the fore and the matter of living differently has acquired new urgency in light of the accelerating climate emergency. In what follows, I will discuss some of the characteristics of counterfactual narratives, explain how they might be tailored to take more than a century of ethnographic practice into account, and offer three counterfactual ethnographic scenarios by way of illustration. Toward the end of the essay, which I hope will also serve as a beginning, I offer brief reflections on what sort of distinctive contribution counterfactual ethnography might make at a time when anthropologists have increasingly embraced the notion that a good part of anthropology’s value for the wider society lies in an ethnographic record stuffed with examples of creative possibilities for what it means to be human.
AIBR, Revista de Antropologia Iberoamericana, 2021
Este ensayo defiende el valor de la narrativa contrafactual, y más concretamente de la etnografía... more Este ensayo defiende el valor de la narrativa contrafactual, y más concretamente de la etnografía contrafactual, para la antropología, en un momento en el que el proyecto inacabado de descolonizar la disciplina ha vuelto a pasar a primer plano y la cuestión de vivir de forma diferente ha adquirido una nueva urgencia a la luz de la aceleración de la emergencia climática. En lo que sigue, discutiré algunas de las características de las narrativas contrafactuales, explicaré cómo podrían adaptarse para tener en cuenta más de un siglo de práctica etnográfica, y ofreceré tres escenarios etnográficos contrafactuales a modo de ilustración. Hacia el final del ensayo, que espero que también sirva de comienzo, ofrezco breves reflexiones sobre qué tipo de contribución distintiva podría hacer la etnografía contrafactual, en un momento en el que los antropólogos han abrazado cada vez más la noción de que una buena parte del valor de la antropología para la sociedad en general radica en un registro etnográfico repleto de ejemplos de posibilidades creativas de lo que significa ser humano.
With all the attention paid to empathy in recent years, sympathy has received short shrift. Yet i... more With all the attention paid to empathy in recent years, sympathy has received short shrift. Yet it is sympathy that has the longer legacy in anthropology, both as a descriptor for certain ways of relating to the world, and as a moral passion that characterises something important about the relationship between ethnographers and those they study. By juxtaposing biographical accounts of the author's own research with a reading of 18th-century texts from the Scottish Enlightenment on sympathy, this essay calls into question the assumption that sympathy arises from, even as it generates, culturally inscribed forms of empathy or closeness. I argue that what Malinowski called 'the ethnographer's magic' is (or can be) a sympathetic magic woven from biographical threads, depending for its efficacy on concealment and action at a proximate distance, rather than 'shared experience', identification with research participants, or affective appeals.
In Animate Planet Kath Weston shows how new intimacies between humans, animals, and their surroun... more In Animate Planet Kath Weston shows how new intimacies between humans, animals, and their surroundings are emerging as people attempt to understand how the high-tech ecologically damaged world they have made is remaking them, one synthetic chemical, radioactive isotope, and megastorm at a time. Visceral sensations, she finds, are vital to this process, which yields a new animism in which humans and "the environment" become thoroughly entangled. In case studies on food, water, energy, and climate from the United States, India, and Japan, Weston approaches the new animism as both a symptom of our times and an analytic with the potential to open paths to new and forgotten ways of living.
Page 1. On the Road with America's Poor . '. - BriJIiant, haun... more Page 1. On the Road with America's Poor . '. - BriJIiant, haunting, powerful, and ultimately inspiring . . . The nation needs to reckon with what Weston has uncovered." -JULIET SCHOR "*'' r\&&m' Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. "Weston ...
BETWEEN MEN ~ BETWEEN WOMEN Lesbian and Gay Studies Lillian Faderman and Larry Gross, Editors Adv... more BETWEEN MEN ~ BETWEEN WOMEN Lesbian and Gay Studies Lillian Faderman and Larry Gross, Editors Advisory Board of Editors Claudia Card Terry Castle John D'Emilio Esther Newton Anne Peplau Eugene Rice Kendall Thomas Jeffrey Weeks Between Men ~ Between ...
... Las familias que elegimos: lesbianas, gays y parentesco. Información General. Autores: Kath W... more ... Las familias que elegimos: lesbianas, gays y parentesco. Información General. Autores: Kath Weston; Editores: Barcelona : Bellaterra, 2003; Año de publicación: 2003; País: España; Idioma: Español; ISBN : 84-7290-222-6. Otros catálogos. ...
As human and nonhuman animals increasingly share space, however enthusiastically or reluctantly, ... more As human and nonhuman animals increasingly share space, however enthusiastically or reluctantly, the concepts of habit, cohabitation, and habituation bear further scrutiny when applied to these makeshift arrangements. Even when researchers have critically examined the work these terms do in discussions of more-than-human relations, they have tended to ignore the temporalities embedded in "habit" and its cognates. A discourse of habit traps animals in an ethnographic present of the sort long critiqued within anthropology in its application to humans. One alternative is to approach more-than-human animals as what Mahesh Rangarajan calls "animals with histories," instead of treating them as members of species with fairly set characteristics who make cameo appearances in ecological histories, ethnographies, and field studies. Studies of human-tiger relations in Rajasthan, India, and auto-ethnographic material on human-bear relations in Alaska suggestively illustr...
In recent debates about climate change, a transmission model of ecological inheritance has apport... more In recent debates about climate change, a transmission model of ecological inheritance has apportioned responsibility for ecological damage to generations portrayed as locked in conflict, while depicting Earth as a worldly possession capable of being assigned to a set of heirs. With a focus on North America, this article examines assumptions about ownership, possession, dispositional authority, and succession embedded in the trope of bequeathing an ecologically compromised world to a receiving generation that worries it might be the last. Many of these assumptions create exclusions for those who already apprehend themselves as dispossessed. Indigenous conceptions of responsibility, temporality, and place suggest ways to begin to decolonise the rhetoric of ecological inheritance, allowing humans to inhabit the everyday under signs other than extinction, regardless of how things turn out.
As human and nonhuman animals increasingly share space, however enthusiastically or reluctantly, ... more As human and nonhuman animals increasingly share space, however enthusiastically or reluctantly, the concepts of habit, cohabitation, and habituation bear further scrutiny when applied to these makeshift arrangements. Even when researchers have critically examined the work these terms do in discussions of more-than-human relations, they have tended to ignore the temporalities embedded in "habit" and its cognates. A discourse of habit traps animals in an ethnographic present of the sort long critiqued within anthropology in its application to humans. One alternative is to approach more-than-human animals as what Mahesh Rangarajan calls "animals with histories," instead of treating them as members of species with fairly set characteristics who make cameo appearances in ecological histories, ethnographies, and field studies. Studies of human-tiger relations in Rajasthan, India, and auto-ethnographic material on human-bear relations in Alaska suggestively illustrate what a historical orientation has to offer by way of moving discussions of multispecies relations beyond a colonial discourse of encounter and the blurring of human/nonhuman boundaries. Acknowledgment that nonhuman animals have historically inflected backstories, even when their memories and experiences are not accessible to humans, is a step in the direction of more expansive possibilities for co-worlding.
In recent debates about climate change, a transmission model of ecological inheritance has apport... more In recent debates about climate change, a transmission model of ecological inheritance has apportioned responsibility for ecological damage to generations portrayed as locked in conflict, while depicting Earth as a worldly possession capable of being assigned to a set of heirs. With a focus on North America, this article examines assumptions about ownership, possession, dispositional authority, and succession embedded in the trope of bequeathing an ecologically compromised world to a receiving generation that worries it might be the last. Many of these assumptions create exclusions for those who already apprehend themselves as dispossessed. Indigenous conceptions of responsibility, temporality, and place suggest ways to begin to decolonise the rhetoric of ecological inheritance, allowing humans to inhabit the everyday under signs other than extinction, regardless of how things turn out.
This essay argues for the value of counterfactual narrative, and more specifically counterfactual... more This essay argues for the value of counterfactual narrative, and more specifically counterfactual ethnography, to anthropology at a time when the unfinished project of decolonizing the discipline has once again come to the fore and the matter of living differently has acquired new urgency in light of the accelerating climate emergency. In what follows, I will discuss some of the characteristics of counterfactual narratives, explain how they might be tailored to take more than a century of ethnographic practice into account, and offer three counterfactual ethnographic scenarios by way of illustration. Toward the end of the essay, which I hope will also serve as a beginning, I offer brief reflections on what sort of distinctive contribution counterfactual ethnography might make at a time when anthropologists have increasingly embraced the notion that a good part of anthropology’s value for the wider society lies in an ethnographic record stuffed with examples of creative possibilities for what it means to be human.
AIBR, Revista de Antropologia Iberoamericana, 2021
Este ensayo defiende el valor de la narrativa contrafactual, y más concretamente de la etnografía... more Este ensayo defiende el valor de la narrativa contrafactual, y más concretamente de la etnografía contrafactual, para la antropología, en un momento en el que el proyecto inacabado de descolonizar la disciplina ha vuelto a pasar a primer plano y la cuestión de vivir de forma diferente ha adquirido una nueva urgencia a la luz de la aceleración de la emergencia climática. En lo que sigue, discutiré algunas de las características de las narrativas contrafactuales, explicaré cómo podrían adaptarse para tener en cuenta más de un siglo de práctica etnográfica, y ofreceré tres escenarios etnográficos contrafactuales a modo de ilustración. Hacia el final del ensayo, que espero que también sirva de comienzo, ofrezco breves reflexiones sobre qué tipo de contribución distintiva podría hacer la etnografía contrafactual, en un momento en el que los antropólogos han abrazado cada vez más la noción de que una buena parte del valor de la antropología para la sociedad en general radica en un registro etnográfico repleto de ejemplos de posibilidades creativas de lo que significa ser humano.
With all the attention paid to empathy in recent years, sympathy has received short shrift. Yet i... more With all the attention paid to empathy in recent years, sympathy has received short shrift. Yet it is sympathy that has the longer legacy in anthropology, both as a descriptor for certain ways of relating to the world, and as a moral passion that characterises something important about the relationship between ethnographers and those they study. By juxtaposing biographical accounts of the author's own research with a reading of 18th-century texts from the Scottish Enlightenment on sympathy, this essay calls into question the assumption that sympathy arises from, even as it generates, culturally inscribed forms of empathy or closeness. I argue that what Malinowski called 'the ethnographer's magic' is (or can be) a sympathetic magic woven from biographical threads, depending for its efficacy on concealment and action at a proximate distance, rather than 'shared experience', identification with research participants, or affective appeals.
The introduction to Animate Planet opens with a lyrical dream sequence about the eclipse of moder... more The introduction to Animate Planet opens with a lyrical dream sequence about the eclipse of modernity, at a time when modernity's baubles--not least in the form of new technologies--still have the power to entice. Sustainability and Resilience make a cameo appearance as new gods in this opening passage, alerting readers to the need for ways of addressing ecological problems through something other than the invocation of a tired litany of abstracted eco-fixes. Recent scholarship on animacy and intimacy provides the materiel for more complex stories of what is happening to the world, stories that take account of the generative effects of both ecological damage and its proposed remedies. "Each ravaged ecosystem, each technological triumph, each bold new synthesis of Nature pulls creatures into new forms of connection, as compelling as any that shadowed futures past." Twenty-first century animism blurs the boundaries between what used to be conceived of as inert ecological "resources" and their erstwhile human "managers." People begin to speak of their bodies as constituted and reconstituted by pesticides, "good bacteria," radioactive cesium, and the like, constituents they might formerly have perceived as quite separate from themselves or as emanating from a nebulous elsewhere called "the environment." In this way of making visceral sense of things, the environment is us. What does that mean for political ecology? What can we learn from approaching 21st-century animism as both analytic and symptom?
Researchers, like political contestants, have to engage matters of epistemology to frame their cl... more Researchers, like political contestants, have to engage matters of epistemology to frame their claims and their debates. In that sense the emerging consensus between lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) advocates and their political adversaries that it is impossible to recognize lesbians by sight, much less indexically gendered features, is instructive. This article reviews a range of methodological research strategies designed to grapple with the complexities of determining who counts as “lesbian” in different contexts. Those classificatory strategies include working definitions, self-definition, identification of “bias,” interpretive embrace of slippery categories, and turning the process of classification into an object of study. After exploring the strengths and shortcomings of each approach, the article argues for a calculus of belonging based on the concept of limit rather than a politics of demarcation.
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