The emergence of multispecies ethnography
Anthropologists have been committed, at least since Franz Boas, to investigating relationships between nature and culture. At the dawn of the 21st century, this enduring interest was inflected with some new twists. An emergent cohort of “multispecies ethnographers” began to place a fresh emphasis on...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Anthropological Association
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61966 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0859-5881 |
| _version_ | 1826208467724009472 |
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| author | Kirksey, S. Eben Helmreich, Stefan |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program Kirksey, S. Eben Helmreich, Stefan |
| author_sort | Kirksey, S. Eben |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Anthropologists have been committed, at least since Franz Boas, to investigating relationships between nature and culture. At the dawn of the 21st century, this enduring interest was inflected with some new twists. An emergent cohort of “multispecies ethnographers” began to place a fresh emphasis on the subjectivity and agency of organisms whose lives are entangled with humans. Multispecies ethnography emerged at the intersection of three interdisciplinary strands of inquiry: environmental studies, science and technology studies (STS), and animal studies. Departing from classically ethnobiological subjects, useful plants and charismatic animals, multispecies ethnographers also brought understudied organisms—such as insects, fungi, and microbes—into anthropological conversations. Anthropologists gathered together at the Multispecies Salon, an art exhibit, where the boundaries of an emerging interdiscipline were probed amidst a collection of living organisms, artifacts from the biological sciences, and surprising biopolitical interventions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:06:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/61966 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:06:08Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | American Anthropological Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/619662022-09-28T18:26:51Z The emergence of multispecies ethnography Kirksey, S. Eben Helmreich, Stefan Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Helmreich, Stefan Helmreich, Stefan Anthropologists have been committed, at least since Franz Boas, to investigating relationships between nature and culture. At the dawn of the 21st century, this enduring interest was inflected with some new twists. An emergent cohort of “multispecies ethnographers” began to place a fresh emphasis on the subjectivity and agency of organisms whose lives are entangled with humans. Multispecies ethnography emerged at the intersection of three interdisciplinary strands of inquiry: environmental studies, science and technology studies (STS), and animal studies. Departing from classically ethnobiological subjects, useful plants and charismatic animals, multispecies ethnographers also brought understudied organisms—such as insects, fungi, and microbes—into anthropological conversations. Anthropologists gathered together at the Multispecies Salon, an art exhibit, where the boundaries of an emerging interdiscipline were probed amidst a collection of living organisms, artifacts from the biological sciences, and surprising biopolitical interventions. 2011-03-25T15:37:51Z 2011-03-25T15:37:51Z 2010-11 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1548-1360 0886-7356 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61966 KIRKSEY, S. Eben, and Stefan HELMREICH. “The Emergence Of Multispecies Ethnography.” Cultural Anthropology 25.4 (2010) : 545-576. © 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0859-5881 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01069.x Cultural Anthropology Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Anthropological Association MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Kirksey, S. Eben Helmreich, Stefan The emergence of multispecies ethnography |
| title | The emergence of multispecies ethnography |
| title_full | The emergence of multispecies ethnography |
| title_fullStr | The emergence of multispecies ethnography |
| title_full_unstemmed | The emergence of multispecies ethnography |
| title_short | The emergence of multispecies ethnography |
| title_sort | emergence of multispecies ethnography |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61966 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0859-5881 |
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