The grasshopper, the hawk, and the squash vine
This memoir prose piece was accepted for the A Room of Her Own foundation’s online volume, WAVES.
Ecomyopia in the Anthropocene
Anthropology Today (33:1), 2017. By D.G. Casagrande, E.C. Jones, F.S. Wyndham, J.R. Stepp & R. Zarger “… ecomyopia [we] define as the tendency to not recognize, to ignore, or fail to act on new information that contradicts political arrangements, social norms, or world views…” I was tickled that this cartoon was reproduced in the …
edible grubs in Australia
“In the Arandic [language] system, edible grubs are a part of the plant on which they are found, in much the same way a fruit or tuber is. Note that it is not known whether all edible grubs present in one tree species (named the same in Arandic languages) are a single scientific species or …
the eye of the filbert worm moth
“No one knows the purpose of the tiny eye just above the compound eye” of the filbert worm moth, eater of acorns (and filberts, presumably). –p. 790, “Life in a nutshell,” National Geographic June 1989.
Free for All: Foods, Landscapes, and Lives in the Paraguayan Chaco
Ethnobiology Letters 2016 This short memoir essay revisits my education in foodscapes with the Ayoreo community of Jesudi in the Paraguayan Chaco through stories and experiences of food procurement and distribution. From landscapes in which food was free for all (non-monetized) to contemporary encroachments and land-grabbing in the Chaco for globally-connected markets, the transformations have …
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How Can We Teach Our Children if We Cannot Access the Forest?: Generational Change in Mapuche Knowledge of Wild Edible Plants in Andean Temperate Ecosystems of Chile
with Antonia Barreau et al. Journal of Ethnobiology 2016
Listen to an excerpt of Ei Posinho’s life story
Recorded in Jesudi, Paraguay 2011. Posted here with her permission.
The Names
The names at first are those of animals and of birds, of objects that have one definition in the eye, another in the hand, of forms and features on the rim of the world, or of sounds that carry on the bright wind and in the void. They are old and original in the mind… …
Car-Naming Practices of the White Man-ufacturer
Off and on since 1998 I’ve had the privilege to work as an ethnoecologist with Ayoreo communities in the Paraguayan Chaco– a small language group of perhaps 4-5,000 speakers who have experienced a truly harrowing process of ‘coming into’ Euro-Paraguayan society over the last decades. This morning I opened up my email to find a …
Taking Stock of Ethnobiology
with Dana Lepofsky and Sara Tiffany in the Journal of Ethnobiology 31(2011):110-127 DOI: 10.2993/0278-0771-31.1.110 “Given the ecological and humanitarian crises faced in the 21st century and the transformations in world economies and ethnobiological knowledge systems, the field’s formal societies, as places of interaction and means for collective path-making, have a special role insetting the course for future …
Ethnobiology for a Diverse World: Ethnobiology Emerging From a Time of Crisis
With Gary Nabhan and Dana Lepofsky 2011 Journal of Ethnobiology 31(2):172-175 DOI:10.2993/0278-0771-31.2.172 “Ethnobiologists, perhaps more than any other group of researchers, have the moral will, the perspectives, the know-how, and grassroots networks to be potential allies and resources for emerging coalitions of problem-solvers during such times of dramatic ecosystem and social change.”
The Semiotics of Powerful Places
Rock Art and Landscape Relations in the Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico 2011 Journal of Anthropological Research 67(3):387-420 “Situated in places rich in symbolism, relationship, affect, and embodied history, the semiotics of rock art are interpreted and re-invented by contemporary Rarámuri, non-Rarámuri locals, tourists, and anthropologists. Rock art provokes narratives of local history, past interactions with other peoples …
Environments of Learning
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Honorable Mentions In the Chaco
In the Chaco people send out messages for the dead on radio waves; do they get radio pa’i puku in heaven? In the Chaco owl throat calls full yellow moon month night, white shroud chrysalis and soft candle light. In the Chaco spring is yellow acacia sweet buzzing day and new life waiting …