UiT miljøhumaniora #21 Living With Animals in this Anthropocene Moment: Arctic perspectives pt2
In this session, Sigfrid Kjeldaas presents her ongoing work on representations of the beaver in early natural history and in contemporary scientific and literary texts concerned with environmental change in the Arctic in our Anthropocene era.
Starting with some reflections on a recent scientific report in which the dam-building activities of the Nort American beaver is presented in terms of a new disturbance enhancing the effects of Arctic climate change, the presentation uses the beaver as a case study in which to read 1) the history of the capitalist fur trade on the North American continent; 2) early natural history descriptions of this animal; and 3) Native American myths and narratives through one another. It highlights the boundaries drawn and the (relational) perspectives lost, deemed irrelevant, or perverted as local traditional knowledge in the late eighteenth century became transferred into emerging scientific and capitalist frameworks – and the way these losses and boundaries continue to shape our views on the beaver and its activities.
The session welcomes open discussion around the issues presented and the additional readings.
Related readings:
Jason W. Moore: “The Rise of Cheap Nature.” In Anthropocene or Capitalocene?: Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism, ed. Jason W. Moore. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2016. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.mime.uit.no/lib/tromsoub-ebooks/reader.action?docID=4529679&ppg=91
From María Puig de la Bellacasa’s Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press): Introduction “The Disruptive Thought of Care” https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.mime.uit.no/lib/tromsoub-ebooks/reader.action?docID=4745533&ppg=10 and Chapter four «Alterbiopolitics» https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.mime.uit.no/lib/tromsoub-ebooks/reader.action?docID=4745533&ppg=134