Anna Tsing’s workshop on Environmental Studies: Species Trouble
Which species are causing trouble—or are in trouble—or are troubled—in Southeast
Asia? This workshop opens such questions by tracking a few species in and out of
human histories and cultures. The opening premise of the workshop is that social
relations are multispecies affairs and that landscapes are made by many species working
with and against each other. Rather than begin with human institutions and political
relations, as has been the common practice in political ecology, this workshop traces
multispecies stories to develop a practice of theoretically charged landscape description
with more-than-human sociality at its heart.
1. Welcome to the Anthropocene
Anna Tsing, 2005. Chapter 1 “Frontiers of Capitalism,” Friction: An Ethnography of
Global Connection, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 27-50.
2. Multispecies landscapes
a. Rice and its others: Clifford Geertz, 1963. Chapter 2 “Two types of ecosystem,” in
Agricultural Involution. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 12-37.
b. Mast fruiting, below ground: D. M. Newbery, 2005. “Ectomycorrhizas and mast
fruiting in trees: linked by climate driven resources?” New Phytologist 167: 324-326
c. Mast fruiting, above ground: Michael Dove 1993. “The Responses of Dayak and
Bearded Pig to Mast-Fruiting in Kalimantan: An Analysis of Nature-Culture Analogies.”
In Tropical Forests, People and Food. C. M. Hladik et al. eds. Paris/Carnforth:
UNESCO/Parthenon. Man and Biosphere Series, Vol. 13. Pp.113-123.
3. Species histories of co-existence and confrontation: living with the planet’s most
dangerous invasive species (Homo sapiens)
a. Homo sapiens: Anna Tsing, “Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species,”
http://tsingmushrooms.blogspot.com/2010/11/anna-tsing-anthropology-university-of.html
b. Imperata cylindrica: Michael Dove 2008. “Symbiotic relationships between human
populations and Imperata cylindrical: The question of ecosystems succession and
preservation in South Kalimantan,” In M. Dove, ed. Southeast Asian Grasslands:
Understanding a Vernacular Landscape, New York: The New York Botanical Gardens,
pp. 326-346.
c. Crocodylus porosus: Peter Boomgaard. 2007. “Crocodiles and Humans in Southeast
Asia: Four Centuries of Co-existence and Confrontation,” Keynote address,
“Environmental Challenges Across Asia”, University of Chicago, March 2.
d. Elephas maximus: Michael Hathaway, in progress. “On the backs of elephants:
transnational environmentalism and elephant ‘agency’”
4. Emergent and escape species: the politics of becoming
a. James Scott, 2009. “Escape agriculture,” pages 187-207, excerpt from Chapter 6, “The
culture and agriculture of escape,” in The art of not being governed. New Haven: Yale
University Press, pages 178-220.
b. Celia Lowe. 2010. “Viral clouds: becoming H5N1 in Indonesia,” Cultural
Anthropology 25(4): 625-649.