By Kristina Lyons, University of California, Santa Cruz § The president of the communal action committee whom I call Doña Marta ushered me to a more secluded corner behind the schoolhouse. She spoke in a low tone about the worsening water quality of the river flowing behind us. Over the last four years, downstream communities in … More Commentary: Toxic Bodies, Part II
By Meredith Root-Bernstein, Institut National de Recherche Agronomique, Grignon, France § When you first see the gold mine in Alhué you are impressed by how massive the cascade of tailings is—by how many endemic trees, shrubs, bird nests, lizards and tarantulas must be crushed underneath it. When I took photos of the hills I always tried … More On Contamination: Conservation Science in Devilish Landscapes
Mining Capitalism: The Relationship between Corporations and Their Critics By Stuart Kirsch 328 pp. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014 § Chitra Venkataramani (South Asian Studies, Harvard University) and Chris Hebdon (Anthropology and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies) interview Stuart Kirsch about his recent book on the interactions of corporations and social … More Mining Capitalism: An Interview with Stuart Kirsch
By Joe Quick, with contributions from Larry Nesper § In 2012, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians engaged research specialists working in several different fields, including anthropology, the physical sciences, and law. Our assignment was to assemble a report to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about air quality on the tribe’s reservation … More Protecting Cultural Environments in Northern Wisconsin: Anthropology’s Contribution to a Tribal Initiative
by Brandon Nida § I find it somewhat difficult to think and write about central Appalachia without falling into the use of essentialisms and stereotypes. Even though I am from West Virginia it is hard to escape the traditional narratives, the mountain-folksy caricatures, the one-dimensional portrayals of Appalachian culture. Those essentialisms are not really the … More Anthropology on Blair Mountain
