Beschreibung:
Exploring the endings of species, languages, cultures, and ways of life, this collection "e;provocatively makes one think about extinction in novel ways."e; -Biological ConservationWe live in an era marked by an accelerating rate of species death, but since the early days of the discipline, anthropology has contemplated the death of languages, cultural groups, and ways of life. The essays in this collection examine processes of-and our understanding of-extinction across various domains. The contributors argue that extinction events can be catalysts for new cultural, social, environmental, and technological developments-that extinction processes can, paradoxically, be productive as well as destructive.The book considers a number of widely publicized cases: island species in the Galapagos and Madagascar; the death of Native American languages; ethnic minorities under pressure to assimilate in China; cloning as a form of species regeneration; and the tiny hominid Homo floresiensis fossils ("e;hobbits"e;) recently identified in Indonesia. The Anthropology of Extinction offers compelling explorations of issues of widespread concern.
Exploring the endings of species, languages, cultures, and ways of life, this collection "e;provocatively makes one think about extinction in novel ways."e; -Biological ConservationWe live in an era marked by an accelerating rate of species death, but since the early days of the discipline, anthropology has contemplated the death of languages, cultural groups, and ways of life. The essays in this collection examine processes of-and our understanding of-extinction across various domains. The contributors argue that extinction events can be catalysts for new cultural, social, environmental, and technological developments-that extinction processes can, paradoxically, be productive as well as destructive.The book considers a number of widely publicized cases: island species in the Galapagos and Madagascar; the death of Native American languages; ethnic minorities under pressure to assimilate in China; cloning as a form of species regeneration; and the tiny hominid Homo floresiensis fossils ("e;hobbits"e;) recently identified in Indonesia. The Anthropology of Extinction offers compelling explorations of issues of widespread concern.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Accumulating Absence—Cultural Productions of the Sixth Extinction Genese Marie Sodikoff
Part 1. The Social Construction of Biotic Extinction
1. A Species Apart: Ideology, Science, and the End of Life Janet Chernela
2. From Ecocide to Genetic Rescue: Can Technoscience Save the Wild? Tracey Heatherington
3. Totem and Taboo Reconsidered: Endangered Species and Moral Practice in Madagascar Genese Marie Sodikoff
Part 2. Endangered Species and Emergent Identities
4. Tortoise Soup for the Soul: Finding a Space for Human History in Evolution's Laboratory Jill Constantino
5. Global Environmentalism and the Emergence of Indigeneity: The Politics of Cultural and Biological Diversity in China Michael Hathaway
Part 3. Red-Listed Languages
6. Last Words, Final Thoughts: Collateral Extinctions in Maliseet Language Death Bernard C. Perley
7. Dying Young: Pidgins, Creoles, and Other Contact Languages as Endangered Languages Paul B. Garrett
Part 4. Prehistories of an Apex Predator
8. Demise of the Bet Hedgers: A Case Study of Human Impacts on Past and Present Lemurs of Madagascar Laurie R. Godfrey and Emilienne Rasoazanabary
9. Disappearing Wildmen: Capture, Extirpation, and Extinction as Regular Components of Representations of Putative Hairy Hominoids Gregory Forth
Epilogue: Prolegomenon for a New Totemism Peter M. Whiteley
List of Contributors
Index
