anthropology + post humanism
Of particular interest during my studies has been the emerging perspectives I learned in the anthropology courses about the theories behind my position towards the environment, the animals, local ecosystems and the human relationship with these. By learning the background and ideas regarding the Anthropocene and post humanism I was better informed in discussions advocating for the protection of our natural spaces and creatures that live there. Something new that I think about is how to reframe psychology through a post humanistic lens focusing on relationality and community which includes the species around us as necessary components of our ideas about what is health. Through these courses I was also able to expand my connection with wolves, whales and glaciers as areas of distress that have space to blend new perspectives while acknowledging historical positions through an anthropological lens in hopes of advocacy and change.
Paradigm challenge:
Reading the anthropological writings of Kohn was a paradigm shift for me in hearing how someone else
Paradigm challenge: Reading the anthropological writings of Kohn was a paradigm shift for me in hearing how someone else discusses other culture’s perspectives towards the ecosystem in an academic and factual way. Kohn sees anthropology fieldwork as going into another's culture and by being around the unfamiliar, we can see things through fresh perspective. He proposes that, “Runa forms of anthropological wandering, by contrast, are not based on traveling to a different culture but on adopting a different kind of body.” (Kohn, 2013 :125) The Runa understand the life of self to be undertaken as potentially many selves, embodied in animals, disembodied in spirit, capable of shifting between place, time, and body. In this way, they too experience learning through ‘defamiliarization’ not of locale but of the human self. They succeed in survival by doing things as they see others do; hunt like a jaguar, think like an ant, move like a monkey, see like a bird of prey, speak like a dog, love like a spirit. By looking at the world through non-human eyes, they are able to make use of the perspectives of all living things and benefit from the animals living knowledge, thus enhancing their own knowledge and ultimately survival. They make guesses at how other living beings in the ecosystem think about things that are different from their own view, such as how parakeets might see hawks, how dogs might experience prey and predators, how ants experience safety and threats, and even how ticks experience food sources. This was a significant and hallmark reading for me, because this marked the beginning of me having the confidence to write as I felt about the animals, plants and land as living, without fear of it not being accepted. Kohn’s respectful writings of the Runa culture showed me the way to this.
Kohn, Eduardo. How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human. Berkley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 2013.
As a result of the readings in the anthropology courses, I would like to further explore our relationships with specific animals and landscapes through a post-humanistic approach to understanding the possible sites where changes can occur. These explorations would include the disciplines of economics, politics, history, anthropology and philosophy. This exploration could be done with a transdisciplinary approach by using the many disciplines to discover solutions beyond any one discipline.
Abstract
Using a post humanistic approach, this paper will traverse the ways in which the human world has been influenced to change, both in perception and behaviour, as a result of the relationship with southern resident killer whales. The relationship will be viewed through a historical and present-day lens. Indigenous oral tradition and traditional ecological knowledge will be included as well as interdisciplinary views from the fields of anthropology, archeology, paleontology, biology and scientific environmental study. This research paper’s subject is set in in the areas of the Pacific Western ecosystem, specifically the Salish Sea and unceded Indigenous lands of the Tlingit, Haida, Denendeh, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Coast Salish, and Lummi People. A look at this area will be intersected by views of the Canadian government and economic activity, the North American aquarium entertainment industry, oil pipelines, international shipping routes and the dams on the rivers such as the Columbia, Fraser, Snake and Elwha and the dams. Parallels and convergences between the Southern Resident Killer Whales and humans will be highlighted by regarding the whales as ‘selves’, ‘more-than-human’, and part of a multi-species ecosystem of which humans are only one.
Integrated learning: This research paper was one of my highlights of the MAIS program. What was so meaningful, is that this searching for connections between disciplines, felt like it really mattered and could be useful in conservation efforts. It was during this research that I discovered writing could bring about advocacy in conservation of ecosystems and animals in need of protection. Writing this paper and creating the accompanying audio power point presentation felt like I had the freedom to look at intersecting disciplines with a non-human-prioritized perspective. I was able to connect history, biology, anthropology, archeology, Indigenous studies, politics, and writing. The best part was I could have kept writing on this topic in an interdisciplinary way for years. I had to keep cutting down my outline because it kept getting longer and longer as I added in more disciplines.
Southern Resident Killer Whales Have Been Watching Humans: What Do They See? ANTH610 240422
Audio Presentation Southern Residents ANTH610 240422
Here is a look at one of my initial outlines
(I will leave out the 13 pages of potential references):
Southern Resident Killer Whales Have Been Watching Humans: What Do They See? (4400 words)
Abstract
Introduction
Section I – The Blackfish and the Pakicetus: Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Paleontology, and Western Science
Whale culture: Indigenous oral history and traditional ecological knowledge
Evolutionary Science: When whales walked on land and other mysteries of ancient history. How humans and whales traded places. Life in the Eocene.
Anthropomorphism and Human Exceptionalism: Whales really do care; why we think we are exceptional Whales as more-than-human. Grief, death and spirituality. Perhaps human understandings of death are not shared by the more-than-humans.
Western Science: Big brains and big emotions
Section II – Humans haven’t been sharing nicely; multi-species knots in unshared spaces
Conservation Intro: Who are we counting on to save the whales? The humans?!
Knots in the Rivers: Where are the chinook salmon? Fish farming and hydro damning
Knots in the Oceans: Whales and shipping routes and ports
Knots in the Ecosystem: Whales and oil companies and pipelines
Knots in the Universe: Whales and migration and earth’s magnetic fields
Knots in the Past: Whales and entertainment and cruise ships
Knots in the Future: Whales and conservationists and money
Section III – Throwing Shade; Can the Future Be Bright?
Bioethics: saving whale sperm and Project Noah’s Ark
Extinction: Humans drive whales to the brink of extinction, why no revenge killing?
Climate Change: If Stephen Hawking is correct, in 600 years can whales adapt to 250-degree weather and sulphuric acid for rain?
What does the future for the SRKW look like?
Conclusion:
Saving Each Other: Unity Between Wolves and People
Social relevance:
This research paper was pivotal in my studies in the MAIS program because it marked a turning point at which I realized we could delve into a research topic using an interdisciplinary approach that could expand the current understanding and knowledge of that topic in a way that could bring about real change in social understanding and established perspectives. By incorporating a historical lens to the research, it allowed for a collecting and curating of previous threads of knowledge from multiple perspectives in a contemporary fabric that could be accessible to the public.
interdisciplinary areas of interest
Land Acknowledgement
Respect and gratitude is given in acknowledgement that the subject of this research paper is situated in in the traditional territories of the Pacific Coastal ecosystem in British Columbia and Washington State, specifically the Salish Sea and unceded Indigenous lands of the Tlingit, Haida, Denendeh, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Coast Salish, and Lummi People.
The researcher resides in and acknowledges with respect and gratitude the traditional territories of the First Nations of the West Kootenay and Boundary regions: the Sinixt (Lakes), the Syilx (Okanagan), the Ktunaxa, and the Secwepemc (Shuswap) peoples.
Epoché Statement
This epoché statement’, which is included with the intention for transparency outlining the researchers’ position and assumptions going into the research (Griffin & May, 2017:519). While referencing evolutionary science, geological events and scientific understanding, the researcher does so with a knowing that these ‘facts’ may be changed as new historical data is discovered, and that the are approximate theories of time, geology and biology based on what we know today. It is also recognized that the scope of this paper is not exhaustive on this topic. The researcher is a nonindigenous woman born in Canada with European ancestry, currently living in a small town in inland British Columbia and has not spent time with the whales in direct encounters. She has environmentalist values that position her in opposition to extremes of resource extraction and abuse of ecosystems, but with understanding towards sustainable use of natural resources. The researcher is middle-class, educated and a mother of two. In ecological conflicts, she usually sides with the animals and the trees.
Self-critical thinking: After learning about how a post-humanistic perspective can give space to discuss human’s industrial impact on the environment, destruction of ecosystems, plants’ roles of healing the soils and making connections to each other, the concepts of the Anthropocene and the potential this holds for change was inspiring. I looked to the work I was currently doing- teaching a post graduate course in art therapy theory which is historically linked to psychology theory. It occurred to me that the entire course could be slightly rewritten from a post-humanism perspective. Much of our current psychology theory is connected with the Humanistic movement which seems all pervasive.
I do find the humanistic approach has been dominant in many aspects of examining and exploring our lives, from psychology, sociology, philosophy and even education. The influence of the humanistic theorists like Rogers show up seemingly in perpetuity throughout our ways of being. I would argue that humanism has helped to catapult capitalism to where it is today; for good and bad.
In the West, post-world war, we were no longer running for our lives, saving boots with holes in them, nor scrounging every penny to get something to eat; we had time to think about what it really means to be human. I think it was the right time in history for humanism to emerge, encouraging an all acceptance of ourselves through a person-centered lens, examining how we really feel, and a right to take the time to care about and feed our souls. This was a necessary step in our history, but I have been wondering if it is this all-pervasive assumption that we should care most about the well-being of our inner selves has actually allowed us to feel permission to buy all we can, to take all we can from the world around us, and to feel justified in our actions, because we feel we are most important.
I like the new discussions around post-humanism and a time to think about others, not only our selves. While the humanistic approach may make our experience more pleasant and self-fulling, even self actualizing, in the long term it has been detrimental. Maybe the path to healing, or learning, is actually best done through considering the needs of others, including all the living beings in nature. I think we can value ourselves and everyone else simultaneously.
Since I was teaching at the time of taking this course, I started engaging students in discussions about how the current post-humanistic perspectives connected with the theories we were learning, looking at the dark side of a human-centered value. This was a paradigm shift in the course, because students could see all the potential for a future filled with change; that threads off the past theories would carry through, but that we were on the cusp of a shift in the world view of people.