Late to the Party of Things

I’m coming late to the party. Sorry everyone–I brought more beer. I was in the audience for Bruno Latour’s talk on ontological pluralism at the AAA meetings in Chicago last year. I overheard several people talking about how sparks were going to fly, or how this was nothing new, or how this was an important moment in Anthropology. I’ve been slow to respond, and I want to throw out just a few thoughts. Jeremy Trombley over at Struggle Forever wrote a short post on The Value of a Turn that, …

The Anthronaut, The Golem, and Other Tales of the Dark

DRAFT; As presented at the 2013 AAA Conference in Chicago, November 21, 2013. The Anthronaut, The Golem, and Other Tales of the Dark Edward M. Maclin Abstract In this paper I use examples from my ongoing work in academic anthropology and on my small family farm to explore the relationship between anthropology, agriculture, and Dark Ecology. Along the way, I engage two contrasting metaphors for anthropological work, the anthronaut and the golem. The fragmentation associated with market-based labor creation in both the Academy and large-scale agriculture also fuses together disparate …

The Anthronaut Farmer

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS  I am working to organize an Invited Session (Culture and Agriculture Section) for the AAA meeting in Chicago (November 20-24) The Anthronaut Farmer An increasing number of anthropologists are turning to agriculture as a means of subsistence, a way of living in their communities, and a form of embodied research. Beyond a practice of study, this is a lived anthropology outside of academia: not a research venture bounded by funding cycles, but a journey of engagement with the world. Through their hands-on work, these “anthronaut” farmers are transforming themselves, their communities and landscapes, and their …

Ecological Anthropology (in which I try to explain what I do.)

Over the past few weeks several people including friends and family members have asked me about my research, or about what it is that I do, exactly. I’ve given the usual elevator speech, but after reflecting a bit I think it may be worth me writing here in more detail. Partly this is because I’m working on writing my dissertation. Writing is a sort of emptying process for me, and so occasionally in order to write what I want I need to get other things out of my system. At the …