The anthropology of extinction : essays on culture and species death / edited by Genese Marie Sodikoff.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Sodikoff, Genese Marie, 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Culture--Philosophy.

Culture.

Anthropology--Philosophy.

Anthropology.

Extinction (Biology).

Extinction (Psychology).

Anthropological linguistics.

Physical Description:

ix, 243 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2012]

Summary:

We 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 essays consider 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 ("hobbits") identified in Indonesia. The Anthropology of Extinction offers compelling explorations of issues of widespread concern.

Contributors are Janet Chernela, Jill Constantino, Gregory Forth, Paul B. Garrett, Laurie R. Godfrey, Michael Hathaway, Tracey Heatherington, Bernard C. Perley, Emilienne Rasoazanabary, Genese Marie Sodikoff, and Peter M. Whiteley. Book jacket.

Contents:

Accumulating absence : cultural productions of the sixth extinction / Genese Marie Sodikoff

A species apart : ideology, science, and the end of life / Janet Chernela

From ecocide to genetic rescue : can technoscience save the wild? / Tracey Heatherington

Totem and taboo reconsidered : endangered species and moral practice in Madagascar / Genese Marie Sodikoff

Tortoise soup for the soul : finding a space for human history in evolution's laboratory / Jill Constantino

Global environmentalism and the emergence of indigeneity : the politics of cultural and biological diversity in China / Michael Hathaway

Last words, final thoughts : collateral extinctions in Maliseet language death / Bernard C. Perley

Dying young : Pidgins, Creoles, and other contact languages as endangered languages / Paul B. Garrett

Demise of the bet hedgers : a case study of human impacts on past and present lemurs of Madagascar / Laurie R. Godfrey and Emilienne Rasoazanabary

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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780253357137

0253357136

9780253223647

0253223644

9780253005458

0253005450

OCLC:

707212851