Paper short abstract:

The establishment of the Anthropocene as a reference in the history of the Earth, creates new poetics related to a different perception of the relationship between History and Nature. Narratives that take shape and sacredness in local spaces through the establishment of Geo-sites and Geo-Parks.

Paper long abstract:

The international geology, is working for a ratification of the Anthropocene as unity in the Geological Time Scale. How would say Latour, the Anthropocene is entering progressively in space of public things, becoming a matter of fact, capable of acting through his reseau connections. Something that can be defined and witness the transition to a new era in the history of the Earth. A time in which the human being, the Anthropos, is considered the decisive geological force. From a place of powerful forces and overwhelming, the Earth becomes space of memory, where to look and keep track of past creative power of Nature. In this perspective is affirmed the idea of a geo-heritage, able to narrate the history of the Earth and its power as Nature, through a new category of signifiers micro spaces: geosites. The geology becomes the key for a new institutional and emotional sense of place and time, while geosites become points emerging local, which are presented as nodes of a living system of heritage and memory. The paper, addresses the nature of this new heritage and how it takes shape in the Park of the Gypsum mountain, northern Italy. A context centered on geological features of the site, which become the key asset of the narratives about places. The landscape of the park becomes a new Geo-scape. A place where rocks, faults, fossils, caves and other geological objects, thus become powerful entities able to evoke and materialize new cosmographies and remote times and spaces.

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Paper short abstract:

This talk will address two processes of transforming landscape through a rewilding experience in a nature reserve located in the Beira Alta Interior region of Portugal. These processes are situated within institutional efforts to reconstruct nature in the context of the Anthropocene.

Paper long abstract:

The impact of the Anthropocene (understood as human agency as a new and powerful geological force), which is expressed through climate change, is manifested at both the global and local levels and is defined by essentially different indexes. Although the iconic indexes of climate change (temperature, pressure variation and precipitation indexes, methane and carbon dioxide levels, and the monitoring of atmospheric ozone levels) remain a source of controversy between the skeptics and the scientists who are aware of global warming, they are nonetheless inteligible to the group of experts capable of translating their data. At the same time, events that broadly impact people across the planet have become more common, and manifested themselves as alterations to the landscapes of human habitats. These changes include severe flooding, prolonged dry spells, desertification, siltation and the depletion of freshwater resources, not to mention increasingly severe storms. I argue that it's necessary to understand the political mobilizations surrounding the Anthropocene in the disputes among the experts and its mechanisms of inscription, though it's equally important to observe the dynamics of (re)composition of the landscape according to how this takes place among local actors. In this talk I'll focus on this last aspect by analyzing the history of human interventions in a specific natural landscape. I'll utilize the concepts of landscape transfiguration (Descola) and "landscape perception" (Gibson) to describe some of the landscape transformations in northeast Portugal. These changes represent contemporary efforts to reinvent a natural landscape in accordance with new contexts of environmental preservation.

Paper short abstract:

Reintroductions of wild species present an interesting anthropological terrain. We are studying the case of the Iberian lynx reintroduction and we explore the multiple reactions to the "natural parks conservation" policy and human coexistence with "others"

Paper long abstract:

Reintroductions of wild species have been response actions to species extinction crises. They present an interesting anthropological terrain as they a) reveal conflicts between local populations and central political decisions; b) expose differing perceptions about wildlife and nature conservation c) offer new scenarios for human and non-human interactions d) bring local ecological knowledge into contact with scientific biological expertise.

We are studying the case of the Iberian lynx reintroduction in Portugal conducting semi-structured interviews in two classified areas. The ethnographic approach intends to understand how a wild carnivore would be integrated, the human practices in areas of potential conflict, how key actors position themselves and contest "receiving the lynx" during a "negotiating process", and how external conservation projects are viewed.

Results point to a dominant discourse where nature is commodified. A species historically considered as a vermin it is now a symbol of conservation and a way of claiming for benefits. The lynx is still categorized as a predator that competes in hunting but humans are also said to be "the greatest predators" perhaps an image of how we see ourselves acting in the global ecosystem. Local beliefs such as the widespread release of wild animals or placing wild predators in a fenced area without humans, are explored. They are reactions to the "natural parks conservation" policy or to the "restoring natural ecosystems" idea. They also reflect the human-biosphere relationship in constant change, the rural lifestyle under macro-European agriculture policies, and a variety of values towards coexistence with "others".

Paper short abstract:

People engage in verbal and non-verbal communication practices in relation to the ecology in which they find themselves. Stemming from an analysis of Vepsian translative case, I demonstrate how non-human animals and the ever-changing ecology hold agency on Vepsian ways of speaking.

Paper long abstract:

This paper shows how humans are responding to an ever-changing environment at local level aiming attention at ways of speaking. Specifically, it focuses on the agency held by non-human animals on human behaviour and verbal communication practices within a specific ecology, comprising both urban and rural settings.

Veps traditionally occupy a rural territory in north-western Russia and are generally bilingual in Vepsian and Russian. Vepsian villagers tend to appreciate that the behaviour of non-human animals organically responds to the local ecosystem. By observing it closely, the rural dwellers can predict future events and act accordingly. Such ontology extends to Vepsian ways of speaking, as in Vepsian the translative nominal case is also used to anticipate the future.

In the last century specific ideologies of civilization and progress, convoluted with a fast-changing economy, have led many Veps to move to the city. Such movement has had an effect on Vepsian ways of speaking, as they tend to adopt mostly Russian in the city (hence, dropping the use of Vepsian and its intrinsic relational characteristics).

Questions related to environmental issues often challenge people's behaviour and their endeavours to adjust to the new settings. With this paper, I pinpoint a specific aspect of social life which is often neglected when discussing environmental issues, i.e., verbal and non-verbal communication practices in relation to non-human animals and the ecology in which people manifest language.

Paper short abstract:

Lamas de Olo is small mountain village located in the midst of a natural park in the northeast of Portugal. Subsistence farming and small scale cattle herding are the main livelihoods of its inhabitants however Lamas de Olo has one of the highest levels of groud level ozone in Europe.

Paper long abstract:

Lamas de Olo is small mountain village located in the midst of a natural park in the northeast of Portugal. Subsistence farming and small scale cattle herding are the main livelihoods of its inhabitants. Large industries or other sources of pollution are hundreds of kilometers away however Lamas de Olo has one of the highest levels of groud level ozone in Europe. Dwellers are not well informed of this fact nevertheless they are aware of it, mostly through television news and do establish a connection between it and some health problems (chiefly respiratory) and a widespread uncommon fatigue felt mainly during hot summer days. "It's an invisible enemy, an invisible evil", say some of them.

Anthropology is particular well situated to study this kind of elusive climate change issues and this paper explores how people perceive and cope with climate change/overheating/global pollution and its less obvious manifestations.

Paper short abstract:

Drawn on fieldwork data, the paper presents a case study from a Hungarian village. It illustrates how an esoteric book serial inspired a local community to start organic gardening. It highlights on the discourses about the concepts of Nature along with human - non-human relationships.

Paper long abstract:

The 1755 fatal Lisboa earthquake and the cruel seven-year war inspired Voltaire to reconsider Leibniz's optimistic thesis, rephrased by master Pangloss: all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Doubts similar to that of Voltaire arose in the vivid "end-of-the-World" discourses on the turn of 2011 and 2012, when various sensationalist predictions about threatening global environmental cataclysms were circulating in mass media in Hungary.

Seemingly, Russian entrepreneur Vladimir Megre's best-selling series, The Ringing Cedars of Russia, offered a viable solution for many. Gaining inspiration from his personal encounters with a mysterious recluse and prophetess (named Anastasia) in the taiga, Megre outlined a grandiose vision of small, egalitarian, self-supporting communities living in harmony with an animated Nature on their own lands of common property. As the first volumes were translated to Hungarian in 2007 (e.g. soon after the Russian publication), by 2011 there had been several Anastasia-communities organized throughout Hungary.

Drawn on fieldwork data the paper traces the processes, how Megre's utopian ideas were adopted, interpreted and then realized in a Hungarian village environment. Highlighting on the actual establishment of organic family gardens, the case study focuses on the revival of long-forgot (or just still hiding) knowledge in agriculture, and on the ways, how relationships between human and non-human agents of the ecosystem are redefined.

Paper short abstract:

Based on a case study of urban-beekeeping in the German capital of Berlin, my contribution is to discuss the practices, aims and visions of urban beekeeping within the theoretical framework of Political Anthropology and Human Animal Studies.

Paper long abstract:

Since 2006, Western media discuss the so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The European honeybee, important not only for its production of honey but also because it pollinates vegetables and other plants, is dying in huge quantities. Researchers, politicians and the interested public discuss the reasons for CCD without being able to propose a solution. At the same time, more and more people living in the towns of industrialized countries have begun urban beekeeping.

As part of the green and food movements, the bee movement discusses the orders and models of Western societies. Today, bee hives are kept on the roofs of important public buildings in the capitals of the Western world - including parliament and bank buildings. The honey bee, that since antiquity has been discussed as a "political animal", is once more used as a political argument, in particular as a role model for the discussion of political, economic and social orders.

Based on a case study of urban-beekeeping in the German capital of Berlin, my contribution is to discuss the practices, aims and visions of urban beekeeping within the theoretical framework of Political Anthropology and Human Animal Studies.