Species: a praxiographic study |
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| Authors: | Eben Kirksey |
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| Institution: | 1. Princeton University, Environment and the Humanities + Department of Anthropology, 116 Aaron Burr Hall, UNSW Australia/Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544‐1011, USA;2. Environmental Humanities @ UNSW, Morven Brown Room 333, NSW 2052, Sydney, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Taxonomists, who describe new species, are acutely aware of how political, economic, and ecological forces bring new forms of life into being. Conducting ethnographic research among taxonomic specialists – experts who bring order to categories of animals, plants, fungi, and microbes – I found that they pay careful attention to the ebb and flow of agency in multispecies worlds. Emergent findings from genomics and information technologies are transforming existing categories and bringing new ones into being. This article argues that the concept of species remains a valuable sense‐making tool despite recent attacks from cultural critics. |
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