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SUMMARY:Before colonization (BC) and after decolonization (AD): The Early 
 Anthropocene\, the Biblical Fall\, and relational pasts\, presents\, and f
 utures  - Reading discussion led by Roge Luque-Lora
DTSTART:20220201T130000Z
DTEND:20220201T140000Z
UID:TALK168404@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Fleur Nash
DESCRIPTION:"Anthropocene debate centers on the start-date and the cause o
 f the geologic Epoch. One argument for the Epoch’s start-date is the “
 Early Anthropocene\,” contending humanity “took control” of Earth sy
 stems during the Neolithic Revolution. Adherents contend agriculture con- 
 tributed to rising carbon emissions and laid the groundwork for societal i
 lls such as colonialism and extractive capitalism. Such a deterministic th
 eory erases centuries of relational agriculture practiced by Indigenous pe
 oples in the Americas. This article upsets the narrative of the “Early A
 nthropocene” that would mark all agriculture and agricultural societies 
 as destructive and extractive\, and instead offers embodied Indigenous nar
 ratives that view agriculture as a relational system of partnerships betwe
 en humans and other-than-human beings over centuries. First\, I trace the 
 “Early Anthropocene” narrative from its origins with paleoclimatologis
 t William Ruddiman to its contemporary adherents and show how such a theor
 y lines-up with the narrative of the Christianized Biblical Fall. I show t
 hat “Early Anthropocene” theorists portray agriculture as society’s 
 “ultimate sin\,” wherein humans fall from a hunter–gatherer Eden and
  must toil to cultivate crops\, eventually giving way to colonialism and e
 xtractive capitalism\, ultimately causing environmental degradation and de
 struction and leading to a second coming of the hunter- gathering Eden. I 
 then argue against such stories\, tracing examples of relational agricultu
 re prac- ticed prior to settler colonization into our contemporary moment 
 by Cherokee\, Anishinaabe\, Haudenosaunee\, Western Apache\, Karuk\, Coast
  Salish\, and Ponca peoples. Such stories show a pattern of missteps\, und
 erstanding\, and knowledge production between human groups and the more-th
 an-human\, rather than the environmental and societal destruction that Ear
 ly Anthropocene theorists portray as the inevitable end of agricultural so
 cieties. This study dis- proves the agricultural “Early Anthropocene” 
 as a starting point for Earth’s Epoch. It also presents relational envir
 onmental understanding through decolonized agriculture on repatriated\nlan
 d as a future method for interacting with the other-than-human environment
 ."
LOCATION:Delivered online via Zoom
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