Papers by Sita Venkateswar
Journal of ethnobiology, Jan 30, 2024
Ethnobiology has long recognized that human and plant relationships produce particular ways of li... more Ethnobiology has long recognized that human and plant relationships produce particular ways of living. The discipline is increasingly asking how these lifeworlds reflect and create sociopolitical formations-from low-impact hunting-gathering or slash-and-burn agriculture, to colonial plantations and runaway settlements, to contemporary agribusiness and alternative biodynamic agriculture. In this special issue, we propose the concept plant-anthropo-genesis to highlight the ways in which plants and people are co-produced. We explore entanglements between plants and people over time, drawing on wide-ranging ethnographic and historical research to offer new and critical insights into the ways that plant-human lifeworlds co-produce one another-from the processes of racialization in plantation societies to the aspirational interventions of gardeners, farmers, and scientists aiming for redemption from chemical industrial agriculture. The collection centers on acts of reciprocal human and botanical labor through a variety of contexts and perspectives in crop fields, including: how monocrops and plantations reshape socioecological life; ritual dimensions of plant-human interactions; and the regenerative alternatives that re-imagine plant-human relations and agro-ecological possibilities amid the historical weight of extractivist agriculture in plant-anthropo-worlds.
Journal of Ethnobiology, 2024
Ethnobiology has long recognized that human and plant relationships produce particular ways of li... more Ethnobiology has long recognized that human and plant relationships produce particular ways of living. The discipline is increasingly asking how these lifeworlds reflect and create sociopolitical formations-from low-impact hunting-gathering or slash-and-burn agriculture, to colonial plantations and runaway settlements, to contemporary agribusiness and alternative biodynamic agriculture. In this special issue, we propose the concept plant-anthropo-genesis to highlight the ways in which plants and people are co-produced. We explore entanglements between plants and people over time, drawing on wide-ranging ethnographic and historical research to offer new and critical insights into the ways that plant-human lifeworlds co-produce one another-from the processes of racialization in plantation societies to the aspirational interventions of gardeners, farmers, and scientists aiming for redemption from chemical industrial agriculture. The collection centers on acts of reciprocal human and botanical labor through a variety of contexts and perspectives in crop fields, including: how monocrops and plantations reshape socioecological life; ritual dimensions of plant-human interactions; and the regenerative alternatives that re-imagine plant-human relations and agro-ecological possibilities amid the historical weight of extractivist agriculture in plant-anthropo-worlds.
ASCILITE - Australian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Annual Conference, 2011
The Tanya Jermaine collection of Greek vase reproductions was purchased by the Massey University ... more The Tanya Jermaine collection of Greek vase reproductions was purchased by the Massey University School of History, Philosophy and Classics through an alumni donation in 2010. The collection was envisioned as a hands-on teaching resource for students to use and experiment with and proved to be the inspiration for a project aimed at mobilising the collection for a wider audience including distance students, high schools and the general public. Classics and the department of Museum Studies, supported by Centre for Teaching and Learning consultants, designed and created both physical and virtual exhibition spaces for the collection. One of the major drivers was to produce an engaging application that would replicate, at least in part, some of the tactile experiences that the vases provide to students in real life. After considering several options, a beta version of Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite was used to produce the mobile application.
Social Responsibility Journal, Mar 31, 2023
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd eBooks, May 15, 2012
Duke University Press eBooks, 2020
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies
Oficina do CES, Feb 1, 2010
In this paper, I suggest a vision for Public Anthropology that offers the potential to transcend ... more In this paper, I suggest a vision for Public Anthropology that offers the potential to transcend the limits of our mandate as a merely academic enterprise, challenging us to consider ethical forms of action and intervention within the current global conjuncture. Drawing on my ongoing involvement with the indigenous groups in the Andaman Islands, this paper examines the post tsunami conjuncture in the islands when the postcolonial politics of internal colonization subverted the opportunity for radical transformation in the situation of the indigenous groups. I map a necessarily provisional and contingent topography for such a project, while taking note of some recent developments that can lead to radically altered modes of engagement with government and institutional processes in India
Immigrants & Minorities
Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, Aug 17, 2021
… : Identity, Intervention and Ideology in Tribal …, 1997
The Politics Of Indigeneity: Dialogues And Reflections On Indigenous Activism, 2011
Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Base de datos de artículos de revistas, ...
Environment and Society, 2015
Th e Anthropocene refers to the planetary scale of anthropogenic infl uences on the composition a... more Th e Anthropocene refers to the planetary scale of anthropogenic infl uences on the composition and function of Earth ecosystems and life forms. Socio-political and geographic responses frame the uneven topographies of climate change, while eff orts to adapt and mitigate its impact extend across social and natural sciences. Th is review of anthropology's evolving engagement with the Anthropocene contemplates multifarious approaches to research. Th e emergence of multispecies ethnographic research highlights entanglements of humans with other life forms. New ontological considerations are refl ected in Kohn's "Anthropology of Life, " ethnographic research that moves beyond an isolated focus on the human to consider other life processes and entities as research participants. Examples of critical engagement discussed include anthropology beyond disciplinary borders, queries writing in the Anthropocene, and anthropology of climate change. We demonstrate the diverse positions of anthropologists within this juncture in relation to our central trope of entanglements threaded through our discussion in this review.
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Papers by Sita Venkateswar
edited by Frank Heidemann
Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University
Phillip Zehmisch
Postdoctoral Reearch Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University
This volume highlights the significant, yet underestimated, place of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in socio-cultural and historical studies of the Indian Ocean region. British penal colonialism, the Japanese occupation during the Second World War as well as the post-Independence migration of Partition refugees, repatriates and migrants from all over South Asia left a deep imprint on local society. These features render the islands an ideal sociological showcase for the study of historical manifestations. Multiple castes, classes, communities, religions, and languages reflect the social complexity of South Asia and reveal entanglements between the British Empire, the Indian nation-state, and destination countries of South Asian overseas migration. Effectively, this volume contributes to interdisciplinary theorizing by bringing together research rooted in historical theory and scholarship stemming from ethnographic observation as well as macro-level studies of South Asian nation-states and micro-level studies of local communities in vivid and meaningful dialogue with each other. Challenging the analytical usefulness of Euro- centric perceptions of time-structured historical models as the only valid means of explaining the present, it explores alternative analytical avenues opened by a space-bound concept of history.
Contributors:
Clare Anderson • Manish Chandi • Frank Heidemann • Jamal Malik • Kanchan Mukhopadhyay • Satadru Sen • Sita Venkateswar • Claire Wintle • Philipp Zehmisch
The editors focus on three major themes, each discussed in a section: The first section, Framing the Macro-Economic Environment, defines the framework for interrogating globalisation and socio-economic changes in India over the last few decades of the 20th century spiraling into India in the 21st century. The next section, Food Security and Natural Resources, highlights critical considerations involved in feeding a burgeoning population. The discussions pose important questions in relation to the resilience of both people and planet confronting increasingly unpredictable climate-induced scenarios. The final section, Development, Activism and Changing Technologies, discusses some of the social challenges of contemporary India through the lens of inequalities and emergent activisms. The section concludes with an elaboration of the potential and promise of changing technologies and new social media to build an informed and active citizenry across existing social divides.