Thom van Dooren - The Wake of Crows: Living and Dying in Shared Worlds

THE WAKE OF CROWS

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ANIMALS

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ANIMALS: THEORY, CULTURE, SCIENCE, AND LAW

Series Editors: Gary L. Francione and Gary Steiner

The emerging interdisciplinary field of animal studies seeks to shed light on the nature of animal experience and the moral status of animals in ways that overcome the limitations of traditional approaches. Recent work on animals has been characterized by an increasing recognition of the importance of crossing disciplinary boundaries and exploring the affinities as well as the differences among the approaches of fields such as philosophy, law, sociology, political theory, ethology, and literary studies to questions pertaining to animals. This recognition has brought with it an openness to rethinking the very terms of critical inquiry and the traditional assumptions about human being and its relationship to the animal world. The books published in this series seek to contribute to contemporary reflections on the basic terms and methods of critical inquiry by focusing on fundamental questions arising out of the relationships and confrontations between humans and nonhuman animals, and ultimately to enrich our appreciation of the nature and ethical significance of nonhuman animals by providing a forum for the interdisciplinary exploration of questions and problems that have traditionally been confined within narrowly circumscribed disciplinary boundaries.

The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation? , Gary L. Francione and Robert Garner

Animal Rights Without Liberation: Applied Ethics and Human Obligations , Alasdair Cochrane

Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Animal-Human Encounters , edited by Julie A. Smith and Robert W. Mitchell

Animalia Americana: Animal Representations and Biopolitical Subjectivity , Colleen Glenney Boggs

Animal Oppression and Human Violence: Domesecration, Capitalism, and Global Conflict , David A. Nibert

Animals and the Limits of Postmodernism , Gary Steiner

Being Animal: Beasts and Boundaries in Nature Ethics , Anna L. Peterson

Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction , Thom van Dooren

Eat This Book: A Carnivores Manifesto , Dominique Lestel

Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights , Sherry F. Colb and Michael C. Dorf

THE WAKE OF CROWS

LIVING AND DYING IN SHARED WORLDS

Thom van Dooren

Columbia University Press

New York

Columbia University Press

Publishers Since 1893

New York Chichester, West Sussex

cup.columbia.edu

Copyright 2019 Columbia University Press

All rights reserved

E-ISBN 978-0-231-54439-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Van Dooren, Thom, 1980- author.

Title: The wake of crows : living and dying in shared worlds / Thom van Dooren.

Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2019] | Series: Critical perspectives on animals: theory, culture, science, and law | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019006300 (print) | LCCN 2019008495 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231182829 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: CrowsEcology. | Human-animal relationships.

Classification: LCC QL696.P2367 (ebook) | LCC QL696.P2367 V36 2019 (print) | DDC 598.8/64dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019006300

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Cover design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee

Cover image: Suzanne Dehne / Getty Images

For Deb, an inspiring teacher and a cherished friend

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has been the primary focus of my thinking and writing for roughly the past six years. During this time I have undertaken fieldwork in various parts of the world, had two primary academic homes, and been fortunate enough to be a visiting fellow and to present this work at a range of universities. Many people have contributed significantly to this project and to the book that it has become.

I am sincerely thankful to the colleagues who made the time to read and provide feedback on draft chapters. This commentary has been invaluable and has shaped my thinking profoundly. Particular thanks to Michelle Bastian, Etienne Benson, Brad Bolman, Veit Braun, Brett Buchanan, Matthew Chrulew, Margaret Cook, Eileen Crist, Thibault De Meyer, Vinciane Despret, David Farrier, Franklin Ginn, Margret Grebowicz, Donna Haraway, Matthew Kearnes, Lindsay Kelley, Eben Kirksey, Jean Langford, Jamie Lorimer, Stephen Muecke, Ursula Mnster, Astrida Neimanis, Emily OGorman, Craig Santos Perez, Hugo Reinert, Harriet Ritvo, Deborah Bird Rose, Isabelle Stengers, and Anna Tsing.

I would also like to thank the many talented PhD and honors students that I have worked with while completing this book. Our discussions have often taken me in productive new directions, and I have benefited immensely from all of your inspiring work: Hlne Ahlberger Le Deunff, Emily Crawford, Kate Judith, Laura McLauchlan, Jamie Wang, and Sam Widin.

This book is, in very large part, a product of my time as part of the Environmental Humanities group at the University of New South Wales. My many wonderful colleagues in this group challenged and provoked me; they introduced me to a range of new ideas and deepened my understandings of old ones. Toward the end of my time on this project I moved to the University of Sydney, where my new colleagues, in particular those in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies and the Sydney Environment Institute, provided a stimulating and supportive home for the final stages of the work on this book.

During this period of research (20132018) I have also been fortunate enough to be able to spend extended periods of time as a visitor at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich (20142016, intermittent), the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory in Stockholm (2014), the Anthropology Department at MIT (2018), and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa (2018). Thank you to my hostsChristof Mauch, Sverker Srlin, Stefan Helmreich and Heather Paxson, and Alex Mawyerand their many colleagues for conversations, reading groups, and discussions that enriched this work in so many ways.

This book has also benefited from conversations and presentations of draft chapters during shorter visitsfrom a couple of days to a couple of weeksat many universities and other institutions around the world, often alongside or on my way to fieldwork. In particular, I would like to thank my hosts at Aarhus University, the American Museum of Natural History, Columbia University, Curtin University, cole Normale Suprieure Paris, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Leeds, Universit Libre de Bruxelles, the University of Oxford, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The fieldwork that informs this book has taken me to numerous parts of the globe and brought me into conversation with many fascinating people. I cant hope to name them all here but would like to offer particular thanks to some of those who went above and beyond to show me around, to tell me their stories, or to help me in countless other ways: in Brisbane: Darryl Jones, Trixie Benbrook, Kristen Dangerfield, and Matt Brown; in Hawaii: Hannah Kihalani Springer, Mike Hadfield, Sheila Conant, Donna Ball, Paul Banko, Sam Ohu Gon III, Rich Switzer, Alan Lieberman, Nohea Kaawa, John Replogle, and Shalan Crysdale; in Hoek van Holland: Sabine Rietkerk, Harm Niesen, and Colin Ryall; in the Mojave: Tim Shields, Bill Boarman, and Roy Averill-Murray; on Rota: Stan Taisacan, Thomas Mendiola, Sarah Faegre, Phil Hannon, Beth Chagnon, Dacia Wiitala, Doug Page, and Earl Campbell. Finally, Nicola Clayton and Thomas Bugnyar both made time in their busy schedules, more than once, to meet with me and talk about corvid behavioral research. Thank you to you all.