How might different people appreciate birds? And how do birds appreciate (or refuse the attentions of) people? In this session, Professor Anna Tsing explores what it would mean to take overlapping—but non-identical—forms of curiosity as a starting point for getting to know birds.

Traveling to the Raja Ampat islands of West Papua, Indonesia, in the company of bird experts, she watched birds and villagers and birdwatchers in their common muddling together. One of the surprises of the trip was the enthusiasm of villagers for showing international guests their local birds. Where did this enthusiasm come from, she asked, and how did it interact both with birds’ own agendas in villages and with the international political economy of birdwatching? Exploring such questions leads us into the Anthropocene’s challenges of collaboration. Prof Tsing suggests that recognising the dance of more-than-human sociality requires attention both to varied agendas people have with birds and to those birds have with people.

Anna Tsing is a professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2018, she was awarded the Huxley Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Professor Tsing received her B.A. from Yale University and completed her M.A. and PhD at Stanford University.

Watch the full session here: