Introduction

Developing on emergent theories in the environmental humanities and multispecies anthropology, the introduction brings chapters of this edited volume in conversation with current scholarship in the field. Engaging particularly with the work by Eriksen on the homogenization of biological and cultural diversity, while being attuned to Hage’s concept of the impacts of dominating forms of “generalized domestication.” The editors ask how there is a cultivation of proximity through distance through destroying forests, degrading habitat, deconstructing spaces reserved for animals, yet paradoxically forcing the more-than-human (including the microbial) to enter human lives. These modes of becoming with others through factors, such as habitat loss or capitalist agribusiness, suggest that we need to nurture alternative futures through engaging with local communities and Indigenous perceptions of other beings, highlighted by the chapters within this volume.