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An Arkansas Parable for the Anthropocene

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

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Authors

Abstract

The claimed rediscovery of North America’s rarest bird, the ivory-billed woodpecker, in the early 2000s, was one of the most high-profile events in global ornithological history. The reappearance of the bird in a remote locality in eastern Arkansas seemed to vindicate belief in the innate resilience and adaptability of nature, yet within a few months the claims became shrouded in doubt and uncertainty. This article argues that the reasons for the bird’s likely extinction in the early 1940s go beyond the usual parameters of conservation biology to include the violent impetus toward nature unleashed by settler colonialism and the plantation system. The changing ecologies of the Delta are explored through a dialogue between critical landscape studies and emerging perspectives on race, masculinity, and violence that have been extensively occluded under the burgeoning interdisciplinary fascination with the Anthropocene. I conclude that the story of the ivory-billed woodpecker gives credence to a modified reading of the Plantationocene as an alternative conceptual framing for global environmental change.

Description

Keywords

Anthropocene, ivory-billed woodpecker, Mississippi Delta, Plantationocene, political ecology

Journal Title

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2469-4452
2469-4460

Volume Title

112

Publisher

Informa UK Limited
Sponsorship
European Research Council (340077)