This volume provides fresh insight into northern human–animal relations and illustrates the breadth and practical utility of archaeological human–animal studies. It surveys recent archaeological research in northern North America and Eurasia that frames human–animal relations as not merely economically exploitative but often socially complex and deeply meaningful, and attuned to the intelligence and agency of nonhuman prey and domesticates. The case studies sample a wide swath of the circu...

In Relational Engagements of the Indigenous Americas, Melissa R. Baltus and Sarah E. Baires critically examine the current understanding of relationality in the Americas, covering a diverse range of topics from Indigenous cosmologies to the life-world of the Inuit dog. The contributors to this wide-ranging edited collection interrogate and discuss the multiple natures of relational ontologies, touching on the ever-changing, fluid, and varied ways that people, both alive and dead, relate an...

“A palaeontological howdunnit…[Spying on Whales] captures the excitement of…seeking answers to deep questions in cetacean science.” —NatureCalled “the best of science writing” (Edward O. Wilson) and named a best book by Popular Science, a dive into the secret lives of whales, from their four-legged past to their perilous present.Whales are among the largest, most intelligent, deepest diving species to have ever lived on ou...

"An astonishing, unconstrained exploration of the nature and practice of cetacean culture . . . a revolutionary book." —Philip Hoare, author of The WhaleIn the songs and bubble feeding of humpback whales; in young killer whales learning to knock a seal from an ice floe in the same way their mother does; and in the use of sea sponges by the dolphins of Shark Bay, Australia, to protect their beaks while foraging for fish, we find clear examples of the transmi...

First Footprints tells the extraordinary story of the Aboriginal people of Australia. How they made their way out of Africa 60,000 years ago, and how they survived across this vast continent, from the harsh deserts of the inland to the glaciers of southern Tasmania. With photos from the ABC TV series of the same name.Some 60,000 years ago, a small group of people landed on Australia's northern coast. They were the first oceanic mariners and this great sout...

How much of the folk tales of our ancestors is rooted in fact, and what can they tell us about the future?In today's society it is the written word that holds the authority. We are more likely to trust the words found in a history textbook over the version of history retold by a friend – after all, human memory is unreliable, and how can you be sure your friend hasn't embellished the facts? But before humans were writing down their knowledge, they were passing it o...

A leading figure in the emerging field of extinction studies, Thom van Dooren puts philosophy into conversation with the natural sciences and his ethnographic encounters to vivify the cultural and ethical significance of modern-day extinctions. Unlike other meditations on the subject, Flight Ways incorporates the particularities of real animals and their worlds, drawing philosophers, natural scientists, and general readers into the experience of living among and losing biodiversit...

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The Arctic is demanding global attention. It is warming, melting, and thawing in a manner that threatens fundamental state-change. For communities that call the Arctic 'home' this is unwelcome. A warming Arctic brings with it the spectre of costly disruption and interference in indigenous lives and communal welfare. For others, the disappearance of sea ice makes the Arctic appear more accessible and less remote...

Moisture, temperature, gravity. These are the ingredients that create the life story of the driest of Earth’s continents.Heart of Ice takes the reader on a compelling journey across space and time, navigating entangled stories of ice and rock, humans, animals and other species, through the prism of Antarctica’s ice. Joy McCann – author of the internationally acclaimed Wild Sea – eloquently draws on a vast body of scientific and historical research...

From two experts on wild parrot cognition, a close look at the intelligence, social behavior, and conservation of these widely threatened birds.People form enduring emotional bonds with other animal species, such as dogs, cats, and horses. For the most part, these are domesticated animals, with one notable exception: many people form close and supportive relationships with parrots, even though these amusing and curious birds remain thoroughly wild creatures. What en...

Humans love dolphins, and dolphins, it seems, love us: they have been known to encircle swimmers under attack by sharks. Yet although we think we know dolphins well, in fact most people are quite ill-informed about how they evolved, how they function as organisms and how they have interacted with humans for millennia. Dolphin offers a comprehensive view of the animal, describing both its remarkable zoology and its social and cultural history.For centuries dolphins were bel...

Following the trails of Hawai‘i’s snails to explore the simultaneously biological and cultural significance of extinction.In this time of extinctions, the humble snail rarely gets a mention. And yet snails are disappearing faster than any other species. In A World in a Shell, Thom van Dooren offers a collection of snail stories from Hawai‘i—once home to more than 750 species of land snails, almost two-thirds of which are now gone. Following snail trails th...