Finding the PDF is the first step. Unlearning the desire for purity—in nature, in food, in politics—is the second. As Tsing writes in the closing paragraphs of the essay (paraphrasing from memory, as the PDF rests on a hard drive somewhere), “To be feral is to make a living in the ruins of someone else’s dream. It is not a tragedy. It is a starting point.”
In the PDF you are seeking, Tsing argues that the Anthropocene is not the end of life, but the end of predictable life. Feral biologies are the unexpected collaborations that arise in zones of abandonment: a matsutake mushroom sprouting from a clear-cut forest in Oregon; a vine overtaking a Chernobyl parking lot; bacteria evolving to eat plastic in the Pacific Gyre. anna tsing feral biologies pdf
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing is an American anthropologist and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work focuses on globalization, capitalism, and the relationships between humans and non-humans. "Feral Biologies" is a concept that Tsing explores in her research, particularly in the context of the Anthropocene era. Finding the PDF is the first step
are the life forms that thrive in the ruins of industrial progress. They are the weeds in the cracks of the pavement, the invasive species in monocrop plantations, and the microbial communities that evolve in toxic waste sites. They are neither fully wild (untouched by humans) nor fully domesticated (controlled by humans). They are "entangled" companions in a world where human designs have failed. It is not a tragedy
If you are searching for the PDF because you loved The Mushroom , you will find that “Feral Biologies” is more concise, more theoretical, and perhaps more pessimistic. It lacks the hopeful ethnography of the matsutake pickers and leans harder into the biological realities of extinction and mutation.
While I cannot reproduce the PDF in full, one of its most cited examples involves a failed palm oil plantation in Southeast Asia. After the corporation left (bankrupt or moved to a cheaper frontier), the land was not empty. Stinging nettles, wild boar, feral oil palm seedlings, and a specific type of nitrogen-fixing ant created a new thicket. This thicket is useless for industrial agriculture, uninhabitable for the displaced farming community, and ecologically “messy.” Yet, it sequesters carbon, stabilizes the soil, and provides a corridor for certain migratory birds.
Anna Tsing's "Feral Biologies" examines how living things interact with human infrastructure in unintended ways, forming a core component of her "Feral Atlas" project. This concept emphasizes "feral effects"—human-caused but ungoverned phenomena—and the necessity of multispecies resurgence in response to damaged environments. Explore the project at Feral Atlas . Anthropocene Lecture: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing