The Anthropology of Extinction: Essays on Culture and Species Death

We live in an era marked by an accelerating rate of species death, but since the early days of the discipline, anthropology has contemplated the death of languages, cultural groups, and ways of life. The essays in this collection examine processes and understanding of extinction across various domains. The contributors argue that extinction events can be catalysts for new cultural, social, and technological developments-that extinction processes can, paradoxically, be productive as well as destructive.