The Life of a Pest: An Ethnography of Biological Invasion in Mexico

Abstract

they in fact telling him, say, about his life, his parents, friends, school and nation? One could draw to a larger degree on studies of witchcraft here, since many similar observations of change and time and alterity have come up. In Geschiere’s (2013) perspective, for instance, the point is made that the monstrous witch is always a potentiality that is present within close relations. The terrible thought of a witch is that a person who is intimate and close can turn against you and kill you and consume you. In the chapter by Joanne Thurman about sorcery in Central Australia we sense a similar dynamic, since the danger of the spiritual attack arises within the community and, as I understand it, could possibly be caused by any member of that group. By extension, one wonders, are all monsters addressed in the book really expressions of such negative powers of close relations, even though projected onto other forms? Or is there a category of monsters who live their life independently of humans? If so, a contrast between ‘familiar’ monsters and ‘foreign’ monsters would be interesting to explore. Even though the volume might evoke the objection that the unitary category of ‘monster’ is unhelpful in understanding phenomena around the world that are very different and have little to do with each other, the key word of the monster does manage to produce fascinating accounts of a whole range of ethnographic stuff that might not have come to the surface under other headlines.