After five years of research and writing, I am pleased to announce that my first book is under contract with University of Texas Press. Peer reviews came back as positive with incredibly helpful feedback that will undoubtably enhance the text. I look forward to continuing writing and editing the manuscript with the reviewers’ suggestions in mind.
Below is an excerpt from my book prospectus.
Living with Javelinas: Creating Multispecies Conviviality in Texas
Adam P. Johnson, University of Texas at San Antonio
As the human population continues to expand into what was once wilderness, people increasingly come in contact with wildlife. We need to learn to do so convivially. Living with Javelinas explores conviviality—the capacity to live with difference—by illustrating how Texans and javelinas have found ways to thrive together, share space, and avoid conflict even when risk and danger are parts of the equation.
This ethnographic study of human-javelina relationships provides important insights into many current issues, including environmental precarity, interspecies relationships, and the broader implications of multispecies justice. It will be of interest to policymakers, anthropologists, students, and the general public, who will benefit from the interdisciplinary approach, detailed ethnographic accounts, theoretical perspectives, and practical applications of the research findings to real-world contexts. The book offers an optimistic view of possibilities, even in the face of social and environmental precarity, and represents a fresh take that demonstrates how positive multispecies relationships can thrive.
Living with Javelinas explores how humans and nonhumans can coexist in ways that respect the autonomy and agency of all beings involved. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the practicalities of living together in a shared, precarious world, and emphasizes the potential for positive, sustainable relationships.
Living with Javelinas is based on a multi-year ethnographic study of human-javelina social and environmental dynamics across a number of different sites in Texas. The relationships varied from pure predator-prey among javelina hunters, to mainly indifference to National Park visitors, to a close and mutually satisfying conviviality in a Hill Country Ranch. I examine how humans and javelinas co-shape their relationships and shared environments by negotiating the shared space across diverse Texas landscapes through a process of multispecies politics. Over time, these negotiations establish informal rules and set expectations about how interspecies interactions ought to play out.
Many Texans see javelinas as dangerous and approach them with caution. However, unlike predators such as coyotes, bears, and mountain lions, javelinas do not elicit the same level of contempt because they lack the same historical villanization that predators living in a ranching state do. This duality manifests in various kinds of coexistence, including passive tolerance and active engagement. My research examines how humans and javelinas co-shape their relationships and shared environments across diverse Texas landscapes. At the broadest level, Living with Javelinas enhances our comprehension of multispecies living, even when risk and danger are parts of the equation.
Javelinas (Pecari tajacu) are central to many social and environmental dynamics in Texas, making them ideal subjects for an ethnographic study of human-animal conviviality. I chose human-javelina relations as my focus because they sit at the nexus of many prominent issues, including environmental precarity, interspecies relationships, and the broader implications of multispecies justice. My choice reflects a commitment to exploring how humans and nonhumans can coexist in ways that respect the autonomy and agency of all beings involved. By investigating the specific dynamics of human-javelina interactions in Texas, my research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the practicalities of living together in a shared, precarious world, emphasizing the potential for positive, sustainable relationships.
My research answers the following questions:
- How do humans and javelinas build and maintain relationships that allow for conviviality?
- What are the specific dynamics and behaviors of javelinas in their interactions with humans in different socio-ecological contexts in Texas?
- How do environmental, historical, and cultural factors influence human-javelina relations in Texas?
- What role does the negotiation of encounters play in the formation of stable social arrangements between humans and javelinas?
- How do different landscapes influence human-javelina interactions, and how are they influenced by these interactions?
Achieving conviviality requires a willingness to engage and mutual understanding. On Roger’s Hill Country ranch, the relationship between him and the javelinas has developed through repeated, patterned interactions, creating a set of expectations for both parties. This dynamic has allowed Roger to learn how to read and respond to the javelinas’ behaviors in ways they understand. Similarly, the javelinas have adapted to Roger’s routine, learning to read his actions and respond appropriately. This reciprocal understanding and adaptation illustrate the potential for peaceful coexistence between humans and wildlife, even in contexts where risk and danger are present.
Chapter Summaries
By drawing on Andrea Petitt’s (2023) concept of the multispecies triad, Chapters One and Two contextualize javelinas within broader socioecological networks in Texas by examining how feral pigs (Sus scrofa), Ashe juniper trees (Juniperus ashei), and prickly pear cacti (Opuntia spp.) become “contested actors.” I employ Mary Douglas’s (1966) concept of dirt as “matter out of place” to understand how Texan perceptions of belonging and socioecological order result in them viewing other species as undesirable.
Chapter One investigates how the presence of feral pigs in Texas shapes human perceptions and interactions with javelinas. Due to their superficial similarity, Texans often mistake javelinas for feral pigs—a confusion with significant consequences for their treatment. This misidentification can negatively affect javelinas, as attitudes toward feral pigs are overwhelmingly hostile. Unlike javelinas, feral pigs are classified as invasive, largely because they are descendants of pigs introduced by European colonists. Their ecological impact—destroying crops, damaging ecosystems, and outcompeting native wildlife—strengthens their status as a major environmental and agricultural threat. In contrast, javelinas are regarded as native and belong in Texas. The chapter further explores how historical and policy frameworks shape these perceptions. State wildlife agencies, for instance, actively promote the narrative of javelinas as part of Texas’s natural heritage while stigmatizing feral pigs as intruders. This dual framing has practical implications for wildlife management, conservation priorities, and public discourse about human-wildlife relations in Texas.
Chapter Two examines the roles of Ashe juniper trees and prickly pear cacti in human-javelina relations, highlighting the tension between their ecological importance for javelinas and their contested status among Texans. These plants are essential food and create habitat for javelinas, yet many Texans perceive them as nuisances. Ashe junipers, commonly called mountain cedars, are viewed as pests that deplete water in arid environments, trigger severe allergies, and encroach on ranchlands. Prickly pear cacti, while ecologically significant, are seen as threats to livestock and grazing areas due to their ability to overtake pastures. This conflict underscores the broader challenges of multispecies coexistence. Efforts to remove these plants reflect these contested perceptions and disrupt javelina habitats, illustrating how human interventions reshape the ecological conditions necessary for multispecies coexistence in Texas.
Chapter Three explores how the “folk javelina” is constructed through shared stories and cultural narratives about javelina aggression. This dynamic recalls Knight’s (2004) analysis of how cultural myths influence public perceptions of wildlife, which shape both fear and familiarity in human-javelina relationships. These narratives create a powerful image of javelinas as violent creatures, influencing how people anticipate and approach encounters with them. Drawing on historical descriptions and interview data, the chapter examines how these stories perpetuate misunderstandings about javelina behavior, often at odds with the reality of human-javelina interactions. By unpacking the creation of the “folk javelina,” the chapter reveals how cultural storytelling frames human perceptions and shapes multispecies relationships.
Chapters Four, Five, and Six offer detailed accounts of the forms that human-javelina encounters take, moving beyond the “folk javelina” narrative of aggression and unpredictability to examine how these interactions unfold in practice. Drawing on Faier and Rofel’s (2014) definition of encounters as “engagements across difference” (364), the chapters highlight how human perceptions, javelina behaviors, and the contexts of these interactions shape the nature of these engagements. Chapter Four focuses on hunting encounters, revealing the tensions between narratives of respect and the realities of violence. Chapter Five shifts to Big Bend National Park, where the absence of hunting pressures and the stream of tourists result in a distinctive form of coexistence. Chapter Six explores encounters on private properties, showcasing the range of relationships humans build with javelinas, from conflict to familiarity. Together, these chapters illustrate the complexity of human-javelina encounters and challenge simplistic understandings of these dynamic relationships.
Chapters Seven and Eight explore how interactions between humans and javelinas shape shared environments and the relationships within them. I propose multispecies politics as a framework for understanding how power and intersubjective negotiation emerge in encounters shaped by the histories, behaviors, and shared environments of interacting beings (Johnson, 2024). These interactions do not occur in isolation but are embedded within dynamic landscapes co-constructed by the relationships that unfold within them. In this framework, landscapes are active participants in shaping and being shaped by multispecies relations. The emerging relationships set ecological and social patterns that influence future interactions, creating feedback loops where landscapes and relationships continually transform one another. By employing this framework, these chapters provide insight into the ways in which shared worlds are forged through the everyday politics of living.
Chapter Seven examines how encounters between humans and javelinas at Big Bend National Park co-produce conviviality and shape the shared landscapes of the park. These interactions, which I term episodic multispecies politics, are often brief and spontaneous, occurring as tourists and javelinas navigate spaces like campgrounds, trails, and other points of interest. Tourists experience these encounters as moments of awe or novelty, while javelinas adapt their behaviors to accommodate the consistent yet transient human presence. The power dynamics and negotiations within these episodic encounters reflect a dynamic and situational form of multispecies politics. While regulations and the physical design of the park play significant roles in structuring these interactions, the javelinas also exercise agency, deciding when and how to engage with humans. These encounters illustrate how landscapes are co-constructed through the patterns of interaction that emerge over time, setting the stage for future relationships and reinforcing the park’s role as a site of multispecies negotiation.
Chapter Eight investigates the co-production of conviviality at Roger’s ranch through what I call intimate multispecies politics. Building on Govindrajan’s (2018) exploration of the co-production of relatedness between humans and animals in the Indian Himalayas, this chapter examines how repeated engagements foster a sense of mutuality and connection, revealing the relational processes that underpin conviviality. Over the course of my three-year study, I observed how repeated interactions and long-term associations between Roger and the resident javelinas transformed their relationship, which fostered a sense of mutual trust evident in their behaviors. Intimate multispecies politics, as seen on the ranch, involve ongoing negotiations of space and the navigation of power asymmetries, with both Roger and the javelinas acting as agents in shaping their shared environment. Informal rules developed through these interactions, which resulted in a conceptual framework that enabled both parties to navigate their coexistence with relative ease. Unlike Big Bend National Park’s more fleeting encounters, the ranch offers a compelling example of how conviviality is co-produced through sustained, intimate engagement. This chapter demonstrates how human and nonhuman actors co-create the conditions for conviviality, transforming both relationships and landscapes in the process.
Intended Readership
The book is intended for scholars and students in anthropology, environmental studies, and animal studies, particularly those with interests in human-environment relations, multispecies ethnography, and human-animal relations. The book will also appeal to wildlife and environmental policy professionals and conservationists seeking insights into the dynamics of human-wildlife interactions and the implications for sustainable management and conservation. This diverse audience will benefit from the interdisciplinary approach, detailed ethnographic accounts, and practical applications of the research findings in real-world contexts. Most importantly, the book offers an optimistic view of possibilities, even in the face of social and environmental precarity. This approach is a fresh take that shifts our gaze to moments of potential and demonstrates how positive multispecies relationships can thrive.
Undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from the book’s interdisciplinary approach, integrating traditional anthropological perspectives with innovative methods and theories. Students will be exposed to novel approaches to anthropological research, enhancing their skills and critical thinking. Additionally, they will gain insights into environmental policy and wildlife management through concepts like multispecies politics and conviviality. Rich ethnographic narratives inspire an appreciation for the complexities of human-animal relations, making the book valuable for both introductory and advanced courses.
Scholarly Contributions and Position in Current Literature
Living with Javelinas is ultimately a book about how we might live well with difference. Over the past two decades, we have seen the rise of anthropology that situates humans in the broader world, avoiding siloing human lives away from the lives of the other beings with whom we are entangled. Plant Kin (UT Press, 2019) by Theresa Miller explores the entangled lives of the Canela People of Brazil and the many plants that figure into their lives. The Canela and plants are co-constitutive. These relations are even more relevant in the face of climate change, deforestation, and socio-political dynamics that threaten their shared environments. Her book highlights the interwoven and sometimes hidden dimensions of environmental relations. Because javelinas intersect in subtle ways with many Texans’ lives and with many environmental issues, they are relevant central characters in an ethnography of multispecies conviviality in Texas.
In Animal Intimacies (University of Chicago Press, 2018), Radhika Govindrajan explores the co-production of relatedness between humans and animals in the Central Himalayas. In her book, she demonstrates how other animals play important roles in humans’ lives, resulting in a feeling of intimacy and togetherness. The relationship between Roger and the javelinas in the Hill Country illustrates Govindrajan’s idea of relatedness. My book elaborates on Govindrajan’s work by considering the role politics plays in setting the foundation for relatedness.
How Forests Think (University of California Press, 2013) by Eduardo Kohn, The Owners of Kinship (HAU Books, 2018) by Luis Costa, and Consuming Grief (UT Press, 2001) each consider how humans and other animals become entangled and the social effects these entanglements have. Furthermore, javelinas’ close relatives, the white-lipped peccaries, are key figures in these texts. My book contributes to these discussions by attending to multispecies entanglements while simultaneously viewing nonhumans as ethnographic subjects alongside human interlocutors.
While javelinas are often found in Amazonian ethnographies, neither they nor the closely related white-lipped peccaries are ever central characters despite their near universal importance for Amazonian Indigenous Peoples. They are largely absent from ethnographic research in North America. In The Karankawa Indians of Texas (UT Press, 2010), Robert Ricklis references the javelinas’ relatively new arrival in Texas, which may explain why javelinas do not have the same material and symbolic importance in North America as they do in the Amazon. As such, this book is the first to give javelinas ethnographic attention in the United States. My book considers this historical development in how people understand and relate to javelinas and how that differs from how they view feral pigs.
Texas is a culturally and environmentally rich state, and many people have a strong Texan identity. Andrea Valdez and Abi Daniel discuss Texan identity in How to be a Texan (UT Press, 2016). The book considers how these identities shape Texan approaches to the environment and other animals. Key insights from their work are incorporated into Living with Javelinas. David Schmidly and Robert Bradley situate javelinas alongside the other mammals in Texas in The Mammals of Texas (UT Press, 2016). Living with Javelinas elaborates on the biological and ecological dimensions discussed in their book by considering the social and historical dimensions as they relate to humans.
The field of anthropology is beginning to take other animals seriously as agents who are political actors and who shape human lives. Eva Meijer’s When Animals Speak (NYU Press, 2019) argues for the necessity to view animals as political actors who, through their behaviors, communicate their positions and self-advocate, if only we paid attention and learned to interpret their signals. Living with Javelinas operates from the position that javelinas are political actors who, through their own species-specific modes, negotiate encounters with humans. With this stance in mind, javelina behavior can be understood in a new light. We can coexist with them by learning how to interpret their behaviors as meaningful forms of communication.
How Animals Grieve (University of Chicago Press, 2013) by Barbara King emphasizes the importance of recognizing the emotional lives of other animals. In Animals Make Us Human (HarperCollins Publishers, 2010), Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson argue that all animal behavior begins with an emotional experience, and learning to interpret their behaviors accurately provides insights into their inner lives, including their underlying emotions and motivations. These positions are essential to my concept of multispecies politics, in which I argue that to successfully negotiate encounters with javelinas (and other animals), you must understand what their behaviors mean, at least to a degree.
By integrating traditional ethnographic methods with those from classic ethology, geography, and the humanities, I answer novel questions related to the co-production of multispecies conviviality. In Shaving the Beasts (University of Minnesota Press, 2020), John Hartigan advocates for using ethology—the systematic study of animal behavior—as a tool to attend to other animals as ethnographic subjects. Ethology was an invaluable tool used to document and interpret javelina behaviors. Stuart Ellins’s Living with Coyotes (UT Press, 2005) offers a poignant critique of lethal coyote management and argues for a reimagining of wildlife management by considering the natural history and behavior of coyotes. Living with Javelinas also advocates for imagining multispecies futures where humans learn to live alongside other animals by attending to their natural history and behaviors. Essentially, if we want to live in a biodiverse world, we need to reintegrate ourselves.
