Open AccessMutant Ecologies: Radioactive Life in Post–Cold War New Mexico
Author(s) -
Masco Joseph
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
cultural anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.669
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1548-1360
pISSN - 0886-7356
DOI - 10.1525/can.2004.19.4.517
Subject(s) - cold war , biosocial theory , environmental ethics , politics , nuclear weapon , value (mathematics) , wildlife , political science , political economy , history , sociology , ecology , biology , law , psychology , philosophy , social psychology , personality , machine learning , computer science
A political ecology of the nuclear age developed through a theorization of “mutation” interrogates the contemporary terms of radioactive nature in New Mexico. As an analytic, the value of “mutation” is its emphasis on multigenerational effects, enabling an assessment of biosocial transformations as, alternatively, injury, improvement, or noise. Cold War radiation experiments, the post–Cold War transformation of nuclear production sites into “wildlife reserves,” and the expanding role that biological beings play as “environmental sentinels” in New Mexico are all sites where concerns about “species” integrity may be articulated in relation to radioactive nature.