For the Wild
For the Wild
Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism
Sarah M. Pike
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press, one of the most
distinguished university presses in the United States,
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University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2017 by Sarah M. Pike
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pike, Sarah M., 1959– author.
Title: For the wild : ritual and commitment in radical
eco-activism / Sarah M. Pike.
Description: Oakland, California : University of
California Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017013715 (print) | LCCN 2017015386
(ebook) | ISBN 9780520967892 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780520294950 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780520294967 (pbk : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Animal rights—Moral and ethical
aspects—United States. | Animal rights movement—
United States. | Animal rights activists—United States. |
Environmentalists—United States—Attitudes. |
Nature—Effect of human beings on. | Environmental
ethics—United States.
Classification: LCC HV4708 (ebook) | LCC HV4708 .P565
2017 (print) | DDC 179/.30973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017013715
Manufactured in the United States of America
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For my children, Dasa Grey Schill, Jonah Paul Schill, and Clara Bergamini, with all my love
Contents
Introduction: For All the Wild Hearts
1.Freedom and Insurrection around a Fire
2.At the Turn of the Millennium: Youth Culture and the Roots of Contemporary Activism
3.Childhood Landscapes of Wonder and Awe
4.Into the Forest
5.“Liberation’s Crusade Has Begun”: Hare Krishna Hardcore Youth and Animal Rights Activism
6.Circles of Community, Strategies of Inclusion
7.Rites of Grief and Mourning
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
This book has been over ten years in the writing and many people have helped it along the way.
I owe much to the many activists who took time to speak with me or shared their stories by mail from prison. I am particularly grateful to Jeffrey Luers, Rod Coronado, Peter Young, and Chelsea Gerlach for the letters they wrote that set me along certain paths I never would have taken without their insights. Thanks to Nettle and Darryl Cherney for hanging out with me for hours and telling me about their lives. The Earth First! Journal and its many editors over the years of my research had a profound effect on this project. The artists included in EF!J and the authors of letters, articles, pleas, complaints, reportbacks, and poems shaped my understanding of activism and confirmed much of what I saw and heard during fieldwork. Many other activists generously tolerated being interviewed, taught me medic and climbing skills, accompanied me to gatherings, told me about their childhoods, shared meals with me, and welcomed me into their communities. This book would not have been possible without their hard work and passionate dedication to the lives of other species.
Much appreciation goes to Max Lieberman for fieldwork assistance and his thoughtful perspectives on a number of thorny issues.
Eric Schmidt at the University of California Press was positive and encouraging towards this project from the moment I first mentioned it. Thanks to Maeve Cornell-Taylor, Kate Hoffman, and others at the press who worked on the book during various phases of its production.
California State University Chico provided me with several leaves that supported the initial phases of research for this book. The Department of Comparative Religion and Humanities at CSU, Chico, has been a warm and supportive academic home. The University of Oslo hosted me as a visiting scholar and it was during my sabbatical in Oslo that much of this book was written. The Norwegian Research Council generously funded this research as part of the multiyear, international, collaborative project based at the University of Oslo, “Reassembling Democracy: Ritual as Cultural Resource.” I owe much to the scholars who participated in REDO, whose questions and suggestions enriched this book: Michael Houseman, Marion Grau, Morny Joy, Donna Seamone, Jens Kreinath, Graham Harvey, Paul-François Tremlett, Gitte Buch-Hansen, Lotte Danielsen, Kjetil Hafstad, Birte Nordahl, Tony Balcomb, Grzegorz Brzozowski, Cora Alexa Døving, Ida Marie Høeg, Samuel Etikpah, Sidsel Roalkvam, and to the other participants in REDO France, REDO London, and REDO Berkeley workshops. Thanks especially to project director Jone Salomonsen, a companion on various adventures over our professional years, who has made much possible for me. The time and ideas shared with all of you in special places far
