Epic, Ecocriticism, and Aesthetic Anthropology: New Approaches to the Environmental Challenges

This issue offers a selection of contributions by esteemed authors from the most diverse universities and institutes known for their work and commitment in Environmental Humanities, Ecocriticism, An-imal studies, Blue Sciences, Ethno-Ecology. Alongside them, a great space in this volume has been dedicated to the pioneering, experimental and creative work of younger researchers and postgradu-ates. We therefore propose a long journey through the literature and recent brilliant narratives com-ing from Africa and India, corroborated by exploratory and ethnographic scientific investigations at the ‘edge of the world’, from the distant islands of Scotland (St Kilda) to the Himalayan ridge (Sikkim). A series of Italian case studies document paradoxes and problems of the Sicilian land-scape, of feral tourism in Venice, and of the environmental policies of the lagoons in the Po River Del-ta. A renewed session dedicated to interviews, artistic performance and aesthetics enriches the final part of this volume. Through amazing productions from Australia, India, Italy, Estonia, the artist and the performer present themselves as a new sort of eco-political agents and mediators, in the attempt to process the traumatic anthropogenic ecological disaster and to reintegrate the individual into the living planet

Eco-cosmologies and the Spirit of Resilience

Ecological disasters, environmental collapses, and existential threats are real-time experiences of contemporary humanity. In an increasingly globalized world dominated by corporate interests of a military, digital, and financial complex, it is easy to lose hope and motivation. Given the scale of global and local destruction, it is crucial for us not to lose our moral orientation and resilience. This guidance can be offered from an anthropological perspective, which revisits indigenous knowledge of small-scale societies or minority cultures and examines their resilience and sustainability models of life