2021 Volume 86 Issue 1 Pages 096-114
In this paper, I discuss the concept of "ephemeral entanglement" by examining the Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan's practices of rescuing wild birds and fish in danger. Ephemeral entanglements emerge from the Upper Kuskokwim people's concern regarding other species' survival, while they simultaneously refrain from turning their relationship into those of restraints and domination (i.e. domestication). Prior studies in Northern Athabascan ethnography frequently adopted the "human and animal" framework, whereas I aim to analyze this concept from the "human-domus-animal" viewpoint. I argue that the Upper Kuskokwim people's relationship with other species should be characterized, not just as an entanglement with the connotation of immobility and fixation, but as an ephemeral entanglement where the mobility of human and non-human persons is highly respected. Multispecies ethnographers are tasked with participating in the interdisciplinary dialogue on the Anthropocene. In this paper, I discuss the concept of hyperkeystone species, which has been claimed to show humans' status in the Anthropocene.