For the Wild

Abstract

Drawing on analyses of activist art, music, and writings, as well as interviews and participant-observation in activist communities and at protests, For the Wild explores the ways in which radical environmental and animal rights activists’ commitments develop through powerful experiences with the other-than-human world during childhood and young adulthood. The book addresses the question of how and why activists come to value nonhuman animals and the natural world as worthy of protection. For the Wild is about two kinds of ritual: conversion as a rite of passage or initiation into activism and protests as ritualized actions. In the context of conversion to activism, the book explores the ways in which the emotions of love, wonder, rage and grief that motivate radical activists develop through powerful, embodied relationships with nonhuman beings. These emotions, their ritualized expressions, and spirituality shape activists’ protest practices and help us understand their deep-rooted commitments to the planet and its creatures.

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