Contaminated Diversity

Dinner, Thursday Sept 26

multi-

species encounter

“Humans shape multispecies worlds when our living arrangements make room for other species” (22, Tsing)”

Hudson Valley beef meets the chiles that Martha brought back from Mexico.

plastic, sugar, and global supply chains

“…Contaminated diversity is recalcitrant to the kind of “summing up” that has become the hallmark of modern knowledge. Contaminated diversity is not only particular and historical, ever changing, but also relational. It has no self-contained units; its units are encounter based collaborations.” (33, Tsing)

This meal was brought to you by thoughtful, local sourcing and capitalism.

polyphonic assemblage

Get the onions smelling good and looking translucent, then add the canned and crushed tomatoes which were harvested and processed at some unknown time in some unknown place and purchased at the store sometime last month.

Next step: add the chiles which have been rehydrated and blended up into a thick red puree. Stir in the meat. Season. Cover and simmer for a few hours.

Collaborative survival

“It is unselfconscious privilege that allows us to fantasize – counterfactually that we each survive alone” (29, Tsing).

A whole meal appears: brown butter corn bread, roasted sweet potatoes, kale, mushrooms, beef chili (not pictured: pumpkin pie with whipped cream).