Walking on Alpine Grass - Grass Socialities and their Global Connections. Perspectives From The Alpine Anthropocene

This article takes an ethnographic look at grass in the Italian Eastern Alps. The relationships between the grass of semi-natural grasslands and more-than-grass actors such as humans and animals unfold through ethnographic walking on high-Alpine pastures. The transformation of grasslands into scrub and forest landscapes is revealed through the relationship of grass to dairy monocultures and cereal feed for ruminants. The vulnerability, thriving and dying of grass is closely intertwined with the lives of small farmers and the global agricultural industry. As the history of grass unfolds through its dependence on human practices and ruminants, I propose to speak of grass socialities which extend ecologically defined grass societies as well as correct the calculation of agronomic costs. As a multifaceted actor in a society of humans and animals, grass can serve as an ethnographic compass that tells us not only of destruction but also of care.