Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, Vol. 1 - Planet

Volume 1 of the Kinship series revolves around the question ofplanetary relations: What are the sources of our deepest evolutionary and planetary connections, and of our profound longing for kinship? We live in an astounding world of relations. We share these ties that bind with our fellow humansand we share these relations with nonhuman beings as well. From the bacterium swimming in your belly to the trees exhaling the breath you breathe, this community of life is our kinand, for many cultures around the world, being human is based upon this extended sense of kinship. Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations is a lively series that explores our deep interconnections with the living world. The five Kinship volumesPlanet, Place, Partners, Persons, Practiceoffer essays, interviews, poetry, and stories of solidarity, highlighting the interdependence that exists between humans and nonhuman beings. More than 70 contributorsincluding Robin Wall Kimmerer, Richard Powers, David Abram, J. Drew Lanham, and Sharon Blackieinvite readers into cosmologies, narratives, and everyday interactions that embrace a more-than-human world as worthy of our response and responsibility. With every breath, every sip of water, every meal, we are reminded that our lives are inseparable from the life of the worldand the cosmosin ways both material and spiritual. Planet, Volume 1 of the Kinship series, focuses on our Earthen home and the cosmos within which our pale blue dot of a planet nestles. National poet laureate Joy Harjo opens up the volume asking us to Remember the sky you were born under. The essayists and poets that followsuch as geologist Marcia Bjornerud who takes readers on a Deep Time journey, geophilosopher David Abram who imagines the Earths breathing through animal migrations, and theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser who contemplates the relations between mystery and scienceoffer perspectives from around the world and from various cultures about what it means to be an Earthling, and all that we share in common with our planetary kin. Remember, Harjo implores, all is in motion, is growing, is you.Proceeds from sales of Kinship benefit the nonprofit, non-partisan Center for Humans and Nature, which partners with some of the brightest minds to explore human responsibilities to each other and the more-than-human world. The Center brings together philosophers, ecologists, artists, political scientists, anthropologists, poets and economists, among others, to think creatively about a resilient future for the whole community of life.