ABSTRACT
MThis article discusses the social reactions to the proliferation of European wild boars (Sus scrofa) in the Brazilian Pampa as manifestations of broader transformations in the local agrarian system ongoing since the second half of the 20th century. With an anthropological critique of contemporary notions such as “eco-anxiety” and “ecological anxiety disorder,” the article aims to demonstrate, from the perceptions of extensive livestock breeders, how a socially situated and non-reductionist apprehension of what is at stake in socio-environmental anxieties, as expressed by concrete subjects in local situations, can be obtained by a combination of ethnographic (synchronic) and historical (diachronic) approaches.
KEYWORDS:
Socioenvironmental anxieties; Biological invasion; Wild boar; Pampa; Anthropology; Environmental history