Yips and Howls
A Writer's Reflections on Nature and Culture
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cultural anthropology

A scene from Nepal, where I did my fieldwork.

Song Inspires Nostalgia for Anthropology

By Elizabeth Enslin on February 2, 2010

A contemporary song reminds me of all that inspired me to become an anthropologist eons ago….

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Posted in Cultural Diversity, Recent | Tagged cultural anthropology, inspiration, maturity, music, stories | Leave a response

Website for Ajamvari Farm

Website for Ajamvari Farm

By Elizabeth Enslin on August 18, 2009

I finally finished the website for Ajamvari Farm, a family run permaculture project in Nepal that hosts volunteers.  I helped develop the farm fifteen-some years ago while living in Nepal and discovered a passion for growing food that still runs strong today. The website provides information on opportunities for homestays and volunteering at the farm  

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Posted in Cultural Diversity, Sustainable Food, Sustainable Gardening, Travel, wordpress, World Travel | Tagged blogging, cultural anthropology, inspiration, Sustainable Gardening, web design | Leave a response

Asiatic toad

Common Indian Toad: Species of the Week

By Elizabeth Enslin on June 17, 2009

The garden is in now, so it’s time to get back to working on my ethnographic memoir on living as a family member and anthropologist in Nepal. I’m currently revising the chapter where I describe an encounter with an enormous hibernating toad. My six-year old son and his Nepali uncle and cousin almost hoed it in half as they weeded around a lemon tree. My son called me from my academic writing to see it. I picked the sluggish toad out of its burrow and prodded it to hop off to a safer spot. Then I decided to pitch in to help prepare a vegetable garden and discovered a passion for growing food (and a lack of passion for academia) that continues to this day.

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Posted in Species of the Week | Tagged amphibians, cultural anthropology, nature writing, Nepal | 1 Response

White-Rumped Vulture, Gyps bengalensis.  Image: Goran Ekstrom. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

White-Rumped Vulture: Species of the Week

By Elizabeth Enslin on May 5, 2009

About a month ago, I wrote a post on California condors, birds that had been haunting my imagination for some time. While browsing information for that post, I learned about the plight of carrion-eaters once common in the plains of Nepal, Pakistan, and India.

I lived in the plains of Nepal for three years in the late 80s and early 90s and also traveled through India during that time. I remember seeing parakeets, egrets, mynahs, and many colorful songbirds. But even though I must have passed by them hundreds of times, I don’t remember seeing Gyps bengalensis, the White-Rumped Vulture (also referred to as the Oriential White-Backed Vulture). Nor do I remember associated species, such as G.indicus (Long-billed vulture) or G.tenuirostris (Tender-billed Vulture). And they were all probably abundant….

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Posted in Biodiversity, Cultural Diversity, Species of the Week | Tagged cultural anthropology, nature, wild | 7 Responses

Questions About Anthropology

By Elizabeth Enslin on April 15, 2009

I didn’t have a lot of time today to respond to the “instead of …” prompt at Read Write Poem or the “Poem Title” prompt at Poetic Asides.  I’m tearing down and rebuliding the farm chapter in my ethnographic memoir on Nepal and also, coincidentally, designing a website for the farm I worked on.  Trying  

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Posted in NaPoWriMo | Tagged cultural anthropology, inspiration, Nepal, Sustainable Gardening | 9 Responses

Protected: Dissection or Poetry

By Elizabeth Enslin on April 9, 2009

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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Posted in NaPoWriMo | Tagged childhood, cultural anthropology, Poetry, science, species | 5 Responses

The Boot

Nature Writing

By Elizabeth Enslin on March 2, 2009

I’ve published (or will soon have published) six pieces over the last year of full-time writing, but the lyric essay – “A Nature Lover’s Phobia” – posted online in Fringe Magazine: The Environment Issue yesterday makes me particularly happy. I have wanted to be a nature writer since childhood.  I thought becoming a zoologist would  

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Posted in Writing | Tagged creative nonfiction, cultural anthropology, ethnography, Fringe Magazine, nature, nature writing, stories, The Gettysburg Review, wild | Leave a response

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About Elizabeth Enslin

A writer based in Oregon, I look for inspiration and distractions in nature. An anthropologist, I ponder the places where nature and culture meet. A kitchen gardener, I promote biodiversity and learn from farming traditions around the world. A recovering academic, I try to do all with compassion and humor.

Find out more about me here, or at elizabethenslin.com.

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Recent Comments

  • Elderberry Bloom 
    • suzi smith: our flowers are fading in the uk… i love the elder, especially the older trees. An elder orchard...
    • Mike B.: You’ve got a great site! Unfortunately, we have tons of RED elderberry which are poisonous- but the...
    • Patricia J. O'Brien: I feel like I took a stroll through your woods and learned something new and wondrous. Thank...
  • When Life Gives You Weeds…Eat ‘Em 
    • Jennifer (ponderosa): You have clover among your miner’s lettuce. Can people eat clover? My guinea pigs love...
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  • Our new farm website is up and running. Guess that makes it official: I am now a professional garlic farmer. http://ow.ly/2yCWD #profood
  • Grilled Walla Walla Sweets are becoming one of my all-time favorite foods.
  • Survived the city & big box stores. Happy to be back in #yurt with crickets chirping and rain pattering on roof.
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  • Didn't expect a day of thinning ponderosa pine to be so satisfying.

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