This project is critical speculation on architectural ‘composting’ or gleaning from processes forming the city’s landscape. It is a search for opportunities around and outside their material and spatial human-centered processes. By ‘composting’ matter and spaces and considering forces beyond those of human domination I seek possible local niches or whole ecosystems of creativity that can emerge. The hypothesis is that these kinds of spaces could act as pockets of posthuman landscapes able to re-situate the human in the complex context she is part of. I seek the vibrancy and potential agency of a web of nonhuman actants in inviting these creative forces to co-steer the project. The aim is to explore how an acknowledgment towards the assemblages I work within might more earnestly approach a more-than-human architecture by not making for but instead with. The theoretical and academic footing I think from and think-with are feminist and new materialist theorists. After establishing this theoretical ground the discourse is narrowed toward architecture. Through theorists and researchers, I look at examples of how posthuman and new materialist theories are presented in architectural research and discussion. The last section of the report describes my process of finding matters to compost with, departing from the physical context of soils, and gathering information and matter as the process unfolds. In conclusion, I find that the method of ‘composting’ generates a critical project, but is also challenging because of the many directions and influences that equally enrich and complicate the concept of the project. By seeing this project as one attempt to synthesize a feminist posthuman approach, one voice aligning with many others, it can liberate itself from trying to solve complex questions and instead be part of a collective imagining of what creating-with and staying with the trouble can entail, closing in on what posthuman architecture can be.

No / Archaeological research has been influenced by feminist thought and critique for decades. In the early 1990s, new narratives began to be written about the past. Starting with a search for women and gendered identities in our prehistories, these have developed into a new way of understanding the relationships between people, objects and animals, both in the past and in the present. Archaeological research has been concerned with the relationships between the ‘human’ and the ‘other’ for a number of decades, whether they involve nonhuman animals, objects we use and create, or attitudes to the landscape and environment. The nonhuman, in other words, is central to our work. We hope in this piece to demonstrate the contribution archaeological insights could make to feminist theorising about the nonhuman.

This study concerns an essential but, until recent years, little explored area of social work: environmental social work. The social work profession has long considered persons in their environment; however, use of the term environment has typically referred to social rather than nonhuman physical dimensions of space and place. It is common knowledge that we face today a number of serious environmental challenges, but less common is an understanding of how things came to be as they are. Why, for example, did things not develop differently? Why is our human-nonhuman relationship so strained? This research asserts human conceptualisations of the nonhuman other influence treatment of not only the nonhuman but also other human beings. Having an interdisciplinary focus involving social work, environmental studies and early Canadian history, Wendat and French conceptualisations of the nonhuman are explored through an ecofeminist framework in a culture-contact context to initiate consideration of, and in due course attending to, the uneasy intersection of the human and the nonhuman, social work and environmental issues, and current Aboriginal-non-Aboriginal relations. Through locating our environmental crisis within a historical context, it is possible to unsettle some contemporary assumptions about the human-nonhuman relationship, drawing attention to the fact that things could have been otherwise, that the environmental challenges experienced today were not inescapable. While there are certainly many ways to approach a history of our present environmental crisis, this investigation in the Canadian context involving a clearly defined case of culture contact between the Wendat and French in the early seventeenth century offers a variety of advantages deriving, in part, from the comparable but different complexities belonging to each group and the opportunity to explore two highly dissimilar cultural practices and belief systems from the time of initial contact. This study examines in detail how the two cultures understood and interacted with the nonhuman, and each other, through a forty-year period from 1609-1649. From this historical exploration of Wendat and French worldviews and land-use practices implications for social work are described and a model for place-based social work is generated.

This essay explores the representation of nonhuman nature in David Malouf’s postcolonial novel Remembering Babylon. By applying a postcolonial ecocritical framework to the narrative the essay shows how nonhuman nature, including the animalised human “other”, is subject to Western ideologies that see them as resources or services to be exploited. However, the essay also reveals how the nonhuman “others” are opposing these views by resisting the Western pastoralizing practices and exposing environmental threats, as well as altering some of the Diasporic character’s views of the nonhuman “other” and their sense of displacement.

Membros de um grupo social de primatas diurnos reúnem-se ao final do dia num local apropriado para passar a noite. O local de dormida é denominado sítio de dormir e pode consistir em uma ou mais árvores. Hipóteses adaptativas têm sido sugeridas para explicar preferências por árvores e sítios de dormir. O risco de predação tem sido apontado como uma das principais pressões seletivas que afetam a escolha de árvores e sítios de dormir. A estratégia de escolha de sítio de dormir e de árvore de dormir, para um mesmo grupo de primatas, pode diferir. Assim, o sítio de dormir pode estar localizado próximo às fontes alimentares, facilitando o forrageamento pela manhã e as árvores usadas nesse sítio podem proporcionar conforto e segurança, pela viscosidade e presença de galhos horizontais e largos. Encontramos, para um grupo de macacos-prego, no Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, SP, evidências de seleção por características de árvores e sítios de dormir. As espécies de árvores mais usadas como árvore de dormir foram Copaifera langsdorfii e Attalea dubia, sendo a segunda relacionada com noites de baixa temperatura ambiente e do vento. Houve também preferência por árvores altas e com grande DAP, por sítios localizados entre 820 e 840 metros de altitude e em encostas e topos de morro. Embora tenhamos encontrado evidências de seletividade para árvore e sítio de dormir, os sítios e árvores preferidos estão distribuídos por toda a área de uso e são pouco reutilizados. Como conseqüência, o grupo dorme perto da área explorada para forrageamento durante o dia. Assim, a localização do sítio de dormir não parece afetar a rota diária do grupo. / Group members of diurnal primates meet at the end of the day in a suitable area to spend the night. This location is called sleeping site and may consist of one or more trees. Ultimate hypotheses have been suggested to explain primate preferences for sleeping trees and sleeping sites. The risk of predation has been identified as one of the main selective pressures that affect the choice of sleeping trees and sleeping sites. The strategy of sleeping tree and sleeping site selection, by a single group of primates, may differ. Thus, the sleeping site can be located close to food sources, facilitating the foraging in the morning and the trees used on this site can guarantee comfort and safety, due to viscosity and presence of horizontal large branches. Studying a group of tufted capuchin monkeys, at Carlos Botelho State Park, SP, we found evidence of selection of sleeping trees and sleeping sites features. The most commonly used species of trees as sleeping trees were Copaifera langsdorfii and Attalea dubia, the second was related to nights with low environment and wind temperatures. There is also a preference for high trees with large DBH, and for sites located at 820 and 840 metres, on hillsides and hilltops. Although we have found evidence of selectivity for sleeping trees and sleeping sites, the sites and preferred trees occur throughout the monkeys home range and are not normally reused. As a consequence, the group sleep near the area explored during daily foraging. Therefore, the sleeping site location does not seem to affect the animals daily route.

Membros de um grupo social de primatas diurnos reúnem-se ao final do dia num local apropriado para passar a noite. O local de dormida é denominado sítio de dormir e pode consistir em uma ou mais árvores. Hipóteses adaptativas têm sido sugeridas para explicar preferências por árvores e sítios de dormir. O risco de predação tem sido apontado como uma das principais pressões seletivas que afetam a escolha de árvores e sítios de dormir. A estratégia de escolha de sítio de dormir e de árvore de dormir, para um mesmo grupo de primatas, pode diferir. Assim, o sítio de dormir pode estar localizado próximo às fontes alimentares, facilitando o forrageamento pela manhã e as árvores usadas nesse sítio podem proporcionar conforto e segurança, pela viscosidade e presença de galhos horizontais e largos. Encontramos, para um grupo de macacos-prego, no Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, SP, evidências de seleção por características de árvores e sítios de dormir. As espécies de árvores mais usadas como árvore de dormir foram Copaifera langsdorfii e Attalea dubia, sendo a segunda relacionada com noites de baixa temperatura ambiente e do vento. Houve também preferência por árvores altas e com grande DAP, por sítios localizados entre 820 e 840 metros de altitude e em encostas e topos de morro. Embora tenhamos encontrado evidências de seletividade para árvore e sítio de dormir, os sítios e árvores preferidos estão distribuídos por toda a área de uso e são pouco reutilizados. Como conseqüência, o grupo dorme perto da área explorada para forrageamento durante o dia. Assim, a localização do sítio de dormir não parece afetar a rota diária do grupo. / Group members of diurnal primates meet at the end of the day in a suitable area to spend the night. This location is called sleeping site and may consist of one or more trees. Ultimate hypotheses have been suggested to explain primate preferences for sleeping trees and sleeping sites. The risk of predation has been identified as one of the main selective pressures that affect the choice of sleeping trees and sleeping sites. The strategy of sleeping tree and sleeping site selection, by a single group of primates, may differ. Thus, the sleeping site can be located close to food sources, facilitating the foraging in the morning and the trees used on this site can guarantee comfort and safety, due to viscosity and presence of horizontal large branches. Studying a group of tufted capuchin monkeys, at Carlos Botelho State Park, SP, we found evidence of selection of sleeping trees and sleeping sites features. The most commonly used species of trees as sleeping trees were Copaifera langsdorfii and Attalea dubia, the second was related to nights with low environment and wind temperatures. There is also a preference for high trees with large DBH, and for sites located at 820 and 840 metres, on hillsides and hilltops. Although we have found evidence of selectivity for sleeping trees and sleeping sites, the sites and preferred trees occur throughout the monkeys home range and are not normally reused. As a consequence, the group sleep near the area explored during daily foraging. Therefore, the sleeping site location does not seem to affect the animals daily route.

A Tuberculose vem acometendo animais selvagens desde o surgimento das primeiras coleções organizadas. Particularmente, macacos são altamente suscetíveis as micobactérias, gerando grandes perdas econômicas para as instituições, além do risco de transmissão para o homem e animais. As principais micobatérias, que causam a doença em primatas em cativeiro, são o Mycobacterium tuberculosis e Mycobacterium bovis. Acredita-se que primatas do "novo mundo" são menos suscetíveis do que os do "velho mundo", entretanto observa-se que tuberculose tem sido documentada em várias espécies. A principal forma de transmissão é através de aerossóis contendo os bacilos. A doença pode evoluir para a forma ativa ou latente, dependendo do estado imunológico do animal. Os sinais clínicos podem ser insidiosos, com somente uma alteração comportamental, seguido por anorexia e letargia, alterações respiratórias ou simplesmente o animal pode aparecer morto no recinto. O diagnóstico clínico é difícil e problemático, sendo que muitas vezes as lesões consistentes com a doença só são observadas na necropsia. Por isso o uso de outras ferramentas de diagnóstico é importante, como o teste de tuberculinização, cultivo e isolamento bacteriano, que são os mais usados na rotina das instituições, e os exames radiográficos do tórax e abdômen, testes moleculares e sorológicos. Toda instituição que mantém primatas em cativeiro deveriam possuir programas de prevenção para evitar a entrada da micobactéria dentro da coleção, principalmente ao se adquirir novos animais. Por isso, o emprego de medidas de biossegurança é essencial para diminuir o risco de doenças para o homem e para os animais dentro das instituições. Essas medidas consistem na implantação de uma série de procedimentos e normas operacionais rígidas, como programas de quarentena, programas de saúde para os funcionários e formação de equipe capacitada e treinada. / Tuberculosis has been affecting wild animals since the arising of the first organized collections. Specially, monkeys are highly susceptible to mycobacteria, which cause great economic losses in the institutions, beyond the risk of transmission to man and animals. The main species of mycobacteria, that cause disease in nonhuman primates in captivity, are Mycobacerium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis. It is believed that nonhuman primates from the "new world" are less susceptible than the "old world" ones, however it is noted that tuberculosis has been continually documented in several species. Aerosols that contain infectious bacilli are the main transmission mode. The disease can progress to active or latent form, which depends on the animal's immune status. The clinical signs can be insidious, with only a behavior change, followed by anorexia and lethargy, respiratory alteration or the animal can appear dead in the room. The clinical diagnostic is difficult and problematic, and often lesions are only observed at necropsy. Therefore, the use of other diagnostic tools is important, as the tuberculin skin test, bacterial culture and isolation, that are most used during the routine of institutions, and radiography of the chest and abdomen, molecular and serological tests. Every institution that maintains nonhuman primates in captivity should have prevention programs to avoid the entry of mycobacteria inside of collection, mainly when new animals are acquired. Thus, the use of biosecurity measures is essential to reduce the risk of disease in humans and animals within institutions. These measures consist in implanting series of rigid procedures and operational standards, like quarantine programs, health programs for employees and formation of the qualified team.

O gênero Cebus é um táxon que agrupa espécies arborícolas, cujo principal modo locomotor é o deslocamento quadrúpede e o principal modo postural é sentado. No entanto, todos os estudos publicados descrevem comportamentos posicionais de populações de floresta tropical, habitat ao qual o gênero não está restrito. Os objetivos do presente estudo foram (1) descrever o comportamento de uma população de Cebus libidinosus que habita uma área de ecótono Cerrado-Caatinga e (2) investigar se indivíduos de diferentes classes de gênero e de idade diferem em comportamento posicional, já que mudanças que acompanham os indivíduos em crescimento influenciam suas atividades cotidianas. Para coletar os dados comportamentais utilizei o método de varredura focal e para as análises estatísticas utilizei a regressão de Poisson. Os comportamentos posicionais, o uso de substrato e o uso de substrato arbóreo específico foram pesquisados por atividade, já que cada uma exige posicionamentos diferentes. As faixas etárias divergiram significativamente na freqüência de ocorrência das atividades alimentação, brincadeira e descanso e na freqüência de utilização de comportamentos posicionais como escalada, deslocamento quadrúpede, suspensão, entre outros, sugerindo que o desenvolvimento durante a ontogenia exige que os animais moldem os seus modos locomotores e posturais em função de características ambientais e das diferenças anatômicas e fisiológicas. Quanto aos substratos utilizados, os arbóreos foram sempre os preferidos (com exceção da atividade quebra, exclusivamente executada no chão) e os galhos múltiplos foram mais utilizados na maioria das atividades. Infantes utilizaram galhos múltiplos mais e galhos grandes menos do que adultos durante a atividade deslocamento. Indivíduos mais velhos utilizaram ambientes terrestres mais freqüentemente do que os mais novos nas atividades brincadeira e deslocamento. Nas atividades em que a literatura disponível permitiu comparações, Cebus libidinosus deste estudo utiliza substratos terrestres mais do que outras espécies do gênero, apesar de usar comportamentos posicionais e apresentar orçamentos de atividades similares a outras populações / The genus Cebus is a taxon that groups arboreal species in which the main locomotor mode is quadrupedal locomotion and the main posture mode is sitting down. However, all the studies reviewed describe positional behavior of rainforest inhabitating populations, an environment to which the genus is not restricted. The aims of this study were (1) to describe the behavior of a population of Cebus libidinosus that uses exclusively an ecotone Cerrado-Caatinga and (2) to check if individuals of different gender and age classes differ in their positional behaviors, since changes that accompany growing individuals influence their daily activities. I used the focal scan method to collect behavioral data and Poisson regression for the statistical analysis. The positional behavior, substrate use and the use of arboreal substrates were investigated by activity, since these require different placements. The age groups differed significantly in the frequency of feeding, play and rest activities. In most activities the age groups differed significantly in the frequency of use of positional behaviors such as climbing, quadrupedal locomotion, suspension, among others, suggesting their ontogenetic development requires animals to model their locomotor and postural modes depending on environmental characteristics and anatomical and physiological differences. As for the substrates used, the trees were always the favorites (except for the nutcrack activity, conducted exclusively on the ground) and multiple branches were more frequently used in most of the activities. Infants used multiple branches more and large single branches less than adults during travel. Older individuals used terrestrial environments more often than younger ones during play and travel. In the activities that the available literature allowed comparisons, the Cebus libidinosus of this study use terrestrial substrates more than other species of the genus, although they present similar positional behavior and activity budget

O gênero Cebus é um táxon que agrupa espécies arborícolas, cujo principal modo locomotor é o deslocamento quadrúpede e o principal modo postural é sentado. No entanto, todos os estudos publicados descrevem comportamentos posicionais de populações de floresta tropical, habitat ao qual o gênero não está restrito. Os objetivos do presente estudo foram (1) descrever o comportamento de uma população de Cebus libidinosus que habita uma área de ecótono Cerrado-Caatinga e (2) investigar se indivíduos de diferentes classes de gênero e de idade diferem em comportamento posicional, já que mudanças que acompanham os indivíduos em crescimento influenciam suas atividades cotidianas. Para coletar os dados comportamentais utilizei o método de varredura focal e para as análises estatísticas utilizei a regressão de Poisson. Os comportamentos posicionais, o uso de substrato e o uso de substrato arbóreo específico foram pesquisados por atividade, já que cada uma exige posicionamentos diferentes. As faixas etárias divergiram significativamente na freqüência de ocorrência das atividades alimentação, brincadeira e descanso e na freqüência de utilização de comportamentos posicionais como escalada, deslocamento quadrúpede, suspensão, entre outros, sugerindo que o desenvolvimento durante a ontogenia exige que os animais moldem os seus modos locomotores e posturais em função de características ambientais e das diferenças anatômicas e fisiológicas. Quanto aos substratos utilizados, os arbóreos foram sempre os preferidos (com exceção da atividade quebra, exclusivamente executada no chão) e os galhos múltiplos foram mais utilizados na maioria das atividades. Infantes utilizaram galhos múltiplos mais e galhos grandes menos do que adultos durante a atividade deslocamento. Indivíduos mais velhos utilizaram ambientes terrestres mais freqüentemente do que os mais novos nas atividades brincadeira e deslocamento. Nas atividades em que a literatura disponível permitiu comparações, Cebus libidinosus deste estudo utiliza substratos terrestres mais do que outras espécies do gênero, apesar de usar comportamentos posicionais e apresentar orçamentos de atividades similares a outras populações / The genus Cebus is a taxon that groups arboreal species in which the main locomotor mode is quadrupedal locomotion and the main posture mode is sitting down. However, all the studies reviewed describe positional behavior of rainforest inhabitating populations, an environment to which the genus is not restricted. The aims of this study were (1) to describe the behavior of a population of Cebus libidinosus that uses exclusively an ecotone Cerrado-Caatinga and (2) to check if individuals of different gender and age classes differ in their positional behaviors, since changes that accompany growing individuals influence their daily activities. I used the focal scan method to collect behavioral data and Poisson regression for the statistical analysis. The positional behavior, substrate use and the use of arboreal substrates were investigated by activity, since these require different placements. The age groups differed significantly in the frequency of feeding, play and rest activities. In most activities the age groups differed significantly in the frequency of use of positional behaviors such as climbing, quadrupedal locomotion, suspension, among others, suggesting their ontogenetic development requires animals to model their locomotor and postural modes depending on environmental characteristics and anatomical and physiological differences. As for the substrates used, the trees were always the favorites (except for the nutcrack activity, conducted exclusively on the ground) and multiple branches were more frequently used in most of the activities. Infants used multiple branches more and large single branches less than adults during travel. Older individuals used terrestrial environments more often than younger ones during play and travel. In the activities that the available literature allowed comparisons, the Cebus libidinosus of this study use terrestrial substrates more than other species of the genus, although they present similar positional behavior and activity budget

This dissertation looks at the ways in which humans interact with and respond to other humans and nonhumans in Ann Radcliffe's and Mary Shelley's novels. I argue that in light of the social and political turmoil surrounding the French Revolution, Radcliffe and Shelley call not so much for Revolution or drastic reform but for a change in the ways in which individuals respond to the needs of others, both human and nonhuman, and take responsibility for each other. The ways in which humans interact with the nonhuman inform the positive and negative practices that they should use to interact with other humans and vice versa. Chapter One considers the connection between nature and culture in Radcliffe'sA Sicilian Romance, The Romance of the Forest, The Mysteries of Udolpho, and The Italian to argue that Radcliffe's "explained supernatural" occupies a liminal space between nature and culture. Furthermore, some of the upper class are able to discern that the "real," or material, supernatural does not exist while still acknowledging that some form of spiritual supernatural presence is possible, thus reflecting a heightened awareness of concepts beyond the material. Chapter Two looks at Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian to argue that characters who are able to appreciate nature, particularly landscape, are more admirable than those who ignore it. Specifically, these characters indicate an openness to forming reciprocal relationships with the landscapes, allowing the views offered by the landscapes to offer them peace or comfort while simultaneously respecting the power the landscapes hold. Drawing from the theories of place theorists Tim Cresswell and Yi-Fu Tuan, this chapter posits that landscapes can be classified as being on the verge of place. Chapter Three looks at Frankenstein and The Last Man to argue that Shelley demonstrates the types of reciprocal relationships people should form with both humans and nonhumans. Donna Haraway's idea of "contact zones"--places where the human and nonhuman can communicate--inform this reading of the relationships between the human and nonhuman in these two novels. It investigates how Victor Frankenstein and the creature define "human" and then asserts that in Frankenstein the creature cannot form a place for communication with any of the humans whose acceptance and companionship he seeks because no one is willing to do so. The Last Man's Lionel Verney, on the other hand, is able to form reciprocal relationships with both the human and the nonhuman, thus enabling him to ultimately become the "last man." The fourth and final chapter looks at Shelley's Valperga, Lodore, and The Last Man, set in the past, present, and future, respectively, arguing that Shelley uses these different time settings in order to demonstrate that many of the struggles people have are similar to ones that others had in the past and will continue to have in the future if people do not adjust the ways in which they respond to disaster. By presenting readers with specifics about location and environment, Shelley creates settings that readers can connect to and then entertain the idea that these characters' struggles are like their own.