'Earth First' or Anti-oppression: Ritual and Conflict Within Radical Environmentalism

Dr. Sarah Pike 
Faculty, Comparative Religion and Humanities Department, CSU, Chico 

During several years of conducting research about radical environmental groups such as “Earth First!”, Dr. Sarah Pike has been seeking the answers to two questions: (1) What is the relationship between ritual and social change – that is, are there cultural conditions underlying social change that include ritualizing? (2) What motivates young people to risk arrest, and sometimes their lives, in dangerous protests? She shares some of her observations of these groups, including a trend in radical environmentalism of linking the devastation of the natural world to other forms of abuse and oppression. Dr. Pike also talks about how the label “eco-terrorist” sparked her interest in this research. 

Recorded: November 6, 2014