Humans are making earth history. The Anthropocene refers to the geo-historical phase in which humanity has become a decisive factor shaping our geosphere. We all have an idea of what is meant by anthropogenic climate change, however Anthropocene is far more than this. It is also about species loss, soil change, and ocean change. The Anthropocene is a fact-based concept as well as a fundamental metaphor of planetary crisis. The concept derives from the geosciences and has subsequently gained a life of its own in the Humanities, where it often used as a buzzword. Critical voices from the humanities mostly revolve around normative and ethical issues. In our unequal world the question is who is responsible for catastrophic change. An anthropological view emphasizes the embeddedness of localized and often vulnerable communities within macro-scale and long-term environmental change.
Christoph Antweiler is Principal Investigator at the BCDSS and Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn. His related publication "Anthropologie im Anthropozän" is about to be published by Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, in Mai 2022.