Living with Javelinas

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An ethnography on how both humans and javelinas can thrive in shared space.

As human settlements expand into formerly wild lands, coexistence with wildlife is no longer optional––it's a daily negotiation. In Living with Javelinas, Adam Johnson explores what it means to share space and adapt in a more-than-human world. Often mistaken for wild pigs, javelinas unsettle the boundaries between nuisance and neighbor. Johnson traces the other species that shape their lives––feral hogs, prickly pear, mountain cedar––and examines how folklore, perception, and memory influence human–javelina encounters. Drawing on ethnographic, ecological, and ethological research across Texas, he shows how coexistence becomes a practical, albeit often uneasy, conviviality.

In much of Texas, decades of hunting have made javelinas wary. Through extended time with rancher Roger Gray, who encounters and feeds javelinas daily, Johnson reveals how repeated contact can foster a mutually responsive relationship. Bringing anthropology into dialogue with ecology, Living with Javelinas argues that coexistence is not harmony but an ongoing adjustment. In a time of ecological strain, situated acts of accommodation point toward more ethical and sustainable ways of living together.