Badger

Animal Series

by Daniel Heath Justice

Fierce, menacing, and mysterious, badgers have fascinated humans as living animals, abstract symbols, or commercial resources for thousands of years―often to their detriment. With their reputation for determined self-defense, they have been brutalized by hunters and sportsmen, while their association with the mythic underworld has made them idealized symbols of earth-based wisdom and their burrowing habits have resulted in their widespread persecution as pests. In this highly illustrated book, Daniel Heath Justice provides the first global cultural history of the badger in over thirty years.
           
From the iconic European badger and its North American kin to the African honey badger and Southeast Asian hog badger, Justice considers the badger’s evolution and widespread distribution alongside its current, often-imperiled status throughout the world. He travels from natural history and life in the wild to the folklore, legends, and spiritual beliefs that badgers continue to inspire, while also exploring their representation and exploitation in industry, religion, and the arts. Tracing the complex and contradictory ways in which this fascinating animal endures, Badger will appeal to anyone interested in a deeper understanding of these much-maligned creatures.

Genres: Nonfiction, Natural History, History, Indigenous, Animals, Science

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2014

About the author

Daniel Heath Justice (b. 1975) is a Colorado-born citizen of the Cherokee Nation/ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ, raised the third generation of his mother's family in the Rocky Mountain mining town of Victor, Colorado. After a decade living and teaching in the Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat, and Haudenosaunee territories of southern Ontario, where he worked at the University of Toronto, he now lives with his husband in shíshálh territory on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. He works on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam people, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and Expressive Culture and Professor of First Nations and Indigenous Studies and English at the University of British Columbia.

Daniel's research focuses on Indigenous literary expression, with particular emphasis on issues of literary nationalism, kinship, sexuality, and intellectual production. His scholarship and creative work also extend into speculative fiction, animal studies (including badgers and raccoons), and cultural history. He is also a fantasy/wonderworks writer who explores the otherwise possibilities of Indigenous restoration and sovereignty. His newest book is *Raccoon*, volume 100 in the celebrated Animal Series from Reaktion Books.

A few more facts about Daniel:
-he's an amateur ventriloquist with a badger puppet named Digdug;
-he's a lifelong tabletop RPG player whose favoured alignment is Neutral Good and favoured classes are Druid and Ranger;
-his favourite Indigenous writers working right now include Leanne Simpson, LeAnne Howe, Lee Maracle, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Cherie Dimaline, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Joshua Whitehead.
-the speculative fiction writers who had the greatest influence on his imagination growing up include Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, and J.R.R. Tolkien, and his early pop-culture loves include Masters of the Universe, Ewoks, and Thundercats;
-he's a fierce mustelid partisan with a particular love of badgers--in fact, his favourite tattoo is of the badger symbol used by his character Tobhi from *The Way of Thorn and Thunder*;
-he's a devoted Dolly Parton fan and has seen her in concert three times (but has not, alas, yet been to Dollywood); and
-he is the proud and dedicated human attendant to three very weird and awesome dogs.

In summary, he's a queer Cherokee hobbit who lives and writes in the West Coast temperate rainforest and occasionally emerges to teach and do readings. And he's good with that.

Go to his website, www.danielheathjustice.com, for more information about his published and forthcoming work as well as his irregularly-updated blog.

Reviews

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Badgers are an ancient people, older in the forms they possess than we are. ... May we have wisdom, humility, and courage enough to honour our shared kinship as more than mere words, but as true understanding that transforms our lived relationships--for them, for us, and for the rest of the other-than-human world."

[dejah_thoris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Badgers aren't as popular as many other animals in human culture, but this book describes our relationship with them beautifully. Badgers are also one of the species with very little divergence between its members. I liked learning about badgers beyond The Wind in the Willows and would recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about them. (Yes, the famous honey badger is included.)

[laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. I have always been interested in badgers and this a great book for getting into the animal. I look forward to reading Raccoon by Daniel and other books in the series.

[Barry Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Reaktion's Animal series. The mixture of natural history and cultural history of the animal each volume focuses on makes the series a pleasure to read. If I spot one in the shops not already in my collection I will generally buy it without further thought.

[GrumpReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little under 300 pages of Badgers: The Nonfiction. Don't go into this expecting lit, but a pretty darn good volume if you want to learn more about badgers and how they've been portrayed/treated

[M Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided a look at a creature that I, like so many others, have only ever seen dead roadside. It is sad how this animal is still persecuted to this day.