Justin Raycraft
Biographic Data
| ID | 914671 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Justin Raycraft |
| GIVEN NAMES | Justin |
| FAMILY NAME | Raycraft |
| SIGNATURE | RAYCRAFT J |
| AFFILIATIONS | McGill University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2491-3245 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Socio‐ecological correlates of wildlife species identification across rural communities in northern Tanzania
Citizen or community science has the potential to inform wildlife management by including the general public in research and generating datasets on human perceptions of wildlife population dynamics and human–wildlife interactions. These contributions are especially valuable in areas with limited formal capacity for wildlife monitoring. However, people's perceptions are not always reliable and hinge on the accurate classification of species. In th…
Perceived Impacts of Wildlife on Agropastoral Food Production in Northern Tanzania
Human-wildlife interactions can affect human wellbeing and wildlife population persistence. This paper addresses the perceived impacts of wildlife on agropastoral food production in the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania. It is based on sixteen months of collaborative ethnographic fieldwork with agropastoral Maasai communities (2019-2020; 2022; 2023), 240 semi-structured interviews, and a household survey ( n = 1076). People felt that cater…
Wildlife and human safety in the Tarangire ecosystem, Tanzania
Coexistence of people and wildlife outside protected areas is of critical conservation importance. However, human-wildlife interactions on shared landscapes can produce negative outcomes for wildlife populations and people. This article focuses on the effects of wildlife on local people's lived experiences of physical safety in the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania. The Tarangire ecosystem supports a diverse array of wildlife species of gl…
Islamic Discourses of Environmental Change on the Swahili Coast of Southern Tanzania
This paper addresses how Makonde Muslim villagers living on the Swahili coast of southern Tanzania conceptualize and discuss environmental change. Through narratives elicited during in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, I show that respondents associate various forms of environmental change—ecological, climatic, political, and socioeconomic—with God’s plan. Respondents had a sound grasp of the material workings of their lived realities…
Seeing from Below
This article reimagines scuba diving as a form of ethnographic immersion that allows humans to experience life on earth from an underwater perspective. I argue that scuba divers are both posthuman in their cyborgian transcendence of the basic limitations of our species and prehuman in their metaphorical regression into womb-like oceans, from which all life on earth evolved. I conceptualize divers as (p)reborn humans. Underwater, symbolic modes of…
Airplanes and Apprehension
This photo essay considers the question of what it means to see the world from above. Taking airplanes as my point of departure, I discuss the ways in which flying can both galvanize and dismantle binary conceptions of nature and society. I compare the humanist version of reality inside airplane cabins with the external world, as seen by passengers through plane windows. Viewed from the sky, the boundaries of urban landscapes appear porous, highl…
Natural gas extraction and community development in Tanzania
In search of a good life”
Conserving Poverty
Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this paper attends to the persistent use of Destructive Fishing Gear (DFG) in a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in southeastern Tanzania. Based on participant observation, document analysis, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions conducted with villagers, I argue that the MPA has failed to eliminate the use of DFG because of its inability to address the historically-embedded political, economic, and socio…
The (un)making of marine park subjects
Circumscribing communities
Dilemmas of Representation in Contemporary Environmental Anthropology
This paper draws from an ethnographic vignette of dynamite fishing in southeastern Tanzania. I consider the utility of participant observation as a method for examining ecologically destructive practices, especially in contexts where such activities are illegal or prohibited by conservation regulations. I raise self-reflexive critiques, internal to my home discipline of anthropology, and discuss the methodological, ethical, and analytical challen…
Circumscribing communities
The (un)making of marine park subjects
Seeing from Below
This article reimagines scuba diving as a form of ethnographic immersion that allows humans to experience life on earth from an underwater perspective. I argue that scuba divers are both posthuman in their cyborgian transcendence of the basic limitations of our species and prehuman in their metaphorical regression into womb-like oceans, from which all life on earth evolved. I conceptualize divers as (p)reborn humans. Underwater, symbolic modes of…
Natural gas extraction and community development in Tanzania
Dilemmas of Representation in Contemporary Environmental Anthropology
This paper draws from an ethnographic vignette of dynamite fishing in southeastern Tanzania. I consider the utility of participant observation as a method for examining ecologically destructive practices, especially in contexts where such activities are illegal or prohibited by conservation regulations. I raise self-reflexive critiques, internal to my home discipline of anthropology, and discuss the methodological, ethical, and analytical challen…
In search of a good life”
Conserving Poverty
Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this paper attends to the persistent use of Destructive Fishing Gear (DFG) in a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in southeastern Tanzania. Based on participant observation, document analysis, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions conducted with villagers, I argue that the MPA has failed to eliminate the use of DFG because of its inability to address the historically-embedded political, economic, and socio…
Dilemmas of Representation in Contemporary Environmental Anthropology
This paper draws from an ethnographic vignette of dynamite fishing in southeastern Tanzania. I consider the utility of participant observation as a method for examining ecologically destructive practices, especially in contexts where such activities are illegal or prohibited by conservation regulations. I raise self-reflexive critiques, internal to my home discipline of anthropology, and discuss the methodological, ethical, and analytical challen…
Airplanes and Apprehension
This photo essay considers the question of what it means to see the world from above. Taking airplanes as my point of departure, I discuss the ways in which flying can both galvanize and dismantle binary conceptions of nature and society. I compare the humanist version of reality inside airplane cabins with the external world, as seen by passengers through plane windows. Viewed from the sky, the boundaries of urban landscapes appear porous, highl…
Natural gas extraction and community development in Tanzania
In search of a good life”
Conserving Poverty
Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this paper attends to the persistent use of Destructive Fishing Gear (DFG) in a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in southeastern Tanzania. Based on participant observation, document analysis, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions conducted with villagers, I argue that the MPA has failed to eliminate the use of DFG because of its inability to address the historically-embedded political, economic, and socio…
The (un)making of marine park subjects
Circumscribing communities
Seeing from Below
This article reimagines scuba diving as a form of ethnographic immersion that allows humans to experience life on earth from an underwater perspective. I argue that scuba divers are both posthuman in their cyborgian transcendence of the basic limitations of our species and prehuman in their metaphorical regression into womb-like oceans, from which all life on earth evolved. I conceptualize divers as (p)reborn humans. Underwater, symbolic modes of…
Islamic Discourses of Environmental Change on the Swahili Coast of Southern Tanzania
This paper addresses how Makonde Muslim villagers living on the Swahili coast of southern Tanzania conceptualize and discuss environmental change. Through narratives elicited during in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, I show that respondents associate various forms of environmental change—ecological, climatic, political, and socioeconomic—with God’s plan. Respondents had a sound grasp of the material workings of their lived realities…
Wildlife and human safety in the Tarangire ecosystem, Tanzania
Coexistence of people and wildlife outside protected areas is of critical conservation importance. However, human-wildlife interactions on shared landscapes can produce negative outcomes for wildlife populations and people. This article focuses on the effects of wildlife on local people's lived experiences of physical safety in the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania. The Tarangire ecosystem supports a diverse array of wildlife species of gl…
Perceived Impacts of Wildlife on Agropastoral Food Production in Northern Tanzania
Human-wildlife interactions can affect human wellbeing and wildlife population persistence. This paper addresses the perceived impacts of wildlife on agropastoral food production in the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania. It is based on sixteen months of collaborative ethnographic fieldwork with agropastoral Maasai communities (2019-2020; 2022; 2023), 240 semi-structured interviews, and a household survey ( n = 1076). People felt that cater…
Socio‐ecological correlates of wildlife species identification across rural communities in northern Tanzania
Citizen or community science has the potential to inform wildlife management by including the general public in research and generating datasets on human perceptions of wildlife population dynamics and human–wildlife interactions. These contributions are especially valuable in areas with limited formal capacity for wildlife monitoring. However, people's perceptions are not always reliable and hinge on the accurate classification of species. In th…
Sociology (10 works) · Geography (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Tanzania (8 works) · Ecology (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Socioeconomics (6 works) · Archaeology (5 works) · Environmental planning (5 works) · Ethnography (5 works)