Martin Johnson Heade and the Anthropocene

Glossary

Anthropocene: The current unofficial geological epoch named due to the significant effects of humans on the earth’s environment and proposed as a term by biologist Eugene F. Stroermer in the 1980s and more thoroughly described in following two decades.   

Anthropocentrism: “A belief system that prioritizes places humans as a central force and superior to other species, leading to the marginalization and subjugation of nonhuman entities.”⁴⁰

Biocentrism: “The ethical belief that all living individual beings have moral value as ends in themselves, rather than as means to human ends.”⁴¹

Ecological Reflexivity: “The capacity of structures, systems, and sets of ideas to question their own core commitments, and if necessary, change themselves, while listening and responding effectively to signals from the Earth System.”⁴²

Epoch: A unit of time to mark significant geological moments or transitions in Earth’s history.

Great Acceleration: Drastic increase of human activity and effects on Earth in the mid-20^th century, determined by a series of human indicators that correlate to environmental detrimental effects.

Holocene: Accepted as the current geological epoch, beginning ~11,700 years ago after the last major ice age and encapsulating all recorded human history. Some academics suggest that we are exiting/have exited the Holocene into a newly proposed Anthropocene.

Industrial Revolution: Period of drastic industrial and mechanized growth, starting in the18^th century, that shifted society away from an agriculturally dominant economy to a modernized, production and power-driven system.

Plume Trade: Hunting and export of wild birds and skins, both nationally and internationally, that reached its peak in the 19^th/20^th century before laws were established 1900 onwards to battle overhunting and ban the export/import of foreign and protected birds for commercial use.