Allison Caine
Department of Anthropology
Assistant Professor Cultural Anthropology
B.A. Environmental Studies, Bates College, 2007
M.Sc. Social Anthropology, Edinburgh University, 2010
Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology, University of Michigan, 2019
Allison Caine is a cultural anthropologist with a research focus on the environment, pastoralism, rural health, and well-being. She works primarily with Quechua alpaca herders in southeastern Peru, with ties to sheep ranching in Wyoming. Her research in Peru takes a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to understanding contemporary environmental problems, in partnership with international and citizen scientists. She has also contributed to multidisciplinary research on sociolinguistic history in the Amazon. Her current research program centers around experiences of health, aging, and well-being in rural/frontier contexts in both Peru and the United States.
Recent Publications:
2024 Caine, A. “El cambio climático y el desasosiego animal en la Cordillera Vilcanota,
Perú”. Allpanchis 51(93). https://revistas.ucsp.edu.pe/index.php/Allpanchis/article/view/1606
2022 Caine, A. “Herding at the Edges: Climate Change and Animal Restlessness in the Peruvian Andes.” Ethnos. (published online) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00141844.2022.2142266
2022 Arias, L., N. Q. Emlen, S. Norder, N. Julmi, M. Lemus Serrano, T. Chacon, J. Wiegertjes, A. Howard, M. Azevedo, A. Caine, S. Dunn, and R. van Gijn. Interpreting mismatches between linguistic and genetic patterns among speakers of Tanimuka (Eastern Tukanoan) and Yukuna (Arawakan). Interface Focus 20220056. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsfs.2022.0056
2022 van Gijn, R., S. Norder, L. Arias Alvis, N. Q. Emlen, M. Azevedo, A. Caine, S. Dunn, A. Howard, N. Julmi, O. Krasnoukhova, M. Stoneking, and J. Wiegertjes. The social life of isolates (and small language families): the case of the Northwest Amazon. Interface Focus 12: 20220054. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsfs.2022.0054
2021. Caine, A. ‘Who would watch the animals?’: Gendered knowledge and expert performance among Andean Pastoralists. Culture, Agriculture, Food, and Environment 43(1), 4-13. https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cuag.12261
Research Interests:
Environment, rural health, pastoralism and ranching, animal studies, multispecies ethnography, well-being, migration.
