GundxChange

In these weekly talks, hosted by the Gund Institute for Environment, scholars and leaders exchange ("xChange") new research and solutions for people and planet.

This week, Dr. Jeffrey Hoelle explores the surprising connection between the grooming of hair and the management of land. Moving from the deforestation sites and cattle pastures of the Amazon frontier to urban backyards and barbershops of Brazil and the U.S., Hoelle reveals an overlooked aesthetic of control imprinted on both plants and hair. This system of thought creates chains of association where meticulous external appearance is often mistaken for internal human virtue and discipline. Hoelle argues that daily habits are not just about style; they are part of a domineering ideology contributing to environmental destruction and social inequality. Through a focus on the cultivation of plants and hair, we can begin to question our need for control and search for more balanced, sustainable relations with the hair that grows on us and the plants that grow around us. This talk is based on Hoelle's new book, "Cultivated: Plants, Hair, and the Aesthetic of Control", and draws on extensive anthropological research in the Brazilian Amazon.

About the speaker: Jeffrey's research explores the social, cultural, and political-economic dimensions of environmental transformation and deforestation in frontier Amazonia. His book, "Rainforest Cowboys: The Rise of Ranching and Cattle Culture in Western Amazonia", won the 2016 Book Prize from the Brazil Section the Latin American Studies Association. His new book, "Cultivated: Plants, Hair and the Aesthetic of Control" (Yale University Press), analyzes an "ideology of control" linking frontier land cultivation to personal grooming practices. Along with Brazilian colleague Valerio Gomes, he led the inaugural Fulbright Amazonia Initiative (2022-2024). Now, along with students, he runs the IV Ethnobotany Project, a local project that aims to connect the University of California Santa Barbara community with the environment.