Lene Pedersen

Humans and alloprimates share long evolutionary histories living alongside each other, and their niche co-construction is of growing anthropological interest. Through a study in Costa Rica, we direct attention to human-alloprimate coexistence outside protected areas, at the “interstices of conservation.” Moreover, the study site includes communities, with different coexistence experiences (multigenerational Costa Ricans and recent Euro-American expatriates), and monkeys with different tolerances for anthropogenic environments (howler and spider). How do humans and monkeys interact at the interstices? How do socio-cultural and species variables bear? Ultimately, can humans and monkeys coexist outside protected areas? Through the framework of taskscape, as mechanism for niche construction, incorporating primatological and ethnographic methods, we pursue three sub-objectives: 1. How is landscape as “taskscape” co-constructed through the activities of humans and monkeys? How are they interconnected spatially and temporally? 2. What are the respective human communities’ perspectives on co-existence with the monkeys? How may we interpret the agency and experience of the monkeys? How are monkeys and humans impacting one another? 3. What do we learn about possibilities for coexistence more broadly? This research answers calls to address anthropological questions about coexistence and its future possibilities with a multispecies and multi-method approach and explore conservation alternatives.