The Mushroom at the End of the World

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world--and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?

A tale of diversity within our damaged landscapes, The Mushroom at the End of the World follows one of the strangest commodity chains of our times to explore the unexpected corners of capitalism. Here, we witness the varied and peculiar worlds of matsutake commerce: the worlds of Japanese gourmets, capitalist traders, Hmong jungle fighters, industrial forests, Yi Chinese goat herders, Finnish nature guides, and more. These companions also lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human destruction.

By investigating one of the world's most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.

"An unusually rewarding meditation on how a wild mushroom can help us see the world's ruined condition after the advent of modern capitalism. . . . Bursting with ideas and observations, Tsing's highly original ethnographic study follows this spicy-smelling mushroom's global commodity chain, from the forests of Oregon's Cascade Mountains and elsewhere to Tokyo auction markets. She recounts her interviews with mushroom pickers, scientists, and entrepreneurs in the United States, Asia, and elsewhere to explore the matsutake's commerce and ecology. . . . Consistently fascinating, her story of the picking and selling of this wild mushroom becomes a wonderful window on contemporary life." Kirkus, starred review

What a rare mushroom can teach us about sustaining life on a fragile planet

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world--and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?

A tale of diversity within our damaged landscapes, The Mushroom at the End of the World follows one of the strangest commodity chains of our times to explore the unexpected corners of capitalism. Here, we witness the varied and peculiar worlds of matsutake commerce: the worlds of Japanese gourmets, capitalist traders, Hmong jungle fighters, industrial forests, Yi Chinese goat herders, Finnish nature guides, and more. These companions also lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human destruction.

By investigating one of the world's most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Niels Bohr Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, where she codirects Aarhus University Research on the Anthropocene (AURA). She is the author of Friction and In the Realm of the Diamond Queen (both Princeton).

Enabling Entanglements vii
Prologue. Autumn Aroma 1
PART I What's Left? 11
1 Arts of Noticing 17
2 Contamination as Collaboration 27
3 Some Problems with Scale 37
Interlude. Smelling 45
PART II After Progress: Salvage Accumulation 55
4 Working the Edge 61
Freedom . . .
5 Open Ticket, Oregon 73
6 War Stories 85
7 What Happened to the State? Two Kinds of Asian Americans 97
. . . in Translation
8 Between the Dollar and the Yen 109
9 From Gifts to Commodities--and Back 121
10 Salvage Rhythms: Business in Disturbance 131
Interlude. Tracking 137
PART III Disturbed Beginnings: Unintentional Design 149
11 The Life of the Forest 155
Coming Up among Pines . . .
12 History 167
13 Resurgence 179
14 Serendipity 193
15 Ruin 205
. . . in Gaps and Patches
16 Science as Translation 217
17 Flying Spores 227
Interlude. Da ncing 241
PART IV In the Middle of Things 251
18 Matsutake Crusaders: Waiting for Fungal Action 257
19 Ordinary Assets 267
20 Anti-ending: Some People I Met along the Way 277
Spore Trail. The Further Adventures of a Mushroom 285
Notes 289
Index 323