In 1994, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing published a much-anticipated book, In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-Way Place.1 Unusually for the time, Tsing welcomed her interlocutors as partners in thought, sharing their insights on modernity, gender, and the state, while bringing them into conversation with the major intellectual currents of the time. But what was truly remarkable about In the Realm of the Diamond Queen—and what made it so effective—was the beauty and wisdom of Tsing's writing. As Amitav Ghosh put it, “This is a book that is as rich in human warmth as it is technically innovative.”2 When it comes to ethnography, how you write shapes what you can say.
Fast-forward to 2023 and the publication of Sophie Chao's much-anticipated book In the Shadow of the Palms: More-than-Human Becomings in West Papua. Like Tsing, Chao treats her interlocutors as individuals: “Marcus...
