Michael J. Hathaway

This project explores how rural people in China are negotiating two simultaneous trends: the implementation of increasingly strict environmental laws and growing participation in global markets. The resulting book examines one example, Southwest China's recent creation of a vast network of pickers, dealers, and exporters that trade in a valuable wild mushroom with Japan. The study traces the origins, transformations and unexpected social outcomes with this trade, using historical and ethnographic methods. It contributes to studies on China's environment, ethnic politics, and globalization. The fieldwork and archival study is mainly complete, and requires one last period of research to answer some remaining questions and fill in some gaps in the historical record.