Palaeoparasitology and histories of environmental justice

The potential of palaeoecological studies to inform conservation biology has been well explored (e.g. Rick and Lockwood 2013; papers in Lauwerier and Plug 2003). The environmental humanities question the model of conservation that places nature outside of the human, however, and recognises the environment as a social phenomenon, with human-natural relations occurring on a spectrum. Environmental justice argues that, in separating humans from nature, other forms of conservation have been blind to human issues of class, race and gender, and have overlooked nuances of human-natural relations. This paper seeks to establish palaeoparasitology as a science that has the potential to provide time depth to arguments of environmental justice. Parasites demonstrate that the barrier between human bodies and nature are permeable or perhaps even illusive. Infections may be acquired through diet and/or particular environmental conditions, and their evidence (especially the ova of parasitic worms) have a long history of study from archaeological contexts. Evidence from these studies is reviewed to identify and explore historical inequalities and to consider what this might mean for the environmental humanities’ approach to environmental justice