Without denying its striking destructiveness, deforestation can be seen as a socio-ecological process through which humans negotiate their place-making with the earth and its nonhuman inhabitants. In this article I combine qualitative and geospatial methods to document and analyse how forest clearing drove the range expansion of Atta ants in southeast Brazil over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First, I outline the main deforestation drivers and dynamics, focusing on the connections between clearing practices and Atta habitat formation. Then, using Historical GIS methods, I examine the regional process of ‘savannisation’ and how it fuelled the expansion of two grass-cutting species. Imported African grasses such as Melinis minutiflora played a key role in the historical assemblage that both produced and was produced by the savannised landscapes. I conclude by highlighting the multispecies agential character of the Anthropocene as a product not only of human doings but of what humans enable other living beings to do (or prevent them from doing).

中文翻译：

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空地的生物：后殖民时期巴西的森林砍伐、割草蚂蚁和多物种景观变化

在不否认其惊人的破坏性的情况下，森林砍伐可以被视为一种社会生态过程，人类通过该过程与地球及其非人类居民协商他们的地方建设。在这篇文章中，我结合定性和地理空间方法来记录和分析森林砍伐如何在 19 世纪和 20 世纪初推动巴西东南部阿塔蚂蚁的活动范围扩大。首先，我概述了主要的森林砍伐驱动因素和动态，重点关注森林砍伐实践与阿塔栖息地形成之间的联系。然后，使用历史 GIS 方法，我研究了“草原化”的区域过程以及它如何推动了两种割草物种的扩张。进口的非洲草，如 Melinis minutiflora 在历史组合中发挥了关键作用，既生产又由荒芜的景观生产。最后，我强调人类世的多物种代理特征不仅是人类行为的产物，也是人类使其他生物能够做（或阻止他们做）的产物。