Mushrooms have been studied in context of their relation to human activities, both by traditional ethnomycology (V. P. and R.
G. Wessons) and recent anthropological studies of mushroom picking and commodity chains (A.
Tsing). We see here two ways of limiting our thinking of more-than-human entanglements regarding mushrooms that we want to challenge in our paper.
Either they are conceived as a part of natural-technological networks that open new ways of creating sustainable economies and environments, or they are invoked as metaphors using various cultural and historical references to solve varied social issues of today. Starting out of the fact that fungi are extremely resilient live agents that have a long history of engaging with different kind of other live agents and natural/non-natural matter, we want to ask if there are any new or hidden spheres of human/non-human entanglements that can teach us about forgotten or overlaid social practices and skills that would help us to enhance our ability to think resiliently.
We will offer some thought in this direction on several examples with our engagement with mushrooms coming from considerably mycophilic cultural context.