In a thought-provoking convergence of anthropology and environmental studies, UC Santa Barbara professor Jeffrey Hoelle’s forthcoming book, Cultivated: Plants, Hair, and the Aesthetic of Control (Yale University Press, 2026), offers an innovative exploration of the intertwined cultural logics that govern our interactions with both landscapes and human bodies. Hoelle’s multidisciplinary research bridges seemingly disparate domains—cultivated lawns, deforested cattle pastures, and meticulously styled hair—revealing a shared, pervasive aesthetic centered on order, cleanliness, and control. His investigation extends from the remote frontiers of the Brazilian Amazon to the manicured suburban lawns of the United States, unearthing the “imprint of cultivation” as a potent symbol reinforcing social values and ideologies.
Hoelle’s ethnographic fieldwork commenced in 2007 in the Amazon rainforest’s periphery, where cattle ranching has accelerated deforestation. Initially focused on the environmental degradation driven by expanding ranchlands, his attention shifted toward the symbolic meanings residents attach to the landscapes they manage. During interviews, he noticed that locals consistently assessed pastures using evaluative terms like “clean” or “dirty,” which transcended mere botanical conditions to convey judgments on the landowners’ character. A “clean” pasture became a marker of industriousness and social virtue, while a neglected, overgrown landscape implied personal failings such as laziness or ill health.
This phenomenon offers a vivid example of how environmental perception is deeply enmeshed with social morality. In Amazonian frontier communities, maintaining a pristine, orderly pasture aligns with participation in a broader project of “progress” that frames wild forests as unproductive and in need of human mastery. This worldview imposes not only ecological consequences but also a normative order that evaluates individuals based on how they exert control over nature in their immediate surroundings. Hoelle’s insight evokes critical reflections on human-environment relations and the ways cultural aesthetics can reinforce particular economic and political agendas.
Strikingly, Hoelle discovered a parallel logic applied to human hair, an aspect of the body initially peripheral to his research. Much like cultivated plants, hair was perceived as a “cover” that grows and changes according to natural processes, yet requires deliberate management to meet social standards. Practices of grooming and hairstyling replicate the same principles observed in landscape management: emphasis on symmetry, straight lines, uniform density, and removal—each signifying cultivation and control. The metaphor of hair as “plant-like” is embedded in everyday language through terms like “stubble,” “cornrows,” and “tendrils,” highlighting cultural recognition of this link.
Delving deeper, Hoelle engaged with barbers and beauty industry experts to understand hair care practices without intruding into private or sensitive personal experiences. His analysis reveals that in Brazil, dominant social norms—referred to as padrão—enforce stringent grooming standards, especially on women and Afro-Brazilian populations. These standards uphold Eurocentric beauty ideals, which valorize sleek, controlled hair textures and bodies, marginalizing natural forms of hair growth and expression. Iconic Brazilian beauty treatments such as the Brazilian wax and Brazilian blowout embody these pressures by removing pubic hair and altering curly hair to conform to socially sanctioned aesthetics.
Hoelle’s research exposes the intersections of aesthetics, identity, and systems of power. The insistence on grooming reflects broader societal demands for conformity, control, and the policing of bodies along racial and gender lines. Women and Afro-Brazilians disproportionately navigate these coercive expectations, demonstrating how cultural practices of cultivation extend beyond environmental domains into social and political dimensions. This dual focus on plants and bodies underscores how deeply entrenched these systems are in everyday life.
Upon returning to the United States, Hoelle observed that the imprint of cultivation manifested in American suburban landscapes in ways reflecting similar cultural logics. Lawns, often deemed the largest irrigated “crop” in the country, function as a visible signifier of character, discipline, and respectability. Yet, this American ideal of the immaculate lawn vs. the Amazonian “clean pasture” exposes contradictions: lawns require enormous resource expenditure without direct sustenance, while “wild” nature is often stigmatized or framed as chaos. This paradox invites reconsideration of commonly held environmental narratives and critiques of rational land use.
The meticulous maintenance of lawns also serves as a socio-cultural performance akin to the management of hair. It signals adherence to community norms and expectations, but it can mask inequalities—whether economic, social, or personal. Hoelle provocatively notes that a flawless lawn may equally indicate dedicated hard work, the engagement of landscapers, or even harbor unsettling secrets, challenging simplistic evaluations based on external appearances. This analogy between cultivated nature and curated bodies invites deeper reflection on the assumptions linking outward orderliness with intrinsic virtue.
From a broader ethical standpoint, Hoelle calls for a critical reassessment of inherited assumptions about order, control, and cleanliness—concepts often taken for granted but laden with cultural and political significance. Moving toward sustainable and just futures requires confronting and unraveling these pervasive systems of thought. With plants, this means fostering relationships that do not rely on domination or eradication but acknowledge ecological complexity and mutuality. With bodies, it means empowering individuals to determine their own standards of grooming and presentation, free from oppressive societal pressures.
One poignant example from Hoelle’s work is the testimony of a Brazilian woman asserting a desire to grow hair naturally—as a white man might—without societal scrutiny or negative judgment. This aspiration encapsulates the broader struggle for bodily autonomy and resistance against racialized and gendered grooming expectations. It emphasizes the urgent need to reclaim freedom over one’s own “covers,” whether organic landscapes or human hair, as integral to social and environmental justice.
Hoelle’s scholarship ultimately challenges the artificial dichotomy often drawn between environmental destruction “elsewhere” and seemingly benign cultivation in Western contexts. By recognizing the continuity of aesthetic control across different geographies and scales, his work reframes environmental and social justice as interconnected rather than isolated issues. The “imprint of cultivation” is not unique to deforestation frontiers but permeates suburban lawns and personal grooming rituals alike, revealing shared cultural logics that condition how humans engage with the world.
In Cultivated, Jeffrey Hoelle offers both a rich ethnographic narrative and a critical theoretical framework that dismantles accepted norms about order, cleanliness, and moral worth. His analysis expands the horizons of environmental anthropology and challenges readers to rethink the relationship between cultural aesthetics, identity, and ecological sustainability. By interrogating how humans shape and judge both plant and body covers, Hoelle’s work provides a compelling lens through which to examine power, race, gender, and environmental ethics in contemporary society.
Recognizing these cultural patterns is crucial for fostering more equitable and sustainable futures. Hoelle’s interdisciplinary approach invites scholars, policymakers, and the public to reconsider everyday practices—from lawn mowing to hair styling—not just as trivial pursuits but as deeply embedded in systems of value and control. Ultimately, Cultivated asks how society might reimagine these relationships in ways that respect diversity, reduce domination, and promote autonomy for both human bodies and the natural world.
Subject of Research: Anthropology of cultural aesthetics, environmental control, and body politics in Brazil and the United States.
Article Title: Cultivated: Plants, Hair, and the Aesthetic of Control
News Publication Date: Not explicitly given; book publication anticipated in 2026.
Web References:
- UC Santa Barbara People Profile: https://news.ucsb.edu/people/jeffrey-hoelle
- Yale University Press: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300272857/cultivated/
Image Credits: UC Santa Barbara
Keywords: Anthropology, cultural aesthetics, environmental control, Brazilian Amazon, suburban lawns, body politics, hair grooming, sustainability, racialized beauty standards, deforestation, ecological ethics, identity
