Several prominent accounts of the end of epic attribute its demise to modernity. A society riven by contradictions cannot make epic poems. The incoherence of modernity baffles the grand aspirations of epic to tell the “tale of the tribe,” to compass an entire world and way of life in a single grand vision. That is one story of the end of epic in Western literature. The rise of natural philosophy, the disenchantment of the world and banishment of God to the gaps left by naturalistic accounts broke up the enchanted world that created epics, leaving in its wake elegiac mourning for the totality epic represented.

What is a good life? Scholars often attempt to answer this question by examining people’s ideals. Exemplified by Joel Robbins’ call of “the anthropology of the good,” anthropologists are encouraged to make ethnographic inquiries into qualities that are “imaginatively conceived” to be desirable and even “outstripped” the immediate realities (2013, 457). In other words, the scholarly examination of the “good life” has long been domesticated in the realm of thoughts and beliefs, insulated from that of the lived experiences.

The increasing prevalence of human-wildlife conflict (HWC) in India has become a critical environmental and social issue. As human populations expand and encroach on natural habitats, interactions between humans and wildlife have escalated, often resulting in tragic outcomes for both. Discourses surrounding HWC are often deeply anthropocentric, framing wildlife primarily as predators and emphasizing human losses, such as crop and livestock damage, typically tied to economic activity. This perspective predominantly highlights negative interactions, with scant attention given to positive encounters or the broader ecological and cultural benefits of coexistence.