Roads Diverging in Yellow Woods: New Paths for Ecological and Environmental Anthropology

Anthropology is at a crossroads; perhaps it always has been. Because it is such a broad discipline, there has always been debate among anthropologists over its role inside and outside of academia. There are often tensions between the paradigms of theory and practice, modernism and postmodernism, constructionism and deconstructionism, scaling up and scaling down, and many other seeming dichotomies that really contain many shades of gray. Anthropology has been called “the most humanistic of the sciences, and the most scientific of the humanities.” We anthropologists should take this phrase as a compliment, and each strive to find our own niche inside the discipline that sweeps across temporal, spatial, and social scales in a way that no other discipline does. At the same time, we should listen to and collaborate with experts in other fields, as well as non-experts with experiences different from our own, always vigilant of our own motives and biases. The global community is also at a crossroads, due to stronger technological, financial, political, and social ties than ever before in history, and few would argue with the statement that the global environmental situation is precarious at best. Every day we lose species and ecosystems that might hold answers to perhaps the most basic questions of mankind: how does the earth work, how did the world come to be the way it is now, and what is the proper role of humans in this world? We are also losing, at an alarming rate, groups of people who have answers to these questions that are much different from our own, as well as questions other groups cannot even think to ask. The loss of cultural, linguistic, and biological diversity leaves us all poorer and more ignorant. To combat these problems, we anthropologists must examine the political processes behind biological and cultural extinctions; indeed, as Marvin Harris once said, “If it be anthropology to struggle against the mystification of the causes of inequality and exploitation, long live anthropology.” Since every local problem resides within larger issues and even larger frameworks nested in still larger discourses, communication is vital. There is no time to reinvent the wheel; we should instead both stand on the shoulders of giants (as encouraged by Newton) and seek out the less traveled paths in life (as Frost suggests). Anthropology stresses the message that all events are contextual and that no idea or behavior exists in isolation

Review of \u3ci\u3e The Political Ecology of Tropical Forests in Southeast Asia: Historical Perspectives\u3c/i\u3e

This book contains ten articles that explore the complicated relationships between and among producers and consumers of tropical forest products in Southeast Asia. The authors focus on understanding current political, economic, ecological, and social situations in their proper historical contexts. These papers cover the many types of forests that exist in Southeast Asia, as well as the many types of forest use regimes. Using political ecology as a framework, they find commonalities in the political processes behind forest use and abuse. This book tackles difficult issues, such as the power relations among the various actors involved in forest management; the often unequal distribution of costs and benefits of forest exploitation; the discourses of science, neoclassical economics, sustainable forest management, and national development; and the colonial and pre-colonial roots of current deforestation in this region. Some of the papers are broad in regional and theoretical scope, while others are case studies of specific countries and villages

Doing High-tech Collaborative Research in the Middle of Borneo:

This case study describes the experiences of an anthropologist currently conducting GIS-based ethnographic research in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia, using the e-Bario Telecentre as a local collaborating institution, a base for the input and storage of hard and soft copies of data and reports, and as a nexus for training community members to use GIS technology. Grounded in discussion of current collaborative research trends in the fields of anthropology and geography, this paper elaborates on the challenges and benefits of using the technology, facilities, and personnel currently available at the e-Bario Telecentre. It also describes how this current project is laying the foundation for a larger project that will be owned, managed, and used by the local community. This article elaborates on the social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental context in which this project is developing, demonstrating how this research project, and the transfer of technological knowledge that is a key component of it, can be both  beneficial and challenging to the Kelabit community. Finally, it offers suggestions for the improvement of e-Bario by suggesting both what e-Bario can do to better serve the needs of researchers in the Kelabit Highlands and what researchers can in turn do to assist e-Bario in meeting its goals to serve the community, visitors, and other researchers

''A Privilege and a Challenge'': Valuation of Heirs' Property by African American Landowners and Implications for Forest Management in the Southeastern U.S

Abstract African Americans have historically struggled to retain land that has been held in their families for generations as heirs' property, or land held collectively by heirs of the original owners without clear title. Ethnographic interviews with sixty landholding African American families in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama reveal the cultural meanings associated with family land, forestland in particular, and the role of heirs' property in inhibiting forest management, including the threat of land loss, intra-family conflict, and legal limitations on forestry activities. The majority of interviewees have a strong desire to pass family land on to their heirs, but they also need the land to be economically productive. Sustainable forest management offers both an incentive to obtain clear title to heirs' property land and a means of paying property taxes and generating intergenerational wealth within families. The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is currently collaborating with local institutions in several states in an innovative program designed to help African American landowners navigate the legal system in order to obtain clear title and provide educational workshops about the financial and ecological benefits of sustainable forestry as well as site visits by consulting foresters. Analysis of the situations faced by African Americans with heirs' property adds to the diversity of our understandings of the complex relationships between land tenure and forestry, with potential application for other minority communities in the U.S. and elsewhere

Heart of borneo as a &#x2032;<i>Jalan Tikus</i>&#x2032;: Exploring the links Between indigenous rights, extractive and exploitative industries, and conservation at the World Conservation Congress 2008

At the Fourth World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October 2008, a number of motions were passed that emphasised human and indigenous rights and the role of the private sector, particularly extractive and exploitative industries, in conservation. These issues are highly relevant to the ongoing World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-led Heart of Borneo (HoB) conservation initiative, which is situated in an area with overlapping political jurisdictions and an array of possible futures, which could include new or expanded protected areas, community-managed conservation programmes, or oil palm plantations potentially covering millions of hectares. The HoB initiative is ambiguous in the sense that its borders are not fixed, its land and resource management strategies are not clearly defined, its projects are not predetermined, and its policies regarding who benefits from it are not obvious. HoB is also ambitious, and its actors must negotiate a number of different types of scales: geographic, political, economic, institutional, and ecological. These factors offer both opportunities and weaknesses both for conservation and for local and indigenous communities living within the HoB area. Using HoB as an example, I show how small NGOs, national branches of multinational NGOs like WWF, and local and indigenous communities must walk a &#x2032;jalan tikus&#x2032; to accomplish conservation and indigenous rights goals. I also offer suggestions on how the motions passed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) membership can be incorporated into HoB planning on the ground

TRAVERSING SACRED STONES IN THE HEART OF BORNEO: TRANSBOUNDARY ECOTOURISM THROUGH THE MEGALITHIC LANDSCAPES OF THE KELABIT HIGHLANDS OF SARAWAK, MALAYSIA AND THE KERAYAN HIGHLANDS OF KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA

The Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia and the Kerayan Highlands of Kalimantan, Indonesia areculturally contiguous areas separated by the Apad Wat mountain range, consisting of a number ofvillages that are related ethnically, linguistically, and through marriage. Though now separated by apolitical boundary, locals have always traversed this border. Now, foreign tourists also walk across thisborder, as community-based transboundary ecotourism is often centered around long-distance trekkingamong villages. The main attractions along the way for most tourists are impressive megaliths thatinclude erected stones, carved stones, and large piles of stones, and other cultural sites such as oldlonghouse sites, and earthworks in various shapes such as crocodiles. These cultural sites, and thelandscape in which they are found, represent a complex history of movement in the landscape by various,but related, ethnic groups that predates political separation. These sites have deep cultural and religioussignificance to local people on both sides of the border, and the experience of trekking among them hassignificance beyond mere tourism for many visitors as well. There is strong local, governmental, andinternational support for ecotourism development here, as well as an awareness of the possible pitfallsof expanding ecotourism in this region. This paper provides background on elements of the landscapeitself, particularly megalithic structures located within intact rain forest, that attract visitors. It alsopresents a synopsis of some of the cross-boundary efforts to simultaneously promote responsible andculturally sensitive ecotourism development and to protect the ecological and cultural integrity of thisunique megalithic landscape in the “heart of Borneo.” Research for this article was conducted primarilyin the Kelabit Highlands, and emphasis on this area is reflected in the data and discussion