Environmental Transformations and Cultural Responses: Ontologies, Discourses, and Practices in Oceania

242 Pages·2017·3.529 MB·English

by  Eveline Dürr, Arno Pascht (eds.)

Environmental
Transformations
and Cultural
Responses
Ontologies, Discourses,
and Practices in Oceania
Edited by Eveline Dürr
and Arno Pascht
Environmental Transformations and Cultural
Responses
EvelineDürr(cid:129)ArnoPascht
Editors
Environmental
Transformations and
Cultural Responses
Ontologies, Discourses, and Practices in Oceania
Editors
EvelineDürr ArnoPascht
Munich,Germany Munich,Germany
ISBN978-1-137-53348-7 ISBN978-1-137-53349-4 (eBook)
DOI10.1057/978-1-137-53349-4
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017930590
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TheideatocompilethisvolumearoseduringtheconferenceoftheGerman
Anthropological Association’s Regional Research Group “Oceania”, held at
theLudwig-Maximilians-UniversitätinMunichinOctober2012.Theconfer-
encepresentationshadastrongfocusonenvironmentaltopics,suchasclimate
change,environmentalknowledgeandnotionsofsustainability.Theindividual
presentationsdrewonarangeofapproachestoframetheirarguments,placing
particular emphasis on world views and local conceptions of environmental
phenomenawhilenotnecessarilyreferringtoamoregeneralapproach.
The volume also draws inspiration from the anthropological debate on
the ontological turn, which has, so far, stimulated empirical contributions
stemming from Lowland South America and other parts of the world. We
tookthe—attimesinconclusive—ontologicaldebateasthought-provoking
impulsetoadvanceourunderstandingofhowpeopleinOceaniarespondto
and engage with recent environmental transformations. This volume fur-
thercontributestotheinternationalliteratureaboutthisregionandtothe
considerationofontologicaldimensions.
Thebookbringstogetheroriginalworkbasedonrecentempiricalresearch
from different parts of Oceania. All authors are German scholarsand reflect
thelong-standingGermantraditionofanthropologicalresearchinthisregion.
Wethankforemostourinterlocutorswhosharedtheirtimeandknowledge
with us and offered us their hospitality. We also thank Brenda Black, Sasha
Gora, Oliver Liebig, Hannah Roberson and Samantha Rothbart for their
editorialassistance.Finally,wealsothanktheteamfromPalgraveMacmillan
fortheirsupportandpatiencewhileputtingthisvolumetogether.
v
C
ONTENTS
1 EngagingwithEnvironmentalTransformation
inOceania 1
ArnoPaschtandEvelineDu€rr
2 ClimateChange,ChristianReligionandSongs:Revisiting
theNoahStoryintheCentralPacific 19
WolfgangKempf
3 ClimateChangeandWorriesoverLand:Articulations
intheAtollStateofKiribati 49
ElfriedeHermann
4 ExperiencingEnvironmentalDynamicsinChuuk,
Micronesia 75
RebeccaHofmann
5 Youngni-VanuatuEncounterClimateChange:
ReceptionofKnowledgeandNewDiscourses 103
Desire´eHetzelandArnoPascht
vii
viii CONTENTS
6 WhoseBeach,WhichNature?CoproducingCoastal
NatureculturesandErosionControlinAotearoa
NewZealand 125
FriederikeGesing
7 The“WhiteMagic”ofModernity:RetracingIndigenous
EnvironmentalKnowledgeinSettler-ColonialistAustralia 157
CarstenWergin
8 NaturallyOccurringAsbestos:ThePerceptionofRocks
intheMountainsofNewCaledonia 187
ElisabethWorliczek
9 Epilogue:Re-buildingShipsatSea:OntologicalInnovation
inAction 215
AmiriaSalmond
Index 227
L C
IST OF ONTRIBUTORS
Eveline Du€rr The author is a professor at the Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. Previ-
ously,sheheldapositionasAssociateProfessorattheAucklandUniversityof
TechnologyinNewZealand.ShereceivedherPhDandvenialegendi(Habil-
itation)fromtheUniversityofFreiburg,Germany.Shehasconductedfield-
work in Aotearoa New Zealand, Mexico, the USA and Germany, and is
interested in Transpacific connections, in particular between the Americas
and the South Pacific. Her research projects include human–environmental
relations, urban anthropology, spatiality, tourism, mobilities and globalisa-
tion,andtakeintoconsiderationthehistoricaltrajectoriesandpowerimbal-
ancesthathaveformedpresentconditions.
FriederikeGesing Theauthorisaculturalanthropologistofscience,tech-
nologyandnature.ShestudiedEuropeanEthnologyandGenderStudiesat
theHumboldtUniversityofBerlinandtheUniversityofSussex,andwaspart
of the international research training group INTERCOAST (Integrated
CoastalZoneandShelf-SeaResearch).In2015,shereceivedaPhDforher
ethnographyofcoastalprotection,whichwasbasedonfieldworkinAotearoa
NewZealand.Sheisco-founderoftheBremenNatureCulturesLab(www.
naturenkulturen.de) and works at artec Sustainability Research Center,
UniversityofBremen.
ix
x LISTOFCONTRIBUTORS
ElfriedeHermann TheauthorisaprofessorattheInstituteofCulturaland
Social Anthropology at the University of G€ottingen, Germany. She has
conducted research with the Ngaing of Papua New Guinea, the Banabans
of Rabi Island (Fiji) and Banaba Island (Kiribati), and the inhabitants of
Kiribati. The foci of her research and publications are emotions, identifica-
tions,belonging,historicity,ethnicity,migration,culturaltransformationsand
transculturation,socialresilienceandculturalperceptionsofclimatechange.
DesiréeHetzel, M.A. TheauthorholdsanM.A. andisadoctoralcandi-
date in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Ludwig-
Maximilians-Universität in Munich. In 2015, she conducted fieldwork in
PortVila,Vanuatu,workingwithyoungclimatechangeactivists.Hercurrent
research, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, focuses on
humanenvironmentrelationsandclimatechangeinVanuatu.
RebeccaHofmann TheauthorisapostdoctoralresearcherintheDepart-
mentofSocialandCulturalAnthropology,Ludwig-Maxmilians-Universität
in Munich. She has done anthropological field research on human–nature
relationships in Alaska, India and Micronesia. During her field research in
Chuuk,Micronesia,shetaughtatalocalcollege.Whilecontinuingherwork
on risk perception and climate change at the Rachel Carson Center for
Environment and Society in Munich through the Climates of Migration
project, she submitted her doctoral thesis “Situating climate change in
Chuuk:navigating‘belonging’throughenvironmentalandsocialtransfor-
mations in Micronesia” at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. After
teachingforonesemesterattheInstituteofCulturalandSocialAnthropol-
ogy in Freiburg, she returned to Munich where she now engages with
anthropological questions regarding waste and actual as well as metaphor-
icaltranslocalrelationshipsbetween“village”and“town”.
WolfgangKempf TheauthorholdsaPhDfromtheUniversityofTübingen
andhastaughtculturalanthropologyattheUniversitiesofTübingen,Heidel-
bergandG€ottingen,whereheiscurrentlyalecturerattheInstituteofCultural
andSocialAnthropology.HehasconductedfieldworkamongtheNgaingof
MadangProvince,PapuaNewGuinea,theBanabansofFiji,andinKiribati.
His research interests focus on climate change, migration, resettlement,
power,biographyandreligioustransformation.Amonghismostrecentpub-
lications is “Representation as Disaster: Mapping Islands, Climate Change,
andDisplacementinOceania”inPacificStudies38(1–2):2015.
LISTOFCONTRIBUTORS xi
ArnoPascht TheauthorisapostdoctoralresearcherintheDepartmentof
Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
in Munich. His current research project, which is funded by the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft,focusesonclimatechangereceptionandcultural
transformations in Vanuatu. Previously, he has worked on a project about
changinglandtenureintheCookIslands.Heconductedabout18months
offieldworkinOceania.Hisresearchinterestsincludehuman–environment
relations, land tenure, leadership, migration, transnational processes, cul-
turaltransformations,legalpluralismandethnicity.
AmiriaSalmond Theauthor’stheoreticalinterestscentreontheontolog-
ical turn in social anthropology. As the co-editor of Thinking Through
Things:Theorising Artefacts Ethnographically(2007), her work helpedini-
tiate an active international debate concerning ontological aspects of eth-
nographic enquiry and their disciplinary and political implications. Recent
research projects have focused on indigenous anthropology, collections
made on early European voyages to the Pacific and digital research net-
works. As a Senior Curator for Anthropology at the University of Cam-
bridge Museum ofArchaeologyandAnthropology until2009 shecurated
exhibitions of historical and contemporary Pacific art. She is currently
concernedtocultivatedialoguebetweenkeyexponentsofthe“ontological
turn” and indigenous thinkers engaged in parallel projects geared to the
decolonisationofknowledge.
CarstenWergin Theauthor(DrPhil)leadstheresearchgroup“TheTrans-
cultural Heritage of Northwest Australia: Dynamics and Resistances” at
Ruprecht-Karls-UniversityHeidelberg.Hisacademicbackgroundisinsocio-
culturalanthropology,mediaandtransculturalstudies,withawiderthematic
interestindigitalandenvironmentalhumanitiesresearch,andaregionalfocus
on the Indian Ocean World, drawing on long-term fieldwork in the
MascareneArchipelagoandNorthwestAustralia.HisfirstmonographKre´ol
Blouz: Musikalische Inszenierungen von Identita€t und Kultur (Boehlau,
2010) is an ethnography of the transcultural music scene of La Réunion
(DOM-TOM). Further publications include the edited volume Musical
PerformanceandtheChangingCity(Routledge2013)andthespecialjournal
issueMaterialitiesofTourism(TouristStudies2014/3).
Elisabeth Worliczek The author iscurrently affiliated with the University
ofNaturalResourcesandLifeSciences(BOKU)inVienna,Austria.Shewas