Beyond the Green Myth

Beyond the Green Myth

Author: Peter G. Sercombe

Publisher: NIAS Press

Published: 2008-03-18

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 8776940187

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This is the first comprehensive picture of the nomadic and formerly nomadic hunting-gathering groups of the Borneo tropical rain forest, totaling about 20,000 people.


Borneo Studies in History, Society and Culture

Borneo Studies in History, Society and Culture

Author: Victor T. King

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-08-12

Total Pages: 619

ISBN-13: 9811006725

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This edited book is the first major review of what has been achieved in Borneo Studies to date. Chapters in this book situate research on Borneo within the general disciplinary fields of the social sciences, with the weight of attention devoted to anthropological research and related fields such as development studies, gender studies, environmental studies, social policy studies and cultural studies. Some of the chapters in this book are extended versions of presentations at the Borneo Research Council’s international conference hosted by Universiti Brunei Darussalam in June 2012 and a Borneo Studies workshop organised in Brunei in 2012. The volume examines some of the major debates and controversies in Borneo Studies, including those which have served to connect post-war research on Borneo to wider scholarship. It also assesses some of the more recent contributions and interests of locally based researchers in universities and other institutions in Borneo itself. The major strength of the book is the inclusion of a substantial amount of research undertaken by scholars working and teaching within the Southeast Asian region. In particular there is an examination of research materials published in the vernacular, notably the outpouring of work published in Indonesian by the Institut Dayakologi in Pontianak. In doing so, the book also addresses the urgent matters which have not received the attention they deserve, specifically subjects, themes and issues that have already been covered but require further contemplation, elaboration and research, and the scope for disciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration in Borneo Studies. The book is a valuable resource and reference work for students and researchers interested in social science scholarship on Borneo, and for those with wider interests in Indonesia and Malaysia, and in the Southeast Asian region.


Spirit of the Environment

Spirit of the Environment

Author: David E Cooper

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-06-02

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1134767161

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Spirit of the Environment brings spiritual and religious concerns to environmental issues. Providing a much needed alternative to exploring human beings' relationship to the natural world through the restrictive lenses of 'science', 'ecology', or even 'morality', this book offers a fresh perspective to the field. Spirit of the Enironment addresses: * the environmental attitudes of the major religions; * the relationship between art and nature; * the Gaia hypothesis; * the non-instrumental values which have inspired environmental concern. Contributors range from a variety of disciplines including philosophy, comparative religion, education and social anthropology, providing students with an intriguing survey on the role that spirituality and religion play in nature. This is a vital collection for those eager to examine the relationship between the spiritual and the environment.


Penan Histories

Penan Histories

Author: Tim Bending

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-08-04

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 9004486933

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Penan Histories is an ethnographic examination of the transition from nomadism to agriculture and employment in the timber industry, to protest against that industry, and back once more to working as loggers; a story also of cultural change, collective action and individual corruption.


Animism in Southeast Asia

Animism in Southeast Asia

Author: Kaj Arhem

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-11-19

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1317336623

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Animism refers to ontologies or worldviews which assign agency and personhood to human and non-human beings alike. Recent years have seen a revival of this concept in anthropology, where it is now discussed as an alternative to modern-Western naturalistic notions of human-environment relations. Based on original fieldwork, this book presents a number of case studies of animism from insular and peninsular Southeast Asia and offers a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon – its diversity and underlying commonalities and its resilience in the face of powerful forces of change. Critically engaging with the current standard notion of animism, based on hunter-gatherer and horticulturalist societies in other regions, it examines the roles of life forces, souls and spirits in local cosmologies and indigenous religion. It proposes an expansion of the concept to societies featuring mixed farming, sacrifice and hierarchy and explores the question of how non-human agents are created through acts of attention and communication, touching upon the relationship between animist ontologies, world religion, and the state. Shedding new light on Southeast Asian religious ethnographic research, the book is a significant contribution to anthropological theory and the revitalization of the concept of animism in the humanities and social sciences.


Nature's Geography

Nature's Geography

Author: Karl S. Zimmerer

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780299159146

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Developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are increasingly influenced by human-induced environmental changes. It is crucial that sustainable development be based on insights into these expanding processes--conservation as well as deterioration. Nature's Geography offers a new perspective on the geographical nature of these changes. The book reveals how human-environment relations must be understood at multiple scales and time frames. Editors Karl S. Zimmerer and Kenneth R. Young have forged an exciting group of case studies from distinguished geographers focusing on high mountains, tropical forests, and lowlands, as well as humid and arid-semiarid landscapes. Each chapter analyzes the implications for meshing environmental protection and sound resource use with development. The case studies evaluate three topics: spatial habitat fragmentation and forest dynamics; disturbances in mountain ecosystems; and the major activities of settled areas, chiefly farming, livestock-raising, and forestry. Included are analyses of interactions involving wildlife, such as primates and wild pandas; assessment of fire impacts and road-building; long-term forest management as well as recent techniques; and the role of environmental variation and ecosystem properties in agriculture and rangeland. Nature's Geography demonstrates the vital importance of advancing a new approach to geography. This definitive study of landscape change and environmental dynamics will have wide appeal for those interested in geography, ecology, environmental studies, conservation biology, and development studies.


Governance and Civil Society in Myanmar

Governance and Civil Society in Myanmar

Author: Helen James

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-03-21

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1134253990

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Most international attention on Myanmar has focused on the political situation, where the military, in power since 1962, continues to refuse to acknowledge the results of democratic elections, and on related human rights issues. This book, by focusing on education, health and environment, and on the institutions which formulate and deliver policy in these fields, shows how the international community can make a significant difference to strengthening Myanmar's civil society and to supporting a future democratic form of government, by encouraging institutional developments in these fields. Such developments in turn, the author argues, will re-skill the younger generation, promote economic development and poverty alleviation, and, through a participatory approach to policy-making, nurture the conditions from which democracy will grow.


The Peaceful People

The Peaceful People

Author: Paul Malone

Publisher: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre

Published: 2022-12-06

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 9670960312

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The Peaceful People is the story of the Penan, the jungle nomads of Sarawak, who for decades have fought for possession and preservation of their traditional forest lands. Drawing on extensive first-hand interviews, as well as the diaries and journals of explorers, botanists and colonial administrators, and the observations of missionaries, the book provides the most comprehensive account of the dynamics of Penan society to date. Written in a compelling and accessible style, the narrative tells the shocking history of the Penan, exposing massacres and murders, while recounting the nomads’ uniquely shy and peaceful way of life. In particular, the analysis focuses on the Penan’s consistently non-violent modern-day protests against rampant logging which attracted world attention in the 1980s and 1990s. The Peaceful People is essential reading for those interested in the history and culture of Borneo, the politics of logging and development, and the lives of indigenous peoples who seek new ways to survive in a hostile world.


Modern Crises and Traditional Strategies

Modern Crises and Traditional Strategies

Author: Roy Ellen

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2007-07-01

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0857452835

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The 1990s have seen a growing interest in the role of local ecological knowledge in the context of sustainable development, and particularly in providing a set of responses to which populations may resort in times of political, economic and environmental instability. The period 1996-2003 in island southeast Asia represents a critical test case for understanding how this might work. The key issues explored in this book are the creation, erosion and transmission of ecological knowledge, and hybridization between traditional and scientifically-based knowledge, amongst populations facing environmental stress (e.g. 1997 El Niño), political conflict and economic hazards. The book will also evaluate positive examples of how traditional knowledge has enabled local populations to cope with these kinds of insecurity.