Alchemy in the Rain Forest

Jacka Jerry K. Jacka

Description

In Alchemy in the Rain Forest Jerry K. Jacka explores how the indigenous population of Papua New Guinea's highlands struggle to create meaningful lives in the midst of extreme social conflict and environmental degradation. Drawing on theories of political ecology, place, and ontology and using ethnographic, environmental, and historical data, Jacka presents a multilayered examination of the impacts large-scale commercial gold mining in the region has had on ecology and social relations. Despite the deadly interclan violence and widespread pollution brought on by mining, the uneven distribution of its financial benefits has led many Porgerans to call for further development. This desire for increased mining, Jacka points out, counters popular portrayals of indigenous people as innate conservationists who defend the environment from international neoliberal development. Jacka's examination of the ways Porgerans search for common ground between capitalist and indigenous ways of knowing and being points to the complexity and interconnectedness of land, indigenous knowledge, and the global economy in Porgera and beyond. 

Sujets

• Histoire
• Environmental science
• Papua New Guinea
• Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822375012
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

alchemy in the rain forest

new ecologies for the twentyfirst century

Series Editors

arturo escobar University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

dianne rocheleau Clark University

This series addresses two trends: critical conversations in academic fields about nature, sustainability, globalization, and culture, including constructive engagements between the natural, social, and human sci ences; and intellectual and political conversations among social move ments and other nonacademic knowledge producers about alternative practices and socionatural worlds. Its objective is to establish a synergy between these theoretical and political developments in both academic and nonacademic arenas. This synergy is a sine qua non for new think ing about the real promise of emergent ecologies. The series includes works that envision more lasting and just ways of beinginplace and beinginnetworks with a diversity of humans and other living and non living beings. New Ecologies for the TwentyFirst Century aims to promote a di alogue between those who are transforming the understanding of the relationship between nature and culture. The series revisits existing fields such as environmental history, historical ecology, environmental anthropology, ecological economics, and cultural and political ecology. It addresses emerging tendencies, such as the use of complexity the ory to rethink a range of questions on the natureculture axis. It also deals with epistemological and ontological concerns, building bridges between the various forms of knowing and ways of being embedded in the multiplicity of practices of social actors worldwide. This series hopes to foster convergences among differently located actors and to provide a forum for authors and readers to widen the fields of theoretical inquiry, professional practice, and social struggles that characterize the current environmental arena.

ALCHEMY IN THE RAIN FOREST

politics, ecology, and resilience in a

new guinea mining area

Jerry K. Jacka

Duke University Press Durham and London 2015

© 2015 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acidfree paper∞ Designed by Natalie F. Smith Typeset in Caecilia and Meta Pro by Graphic Composition, Inc.

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Jacka, Jerry K., [date] author. Alchemy in the rain forest : politics, ecology, and resilience in a New Guinea mining area / Jerry K. Jacka. pages cm—(New ecologies for the twentyfirst century) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn9780822359791 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn9780822360117 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn9780822375012 (ebook) 1. Porgera (Papua New Guinea)—Social conditions—21st century. 2. Porgera (Papua New Guinea)—Environmental conditions—21st century. 3. Ethnology—Papua New Guinea—Porgera. 4. Gold mines and mining—Social aspects—Papua New Guinea—Porgera. 5. Gold mines and mining—Environmental aspects—Papua New Guinea—Porgera. i. Title.ii. Series: New ecologies for the twentyfirst century. du740.9.p66j33 2015 995.6'305—dc23 2015015086

Cover art: Local boys take in views of the dump sites of the Porgera Joint Venture Gold Mine from an old mining truck tire, Porgera, Papua New Guinea, November 17, 2010. Photograph by Brent Stirton / Getty Images Reportage.

for jo

contents

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

 part i.21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Making of a Resource Frontier

1. Resource Frontiers in the Montane Tropics . . . . . . . . . . 25

2. Colonialism, Mining, and Missionization . . . . . . . . . . . 49

part ii.Indigenous Philosophies of Nature, Culture, and Place . . . 77

3. Land:Yu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 .

4. People:Wandakali . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

5. Spirits:Yama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 .

partiii.SocialEcological Perturbations and Human Responses . . 157

6. Ecological Perturbations and Human Responses . . . . . 163

7. Social Dislocations: Work, Antiwork, and Highway Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Conclusion: Development, Resilience, and the End of the Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269

Map 0.1. Inset map of the Porgera valley in Papua New Guinea.

Mt Kare

• Wailya

0 2 4 8 12 16 Kilometers

Port Moresby

• Kolombi

INDONESIA

Crater Mt

AUSTRALIA

Ok Tedi

• Mt Hagen

Porgera Valley

0 75 150 300 450 600 Kilometers

BISMARCK SEA

• Lae

CORAL SEA

Bougainville I.

Lagaip River

Paiela Valley

Tipinini • Kairik • • Paiam • Suyan Porgera

Altitude Below 1400 m 1400  2800 m Above 2800 m

acknowledgments Acknowledgments

There are a number of people and institutions that I am deeply grateful

to for providing me the opportunities to conduct research in Papua New Guinea. The WennerGren Foundation for Anthropological Research (Gr. 6389) and the Porgera Development Authority funded the first phase of my research (December 1998 to February 2000). The second period of research (November to December 2006) was funded by a Faculty Develop ment Grant from North Carolina State University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The National Research Institute granted incountry research permission. I thank all of these institutions for their support. All maps were created by me in Arcgis; any errors are my responsibility. Unless noted, all figures in the captions are also my creation, and all photos were taken in Porgera by me. In many ways this book was written in a dialogue with an anthro pologist whom I never had the privilege of meeting: Roy Rappaport. Rappaport was one of the advisors of my PhD advisor, Aletta Biersack. The introduction to Rappaport’s work through Aletta often made me wonder what an updated (third) edition ofPigs for the Ancestorswould look like with an attention to globalization, Christianity, and colonialism. I hope that in some small measure this book can contribute to such an envisioning. I am particularly grateful to Aletta Biersack for her support. Her keen intellect and razorsharp critique have forced me to critically examine