People in Between: Conversion and Conservation of Forest Lands in Thailand

The analysis of ‘ambiguous lands’ and the people who inhabit them is most revealing for understanding environmental deterioration in Thailand. ‘Ambiguous lands’ are those which are legally owned by the state, but are used and cultivated by local people. Land with an ambiguous property status attracts many different actors: villagers hungry for unoccupied arable lands in the frontiers; government departments looking for new project sites; and conservation agencies searching for new areas to be protected. This article shows, first, how two types of ambiguous land — state‐owned but privately‐cultivated land, and communal lands — were created. It then examines how the Karen, one of the hill peoples living on the ambiguous lands, have been struggling to survive between the forces of capitalistic development and forest conservation. Using a detailed study of forest use and dependency conducted in two Karen villages, I argue that the state’s efforts to reduce the Karen’s forest dependency, or even to evict them from the forests, are not leading to the stated objective of conservation. Finally, I draw some wider implications with reference to James Scott’s thesis on state simplification.     

Gifts and Rights: Cautionary Notes on Community Self-help in Thailand

ABSTRACT A pervasive assumption in the critical literature and practice of development has been that capitalism and state-building has undermined relatively autonomous village communities in which there were equalizing institutions of mutual help or gift-giving. These assumptions tend to retain the dualisms of modernization theories by reversing them. The author argues that we should instead challenge these dualisms, and look for complexity and contradictions within both the past and the present. He then draws on a study in Thailand to show how the ‘village’ was a product of state-building, and how in the past the idiom of ‘helping’ constituted relations of domination and extraction as well as more egalitarian relations of mutual help. The use of the language of the gift confers power on the giver; since the 1930s, state officials have appropriated and transformed the language of ‘helping’ to coerce villagers into working on ‘development’ projects. Until the 1970s, villagers described ‘development’ as coerced serf labour, but since then, they have struggled with mixed results to redefine development as their right to participate in the national and global product. The author finishes by arguing that, in the context of the current global crisis of accumulation, we should reclaim rural development as a democratic right, opposing neoliberal attempts to redefine it as a gift which government and development agencies can discontinue at their will.     

Conservative Philanthropists,Royalty and Business Elites in Nature Conservation in Southern Africa

Abstract: The article investigates the increasingly important connections between the private sector and nature conservation agencies. It looks specifically at the connections between two important philanthropists, the late Anton Rupert, a South African business tycoon, and the late Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands. Both have been highly successful in raising funds for nature conservation, and marketing the idea of transfrontier conservation. This paper explores the networks they formed and were part of to try and explain how they were able to do so. It also attempts to analyse how their donations and fund raising have shaped thinking about nature conservation in (southern) Africa.     

Community Conservation and the (Mis)appropriation of Taboo

Community conservation initiatives have long struggled to forge productive relationships with the people living in and around protected areas. Currently, there is enthusiasm among conservation researchers and practitioners regarding local cultural taboos, which often appear to conserve species and landscapes of ecological importance. However, in incorporating local taboos into conservation programmes, there is the risk that these culturally sophisticated institutions are used in a highly reductionist manner. Drawing from ethnographic work in Madagascar, this article highlights how the simplification of cultural taboos can exasperate already fraught relationships between communities and conservation organizations, and undermine the very environmental outcomes that groups seek to promote. This reductionist approach can also lead to the harmful appropriation of local meanings and resources. Overall, while working with local taboos may potentially offer an alternative to neoliberal models of conservation, scholars and practitioners should recognize the dynamic and interconnected processes connected with taboos, instead of regarding them as static and interchangeable products.     

State Formation in Southern Africa: A Reply to Kim and Kusimba

Kim and Kusimba misunderstand the archaeological data pertaining to K2, Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe because they rely on secondary sources. Before these capitals can be categorized according to definitions of early states elsewhere, they need to be interpreted in their own terms. Ultimately, Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe are no less complex because they differ from early states in Asia or Middle America.     

Pathways to Social Complexity and State Formation in the Southern Zambezian Region

Theorists have put forth various anthropological perspectives on the variables leading to social complexity and the emergence of state-level polities. This paper incorporates data from the Zambezian region of Southern Africa in order to contribute to the literature on social evolutionary theory. It traces the cultural trajectories of communities that flourished during the region’s Iron Age within the Shashi-Limpopo Basin, leading to the emergence of the Great Zimbabwe polity. In examining the archaeological record, the authors discuss the emergence of state-like societies, offering a review of current interpretations and explanations for the emergent complexity. Les théoriciens ont émis plusieurs points de vue anthropologiques sur les variables qui conduisent à la complexité sociale et à l’émergence des états. Cet article est une contribution à la littérature sur la théorie de l’évolution des sociétés réalisée à partir des données de la région du Zambèze au sud de l’Afrique. Il retrace les trajectoires culturelles de communautés qui sont apparues au cours de l’age du fer dans le Bassin du Shashi-Limpopo et qui ont conduit à l’émergence de l’état du Grand Zimbabwe. En s’appuyant sur les données archéologiques, les auteurs discutent l’émergence de sociétés-états, offrant une revue des dernières interprétations et explications au sujet des complexités émergentes.     

Anti‐Politics as Political Strategy: Neoliberalism and Transfrontier Conservation in Southern Africa

Studies on conservation and development often point out that interventions rely on anti‐political manoeuvring to acquire legitimacy and support. Recent ‘aidnography’, in particular, has done much to expand and add nuance to our understanding of the complex, micro‐ (anti‐)politics at work in conservation and development interventions. In doing this, however, aidnography seems to have led the focus away from two crucial, broader issues related to conservation and development interventions: how they are regulated through the wider, neoliberal political economy, and how this fuels and obscures (global) inequality. Drawing on empirical research on a transfrontier conservation and development intervention in Southern Africa, this article argues that the differential workings of anti‐politics in practice warrant a renewed appreciation and a more explicit political operationalization of the concept. This is done by re‐emphasizing anti‐politics as an essential political strategy within conservation and development interventions and as an intrinsic element of the wider political economy of neoliberalism.     

The Formation of Functional Types of Settlements in the Southern Tayga

The original settlement pattern of farming villages in the Angara-Yenisey river district, which dates from the 17th century, has been greatly altered by the introduction of new economic activities, such as gold mining, lumbering, and transport services. A flow of population from agriculture to industry has been evident in the steady decline of population in farming villages, many of which have been amalgamated with adjoining industrial settlements.     

1820年赣南周边霍乱重疫区的形成与变迁

在清代嘉道之际的中国首次霍乱大流行中,不利于霍乱蔓延的赣南及其周边山区却形成重疫区,但受资料搜集不全的限制,以往学界并未注意到此问题。藉由对1820年赣南霍乱重疫区形成原因的揭示及此后疫区变迁的梳理,可以显见商贸重心转移对霍乱传播的巨大影响。在商贸至盛之时,频繁的贸易交往等人文因素会逾越地形等自然因素的障碍,将霍乱强势蔓延开来。     

Ghwair I: A Small,Complex Neolithic Community in Southern Jordan

Abstract

The past several years have witnessed exciting developments in defining the transition to food production in the Near East. In particula1; the documentation of large mega-sites has caused considerable revision in our comprehension of the trajectory of early Neolithic village life. At the same time, recent excavations at smaller villages have also provided considerable new data. One such site is Ghwair I, a small but exceptionally preserved Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) village located in the Wadi Feinan of southern Jordan.

This paper summarizes the results of interdisciplinary archaeological investigations at Ghwair I, One of the project's primary research objectives was to examine if a “rural” and “turban” (or “core/periphery”) distinction could be made between Ghwair I and mega-sites. Our findings suggest that Ghwair I was not a peripheral village linked to larger sites. Rathe1; it was an unexpectedly complex settlement that may have served as a local regional center. we also sought to precisely define the site's chronology, artifactual variability, village development, and social structure. Our results show that Ghwair I isfirmly dated to the Middle PPNB; that artifactual diversity and variability is considerable, especially amongst chipped and ground stone; that the village became increasingly complex throughout its occupation; and that social o1lJanization was sophisticated as reflected by artifacts, burials and both residential and non-residential architectural features. Finally, initiated an ecologicalstudy to determine if small settlements such as Ghwair I caused the same negative efficts as have been proposed for some larger sites. The evidence here is ambiguous, but does not suggest the same degree of human effict as at larger settlements. This paper concludes with a discussion of Ghwair I's place within the wider Neolithic world.     

Searching for a Balance Between Community Needs and Conservation Policies in Historic Neighbourhoods of Istanbul

Despite the recent rising interest in sustainability and community-related issues among urban regeneration policy-makers, it is still questionable how far the recent regeneration efforts in historic housing areas achieve a balance between the community needs and conservation policies. To answer this question, this article explores the interplay between conservation, community needs and sustainability in the context of Turkey, focusing on Istanbul. It premises on the assumption that finding the balance between the needs, aspirations and concerns of local communities and the conservation of the built environments will lead to more equitable and sustainable solutions to the problems Istanbul historic quarters are facing. The article explains the interrelation between sustainability, community needs and conservation, investigates whether these notions have been integrated into the urban conservation policy agenda of Turkey or not and then examines the assumption above by focusing on the recent regeneration story of Fener and Balat (F&B), a declining neighbourhood in the historic peninsula of Istanbul. Debating on the strengths and weaknesses of the recent conservation-led regeneration programme, the article gives clues for future regeneration initiatives to achieve a sustainable balance between the conservation and community needs policies in historic neighbourhoods of Istanbul.     

Community, Identity and Gender in Migrant Societies of Southern Africa: Emerging Epistemological Challenges

Immigration policy in South Africa is undergoing serious revision in response to unprecedented cross-border migration into the post-apartheid state. This article looks at the relevance of orthodox international relations theory to migration policy in South Africa, and argues that fundamental shifts in approach are essential if IR theorists of the region are to contribute effectively to understanding and managing migration in southern Africa. It builds on the results of interviews with migrants and considers the significance of the themes of identity, community and gender as areas of particular relevance to international relations theory.     

Household Inequality,Community Formation,and Land Tenure in Classic Period Lowland Maya Society

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Access to social capital and valued resources modulates household decision-making as people seek to occupy the best-quality patches of land available....