Full Description
With In the Shadow of the Palms, Sophie Chao examines the multispecies entanglements of oil palm plantations in West Papua, Indonesia, showing how Indigenous Marind communities understand and navigate the social, political, and environmental demands of the oil palm plant. As Chao notes, it is no secret that the palm oil sector has destructive environmental impacts: it greatly contributes to tropical deforestation and is a major driver of global warming. Situating the plant and the transformations it has brought within the context of West Papua's volatile history of colonization, ethnic domination, and capitalist incursion, Chao traces how Marind attribute environmental destruction not just to humans, technologies, and capitalism but also to the volition and actions of the oil palm plant itself. By approaching cash crops as both drivers of destruction and subjects of human exploitation, Chao rethinks capitalist violence as a multispecies act. In the process, Chao centers how Marind fashion their own changing worlds and foreground Indigenous creativity and decolonial approaches to anthropology.
Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient
Contents
Prologue ix
Introduction 1
1. Pressure Points 33
2. Living Maps 51
Interlude: Lost in the Plantation-The Dream of Yustinus Mahuze 75
3. Skin and Wetness 77
4. The Plastic Cassowary 95
Interlude: Metamorphosis-The Dream of Yosefus Samkakai 115
5. Sago Encounters 117
6. Oil Palm Counterpoint 143
Interlude: The Empty Sago Grove-The Dream of Agustinus Gebze 165
7. Time Has Come to Stop 167
8. Eaten by Oil Palm 183
Interlude: Black Waters of the Bian-The Dream of Elena Basik-Basik 201
Conclusions 203
Epilogue: Endings-The Author's Dream 219
Acknowledgments 221
Notes 227
References 269
Index 311
