Abstract
Despite the rise of Cambodia’s GDP and other development indicators, continuing extreme poverty combined with very rapid conversion of traditional subsistence lands, forests, and waters into economic land concessions (ELCs) to national and transnational companies is leading to intensified land insecurity issues and other human rights problems that may destabilize the country. An elite sector of Cambodian society comprised of the heads of state, business, and the military is implicated as the central cause of ongoing poverty and land loss. This paper outlines the problematic nature of the ELC processes that began in the post-conflict era and continue today, and adapts Roy Rappaport’s concepts of cognized/operational environments within a political and historical framework for analyzing the strategies of these elites, and compares their cognized environments with those of indigenous Kuoy peoples who are among those whose lands are threatened by ELCs, and suggests that the high-modern discourses of development adhered to by the elites is based on ultimate sacred postulates just as much as are the explicitly religious discourses of traditional Kuoy peoples.
Highlights
The subsequent conversion of clear-cut forest lands into industrial plantations, mines, and dams
In general my approach was to adapt with modification the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) indicator framework of structure/ process/outcome indicator variables using an ethnographic and historical methodology to ascertain the status of two fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples: the right of selfdetermination and rights over traditional lands, territories, and resources.[4]
My fieldwork was centered in the province of Preah Vihear, in several Indigenous Kuy villages that are located in the vicinity of the Boeng Peae Wildlife Sanctuary, one of nine such protected areas in Cambodia, and part of the Greater Prey Lang Forest region
Summary
The subsequent conversion of clear-cut forest lands into industrial plantations, mines, and dams. In the twenty-first century there are observably recurring cognized patterns that at least some Kuy share widely with other Indigenous peoples in Cambodia, including USPs involving the existence of powerful local spirits, which during fieldwork were most frequently referred to as Ahret.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
