Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southwest Asia

Abstract

Review: Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southwest Asia By Paul Greenough and Ann Lowenhaupt Tsing (Eds.) Paul Greenough and Ann Lowenhaupt Tsing (Eds.). Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southwest Asia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. 428 pp. ISBN 0-8223-3150-0 (cloth); 0-8223- 3149-7 (paper). US$89.95 cloth; US$24.95 paper. Acid-free paper. In this eclectic and surprisingly cohesive anthology, the editors and authors invite the reader to explore the complexities within Asia's perspectives on the very concepts of nature, environment, and man. The papers published here were first delivered at a 1995 conference on Environmental Discourses and Human Welfare in South and Southeast Asia, and they have now been made available in this beautifully produced volume from Duke University Press. The essays might have traveled more easily under a simpler title, such as Nature in South and Southeast Asia, because only scant reference is made to the global studies paradigm that apparently inspired the more cumbersome title. Further, the contributors are not concerned so much with assessing specific projects as with introducing and exploring a broad range of Asians' ideas and discourses about the natural world. That said, the essays here are, without exception, well presented and fully documented. Historians and environmentalists with regional interests will find this book a useful guide to both the sources and contours of contemporary environmental debates and developments in South Asia, particularly in and Indonesia. For example, the foundations of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's compelling policy interest in wilderness preservation is explained in terms of her childhood attachments to animals and birds, including her experiences as a youthful political prisoner of the British during the 1942 Quit India campaign. The cultivation system of agrarian development introduced by Dutch administrators in 19th century Java is examined as a system that first penalized peasant relocation and later, in the early 20th century, produced officially sponsored internal peasant migrations to the outer islands of the Dutch Indies archipelago, with attendant cultural and environmental consequences. Vivid writing and creative styling, including case studies, an imaginary visit to a future museum, and a dialogue between an Author and a Critic, set a fast pace, and fascinating discussions abound. Three essays merit special mention. Historical, religious, and linguistic cues to the cultural locus of forests in the South and Southeast Asian mind is treated in a learned piece by Michael R. …