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Organized around issues, debates and discussions concerning the various ways in which the concept of nature has been used, this book looks at how the term has been endlessly deconstructed and reclaimed, as reflected in anthropological, scientific, and similar writing over the last several decades. Made up of ten of Roy Ellen's finest articles, this book looks back at his ideas about nature and includes a new introduction that contextualizes the arguments and takes them forward. Many of the chapters focus on research the author has conducted amongst the Nuaulu people of eastern Indonesia.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on Orthography
Introduction: Nature Beyond the 'Ontological Turn'
Chapter 1. What Black Elk Left Unsaid
Chapter 2. Comparative Natures in Melanesia
Chapter 3. Political Contingency, Historical Ecology, and the Renegotiation of Nature
Appendix: The Consequences of Deforestation - A Nuaulu Text from Rouhua Seram 1994
Chapter 4. Indigenous Environmental Knowledge and its Transformations
Chapter 5. From Ethno-science to Science
Chapter 6. Local and Scientific Understandings of Forest Diversity
Chapter 7. Why Aren't the Nuaulu Like the Matsigenka?
Chapter 8. Roots, Shoots and Leaves - The Art of Weeding
Chapter 9. Tools, Agency and the Category of 'Living Things'
Chapter 10. Is There a Role for Ontologies in Understanding Plant Knowledge Systems?
References
Index
About the author
Roy Ellen is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Human Ecology at the University of Kent, where he initiated the programmes in environmental anthropology and ethnobotany, and founded the Centre for Biocultural Diversity. His recent books include On the Edge of the Banda Zone (2003), Nuaulu Religious Practices (2012), and Kinship, Population and Social Reproduction in the 'New Indonesia' (2018).
Summary
Made up of 10 of Roy Ellen's finest articles along with a new introduction linking them together, this book looks back at his ideas about nature before taking the arguments forward. Many of the chapters focus on research the author has conducted amongst the Nuaulu people of eastern Indonesia.
