Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 21:07:56 -0800
Subject: Re: Fwd: re environmental degradation


Thanks, Gretchen 
for the very full description of  the Leach and Mearns, eds.  _The Lie of
the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment
indeed as a person from Clayoquot Sound....where a lot of sound and fury
has arisen over this issue it is with some interest that i follow the
semiotics of the discourse about lands and territories....from a FN
perspective the "degradation" of course has many dimensions...and the
colonization also...
so one of the ways I like to read against the grain in this area is work on
"sustainability" which is the post colonial jargon for colonization of the
tek strategies of FN to "reverse the 'degradation' of colonialism".....
some of those text are:
Feminist Perspectives on Sustainable Development Wendy Harcourt (Ed);
Liberation Ecologies: environment, development, social movements. Peeet &
Watts (eds) and eco-impace and the greening of postmodernity. Jagtenberg U
Mckie (Eds.)
My favorite "degradation" piece is written by Michael Howard the economic
anthropologist from Simon Fraser University in his book on Mining and
Indigenous peoples....about the removal of guano (bird droppings rich in
phosphates) deposits from some of the south pacific islands during the
green revolution ...where the islands of guano were in fact shipped out
right from under the inhabitants to be made into fertilizer...and the
Fosters was imported from Australia by the ship load....to keep the folks
"chilled".....of course the level of family violence skyrocketed....as the
island got smaller .....perhaps someone could revisit that "degradation"
and do a "received wisdom" book with Leach & Mearns logic too...
Mar. 


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