Culture, Place, Nature: Studies in Anthropology and Environment. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019. xxiii, 250 pp. (Tables, figures, maps, B&W photos.) US$30.00, paper. ISBN 978-0-295-74583-1.
Working with the Ancestors: Mana and Place in the Marquesas Islands highlights tensions in the creation and maintenance of protected areas, emphasizing the processes of place valuation in the Marquesas Islands. The book offers local perspectives on the inclusion of local sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL) in relation to the colonial legacies, missionaries, and modernity in the region. Emily Donaldson addresses politics and power locally and globally by discussing the contested nature of heritage and listing of a UNESCO WHL site.
The book is organized into six chapters, an introduction, and conclusion. In her preface, Donaldson discusses her extensive background and experiences which led to this book and the research methodology utilized. She draws from her analysis of unstructured interviews of 377 Marquesan participants. There are also four appendices wherein Donaldson demonstrates the rigour of her fieldwork.
The introduction situates the text historically and theoretically. Donaldson draws from the works of Arturo Escobar, Michel Foucault, Jean and John Comaroff, Paige West, James Scott, and Marshall Sahlins, focusing on Foucault’s theory of territoriality, “or the use of land to exercise control over a population … for consolidating state power” ( 9) as a lens to situate the contested ideas of place. Donaldson is careful not to create stark binaries between local and non-local perspectives, noting that a myriad of “local” perspectives exists as “relationships around, and decisions about, value hinge as much on myriad flexible and contingent factors as on an individual’s cultural or geographical affiliation” (10). She notes the attempts by those working to list sites on the UNESCO WHL to incorporate intangible heritage in the process, leading to the creation of combined cultural and natural WHL sites. Nevertheless, “the foundational concepts and focus of UNESCO heritage continue to assume both a distant past and a nature-culture divide” (11).
Donaldson highlights key historical events that led to drastic changes occurring in the late eighteenth century: severe population decline, missionization, and increasing foreign presence. Particularly, she focuses on the relationship of contemporary Marquesans with the Catholic Church and local perceptions of sacred sites based around ideas of mana.
Chapter 1 addresses the living history of Marquesans, noting that the sharp Western dichotomy between nature and culture is not applicable, as Marquesan landscapes are both cultural and natural. Donaldson discusses the “land spectrum” that exists between “yard” and “bush” land, with most of the land occupying the middle designation of “maintained faaapu” on the nature-culture continuum. Another key designation is that of “tapu” places, which are viewed as sacred or dangerous with Marquesan spirits present. As Donaldson shows, the knowledge of where these sites are is not uniformly shared, leading to unknowable risks as “fear seeps into the land” (31).
Chapter 2 discusses land tenure issues in the context of colonization, noting the contested places that have emerged with differing land tenure systems and the underlying ideologies at play in contemporary claims to property throughout the islands. Donaldson points out that disputes regarding land, driven by pursuit of personal profit, mean that the land will often sit unused or minimally maintained as claimants vie for ownership in expensive and protracted legal processes which may last decades. Contested land tenure and privatization also limit access to what might have been considered shared resources in the past, such as gathering seeds and fruit from “almost anywhere” (50). The struggle for individual ownership is central to concerns over historic resources management on privately held lands since the individual determines their treatment. She stresses, “the relational flow between land, family, and heritage is crucial to understanding Marquesan resource management and its implications for sustainability, local values, and the future” (57).
Chapter 3 highlights how the past animates present understandings of historic landscapes, particularly how fear of everyday places rooted in religious beliefs, colonial legacies, depopulation, and a sense of loss, leads to a dislocation of Marquesans from both land and their ancestors. Their everyday engagements and experiences of landscape are marked with fear of tapu spaces that render their ancestors unfamiliar.
Chapter 4 addresses how capitalism is managed as part of a polyvalent lifestyle in which work is contingent on multiple and flexible livelihood strategies. This means that despite the enticements of capitalism to serve the self, there remains an emphasis on interdependence and exchange networks. The same approach applies to heritage and tourism development by UNESCO, as historic places are valued for both potential revenue and nonmonetary reasons.
Chapter 5 delves further into the discussion of territorialization centered around differing perspectives on the concept of “heritage.” Donaldson demonstrates how UNESCO’s efforts to explain and educate undermine and delegitimize Marquesan concepts of respect and working with the ancestors. Whereas Marquesan views of heritage are contingent around the use of land with the ancestors, UNESCO’s approach has been informed by authorized and external accounts of heritage which are assumed to be universal.
Chapter 6 begins by asking, “[W]hat alternatives might exist for Islanders to build a supported, sustainable future for their ancestral places?” (144). Donaldson sketches out avenues for potentially addressing this question, noting that land which is maintained, rather than destroyed or neglected, has the following characteristics: it is cultivated, respected, tapu, or used for income through tourism. Hence, emphasis should be placed on these actions and interpretations of land as these lead to positive outcomes, i.e., preservation of historic sites.
The book’s conclusion summarizes the key findings by emphasizing the importance of holistically considering sites not merely as historic places where things happened, but as affective spaces which continue to inform contemporary life. Hence, the creation, preservation, or designation of UNESCO WHL sites to promote heritage tourism should not be considered as an end, but rather as part of a process of respect, collaboration, and understanding.
This well-written and powerful book blends together theoretical foundations, ethnographic examples, and Donaldson’s own extensive anthropological fieldwork, presented as a series of vignettes and case studies. Taken together it is a valuable contribution to academic and applied work in heritage studies, development encounters, and tourism in the Pacific.
David Fazzino
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg