Description
Book SynopsisIn
Alchemy in the Rain Forest Jerry K. Jacka explores how the indigenous population of Papua New Guinea's Porgeran highlands struggle to create meaningful lives in the midst of the extreme social conflict and environmental degradation brought on by commercial gold mining.
Trade Review"In sum, this book is a valuable addition to the specialist literature on mining and social change in Melanesia, but also written in a clear style that will be of great use in the classroom. I recommend Jacka’s accessible, straightforward ethnography to all readers." -- Alex Golub * Anthropology Book Forum *
"[
Alchemy in the Rain Forest] is an important contribution to environmental anthropology and political ecology. Jacka ultimately argues that the mine’s promises of development are as illusive as the alchemists’ quest for gold. What is unique about the book is not that ultimate assessment, but its exploration of the ways in which people who bear the greatest social and environmental harms of large-scale mining understand and navigate those changes." -- Jessica M. Smith * Journal of Anthropological Research *
"Jacka provides a multifaceted examination of gold mining in Papua New Guinea and its social and cultural impacts during the second half of the twentieth century. While highlighting the important conflicts and tensions, the author firmly resists the temptation to embark on a morality tale of evil multinationals dispossessing people of their land and culture. On the contrary, he offers nuanced analysis based on both field-work interviews and historical archives." -- José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez * Ambix *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I. The Making of a Resource Frontier 21
1. Resource Frontiers in the Montane Tropics 25
2. Colonialism, Mining, and Missionization 49
Part II. Indigenous Philosophies of Nature, Culture, and Place 77
3. Land:
Yu 81
4. People:
Wandakali 105
5. Spirits:
Yama 129
Part III. Social-Ecological Perturbations and Human Responses 157
6. Ecological Perturbations and Human Responses 157
7. Social Dislocations: Work, Antiwork, and Highway Life 199
Conclusion: Development, Resilience, and the End of the Land 229
Notes 241
References 249
Index 269
