What do you think?
Rate this book
Reverse Anthropology: Indigenous Analysis of Social and Environmental Relations in New Guinea
While ethnography ordinarily privileges anthropological interpretations, this book attempts the reciprocal process of describing indigenous modes of analysis. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research with the Yonggom people of New Guinea, the author examines how indigenous analysis organizes local knowledge and provides a framework for interpreting events, from first contact and colonial rule to contemporary interactions with a multinational mining company and the Indonesian state. This book highlights Yonggom participation in two political an international campaign against the Ok Tedi mine, which is responsible for extensive deforestation and environmental problems, and the opposition to Indonesian control over West Papua, including Yonggom experiences as political refugees in Papua New Guinea. The author challenges a prevailing homogenization in current representations of indigenous peoples, showing how Yonggom modes of analysis specifically have shaped these political movements.
296 pages, Paperback
First published August 3, 2006
39 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 17, 2018
Kirsch provides some interesting information about the history of the Ok Tedi mine and describes the impact of this mine on the local Western Highlands PNG people the Yongom, in conjunction with impacts caused by refugees from Indonesian political violence in West Papua.
Kirsch is a Yale anthropologist who did his field work in PNG and played a role in the international campaign seeking compensation for peoples living subsistence lifestyles along the polluted Fly river. He makes a noble effort to help the reader understand indigenous belief systems, including failed exchange reciprocity giving rise to sorcery accusations and the 'Arat' pig feast rituals which are the primary focus of exchange ceremonies.
Reverse Anthropology cast's my reading of Lord of the Flies (William Golding) into another light.
The slow motion environmental disaster resulting from the exploitation of the Mt Fubilan ore body at the Ok Tedi mine was the result of corporate and government, economic and political decisions. With the aide of Kirsch's explanations of Yongom modes of analysis, the reader can gain a window into how these tribal people understand what has happened, and how their understanding enabled them to respond. The limitations of even 'successful' compensation claims must be faced, given impacted subsistence food production capacity and cultural change.
In the end I was a little disappointed with this book. It gave me the impression Kirsch was somehow both naive and cynical. Perhaps I was expecting it do do more than is reasonable of an ethnography of such limited scope.
Just as it would be intimidating for a share market pundit to criticise the BHP share price, it is intimidating to criticise a Yale scholar. Although the company (and certainly the PNG government) just got greedy with this mine, Kirsch ignores the expected benefits that the PNG community signed on for (and received) such as modernisation of health care, and improvements in education - for the entire country. These ivory tower academics can ignore the imperatives of good governance and cast their curses on the poisonous Neo-Liberal economics underlying such enterprises as the mine, however it is the dispersal of risk through the corporate structure and the share market that allows it to exist, which enables living standards in much of the western world, which the PNG people are demanding (including via the mines continued operation).
Wealth without work, is unethical. But as the Amerind saying goes: when the last river is poisoned and the last fish is dead, we will discover we cannot eat money. Like Kurtz in Conrad, Kirsch sits like the buddha in this book, telling his story, having travelled up the river. I learnt a lot, but, the answer isn't here.
Kirsch is a Yale anthropologist who did his field work in PNG and played a role in the international campaign seeking compensation for peoples living subsistence lifestyles along the polluted Fly river. He makes a noble effort to help the reader understand indigenous belief systems, including failed exchange reciprocity giving rise to sorcery accusations and the 'Arat' pig feast rituals which are the primary focus of exchange ceremonies.
Reverse Anthropology cast's my reading of Lord of the Flies (William Golding) into another light.
The slow motion environmental disaster resulting from the exploitation of the Mt Fubilan ore body at the Ok Tedi mine was the result of corporate and government, economic and political decisions. With the aide of Kirsch's explanations of Yongom modes of analysis, the reader can gain a window into how these tribal people understand what has happened, and how their understanding enabled them to respond. The limitations of even 'successful' compensation claims must be faced, given impacted subsistence food production capacity and cultural change.
In the end I was a little disappointed with this book. It gave me the impression Kirsch was somehow both naive and cynical. Perhaps I was expecting it do do more than is reasonable of an ethnography of such limited scope.
Just as it would be intimidating for a share market pundit to criticise the BHP share price, it is intimidating to criticise a Yale scholar. Although the company (and certainly the PNG government) just got greedy with this mine, Kirsch ignores the expected benefits that the PNG community signed on for (and received) such as modernisation of health care, and improvements in education - for the entire country. These ivory tower academics can ignore the imperatives of good governance and cast their curses on the poisonous Neo-Liberal economics underlying such enterprises as the mine, however it is the dispersal of risk through the corporate structure and the share market that allows it to exist, which enables living standards in much of the western world, which the PNG people are demanding (including via the mines continued operation).
Wealth without work, is unethical. But as the Amerind saying goes: when the last river is poisoned and the last fish is dead, we will discover we cannot eat money. Like Kurtz in Conrad, Kirsch sits like the buddha in this book, telling his story, having travelled up the river. I learnt a lot, but, the answer isn't here.
July 21, 2009
An interesting work that aims to privilege local political and environmental analysis over dominant, capitalist schemes for understanding elements such as pollution, compensation, history, reciprocity, and social difference.
The writing is choppy, but this book is fascinating enough to keep you moving through it, and Kirsch is so straightforward with his arguments that it's hard not to see his excellently-made point plain as day by the end.
Few anthropology books are worth reading cover to cover. I think this is one of them.
The writing is choppy, but this book is fascinating enough to keep you moving through it, and Kirsch is so straightforward with his arguments that it's hard not to see his excellently-made point plain as day by the end.
Few anthropology books are worth reading cover to cover. I think this is one of them.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews