Contested natures: Rethinking how environments matter to people - Popular religion and nature in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Each of the papers in this session revolves around a central case study that explores a group of people’s relationships with their local environment: conservationists’ efforts to protect the endangered colony of little penguins living around Manly in Sydney Harbour from various predators; controversy over the growth of mangroves on the middle Georges River from 1950 to 1970; and the manner in which popular religion in Southeast Asia construes nature as a realm of the supernatural. All three papers are particularly concerned with the various ways in which these environments, and the relationships between the people, other animals, and trees that constitute them, have been or might be classified and understood. In addition to exploring modes of thought, however, the papers in this session also explore the real world consequences for livelihoods and conservation of these various ways of thinking about nature.