Culture and the Question of Rights

"[A] delightful volume. . . . The eight chapters in this volume open up a space for contemplating the common fate of people and nature in the modern world. Culture and the Question of Rights will be theoretically engaging to critical scholars of nature and culture hybridity, and it will capture the attention of undergraduates exploring Southeast Asian environments for the first time." - Celia Lowe , American Anthropologist

"[A] fascinating collection. . . . The papers are capably done and politically understated. As a group, they constitute a critique of neo-liberal policies with their pragmatic focus on property relations, extraction, and profit." - Levon Chorbajian, Journal of Intercultural Studies

"[A] valuable addition to the literature of political ecology of Southeast Asia. . . . It is obvious that the subjects of "culture and the question of rights" must be reexamined in the context of current social change. This book, by focusing on nature as a political product and by framing claim-making in the sphere of communication, would serve as an appropriate starting-point for scholars and policy makers concerned with these issues."
- Yoonhee Kang , Anthropological Quarterly

"[F]or any scholar or practitioner this remarkable book is well worth pondering." - Leslie E. Sponsel , Society & Natural Resources

"[T]he papers in this edited collection . . . make cutting-edge contributions to academic and political debates around ideas of access, control, ownership and rights to and with 'nature.'" - Paul K. Gellert , Pacific Affairs

"[This] book provides a thought-provoking examination of the interrelationships between culture and the rights to natural resources. Anyone interested in natural-resource rights and management would benefit from a careful reading of this well-researched and well-written volume." - Richard B. Pollnac , Journal of Asian Studies

"As a contribution to anthropology, Zerner’s collection works to bring rich and thick ethnography and an appreciation for aesthetics to the forefront of political ecology without reinscribing cultural performance as some sort of anthropological curio and marker of Otherness. . . . The book would work well in both upper-level undergraduate seminars in anthropology, geography, environmental studies, and conservation biology and in graduate seminars." - Paige West , American Ethnologist

"In addition to finding a place alongside other valuable work in political ecology, Southeast Asian studies, and law and anthropology, the book joins a much broader contemporary intellectual countertradition ranging from research in the social studies of science and feminist literary criticism all the way to 1984 and the Philosophical Investigations. In its pages, travelers come home to remind us English-speaking intellectuals once again that familiar webs of meaning and belief can bind us as tightly as those on whom we would impose them." - Larry Lohmann , Corner House

"This important book presents a collection of essays and ethnographic case studies on a subject of great importance to practitioners and theoreticians of environmental management." - Carol Warren , Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management

"While Zerner and his contributors offer strategic possibilities for wider recognition of minority group tenures, the value of this collection lies in its evocative ethnographic portrayals of local experience and the rich and subtle ways in which human communities engage and strategically fashion cultural claims to landscapes of meaning." - Andrew McWilliam, Asian Studies Review

"Zerner has exposed us to the problems of indigenous people everywhere, not just those in Southeast Asia. This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in Southeast Asia and international studies." - Cynthia T. Cook, International Third World Studies Journal and Review

“A timely and exciting volume. Its cutting-edge scholarship goes to the heart of debates about the relations among land, people, and what is problematically called ‘culture.’ While offering no easy answers, the contributors’ voices together bring home the point that local farmers and fishers, scholars, activists, and development workers all need to rethink their ideas about rights and claims to seas, forests, and other resources.” - Laurie J. Sears, University of Washington

“An enormously important volume that is sure to provoke a great deal of discussion about the discourse of indigenous rights. Without question one of the most original interventions into the issue in recent years, it shifts the ground of the debate, providing a way for us to think about the issue of rights in ways that are polyphonic, aesthetic, and performative.” - J. Peter Brosius, University of Georgia

“In this valuable and important book, we see villagers articulating their relationship to the natural environment, not through cadastral surveys and claims of right but through songs, speeches, poems, prayers, and spells. Too often, government officials and other ‘experts’ tend to ignore such practices and impose rigid conceptions of law, space, and time. These remarkable essays remind us of the extent of the loss that can accompany the triumph of law.” - David M. Engel, University of Buffalo