CULTIVATING ENVIRONMENTAL SUBJECTS: NON-GENEALOGICAL KINSHIP BETWEEN SPECIES IN THE MANGROVE FORESTS OF BANGLADESH


The knotted lives of Bonojibi (forest venturers) with wildlife and environment postulates in a mythical tale called Bonbibi Johuranam (the glory of Bonbibi in Sundarbans). The mythical tale, in which the Bonbibi is the protectors of lives in Sundarbans, invokes a non-genealogical kinship in everyday lives among Hindu, Muslim, indigenous Bonojibi, tigers, other wildlife, and supernatural figures. The faith of Bonbibi configures the notion of none of the agent dominion; none of the agents in the forest is of a superior rank within the non-genealogical kinship since the forest is home for all beings. Moreover, this faith postulates ethical actions whereby forest dwellers cannot destroy or degrade the forest. Dwellers are not permitted to take resources apart from what they need to survive, thus leaving space for other species to survive on forest resources. Based on non-genealogical kinship, the faith cultivates a non-anthropocentric human and non-human subjectivity. The everyday cultural practice, rituals, and the veneration of Bonojibi in relation to wildlife, mythical figures, and the environment through Non-genealogical Kinship proposes a conceptual framework that adheres to the idea of how to engage with the environment, how one ought to live in the environment and recapitulate the human and non-human subjectivity. Therefore, my ethnographic attempt is to conceptualize the environmental subjects under the web of Non-genealogical kinship between species in the Sundarbans mangrove forests.

CULTIVATING ENVIRONMENTAL SUBJECTS: NON-GENEALOGICAL KINSHIP BETWEEN SPECIES IN THE MANGROVE FORESTS OF BANGLADESH


The knotted lives of Bonojibi (forest venturers) with wildlife and environment postulates in a mythical tale called Bonbibi Johuranam (the glory of Bonbibi in Sundarbans). The mythical tale, in which the Bonbibi is the protectors of lives in Sundarbans, invokes a non-genealogical kinship in everyday lives among Hindu, Muslim, indigenous Bonojibi, tigers, other wildlife, and supernatural figures. The faith of Bonbibi configures the notion of none of the agent dominion; none of the agents in the forest is of a superior rank within the non-genealogical kinship since the forest is home for all beings. Moreover, this faith postulates ethical actions whereby forest dwellers cannot destroy or degrade the forest. Dwellers are not permitted to take resources apart from what they need to survive, thus leaving space for other species to survive on forest resources. Based on non-genealogical kinship, the faith cultivates a non-anthropocentric human and non-human subjectivity. The everyday cultural practice, rituals, and the veneration of Bonojibi in relation to wildlife, mythical figures, and the environment through Non-genealogical Kinship proposes a conceptual framework that adheres to the idea of how to engage with the environment, how one ought to live in the environment and recapitulate the human and non-human subjectivity. Therefore, my ethnographic attempt is to conceptualize the environmental subjects under the web of Non-genealogical kinship between species in the Sundarbans mangrove forests.

HUMAN-NONHUMAN RELATIONS, NON-GENEALOGICAL KINSHIP, ENVIRONMENTAL SUBJECTS

This study focuses on the impact of fire suppression practices on forest landscapes and local communities. The consequences of fire suppression are explored by examining a case study of fire management in British India from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. This research draws on historical records to contextualise the present-day consequences of fire suppression in forest landscapes. The study highlights that some fire suppression practices led to an immediate rupture in the ways of living of indigenous communities, while others involved a slow violence that erased ecologies and world-making practices. The role of colonialism, including the knowledge politics involved, is shown to be a factor in the heightened risk of wildfires in forest landscapes today. The marginalisation of indigenous practices continues even in the post-colonial era. The threat of wildfires in forest landscapes is part of the legacy of the empire and highlights the persistence of plantation logic in wildfires, climate change, and land-use change. Examining the material and historical context of fire suppression provides a much more critical entry point into understanding current fire regimes. The slow process of ontological marginalisation and the unaddressed historical injustices and erasures in forest landscapes must be acknowledged to fully understand the impacts of fire suppression and move beyond considering only ecological loss in the Anthropocene.

This study focuses on the impact of fire suppression practices on forest landscapes and local communities. The consequences of fire suppression are explored by examining a case study of fire management in British India from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. This research draws on historical records to contextualise the present-day consequences of fire suppression in forest landscapes. The study highlights that some fire suppression practices led to an immediate rupture in the ways of living of indigenous communities, while others involved a slow violence that erased ecologies and world-making practices. The role of colonialism, including the knowledge politics involved, is shown to be a factor in the heightened risk of wildfires in forest landscapes today. The marginalisation of indigenous practices continues even in the post-colonial era. The threat of wildfires in forest landscapes is part of the legacy of the empire and highlights the persistence of plantation logic in wildfires, climate change, and land-use change. Examining the material and historical context of fire suppression provides a much more critical entry point into understanding current fire regimes. The slow process of ontological marginalisation and the unaddressed historical injustices and erasures in forest landscapes must be acknowledged to fully understand the impacts of fire suppression and move beyond considering only ecological loss in the Anthropocene.

Individual Presentation Submission

UNDERSTANDING ADIVASI (INDIGENOUS) CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF NATURE AND ANIMALS IN NEOLIBERAL JHARKHAND, INDIA


Built on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores the sophisticated relationships shared by the Munda Adivasi (indigenous) communities and non-human actors such as domestic and wild animals. Munda Adivasi communities have been living alongside centralized state powers for many centuries in the eastern state of India, Jharkhand. More recently, corporate land grabs and infrastructure development projects such as roads and bridges have led to massive deforestation and changes in animal mobilities in the area. These changes have transformed the intimate relationship shared between the Munda, the nature they inhabit, and the non-human actors around them. This article explores the ways in which the Munda Adivasi communities negotiate with the neoliberal state through the embodiment of their Munda alterity (indigeneity), especially in terms of how they interact with the land and non-human actors. These interactions include the community’s decisions to kill, sacrifice, pray, and not to kill animals. In essence, the Munda Adivasi view their interactions with non-human actors as expressions of their alterity (indigeneity); they see this alterity as essential to maintain their territoriality over nature and the land they inhabit as they negotiate to keep the neoliberal state away. Thus, their negotiations with the neoliberal state and with non-human actors are imbricated. By analyzing their intimate interactions with non-human animals, I argue the meanings of the Munda community’s relationships with their land, nature, and animals are in flux as they negotiate their relationship with the neoliberal state.