Oldal 120 [120]
118 JUDIT FARKAS
locations ( knowledge"); 3. how they give value to what they know in terms of
shared meanings (“valuation”); and how they respond, individually and collectively,
on the basis of these meanings and values (“response”) (Roncoli — Crane — Orlove
2009: 88).
These questions can be asked in small local communities and metropolitan societies
alike.
Like the environmental problems, the environmentalist/Green movements
reflecting on them did not pass unnoticed by ecological anthropology. In the
introduction to her volume of studies Environmentalism. The View from Anthropology
(1993b), Kay Milton argues that environmentalist movements have been studied
by sociologists, political scholars and economists since the 1970s and she asks what
anthropology could add. Her answer is that culture theory can complement the
perspectives of social, political and economic theories in this regard as well, not
only in environmental questions in general. Moreover, the analysis of
environmentalist movements also contributes to the theoretical development of
anthropology: for example, the anthropological examination of the global nature
of environmental problems promotes the study of the globalization of culture
(Milton 1993a: 2). That the movements do gain a lot from anthropological
knowledge is beyond doubt — at least for the profession:
— this knowledge contributes to the public debates about environmental themes,
— the understanding of environmental problems and implementing solutions
are often transcultural actions, which is a specialty of anthropology, so this
kind of knowledge and experience can also be of help to environmental
activism (movements, lobbies) (Milton 1993a: 2-3).
Eric Poncelet thinks likewise, arguing that an environmentalist partnership of
various interested actors is currently the best approach for solving environmental
problems and that anthropology can aid it via providing scientific field experience,
methods and a theoretical orientation. Anthropology understands and can identify
the cultural and social features with whose help the limitations become understandable
and thereby the solution more easily attainable (Poncelet 2001: 288).
In Sarawak Region, Eastern Malaysia, extensive logging began in the 1980s, which local
populations attempted to stop with blockades. The protests were not successful, the
protesters were removed with force and jailed, and the logging companies received more
protection. The world was unaware of the whole matter until 1987, when the protest
of the indigenous Penan tribe and the violent response by the state made headlines all
over the world.
In his ethnographic study, Peter Brosius described the story of the movements, trying
to understand the roles of diverse agents, their marginalization or rise to dominance,
and the power dynamic which formed over the course of the discourse. His case study
has shown how the movements concerned with environmental questions, indigenous
rights and social justice are evolving, and also what such movements mean for
anthropology.
The Penan used to live a migrating, hunting and gathering way of life until the
mid-20th century, when the state — in an effort to modernize them — forced them into
a sedentary way of life. Legally, however, they were not owners of the area where they
were settled, hence they had no legal tools for protesting against wood felling. The area