Oldal 121 [121]
OCR
THE ENVIRONMENT AND ANTHROPOLOGY 119 held special importance for them not only in terms of material resources, but also in a biographic, social and cultural sense. This is what the fellers eradicated. Further, the government viewed them as savages in need of rescuing and civilizing. In 1987 a Malaysian NGO started supporting their efforts and sent news, photos of the environmental devastations, the protests and their violent crushing to Western Green movements. The movement and the photos appeared widely in the media and soon grew into a symbol against environmental destruction and of the struggle for indigenous rights. Political actors, celebrities, Malaysian and large Western NGOs took their side, paid lawyers for the imprisoned people, taught the local people methods of resistance, tried to put pressure on the government, etc. The legitimation of the affected group was also enhanced by the international attention and the films which were made about them. The Malaysian government, however, did not retreat, but instead launched a communication offensive aimed at a character assassination of the Western movements: they were presented as neo-colonialists, who should be concerned with tree felling in their own countries; they were accused of trying to prevent the aborigines from enjoying the blessings of progress. In addition, the government launched a sustainable forest management project aimed at rendering the protests invalid. The international movements soon realized that the conflict had taken on a moral dimension and that they were losing. They changed strategies and started to focus on the destination of timber, the Western markets, and to influence consumer habits so that the felling of trees would become unnecessary. The Malaysian government keeps the issue within the framework of sustainable forestry where passionate protests and activists are unnecessary. Thus, these methods were marginalized as a consequence of institutional action. Brosius, Peter 2001. The Politics of Ethnographic Presence: Sites and Topologies in the Study of Transnational Movements. Speaking of anthropology’s contribution — not only to the sphere of activist movements but also to environmental changes in general — it is worth citing the position of Csaba Mészáros: “The cultural anthropological approach and the field experiences it conveys may contribute to the discourse on global ecological and climate change on two counts. On the one hand, through case studies of successful and unsuccessful examples of adaptation, with analyses of the characteristics of the functioning of resilient and less resilient communities; on the other hand, through affording an insight into mentalities and systems of categorization (hence worlds) of communities, each of which consists not only of humans but also other animate and inanimate entities which to a European mind are part of nature? (Cs. Mészáros 2019: 147). The aim of anthropology is not only to enliven this discourse with exotic examples: "it offers alternatives and possible outlets and excludes sociological, economic and ecological conclusions which do (can) not work, or which raise moral concerns" (Cs. Mészáros 2019: 147). 8 One way of applying anthropology is highlighted in the book of studies Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia: bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages (Lockyard — Veteto 2013). The editors collected writings by anthropologists on the possible collaboration between the titular
