Divided Dreams on Limited Land: Cultural Experiences of Agricultural Bio-Energy Project and Organic Farming Transition in Taiwan
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DIVIDED DREAMS ON LIMITED LAND: CULTURAL EXPERIENCES OF AGRICULTURAL BIO-ENERGY PROJECT AND ORGANIC FARMING TRANSITION IN TAIWAN by Yi-tze Lee BS, Psychology, National Taiwan University, 1995 MA, Social Sciences, The University of Chicago, 2001 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2012 [year] UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Yi-tze Lee It was defended on July 18, 2012 and approved by Joseph S. Alter, PhD, Professor, Department of Anthropology Andrew Weintraub, PhD, Professor, Department of Music Dissertation Advisors: Andrew J. Strathern, PhD, Mellon Professor, Department of Anthropology, Richard Scaglion, PhD, University Professor, Department of Anthropology ii Copyright © by Yi-tze Lee 2012 iii Andrew J. Strathern, PhD Richard Scaglion, PhD DIVIDED DREAMS ON LIMITED LAND: CULTURAL EXPERIENCES OF AGRICULTURAL BIO-ENERGY PROJECT AND ORGANIC FARMING TRANSITION IN TAIWAN Yi-tze Lee, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2012 This dissertation study is based on historical comparison and analytical ethnography on contemporary projects between a Han Chinese farming community engaging in an energy crop cultivation project and an indigenous Amis community practicing organic farming in Taiwan. My main argument is that Han Chinese and indigenous Amis farmers have developed different "environmental identities" based on differing historical memories, political economy, and cultural practices as they have responded to past events and contemporary state policies. Han Chinese farmers have engaged in large-scale collective farming which has equipped them with the ability to consider farming as a scientific operation driven primarily by market values. For Amis, difficulty of access to state resources and changing attitudes towards traditional farming knowledge has led to organic farming as a new path for their engagement with the environment. A key factor for understanding these environmental identities, I argue, is disparate exposure to technological treatments of the environment and divergent concepts on property. Further exploration of environmental and empowering discourses on the transitions reveals that engagement and reflection over new projects have to be affective in order to be effective. The affective qualities not only reveal empowering dynamics for individual interpretations, but also the characteristics of supply chain capitalism in the scale of energy crop project and model thinking of organic farming project. Environmental identities are constructed via political, iv historical, and culturally immersed practices. The comparison shows several aspects where the results of the two cases can be potentially reversed with culturally elaborated experiences in the application of innovative technologies within problematic policies. The ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in two rural communities of Taiwan: a Han Chinese community at Xue-Jia, Tainan County, and an indigenous Amis community at Talampo, Hualien County. Each work lasted for eight months continuously, and four months intermittently later on, from July of 2008 to December of 2009. Interviews were also done with visiting agricultural research institutes and extensions for officials and specialists of various levels. The historical backgrounds were drawn from studies and archives of national university departments of agricultural extension and Council of Agriculture as references. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... XXV 0.0 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................1 0.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND .................................................................................2 0.2 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE AND MAIN THEMES .......................................7 1.0 CHAPTER 1. ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITIES, AFFECTS WITHIN BIOTECHNOLOGY, AND THE WORK OF ANTHROPOLOGY .................................... 11 1.1 A RICE BOMB TERRORIST, INVISIBLE FARMERS, AND APPLIED BIOTECHNOLOGY .................................................................................................... 11 1.2 ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITIES AND AFFECTIVE INVESTMENT ............ 14 1.3 THEORETICAL SETTING I: ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROCHES ON ECOLOGY AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE ................................................... 18 1.3.1 POLITICAL ECOLOGY AND CONTESTED KNOWLEDGE................ 20 1.3.2 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY STUDIES, AND THE ENVIRONMENT .... 21 1.4 THEORETICAL SETTING II: AGRARIAN STUDIES, BIO-TECHNOLOGY, AND ITS DISCONTENTS ............................................................................................ 23 1.5 THEORETICAL SETTING III: WHAT IS AFFECT GOOD FOR? LABOR, IDENTITY, AND LANDSCAPE ................................................................................... 26 1.5.1 AFFECT AND IDENTITY .......................................................................... 29 vi 1.6 KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION: ENVIRONMENTAL CITIZENSHIP AS NEW AGENCY ........................................................................................................................ 31 2.0 CHAPTER 2. KNOWING THE FIELD: THE HISTORICAL TRANSITION OF AGRICULTURAL POLICIES AND RESEARCH INSTITUTES ....................................... 33 2.1 AGRICULTURAL TRACES ON THE FRONTIER OF EMPIRES.................... 35 2.2 DEVELOPMENT AND DEPENDENCY DURING THE JAPANESE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1895-1945 ................................................................................. 38 2.2.1 The Industrious Body as Colonial Subject .............................................. 42 2.2.2 Shining Sabers and Sweating Farmers: Imperial Researches on Rice and Sugar ................................................................................................................... 47 2.3 POSTWAR TRANSITION OF THE AGRICULTURAL AGENDA VIA THE JCRR .............................................................................................................................. 50 2.3.1 Changes in the use of Agricultural Technology after WWII .................. 52 2.3.2 Farmers’ Organizations and Agricultural Extension Service ................ 54 2.4 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND PROCESSING INDUSTRY WITH THE TRANSITION OF AGRONOMIC STUDIES .............................................................. 58 2.5 FROM SUBJUGATED KNOWLEDGE TO CONJUGATED PRACTICE............ .................................................................................................................................. 63 3.0 CHAPTER 3. FROM COLONIAL MEMORY TO NATIONAL AGENDA: AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS, GAMBLING NONCHALANCE, AND LAND ETHICS IN XUE-JIA, TAINAN ................................................................................................................. 67 3.1 BUN-ZUAN, HIS WIFE SHO-HUI, AND THE ONG FAMILY ........................... 69 3.1.1 Marriage and Inheritance in Xue-Jia ...................................................... 73 vii 3.2 LOCATING XUE-JIA: THE HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY AND RELIGIOUS CONNECTION OF COMMUNITIES .......................................................................... 79 3.2.1 Reciprocity between Corner Temples and Households .......................... 82 3.3 LINEAGE, TEMPLE, AND FARMERS’ ASSOCIATION: DYNAMICS IN HARMONY .................................................................................................................... 86 3.3.1 Loyalty to Corner Temples within Lineage Connection ......................... 89 3.3.2 From Lineage Loyalty to Competition in Farmers’ Association ............. 94 3.4 LABOR AND LAND: PROPERTY, STRATIFICATION, AND THE SOCIAL REPRODUCTION OF FARMERS ............................................................................... 96 3.4.1 Farmer’s Stratification and Alternative Cultivation Project .................. 99 3.5 “WE HAVE TO FIGHT AGAINST BOTH SIDES NOW”: SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENT, GOVERNMENT PROJECTS, AND FARMERS' AGENCY ..... 107 3.5.1 Fighting in between Spiritual Legends and Scientific Projects ............ 111 3.6 THE CONTEMPORARY ENERGY CROP PROJECT AND SCALE MAKING EXPERIMENTS .......................................................................................................... 115 3.6.1 Memories from the Past, Instrumental Practice of the Present ............ 119 3.6.2 Professional Turns from Mediator to Arbitrator .................................. 125 3.7 CONCLUSION: OLD PROPERTY, NEW TECHNOLOGY, AND LAND ETHICS UNDER THE STATE AGENDA ................................................................. 130 4.0 CHAPTER 4. AFFECTIVE LABOR AND EMPOWERING POLITICS IN THE ORGANIC TRANSITION: DAYLILY CULTIVATION OF TALAMPO AMIS IN HUALIEN.............................................................................................................................. 133 4.1 LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES AND OPPORTUNISTIC LAND ....................... 134 viii 4.2 “DARK TRIBE” VS. “LITTLE SWITZERLAND”: THE POLITICS OF LOCAL DISTINCTION ................................................................................................ 142 4.3 “WHEN IT COMES TO MARKET, NO ONE CARES ABOUT EXCHANGE ANYMORE”— EXCHANGE LABOR, MORALITY, AND LIFE IN THE VALLEY . ............................................................................................................................................ 149 4.4