Indigenous Perceptions of the End of the World Creating a Cosmopolitics of Change

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN ANTHROPOLOGY OF SUSTAINABILITY Indigenous Perceptions of the End of the World Creating a Cosmopolitics of Change Edited by Rosalyn Bold Palgrave Studies in Anthropology of Sustainability Series Editors Marc Brightman Department of Anthropology University College London London, UK Jerome Lewis Department of Anthropology University College London London, UK Our series aims to bring together research on the social, behavioral, and cultural dimensions of sustainability: on local and global understand- ings of the concept and on lived practices around the world. It publishes studies which use ethnography to help us understand emerging ways of living, acting, and thinking sustainably. The books in this series also investigate and shed light on the political dynamics of resource govern- ance and various scientifc cultures of sustainability. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14648 Rosalyn Bold Editor Indigenous Perceptions of the End of the World Creating a Cosmopolitics of Change Editor Rosalyn Bold University College London London, UK Palgrave Studies in Anthropology of Sustainability ISBN 978-3-030-13859-2 ISBN 978-3-030-13860-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13860-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019933314 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affliations. Cover illustration: © Cecilia Alvarenga/Moment Open/gettyimages This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The chapters in this book, with the exception of that by Carolina Comandulli, are the result of the research proceedings of a panel investi- gating Climate Change as the End of the World? Mythological Cosmogonies and Imaginaries of Change at the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland’s Annual Conference on Anthropology, Weather, and Climate Change held at the British Museum’s Clore Centre, May 27–29, 2016. Convening the panel I was delighted by the fascinating array of responses. I regret that one of the contributions to the panel, Gods of the Anthropocene by Bronislaw Szerzinski (published in the journal Theory, Culture & Society in 2016), could not be reproduced here, yet I am most grateful that he has been able to contribute an epilogue with commen- tary on our contributions along with integrated excerpts trimmed from earlier drafts of his seminal article. I invited Carolina Comandulli to contribute a chapter in the later stages of editing, encountering in her work a future-oriented perspective neatly complimenting the temporality of the other pieces. I am grateful to her for writing a chapter in considerably less time than allowed for our other contributors, and with the additional pressure of a very small son she was caring for. I would like to thank all the contributors to the book for their hard work. I am delighted with the direction of the eventual work, and have been surprised since the very outset by the fascinating correlations and v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS resonances between the visions of climate change emanating from the various communities we work with. I would also like to thank Jerome Lewis for inviting me to turn the work of the seminar panel into this book, and to his generous, inspir- ing, and supportive infuence while compiling it at the Centre for the Anthropology of Sustainability, University College London, a center unfinching in its capacity to wrestle with the toughest problems of our time. I would also like to thank my colleagues Martin Holbraad, Charles Stewart, and Alan Abramson, who contributed to the book’s overall ori- entation as a result of their comments during my time at the department. My thanks lastly to my father Simon and stepmother Desi, who had me to stay many times at their house in San Roque, Spain, where I edited and collated most of the material. Without the kindness and sup- port of my family I would not have been able to complete the volume. CONTENTS Introduction: Creating a Cosmopolitics of Climate Change 1 Rosalyn Bold Broken Pillars of the Sky: Masewal Actions and Refections on Modernity, Spirits, and a Damaged World 29 Alessandro Questa Fragile Time: The Redemptive Force of the Urarina Apocalypse 51 Harry Walker The End of Days: Climate Change, Mythistory, and Cosmological Notions of Regeneration 71 Stefan Permanto Contamination, Climate Change, and Cosmopolitical Resonance in Kaata, Bolivia 91 Rosalyn Bold Shifting Strategies: The Myth of Wanamei and the Amazon Indigenous REDD+ Programme in Madre de Dios, Peru 115 Chantelle Murtagh vii viii CONTENTS A Territory to Sustain the World(s): From Local Awareness and Practice to the Global Crisis 141 Carolina Comandulli Relational Ecologists Facing “the End of a World”: Inner Transition, Ecospirituality, and the Ontological Debate 161 Jean Chamel This Mess Is a “World”! Environmental Diplomats in the Mud of Anthropology 183 Aníbal G. Arregui Epilogue: Indigenous Worlds and Planetary Futures 203 Bronislaw Szerszynski Index 211 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Aníbal G. Arregui (Ph.D., University of Barcelona, 2013) has been postdoc researcher at the University of Rostock, the CEFRES—Charles University, in Prague (2018), Beatriu de Pinós (Marie-Curie action) postdoc at the University of Barcelona (2019–present), and lecturer at the University of Vienna (2016–present). Since 2006 Aníbal has conducted ethnography with Lower-Amazonian ribeirinhos and quilombo- las, focusing on their bodily responses to environmental, technological, and economic transformations. Since 2018 Aníbal has also been con- ducting feldwork in Barcelona, where he follows the proliferation of “urban” wild boars and the eco-political challenges emerging in those urban spaces that are shared by humans and wild species. Rosalyn Bold gained her Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in 2016, under Penelope Harvey and Peter Wade. She is currently a researcher at the Centre for the Anthropology of Sustainability, University College London. Her research focuses on indigenous perceptions of climate change, contemporary mythological narratives, and the importance of alterity in shaping indigenous politics, with especial refer- ence to Bolivia. Jean Chamel is postdoctoral fellow at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. He holds a Ph.D. in the Study of Religions from the Université de Lausanne. His ethnographic research on European networks of ecologists is related to deep ecology, eco-psychology, eco-spirituality, New Age, eco-centrism, and the rights of nature. ix x NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Carolina Comandulli is a Ph.D. candidate at the Anthropology Department at University College London (UCL), funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). She is also a member of the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group and of the Centre for the Anthropology of Sustainability (CAOS). Before starting her Ph.D. she spent four years working for the National Foundation for Indigenous Affairs (FUNAI), which is the Brazilian gov- ernmental agency in charge of protecting and promoting indigenous peoples’ rights. She also holds an M.Sc. in Anthropology and Ecology of Development from UCL. Chantelle Murtagh is a Social Anthropologist. She obtained a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester in 2016. For her thesis she did research with an indigenous organization in the Peruvian Amazon and focused on indigenous leadership, political organization, and decision-making processes. Previously she has worked as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Manchester. She has also worked on themes related to indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation in the border region between Peru and Bolivia. Stefan Permanto was born in 1969 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He earned a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg in 2015. He has conducted extensive ethnographic feld research among the Q’eqchi’ Maya people in Guatemala and Belize. His research interests include anthropological perspectives on religion, cosmology, rituals, ecology, climate change, migration/inte- gration, as well as issues regarding the rights of

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