Tsimihety Place Making, Knowledge Hierarchies and Intensifying
Jenni Mölkänen Social and Cultural Anthropology Doctoral Program of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences Opponent: Prof. Genese Sodikoff, Rutgers University, Newark Custos: Prof. Timo Kaartinen, University of Helsinki Pre-examiners: Prof. Andrew Walsh, University of Western Ontario Prof. Paige West, Columbia University Supervisors: Prof. Timo Kaartinen, University of Helsinki Dr. Anu Lounela, University of Helsinki Published by: Unigrafia, Helsinki ISBN 978-951-51-7166-5 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-7167-2 (PDF) Doctoral dissertation, to be presented for public discussion with the permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki, in Metsätalo, Sali 1, on the 7th of April, 2021 at 16.15 o’clock. Summary This thesis is concerned with the rapid rearrangement of nature and the intensification of land use in rural northeastern Madagascar. I argue that despite intensive efforts of imposed environmental conservation based on notions of biodiversity loss and deforestation, the Tsimihety, a group of swiddeners and rice and vanilla farmers, claim that their environment is a good and viable place to live in. This thesis weaves together an ethnographic account of how the Tsimihety interact and intertwine with environmental conservation efforts and how they transform and are transformed by them in a broader context of commercial interests in land. By focusing on three main themes, place making, knowledge hierarchies and political-economic schemes and values, the thesis shows how Madagascar has been defined as a hot spot of biodiversity conservation with its unique endemic animal and plant species and how the Tsimihety, who actually live in these environments, make sense and live with dynamics that they define as ‘strange’ or foreign.
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