UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Scentscapes
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Scentscapes: Understandings of Nature, Consumption, and Commodification through Agarwood and Olfaction A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Geography by Tuyen Bich Le 2018 © Copyright by Tuyen Bich Le 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Scentscapes: Understandings of Nature, Consumption, and Commodification through Agarwood and Olfaction by Tuyen Bich Le Doctor of Philosophy in Geography University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Lieba Bernice Faier, Chair This dissertation explores the olfactory economies of agarwood, a high-value non-timber forest product prized for its unique fragrance and used in incense, perfumes, and traditional medicine. It is primarily derived from a genus of trees called Aquilaria, which is native to Southeast Asia and is traded globally. Aquilaria species are classified as vulnerable or endangered and are subject to regulations under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This project demonstrates how varied understandings of nature, consumption practices, and consumer preferences can create irregularities in a globalized production network. In ii contrast to scholarship on commodity networks that detail how trade and consumption patterns are formed, and how people and places become systematically enrolled into structured networks of trade and production, the production of agarwood shows how culturally and geographically specific meanings and preferences create a commodity network that is inconsistent, characterized as diffuse, disarticulated, flexible, and often obscured. I show this by tracing the “scentscapes” of agarwood, based on 15 months of fieldwork in Southeast Asia using ethnographic methods. Drawing from Appadurai (1990), I define “scentscapes” as the different economies of olfaction, production, use, and meaning across space and cultures. Each scentscape draws a path between places and practices of consumption, and corresponding places and practices of production. I detail the peculiarities of olfaction as a sense and olfactory practices as consumption, which contribute to the irregular form of agarwood’s commodity network. I define and contextualize agarwood’s three main scentscapes: the domestic “homeland” of Aquilaria’s native range in Southeast Asia, the traditional export markets of the Middle East and East Asia, and the new market in the West. These scentscapes provide insight into how different actors value and understand nature within a context of commodity production, endangerment, and international regulation. Agarwood’s diverse scentscapes and commodity characteristics make it resistant not only to consolidation in production, but to regulation as well: because CITES’s fundamental valuations of nature and understandings of sustainability are predicated on traditional notions of commodities and production, it is mismatched with the diverse valuations that manifest and are expressed in these scentscapes. iii The dissertation of Tuyen Bich Le is approved. John A. Agnew Judith A. Carney Thu-Huong Nguyen-Vo Lieba Bernice Faier, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv For Má, Ba, Chị Hai, and Chị Ba, whose sacrifices, bravery, selflessness, and unconditional love enabled this work. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. x VITA................................................................................................................................. xii INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 SCENE: IN THE MEKONG DELTA ....................................................................................... 1 DISSERTATION ARGUMENT: UNDERSTANDING THE SPATIO-TEMPORAL WORLDS OF “SCENTSCAPES”................................................................................................................ 7 THE AGARWOOD COMMODITY: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT......................................... 9 Agarwood’s Biological Basics and Regulatory Framework ...................................... 16 CONTRIBUTION TO THE LITERATURE .............................................................................. 23 Commodities ............................................................................................................... 23 Olfaction as Consumption and the Creation of Value and Meaning ......................... 27 Understanding Production in Relation to Consumption ....................................... 27 Understanding Olfaction ....................................................................................... 28 METHODS AND POSITIONALITY ...................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER OUTLINE ......................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER 1. OLFACTION AND SCENTSCAPES .................................................. 37 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 37 OLFACTION AS A BODILY EXPERIENCE ........................................................................... 38 OLFACTION AS CONSUMPTION OF “NATURE” ................................................................. 42 AGARWOOD’S HOMELAND: VIỆT NAM’S SCENTSCAPE OF HISTORY AND STATE ............ 46 AGARWOOD’S HISTORIC AFICIONADOS: SCENTSCAPES OF LUXURY AND RITUAL .......... 53 Scentscape Contexts of the Middle East and East Asia ............................................. 56 AGARWOOD’S NEW MARKET: SCENTSCAPE AND FRAGRANCE AESTHETICS IN THE WEST ................................................................................................................... 61 The Natural and a Manufactured “Feel” of the Natural ........................................... 67 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 70 CHAPTER 2. THE DOMESTIC SCENTSCAPE OF VIỆT NAM ........................... 72 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 72 VIỆT NAM’S AGARWOOD CONSUMERS: USE AND ACQUISITION ..................................... 72 Agarwood Use ............................................................................................................ 72 vi Agarwood Acquisition ................................................................................................ 78 VIỆT NAM’S AGARWOOD PRODUCERS: SOURCING AND MAKING ................................... 82 Agarwood Seekers Turned Growers .......................................................................... 82 Would-Be Growers and Entrepreneur Monks ............................................................ 96 Việt Nam’s Agarwood Trade and Regulatory Resistance ........................................ 105 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 112 CHAPTER 3. THE SCENTSCAPE OF THE TRADITIONAL EXPORT MARKETS: THE MIDDLE EAST AND EAST ASIA ............................................. 113 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 113 THE CONSUMER SIDE: ACQUISITION AND USE ............................................................. 113 Understanding Islamic Ties and Thai-Arab Trade Relations .................................. 121 Consumption............................................................................................................. 124 THE SUPPLY SIDE: SOURCING AND MAKING ................................................................ 128 Wild Extraction for Export ....................................................................................... 128 Shifts Toward Cultivated Products .......................................................................... 131 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 136 CHAPTER 4. THE SCENTSCAPE OF THE NEW MARKET: THE WEST ....... 138 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 138 AGARWOOD AND THE SCENTSCAPE OF THE WEST ........................................................ 139 An L.A. Scene ........................................................................................................... 139 The Colonial Scentscape: “Cochine” ...................................................................... 145 PRODUCTION: COCHINE’S GREEN COMMODITY NETWORK .......................................... 151 Back in the Mekong Delta ........................................................................................ 152 CITES: FRAMING SUSTAINABILITY AND THE GREEN ECONOMY .................................. 159 CLOSING ....................................................................................................................... 175 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 177 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................