VULNERABILITY AND WELLBEING IN THE BAINTAO LAVA, ‘THE LONG WOUNDED YEAR’: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, LIVELIHOODS, AND HUMAN HEALTH AMONG MIKEA OF SOUTHWEST MADAGASCAR by AMBER HUFF (Under the Direction of Bram T. Tucker) ABSTRACT Human biology and notions of health and wellbeing are deeply social and historical phenomena, and political and socio-economic processes that cross spatial and temporal scales contribute to observable variation in human welfare. This dissertation examines the production of human health and wellbeing among Mikea people living in southwestern Madagascar as broad social changes, including new forms of regional environmental governance and the gradual establishment of a new protected area influence changing relationships among subsistence producers, the state and national society, and the biophysical environment. Primary research participants live in three villages in the northern and central Mikea Forest region and share a degree of common history and kinship. At the same time, the geographic distribution of field sites reflects regional variation in local ecology, subsistence and lifestyle, exposure to environmental policies, and access to infrastructure. In order to understand associations between changing access to social, political, and environmental resources and relative wellbeing among Mikea, this dissertation examines the production of regional environmental discourses and environmental policies that restrict livelihoods and induce resource scarcity, variation in nutritional status, perceived health and morbidity, and patterns of healthcare decision-making. I find that environmental discourses, including the discourse of Mikea indigeneity, that figure prominently in regional environmental policies exacerbate regional inequalities and have entrenched institutional biases against subsistence producers in general and against Mikea people in particular. Mikea act to manage risk and cope with insecurities related to subsistence and long-standing social and economic inequalities, but exposure to social shocks and environmental policies that restrict or criminalize subsistence activities and can overburden coping abilities, creating vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities manifest as significant site-wise and gendered disparities in the nutritional status of adults and children, in perceived health and morbidity, and in access to healthcare resources in the Mikea Forest region. By inducing resource scarcity, new forms of environmental governance alter access to resources that sustain livelihoods and traditional modes of medical practice among Mikea, while opportunities to access markets, technology, medicine, and public health resources is not increasing to satisfy emergent social and material needs. INDEX WORDS: Economic anthropology, Environmental policy, Conservation, Human health, Healthcare strategies, Inequality, Livelihoods, Madagascar, Mikea, Nutritional status, Political ecology of health, Protected areas, Subsistence, Vulnerability, Wellbeing VULNERABILITY AND WELLBEING IN THE BAINTAO LAVA, ‘THE LONG WOUNDED YEAR’: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, LIVELIHOODS, AND HUMAN HEALTH AMONG MIKEA OF SOUTHWEST MADAGASCAR by AMBER HUFF BA, The University of Southern Mississippi, 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSPPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2011 © 2011 Amber Huff All Rights Reserved VULNERABILITY AND WELLBEING IN THE BAINTAO LAVA, ‘THE LONG WOUNDED YEAR’: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, LIVELIHOODS, AND HUMAN HEALTH AMONG MIKEA OF SOUTHWEST MADAGASCAR by AMBER HUFF Major Professor: Bram T. Tucker Committee: J. Peter Brosius Susan Tanner Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to acknowledge my graduate committee, Professors Bram Tucker, J. Peter Brosius, and Susan Tanner. Their guidance has been instrumental to the completion of my research and this dissertation. I would especially like to acknowledge my advisor for the opportunities and support that he has provided throughout my graduate career. I would also like to acknowledge my Malagasy mentors, colleagues, research assistants, and friends whose assistance was instrumental to the completion of this project. Many thanks to Professors Tsiazonera and Jaovola Tombo of the Université de Toliara, Madagascar, and Professor Bartelemy Manjakahery, director of the Centre de Documentation et Recherche sur l'Art et les Traditions Orals à Madagascar (CeDRATOM) for their hospitality and guidance during the course of my dissertation research. This project would not have been possible without an extraordinary Malagasy research team. I am forever grateful to Patricia Hajasoa, Rolland Lahiniriko, Gervais Tanteley, Jean-Claude Alhayess, and Théodore Ramanovontsoa. I would also like to acknowledge Madame Beby Vololoarimalala, Pupu, Venance, and the rest of my Toliara family. This project would never have been possible without the hospitality, generosity, and patience shown our research team by residents of Andalambezo, Ampijilova, and Mañono, and other participants throughout the region and throughout Madagascar. As a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia, the continuous support and encouragement of my BEEDL lab mates and friends iv has been very important. As well, I would like to acknowledge Margie Floyd, Lisa Norris, LaBau Bryan, Cabe Mottley, Deb Chasteen, and all of the staff of UGA Anthropology for their help and support over the years. And finally, I would like to acknowledge Patrick Huff, for his continuous support, concern, and encouragement. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...............................................................................................iv LIST OF TABLES ..............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES...........................................................................................................xii CHAPTER 1 National and regional contexts, theoretical introduction, and overview of research design ..................................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction: Overview of research.......................................................1 1.2 Madagascar: People, history, and politics .............................................3 1.3 The Mikea Forest Region: Landscape, identity, and environmental policy in the rural southwest .....................................................................10 1.4 Overview of theory..............................................................................13 1.5 Notes on research design.....................................................................30 2 Preparation, overview of data collection and analysis, and description of field sites..................................................................................................................34 2.1 Project design: Research questions, sampling, and research methods.34 2.2 Logistic considerations........................................................................42 2.3 Description of field sites......................................................................47 3 Regional history, and norms of identity and economy....................................66 3.1 Introduction: Significance of history and context ...............................66 vi 3.2 Regional history ..................................................................................67 3.3 Patterns of descent and norms of identity: Family, culture, livelihood, and land .....................................................................................................76 3.4 The regional economy: Subsistence, markets, and strategies of diversification and mobility.......................................................................87 3.5 Regional environmental governance and uncertainties.......................92 4 Indigeneity and rurality in environmental policy: Representing people and transforming power in Mikea Forest governance............................................99 4.1 Introduction .........................................................................................99 4.2 The cultural production of contemporary representations ................103 4.3 Representations of rurality and indigeneity in Mikea Forest governance: Building capacity for forest governance with the Strategic Framework for the Development of Indigenous Mikea Populations and the Development Plan for Indigenous Mikea Populations............................110 4.4 Rights, exclusions and insecurities....................................................115 4.5 Conclusions .......................................................................................118 5 A space of vulnerability in ‘the long wounded year:’ Policy, nutrition, and coping capabilities.........................................................................................122 5.1 Introduction .......................................................................................122 5.2 Livelihoods, environmental policy, and national crises ....................126 5.3 Research design, sampling, and data analysis...................................129 5.4 Dietary diversity and nutritional status among adults and children ..132 5.5 Discussion .........................................................................................134