American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 2007
Sacred Ecologies and Inequalities: globalizing conflicts in local landscapes
Dr. Michael Harkin, University of Wyoming, Session Discussant
Participants
Colleen Boyd, Ball State University, Session Organizer
Paper Title: “You see your culture coming out of the ground like a power”: Uncanny
Encounters in Time and Space on the Northwest Coast
Celeste Ray, University of the South
Paper Title: Local Liturgies and Global Tourism at Irish Holy Wells.
Erjena Khamaganova, Buriat State University and Indiana University
Katherine Metzo, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and UNC, Charlotte
Paper Title: The Threat of World Heritage: Tourism, Indigeneity and the Sacred n
Russia’s Baikal
David Crawford, Fairfield University
Paper Title: “Even Saints Work Now”: Igurramen and Development in Morocco’s High
Atlas
Introduction
Development of physical environments remains at the center of contemporary
indigenous struggles, world-wide. Disputes regarding autonomy and sovereignty reveal
the unequal access indigenous peoples have to power, privilege and the right to define
what is – or is not – “authentic” use of land and resources. Particularly in sacred
landscapes and at sites of natural sacrality, disputes over ownership and/or sovereignty
reveal conflicting cultural visions of "appropriate" uses. Informed by ethnoecological
research, this session explores the intersections linking indigenous peoples to local sacred
environments, global issues of development and the consequences of inequality in four
distinct regions of the world undergoing rapid economic and social change. Indigenous
people everywhere are faced with similar sets of concerns, questions and practices
regarding the pressure to develop land and resources they may define as “sacred” and
wish to protect from the rapid economic and social changes. As minority constituents in
larger localities, indigenous people often must consider projects that transform
landscapes and therefore cultures in ways they find unacceptable. At stake is the power
and ability to resist, promote or shape the very nature of change.
The five participants appraise the complex problems development projects present
in lands deemed “sacred” by indigenous occupants. In each instance, a local indigenous
group has found their locally defined definitions of what is sacred to be in conflict with
majority populations and governments. Dr. Colleen Boyd analyzes the discord between
Coast Salish people on the Olympic Peninsula and municipal and state developers when a
2,500 –year-old village and burial site was unearthed during the early construction phase
of a waterfront development project. Although the project was eventually scrapped,
hundreds of human remains and artifacts remain disinterred while user groups are left to
negotiate the future of tourism and economic and community development in the region.
Similarly, Dr. Katherine Metzo and Ms. Erjena Khamaganova, Ph.C. explore plans to
turn Russia’s Baikal region into a “free economic zone.” The dominant form of
development will likely be tourism. This raises concerns for local peoples about crossing
boundaries between ritual and sacred practices and what will ultimately be offered to
tourists for public ‘consumption.’ Dr. Celeste Ray examines the impact of economic
development and tourism on Irish holy wells. Recent agricultural reforms in Ireland have
resulted in the destruction of many wells. Furthermore, the increasing presence of
international spiritual tourists and neopagans contests the sacrality and community
ownership of these numinous landscapes. Family stewards of particular sites worry that
"inappropriate" visits and rituals may cause wells to loose their thaumaturgical power, yet
pressures to support local developing economies makes resistance difficult to fully
realize. Finally, Dr. David Crawford, Fairfield University, considers the contemporary
struggles of Morocco’s famous “Saints of the Atlas.” With their traditional role as
conflict mediators usurped by the state, and their pastures seized as eco-tourist
destinations, saintly lineages of the High Atlas have been left behind in terms of
economic development and educational opportunities. In a globalizing era, the traditions
of saintly lineages are becoming a social liability.