The Howard E. Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series

Spirit Lands: Ontology and the Environment in the South Pacific
Emily Donaldson, Anthropologist, Writer, and Adjunct Faculty, Saint Michael’s College

The Marquesan Islanders of French Polynesia live and work in landscapes populated by endangered plants and animals as well as potentially volatile ancestral spirits. Islanders’ interactions with this environment tend to reflect long-term relationships with other beings, rather than simple resource use or extraction. Amidst growing pressure for governments and NGOs to manage and conserve earth’s resources at a global scale, this unique Marquesan ontology emphasizes the need for caution in conservation projects among indigenous communities around the world.