Gifting, Dam(n)ing and the Ambiguation of Development in Malaysian Borneo

Chua, Liana

doi:10.1080/00141844.2014.986152

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…For these anthropologists, critique is too often articulated as an exercise in ‘unmasking’ and ‘unveiling’ a reality that can be ‘seen’ by the anthropologist alone. These anthropologists question political critique that seems to rest on the existence of a ‘political reality visible only to the analyst’ (Chua, 2016: 753). In their discussion of anthropological critiques of development, Soumhya Venkatesan and Thomas Yarrow (2012: 5) point out that many anthropologists seem to ‘[comment] “on” development from a position of superiority that has tended to be assumed rather than elucidated’.…”

Section: Anthropological Critics Of Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

Who alone can ‘see’? Christian humanitarianism, aspect-perception and political critique

Wintrup

2021

Critique of Anthropology

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This article offers a critique of Christian humanitarianism in Zambia. But it does so by engaging with the arguments of anthropologists who have begun to question the status of political critique within the discipline. These anthropologists argue that critique often undermines ethnographic understanding because it problematically positions the anthropologist as an actor who is able to ‘uncover’ political realities that remain invisible to others. In this article, I take these concerns seriously and attempt to reconsider the practice of critique by drawing on an ethnographic description of the work of Christian medical missionaries in Zambia. Focusing on how these missionaries encouraged one another to ‘see’ their Zambian patients as ‘Christ-like’ and ‘faithful’ in moments of suffering, I argue that these practices of ‘seeing’ and ‘showing’ resemble certain forms of political critique. Rather than an exercise in ‘uncovering’ hidden realities, critique can also be understood as an act of ‘aspect-showing’ – the aim of which is to encourage others to ‘see’ the same things in a different light. The critique of Christian humanitarianism I offer here is therefore itself an act of aspect-showing that partially resembles that which missionaries themselves engaged in.

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Section: Anthropological Critics Of Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

Who alone can ‘see’? Christian humanitarianism, aspect-perception and political critique

Wintrup

2021

Critique of Anthropology

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“…Julie Kleinman's analysis of secular universalism in French schools, for example, shows how secular ideals of inclusion often exacerbate categories of difference that exclude immigrant others, complicating a simplistic equation between secular states and cosmopolitan moral values (Kleinman 2016). In contrast, Liana Chua shows how playful combinations of developmental and Christian mythic-historical frameworks in Malaysia allowed for imagining alternative futures, and relationships with government (Chua 2016).…”

Section: E D G E S O F T H E S T a T E A N D S T A T E S O N E D G Ementioning

confidence: 99%

‘Edgy’ politics and European anthropology in 2016

Coates

2017

Social Anthropology

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Focusing on anthropological publications in Europe‐based journals in 2016, this review reflects on the politicisation of anthropology in recent years, tracing the contours of this scholarship through the trope of ‘edges’. From debates about the marginalisation of Euro‐anthropology and analyses of lives ‘on edge’ within Europe, to efforts to push political thinking to its conceptual edges as a form of ‘alter‐politics’, this review explores the ‘edgy’ politics of Euro‐anthropology in 2016. The paper examines how the edges of state and solidarity, self and sociality, human and non‐human futures intersect in the political emphasis of European scholarship in 2016. At the same time, it critically reflects on how and why it is important not to allow this form of political optimism to turn into Eurocentrism, arguing for the continued importance of comparison and encounter outside of epistemic central Anglo‐European worlds.

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“…To understand why the JVC and development of the village were equated in the temenggong 's utterance, we need to understand how development is articulated in an Iban context. It is not only in policy narratives that rural people, areas and frontiers are defined as backward (Chua ; McCarthy and Cramb ); the narrative of development ( pembangunan ) is also repeated in the media, where rural areas, and indigenous communities such as the Iban, are often portrayed as in need of changing their collective mindset in order to be part of the development (Postill ). As described by McCarthy and Cramb (), rural areas, if they are not in productive use, are defined in terms of absences, and these frontier zones become understood as tabula rasa, needing to be ‘filled out’.…”

Section: Development Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating development narratives within large‐scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia

Andersen

Bruun

Egay

et al. 2016

Geographical Journal

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The Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo is one of the global hotspots of deforestation and forest degradation. The planting of oil palm has played a key role in the transformation of land use in the state. While much of the expansion in Sarawak so far has taken place in state forests (80%), many new plantations are being established on native customary rights (NCR) land. A significant portion of the total land area in Sarawak (20–25%) is claimed as native customary land where villagers traditionally practise extensive, semi‐subsistence farming. This article explores how major resource development projects intersect with and accentuate internal community differences in sites of new plantations. We do so by examining the case of an Iban village where the introduction of a large‐scale oil palm scheme has resulted in conflict and division within the community. By analysing the narratives that suggest that large‐scale land development projects ‘bring development to the people’, utilising ‘idle lands’ and ‘creating employment’ to lift them out of poverty, we argue that political and economic processes related to cultivation of oil palm intersect with local community differences in two ways. First, these projects cement and enhance internal power structures and inequalities. Second, the government's development narratives influence communities and link local community relations with national political discourses in complex ways.

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Gifting, Dam(n)ing and the Ambiguation of Development in Malaysian Borneo

Cited by 11 publications

References 30 publications

Who alone can ‘see’? Christian humanitarianism, aspect-perception and political critique

Who alone can ‘see’? Christian humanitarianism, aspect-perception and political critique

‘Edgy’ politics and European anthropology in 2016

Negotiating development narratives within large‐scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia

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