RESEARCH IN PROGRESS SEMINAR SERIES

AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

Friday 13th February, 4.30 pm

Nature as a circulating entity: hybrid semantics and cultural identity among the Bajo of North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Elena E. Burgos-Martínez, Durham University

This event is free, but places must be booked.  To book tickets please go to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rai-research-in-progress-elena-burgos-martinez-tickets-14534038701

The way we perceive the environment (s) we inhabit regulates how our languages develop. However, this correlation between the variants of language and changes in our perceptions of our space (s) is never unilateral or even bidirectional. This talk will explore the impact that 'foreign' concepts such as 'nature' have on the environments in which different conceptualizations operate; and to do so I will present ethnographic examples from my recent fieldwork among the Bajo of Nain Island in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. In the intersection between different groups that inhabit the region and different environmental narratives, I will look at how semantic circulation, rather than exchange, is crucial when re-negotiating the group's cultural identity and defining their vernacular senses of togetherness and personhood. The Bajo's socio-ecological sphere calls for a more flexible understanding of their hybridisation and resilience.