Words of the Lagoon ...on sustainability & culture

[AlohaSteven]

For your possible interest, comment, and discussion here is an interesting excerpt from the excellent book Words of the Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia by R.E. Johannes. Written at a time when dawning oil shortages first became evident, these words from the lagoon seem more insightful than ever now that oil industry experts acknowledge peak oil has passed, population and energy consumption demands are still growing, and as yet no alternative energy source solution is available to indefinitely continue fueling current forms of food production, shipping, transportation, or the other infrastructure of daily life as we now know it.


Epilogue

A culture is defined in part by the specialized knowledge it possesses. The extent to which this knowledge is retained is one measure of the strength of that culture. Today in Oceania knowledge about fishing, as well as farming, hunting, medicine, and navigation is disappearing because younger members of island cultures are often no longer interested in mastering it. They judge it to no longer be useful. Why learn to fish well when nine-to-five jobs in air-conditioned offices beckon in the district center and there is an endless supply of fish in cans? Why learn to build a canoe and sail it when fiberglass boats and outboard motors can be bought and operated with little detailed preparation and knowledge? This disdain is reinforced by well-meaning educators, for the exclusion of traditional skills and knowledge from westernized school curricula in many developing countries amounts to a constant, tacit assertion that such things are not worth learning.

I have pointed out in this book and elsewhere (Johannes, 1978a, 1980) that traditional knowledge can be invaluable to Western scientists as an aid in conserving natural resources. Such an argument is not liable to motivate many young islanders to acquire it.

But there is another, more compelling reason for mastering it. Pacific island economies were traditionally self-sufficient. Detailed knowledge of the local environment and of ways to exploit it wisely was essential to this sufficiency. Today there is a heavy and growing reliance on imported technology, energy, and food. A rising influx of foreign aid, investment capital, and tourists in the past decade has stimulated much recent planning and research focusing on the further expansion of island market economies. These efforts have been based on the assumption that growth of the world economy, on which local market economies depend, will continue. The ominous international economic climate in which these words are being written makes this assumption seem dangerous indeed.

Pacific islanders are at the end of a long and expensive supply line that now delivers much of what they once obtained within their own islands. Their economic well-being is now at the mercy of alien decision makers and impersonal market forces centered many thousands of miles away in foreign capitals and trade centers. When the world economy falters, tourism, foreign aid, and foreign investment are among the first things to be affected. Pacific islanders will thus be the among the first to feel the impact of a global depression. And ultimately, their market economies will be among the hardest hit. If this occurs arguments between those who espoused rapid economic progress for Pacific islands and those who wanted to preserve traditional island cultures will seem academic indeed.

The success of an involuntary return to greater self-sufficiency would hinge largely on the extent to which traditional knowledge --knowledge gained specifically to foster self-sufficiency-- has been retained. A book such as this cannot preserve such knowledge in sufficient practical detail to serve the purpose. It must be retained within the culture as a matter of personal experience.

I am not arguing that islanders should suddenly, voluntarily reduce their participation in international market economies. But if they wish the option of doing so relatively painlessly, should the time come when they have no choice in the matter, then they must strive to preserve the traditional knowledge and skills that have served so well for so many centuries.



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Words of the Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia by R.E. Johannes. 1981. University of California Berkeley Press. ISBN 0-520-08087-4.

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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[AlohaSteven]

An article in last week's issue of The Economist (June 14th-20th, 2008) brings some aspects of this topic back into mind again as they potentially relate to Puna and the Big Island.

Sometimes it is useful to consider the juxtapositions and context of places far removed from home in order to gain possible insights into similarities, differences, and outcomes without the local cost for these lessons being so steep as elsewhere.

While working and living overseas in the tropics back when I was a teenager and a twenty-something, at times it astonished and mortified me to find myself in a position of being addressed as "boss" by others in the local language, supervising a crew of local workers including mature men with families. I was just barely smart enough even then (and I am sure the Mai Tai's must have taken a toll since!) to realize my own vast capacity for stupidity so felt somewhere between uneasy to outright appalled to find myself assigned to such duties, bossing around men many years my senior. Oddly enough, though, I found the majority of these fellows not only did not resent being supervised by some foreign kid, they generally did not know what to do without such supervision and seemed relieved at someone else being in charge. Eventually I came to realize these fellows were completely illiterate (unable to read or write in any language) and recognized they had a sort of dull psychological affect indicative of brain stunting via protein deprivation malnutrition during prenatal development, infancy, and early childhood. Alas, abundant evidence also suggested prenatal exposure to alcohol as a significant factor in brain stunting as well for some individuals ..and --tragically enough, all too often-- as for their own children in turn. Lack of adequate nutrition and/or prenatal exposure to booze and drugs are not only problems in developing nations. These insidious problems tend to become entrenched and multi-generational in a cruel cycle of perpetuating themselves. The end result at the macro level is a less-able permanent underclass, a poorly educated and poorly skilled workforce, and a segment of society all too likely to participate in committing crimes, being victimized by crime, or both.

Fortunately, in these settings overseas when I was young there were also always a couple of developmentally normal and completely mentally intact local older men and women around, too, who would quietly tell me what to do so I could loudly officially tell everyone else working at the site. Those folks guiding me may or may not have had the benefits of formal education such that they could read and write, but they had invaluable experience in the school of life and were plenty smart enough to keep me on course.

So how does this Economist article and ancient personal history relate to Words of the Lagoon and Puna? This article linked below describes in chilling detail exactly that which happens anywhere and everywhere human population exceeds carrying capacity (...with environmental resistance then acting to reduce the population), especially in regions which are politically/economically disadvantaged and geographically remote, and most especially in the face of protracted periods of unfavorable weather. I think this ties back to Words of the Lagoon and Puna in many ways.

People use the word "culture" as if they and others all understand the same meaning to attach ("love" is another word like that), but I think many different distinctions are often collapsed together into this important term "culture." Regardless of the exact actual distinctions intended by the word, I think the ability of a culture to successfully promote life as celebration rather than as mere survival is reduced by several factors:
-prenatal exposure to teratogens (such as alcohol) and inadequate diet in infancy and early childhood leading to permanent brain stunting,
-forgetting local history,
-failing to recognize how patterns elsewhere can apply locally,
-entitlements sapping historical self-reliance,
-distorted petrodollar economics undermining local markets.
This, of course, just barely begins to scratch the surface on a topic as interconnected as "sustainability and culture," yet these factors are observably at work on the Big Island.

Here, for your possible interest, is a link to The Economist article:
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/di...d=11549764





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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman


"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."

NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt

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[MarkP]

Have you read "Collapse" by Jared Diamond?

There are a number of ways a thread like this could go that would devolve into world politics.

[AlohaSteven]

Have you read "Collapse" by Jared Diamond?


Yes, though it was, frankly, a bit of work to get through some parts. The good professor is certainly thorough in his comprehensive documentation. On the bright side, he was kind enough to inscribe and autograph a copy of Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed for me to mail to my lad off at college on the East Coast. There is a good DVD adaptation of Guns, Germs, & Steel available now, but Jared Diamond's most accessible work (and most relevant to the Big Island) is, IMHO, his article in August, 1995, for Discover magazine titled "Easter's End."

Easter's End, by Jared Diamond
http://www.greatchange.org/footnotes-ove...sland.html

There are a number of ways a thread like this could go that would devolve into world politics.

Yes, true. If, though, we strive to seek the elements in larger patterns which have most relevance to Puna, the Big Island, and Hawaii more generally and then use those aspects to inform our discussion then perspective from other places and times may be productive.




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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman


"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."

NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt

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Edit: in green text. Also, I think I never actually gave the title of that article from The Economist (such that if the link goes dead in a few weeks and someone is reading this thread some months or years from now they can locate and read the article via a websearch of the title). The title is is "Ethiopia - Will it ever be able to stave off starvation?" Oofta! I forgot to link that article on the first post.

[mella l]

Thank you Steven for the thought provoking information and explanation, also the links. Understanding cultural histories, then blending, respecting and guiding one another is interesting and an imperative for our collective survival.

Currently reading Klein's newest book, perhaps to incindiary to go into here, however, besides nutrition and alcohol, there are more ways to skin the cat, albiet nutrition and alcohol, means that start at inception.

It makes one wonder if the money sent to tsunami devasted regions and populations, went to good use, or just went to assuage one priviledged heart. I will read the Economist article next, hope it wasn't written by a Freidman Fundamentalist.

mella l

[AlohaSteven]

Hi mella l -what is Klein's newest book and why is it perhaps too incendiary to go into here? (BTW, I’ve tried to send these questions to you a couple of times via the Punaweb PM system but the emails keep failing -a full inbox, maybe?)

Another new and closely related article may be of interest as well: “Mother Earth’s Triple Whammy” by John Feffer of the Institute for Policy Studies, published online in www.TomDispatch.com (a project of The Nation Institute).
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174945/j...reans_now_

Feffer, like Johannes in the Words of the Lagoon epilogue, points out factors contributing to the sudden catastrophic local failure of external-resource dependent food production systems when those localities are at the end of long and increasingly stressed supply chains. He observes these failures have indeed already been occurring and are early warning signals akin to canaries perishing in coal mines. Places such as Puna, the Big Island and the Hawaiian Islands in general --being isolated, at the end of long supply chains, externally-dependent for petrochemical fuels and agricultural chemicals, having a fairly dense population to feed, and with a limited amount of highly erosion-vulnerable agricultural land available-- are basically also canaries in the global coal mine.

Here following are some germane points highlighted from his insightful article for Puna’s consideration and possible local application, especially in a year when a batch of potential new policymakers are running for election and wooing local votes. Do Puna's prospective representatives have plans which meet these criteria?

Feffer writes:

Any response that doesn't address all three converging trends --rising energy costs, stagnant per-capita agricultural production, and climate change-- will ultimately fail... The last time food prices shot up, in the 1970s, the U.S. response was to put more land into agricultural production... But [this approach to] American agriculture is no longer an option. "For the first time in our history, we're pushing up against the edge in terms of quality land," says Otto Doering, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. "We're in a somewhat fixed box." ...The same applies to the world at large. Although rainforests are still being transformed into farming plots and pasture --only increasing carbon emissions into the atmosphere-- humanity is reaching the limits of arable land.

In the long run, the only realistic response is a comprehensive program to address, in tandem, the triple crises of energy, climate, and land and water resource exhaustion. If policymakers take into consideration only one, or even two, of the components of this trinity, they may well end up doing more harm than good....

Certainly organic farming will play a role here. Although Green Revolution guru Norman Borlaug has dismissed organic agriculture as incapable of feeding the world, an important new study published by Cambridge University Press shows that organic systems in developing countries can produce 80% more than conventional farms....

Integrated farming systems that rely on sustainable energy -- solar, wind, tidal -- will also be critical. No-till agriculture can cut down on energy use and soil erosion....

Yesd, indeed. If only the folks on Easter Island, way back when, had access to this information when they were electing their new batch of policymakers.

By the way, if you refer directly to the full original article at www.TomDispatch.com then you will find all sorts of informative hotlinks to sources, documentation, and further explanation embedded throughout the text.

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,‘ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman


"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."

NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt

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[JWFITZ]

Thanks, that's all very interesting stuff and I appreciate the sharing of it. I hustle overtime to try to stay informed, but there is a lot of data on all corners flooding in fast, and any references to informed positions is always helpful!

[mella l]

QUOTE""Hi mella l -what is Klein's newest book and why is it perhaps too incendiary to go into here? (BTW, I’ve tried to send these questions to you a couple of times via the Punaweb PM system but the emails keep failing -a full inbox, maybe?)".

Steve, evidently it is a two way street here. Seems the email members function is malfunctioning. My profile has the correct email address, and the email box system here doesn't shut down or get full! Also a few other members I'm in telephone contact with can't email me thru the forum. So???

I also tried to email you thru PW and by all indications, you haven't received that email.

So hopefully the new system will take care of these problems, or Rob might be able to check this out. Who knows.

mella l

"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong....because sometime in your life you will have been all of these."

[Kelena]

Mella MIGHT be talking about Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein, which postulates that financial giants coupled with corrupt governments conspire to bring nations to their knees to eliminate freedoms, worker protections, and regulation, to pave the way for a less expensive, more compliant workforce.

[AlohaSteven]

Speaking of local action and impacts in Puna vis a vis broader processes and the confluence of economics, agriculture, policy and personal choices...

http://wakeupfreakout.org/film/tipping.html

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip, an 11-minute animated film about climate change by activist Leo Murray, complete with script and references.

[I think many more people may be reading JWFITZ's "Hello Mr. Wolf, won't you please sit down?" discussion strand and this overlaps completely, so I'll crosspost the link over there, too.]


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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman


"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."

NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt

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