Environmental Change and Agency: Interactions Between Persons, Material Entities and Energies in the Pacific State of Tonga

环境变化与机构：太平洋汤加国人、物质实体和能源之间的相互作用

• 批准号: 519917507
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Elfriede Hermann
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Ethnologie und Ethnologische Sammlung
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/519917507?language=en
• 关键词: Environmental; Change; Agency; Interactions; Between

Environmental changes due to the effects of climate change and the growth of motor vehicles have caused problems in many of Oceania’s island states. This anthropological research project examines the extent to which certain forces in Tonga are ascribed the ability to bring about changes in the environment. Amongst other Pacific countries, the Kingdom of Tonga presents a special case because perceptions and ways of dealing with environmental transformations have developed within a field of tension between the monarchy and democratizing forces. This research project explores the question of which capacities to bring about environmental changes local people attribute to persons, material entities, and energies. This central question is based on the thesis that the degree of agency that social actors assign to human and non-human sources depends on knowledge of the environment, the political context, social positionings, religious beliefs, economic interests, and the perceptibility of the effects of environmental change. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, we examine perspectives on the interaction of various causes of environmental change in connection with social, economic, religious, and especially political parameters.

由于气候变化的影响和机动车辆的增长造成的环境变化给大洋洲许多岛国带来了问题。这一人类学研究项目审查了汤加的某些力量在多大程度上被认为有能力改变环境。在其他太平洋国家中，汤加王国是一个特殊的例子，因为处理环境变化的观念和方式是在君主制和民主化力量之间的紧张局势中发展起来的。本研究项目探讨了当地人将哪些能力归因于人、物质实体和能源，从而带来环境变化的问题。这个中心问题是基于这样一个论点，即社会行动者分配给人类和非人类资源的代理程度取决于对环境的了解、政治背景、社会定位、宗教信仰、经济利益以及对环境变化影响的感知。基于民族志的实地考察，我们研究的角度与社会，经济，宗教，特别是政治参数的环境变化的各种原因的相互作用。