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

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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.