Rough Waters: Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park

Christine J. Walley

Published by Princeton University Press 2004

Rough Waters

Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park

Christine J. Walley

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400835751

Overview
Contents

About this book

Rough Waters explores one of the most crucial problems of the contemporary era--struggles over access to, and use of, the environment. It combines insights from anthropology, history, and environmental studies, mounting an interdisciplinary challenge to contemporary accounts of "globalization." The book focuses on The Mafia Island Marine Park, a national park in Tanzania that became the center of political conflict during its creation in the mid-1990s. The park, reflecting a new generation of internationally sponsored projects, was designed to encourage environmental conservation as well as development. Rather than excluding residents, as had been common in East Africa's mainland wildlife parks, Mafia Island was intended to represent a new type of national park that would encourage the participation of area residents and incorporate their ideas.

While the park had been described in the project's general management plan as "for the people and by the people," residents remained excluded from the most basic decisions made about the park. The book details the day-to-day tensions and alliances that arose among Mafia residents, Tanzanian government officials, and representatives of international organizations, as each group attempted to control and define the park. Walley's analysis argues that a technocentric approach to conservation and development can work to the detriment of both poorer people and the environment. It further suggests that the concept of the global may be inadequate for understanding this and other social dramas in the contemporary world.

Author / Editor information

Christine J. Walley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Reviews

"The combination of an innovative structure and lucid, engaging prose enables Walley to present complex ideas and literatures in a consistently clear, coherent manner. She has a gift for distilling the key arguments, and her book offers novel insights into the process and practice of doing ethnographic research. One of the very best books I have read in recent years."—Dorothy L. Hodgson, Rutgers University

"An outstanding example of a theoretically informed and contemporary anthropology. Rich in research and highly readable, it will be of interest to readers in multiple fields."—Celia Lowe, University of Washington

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Glossary of Kiswahili Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xix
INTRODUCTION. Conservation and Development in the Age of the “Global” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE. Battling for the Marine Park Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
PART TWO
CHAPTER TWO. “When People Were as Worthless as Insects”: History, Popular Memory, and Tourism on Chole Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
CHAPTER THREE. The Making and Unmaking of “Community” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
CHAPTER FOUR. Where There Is No Nature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
PART THREE
CHAPTER FIVE. Establishing Experts: Conservation and Development from Colonialism to Independence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
CHAPTER SIX. Pushing Paper and Power: Bureaucracy and Knowledge within a National Marine Park Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
CHAPTER SEVEN. Tourist Encounters: Alternative Readings of Nature and “Development” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
EPILOGUE. Participating in the Twenty-first Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	244
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299

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