Troubled lands: sovereignty and livelihoods in the Marquesas Islands. Issue 2 (4th March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Donaldson, Emily C.
• Is Part Of: International journal of environmental studies. Volume 75:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 343
• Page End: 360
• Publication Date: 2018-03-04
• Subjects: Agriculture -- tenure -- sovereignty -- indigenous -- heritage -- Oceania; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; 333.707
• DOI: 10.1080/00207233.2017.1364893
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-7233

Abstract

Abstract: In the course of their daily subsistence activities, Marquesan Islanders exercise a form of sovereignty that defies the cumbersome land regulations established by the state (France) and the territory (French Polynesia). A complex network of land owners, workers and caretakers shapes the way islanders use the land, perpetuating customary patterns of tenure and resisting imposed structures of power. Fruit trees apparently planted for financial gain are in fact a pointed political statement about islanders' struggle for influence and the continuing power of their past.