The Camphor Tree and the Elephant: Religion and Ecological Change in Maritime Southeast Asia

by Faizah Zakaria, K. Sivaramakrishnan (Editor), K. Sivaramakrishnan (Foreword by)

Overview

Uncovers a spiritual dimension in the transition to the Anthropocene

What is the role of religion in shaping interactions and relations between the human and nonhuman in nature? Why are Muslim and Christian organizations generally not a potent force in Southeast Asian environmental movements? The Camphor Tree and the Elephant brings these questions into the history of ecological change in the region, centering the roles of religion and colonialism in shaping the Anthropocene—“the human epoch.”

Historian Faizah Zakaria traces the conversion of the Batak people in upland Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula to Islam and Christianity during the long nineteenth century. She finds that the process helped shape social structures that voided the natural world of enchantment, ushered in a cash economy, and placed the power to remake local landscapes into the hands of a distant elite. Using a wide array of sources such as family histories, prayer manuscripts, and folktales in tandem with colonial and ethnographic archives, Zakaria brings everyday religion and its far-flung implications into our understanding of the environmental history of the modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295751177
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	02/07/2023
Series:	Culture, Place, and Nature
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Faizah Zakaria is assistant professor in the Departments of Southeast Asian Studies and Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore. She is coeditor of Fatwas of Singapore: Science, Medicine and Health.

What People are Saying About This

Johan Elverskog

"Absolutely fantastic. The topics covered are without a doubt the most important and pressing issues that scholars—and humanity (and the planet)—are dealing with today."

Bradley Camp Davis

"Insightful work on such a vital subject."

Editorial Reviews

"A valuable scholarly contribution to the interdisciplinary fields of Asian studies, Southeast Asian studies, environmental studies, history, environmental history, and postcolonial studies."

Southeast Asian Studies

"While historians have produced studies of individual polities in the region before and after the imposition of imperial rule, The Camphor Tree and the Elephant is the first to situate this transition in a much larger environmental and religious perspective, thus providing a vibrant reevaluation of approaches to the Southeast Asian past."

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

"In its contents and methods, this captivating case study has far broader relevance beyond its regional focus."

Choice

In its contents and methods, this captivating case study has far broader relevance beyond its regional focus.

-- "Choice"

While historians have produced studies of individual polities in the region before and after the imposition of imperial rule, The Camphor Tree and the Elephant is the first to situate this transition in a much larger environmental and religious perspective, thus providing a vibrant reevaluation of approaches to the Southeast Asian past.

-- "Journal of Southeast Asian Studies"

From the Publisher