Assemblages of forest conservation in Tanzania: gradients between chiefs, snakes, spirits and witches

Abstract

Sacred natural sites are the oldest form of protection for non-human species and landscapes, and remain significant for conservation and development. This paper critically interrogates the role of spiritual worldviews and witchcraft in protected areas. Drawing on research in Mbozi District, Tanzania, we discuss the entanglements between spiritual worldviews, witchcraft, political leadership, religion and non-humans. Adopting assemblage as a conceptual framework offers possibilities to examine the agencies that tangible and intangible forms non-humans and human organisations have in conservation. Employing assemblage concepts including gradients, territorialisation and deterritorialisation, this paper argues for recognition of the complex assemblages between development, conservation and rationality.

Keywords:

• Spiritual worldviews
• witchcraft
• conservation
• assemblage
• religion
• rationality

Notes

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20. Ormsby and Bhagwat, “Sacred Forests of India.”

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23. Mikusiński et al., “Biodiversity Priority Areas and Religions.”

24. Pascual et al., “Social Equality and Payment for Ecosystem Services.”

25. Barre et al., “The Role of Taboos in Conservation.”; Verschuuren, “Cultural and spiritual Values in ecosystem Management.”

26. Dudley et al., “Protected Areas, Faiths and Sacred Natural Sites.”; Frascaroli, “Catholicism and Conservation.”

27. Arora, “Forest Symbols in the Tholung Sacred Landscape.”; Schie and Haider, “Indigenous Conservation of Wolf Lake.”

28. Ormsby and Bhagwat, “Sacred Forests of India.”

29. Barre et al., “The Role of Taboos in Conservation.”; Deil et al., “Sacred Groves in Morocco.”

30. Infield and Mugisha, “Sacred Sites in Rwenzori Mountains.”

31. Campbell, “Traditional Forest Protection Ghana.”

32. Sandy, “Real and Imagined Landscapes.”

33. Metcalfe et al., “Sacred Sites in Coastal Kenya.”

34. Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”

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39. Ormsby and Bhagwat, “Sacred Forests of India.”

40. Chandran and Hughes, “Sacred Groves in the Mediterranean and South India.”

41. Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”

42. Campbell, “Sacred Groves in Ghana.”

43. Blicharska and Mikusiński, “Large Old Trees in Conservation Policy.”

44. Dudley et al., “Protected Areas, Faiths and Sacred Natural Sites.”; Mgumia and Oba, “Sacred Groves in Tanzania.”

45. Ormsby and Bhagwat, “Sacred Forests of India.”

46. Metcalfe et al., “Sacred Sites in Coastal Kenya.”

47. Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”

48. Blicharska and Mikusiński, “Large Old Trees in Conservation Policy.”; Verschuuren “Cultural and Spiritual Values in Ecosystem Management.”

49. Posey, “Culture and Nature.”

50. Dudley et al., “Protected Areas, Faiths and Sacred Natural Sites.”

51. Verschuuren, “Cultural and Spiritual Values in Ecosystem Management.”

52. Schie and Haider, “Indigenous Conservation of Wolf Lake.”

53. Dudley et al., “Protected Areas, Faiths and Sacred Natural Sites.”

54. Chandran and Hughes, “Sacred Groves in the Mediterranean and South India.”; Ormsby and Bhagwat, “Sacred Forests of India.”

55. Frascaroli, “Catholicism and Conservation.”

56. Infield and Mugisha, “Sacred Sites in Rwenzori Mountains.”

57. Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”; Metcalfe et al., “Sacred Sites in Coastal Kenya.”

58. Barre et al., “The Role of Taboos in Conservation.”; Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”

59. Arora, “Forest Symbols in the Tholung Sacred Landscape.”

60. Campbell, “Traditional Forest Protection Ghana.”

61. Infield and Mugisha, “Sacred Sites in Rwenzori Mountains.”

62. Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”

63. Ormsby and Bhagwat, “Sacred Forests of India,” 322.

64. Blicharska and Mikusiński, “Large Old Trees in Conservation Policy.”

65. Barre et al., “The Role of Taboos in Conservation.”

66. Campbell, “Sacred Groves in Ghana.”

67. Frascaroli, “Catholicism and Conservation.”

68. Verschuuren, “Cultural and Spiritual Values in Ecosystem Management.”

69. Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”; Sandy “Real and Imagined Landscapes.”

70. Blicharska and Mikusiński, “Large Old Trees in Conservation Policy.”

71. Arora, “Forest Symbols in the Tholung Sacred Landscape.”; Deil et al., “Sacred Groves in Morocco.”

72. Mikusiński et al., “Biodiversity Priority Areas and Religions.”

73. Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”; Infield and Mugisha, “Sacred Sites in Rwenzori Mountains.”; Sandy, “Real and Imagined Landscapes.”

74. Ormsby and Bhagwat, “Sacred Forests of India.”

75. Campbell, “Sacred Groves in Ghana.”

76. Barre et al., “The Role of Taboos in Conservation.”

77. Ibid.

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87. Eves and Forsyth, “Developing Insecurity.”

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89. Mesaki, “Witchcraft and the Law in Tanzania.”; Smith, “Buying a Better Witch Doctor.”

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91. Comaroff and Comaroff, “Occult Economies, Violence of Abstraction.”; Schram, “Witches’ Wealth, Papua New Guinea.”

92. Eves and Forsyth, “Developing Insecurity.”

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94. Horton, Patterns of Thought in Africa and the West.

95. Stambach, “The Rationality Debate Revisited.”

96. Masolo, African Philosophy in Search of Identity.

97. Stambach, “The Rationality Debate Revisited.”

98. Ibid.

99. Carrithers et al. “Ontology is Just Another Word for Culture.”

100. Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus.

101. Braun, “Environmental Issues, Assemblage.”; Gibbs, “Bottles, Bores and Boats.”

102. DeLanda, A New Philosophy of Society.

103. Braun, “Environmental Issues, Assemblage.”

104. Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 41.

105. DeLanda, A New Philosophy of Society.

106. Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 190.

107. Legg, “Assemblage/apparatus.”

108. Johnson and Murton, “Re/placing Native Science.”

109. Gibbs, “Bottles, Bores and Boats.”

110. Smith, “Witchcraft, Spiritual Worldviews, Environmental Management.”

111. Gibbs, “Bottles, Bores and Boats.”

112. Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 204.

113. Anderson et al. “On Assemblage and Geography.”

114. Legg, “Assemblage/apparatus.”

115. Legg, “Of Scales, Networks and Assemblages.”

116. Arora, “Forest Symbols in the Tholung Sacred Landscape.”

117. Bennett, Vibrant Matter.

118. Gibbs, “Bottles, Bores and Boats.”

119. Barre et al., “The Role of Taboos in Conservation.”; Campbell “Sacred Groves in Ghana.”

120. Infield and Mugisha, “Sacred Sites in Rwenzori Mountains.”

121. Blicharska and Mikusiński, “Large Old Trees in Conservation Policy.”; Verschuuren “Cultural and Spiritual Values in Ecosystem Management.”

122. Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus.

123. Anderson et al. “On Assemblage and Geography.”; DeLanda, A New Philosophy of Society; Legg, “Assemblage/apparatus.”

124. Eves and Forsyth, “Developing Insecurity.”; Kohnert, “Magic and Witchcraft.”

125. Bjerk, “The High God of the Zinza”; Smith, “Witchcraft, Spiritual Worldviews, Environmental Management.”; Sunseri, “Majimaji and the Millenium.”

126. Kideghesho, “Traditional Societies and Wildlife in Western Serengeti”; Sunseri, “Majimaji and the Millenium.”

127. Kohnert, “Witchcraft and Transnational Social Space.”; Schram, “Witches’ Wealth, Papua New Guinea.”

128. Barre et al., “The Role of Taboos in Conservation.”

129. Comaroff, “Bodily Reform”; Nyamnjoh, “Development and Witchcraft in Cameroon.”

130. Nyamnjoh, “Development and Witchcraft in Cameroon.”

131. Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 7.

132. Ormsby and Bhagwat, “Sacred Forests of India.”

133. Verschuuren “Cultural and Spiritual Values in Ecosystem Management.”

134. Barre et al., “The Role of Taboos in Conservation.”; Campbell “Sacred Groves in Ghana.”

135. Ylhaisi, Traditionally Protected Forests in Tanzania.

136. DeLanda, A New Philosophy of Society.

137. Bennett, Vital Matter.

138. Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus.

139. Eves and Forsyth, “Developing Insecurity.”

140. Blicharska and Mikusiński, “Large Old Trees in Conservation Policy.”; Verschuuren, “Cultural and Spiritual Values in Ecosystem Management.”

141. Arora, “Forest Symbols in the Tholung Sacred Landscape.”

142. Byers et al., “Linking Conservation of Culture and Nature.”; Campbell “Sacred Groves in Ghana.”; Sandy, “Real and imagined landscapes.”

143. Frascaroli, “Catholicism and Conservation.”

144. Schie and Haider, “Indigenous Conservation of Wolf Lake.”