In the Shadow of the Palms

With <i>In the Shadow of the Palms</i> Sophie Chao examines the multispecies entanglements of oil palm plantations in West Papua Indonesia showing how Indigenous Marind communities understand and navigate the social political and environmental demands of the oil palm plant. As Chao notes it is no secret that the palm oil sector has destructive environmental impacts: it greatly contributes to tropical deforestation and is a major driver of global warming. Situating the plant and the transformations it has brought within the context of West Papua's volatile history of colonization ethnic domination and capitalist incursion Chao traces how Marind attribute environmental destruction not just to humans technologies and capitalism but also to the volition and actions of the oil palm plant itself. By approaching cash crops as both drivers of destruction and subjects of human exploitation Chao rethinks capitalist violence as a multispecies act. In the process Chao centers how Marind fashion their own changing worlds and foreground Indigenous creativity and decolonial approaches to anthropology.