Sustenance, nourishment, and cultivation: Plants as living cultural heritage for dispersed Chagossians in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the UK

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Volume 22, Issue 2, 1 June 2016, Pages 296-313

  (Article)

Jeffery, L.^a , 

Rotter, R.^b 

^a  School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15a George Square, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
^b  School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, United Kingdom 

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Abstract

Applying a critical heritage studies approach to plants, this article explores how plant knowledge and use, plant exchange, and plant symbolism and materiality feature in the social life of the dispersed Chagossian community in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the UK. First, plant use helps to sustain collective knowledge in new environmental conditions and social settings. Second, plant exchange nourishes kinship and other social relationships within the extended community. Third, plant symbolism and materiality cultivate nostalgic links to idealized homelands in the context of community dispersal. Nevertheless, the capacity of plants to contribute to these social processes is limited by challenges to intergenerational knowledge transmission across time and space, and by environmental, financial, and regulatory constraints on plant migration. The article argues that for the displaced Chagossian community, plants are living cultural heritage with social potential (albeit constrained) in the context of dislocation and loss, ongoing suffering, and geographical dispersal. © 2016 Royal Anthropological Institute.

ISSN: 13590987Source Type: Journal Original language: English

DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.12402Document Type: Article

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

References (70)

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