THE SUSTAINABLE, THE EXPENDABLE, AND THE OBSOLETE

Authors

Michael D. Lieber, University of Illinois at Chicago

Abstract

This is a preliminary exploration of the concept of sustainability and its potential usefulness to anthropologists. “Sustainable” is distinguished from “stable” and “viable” in terms of its implications of directionality of time, pointing both backward and forward. Given the time implications, the contexts of “sustainable Xs” (technology, activity, development, etc.) are crucial to explaining what happened to X in the past and prognosticating its future. The argument is illustrated by analyzing data on obsolete fishing practices on Kapingamarangi Atoll (Federated States of Micronesia), focusing on the contexts of change in political /religious organization in the twentieth century. Changing access to both new and old technology render many traditional fishing practices obsolete through replacement by new techniques and by neglect. The relationship between the obsolescence and the sustainability of fishing techniques changes over time, the change constrained by the Kapingamarangi concept of “knowing” and by fishermen’s dependence on technology requiring cash outlay. Sustainability in this analysis is a concept most appropriate to the emerging field of political ecology.

Recommended Citation

Lieber, Michael D. (1999) "THE SUSTAINABLE, THE EXPENDABLE, AND THE OBSOLETE," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 22: No. 3, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol22/iss3/4