Disturbed Forests, Fragmented Memories: Jarai and Other Lives in the Cambodian Highlands
Jonathon Padwe
University of Washington Press: 2020
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The Jarai are one of the ethnic minorities of Ratanakiri province in northeast Cambodia, an extension across the Vietnam-Cambodia border of the much larger Jarai population in the central highlands of southern Vietnam. They speak an Austronesian language, unlike the Austro-Asiatic languages of their neighbours, and practise swidden agriculture.

Like all upland peoples, the Jarai can be said to be well adapted to their environment. But adaptation is a misleading concept, insofar as it presupposes an essentially unchanging set of circumstances, in response to which species must modify their genomes or behaviour.

In fact interaction is more complicated, especially where humans are concerned, because behaviour very often alters environment in beneficial ways. Biologists refer to this effect as ‘niche construction’, and it is something humans are particularly good at. Constructing an urban niche—even a sprawling slum—allows humans to thrive more easily than in direct contact with the natural environment.

• Tags: Cambodia, Issue 21, Jarai, Jonathon Padwe, Martin Stuart-Fox