Vittoria, Alice;
(2024)
Sharing the Forest: Bayaka dwellings and mobility in a more-than-human landscape.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Despite pressure to sedentarise and the stigma associated with a forest-oriented and mobile lifestyle, the Bayaka of the northern Likouala (Republic of Congo) remain extremely mobile. Mobility studies for hunter-gatherers in Central Africa have predominantly focused on factors and outcomes of mobility, without exploring questions of place-making or the spatio-temporal dimensions of the forest landscape. In an effort to reconceptualise the dialectic between movement and space, this thesis has the overarching goal of examining landscapes at multiple scales through the mobilities and dwellings of Bayaka and other nonhumans, specifically ancestral spirits and spirit-plays. It explores the sensory and generative properties of movement in creating more-than-human landscapes of and for human and nonhuman dwellings. The thesis analyses how the Bayaka practice and conceptualise mobility, and the social values and individual aspirations supporting mobility choices. In a more phenomenological framework, it introduces Bayaka sensory ecology through a description of forest walking, intended as one form of movement, and how it stimulates the production of intimate forest knowledge and more-than-human sociabilities. In illustrating the invisible dwellings of ancestral spirits (mekadi), it investigates how place-making is negotiated with the nonhuman and how local landscapes are animated, fluid, and relational spaces. Finally, in following the journeys of spirit-plays (mekondi), the thesis designs a cartography of Bayaka mobility networks. Mekondi are spirits that become manifest through singing and dancing, and that play a pivotal role in maintaining Bayaka egalitarian relations, and the well-being of human and nonhuman communities. Spirit-plays are transacted and circulated across the western Congo Basin. Their journeys are traces of Bayaka movements and demonstrate how various Bayaka groups are not separate and marginal communities but have established an interconnected regional cultural space.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Sharing the Forest: Bayaka dwellings and mobility in a more-than-human landscape |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197381 |
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