Biodiversity, Local Knowledge and Zoonoses in Austronesia: Ethnography of Bats and Related Interspecific Communities

The proposed research lies at the juncture of the anthropology of nature, the cultures of Austronesia and the study of interspecific relationships.

Considering that a fundamental link exists between biodiversity and the health of individuals, populations, species and ecosystems, and that microbes, bacteria and viruses are key to the evolution of civilisations and living beings, we will address two questions: 1) In a world going through a livestock revolution, to what extent can local and scientific knowledge jointly inspire efforts to preserve biodiversity and biosafety, and rebuild sustainable relationships with living beings? 2) To what extent and on what conditions can humans have contact with bats and coexist with them (and other animals incriminated in the spread of zoonoses, either as reservoirs or as intermediate hosts)?

Conversely, at what point do these species endanger human communities?

We wish to answer those questions through research within several indigenous groups who have lived for millennia in contact with such animals.

Specifically, we will conduct ethnographic research at several sites across the large cultural and linguistic region of Austronesia (which coincides with the range of flying foxes, also known as fruit bats) to see how different interspecific communities interact and how narratives of vulnerability and immunity operate.

The project aim is to document and understand how certain peoples maintain relationships with bats and see them and their worlds (in the sense used by the biologist von Uexkll), and the extent to which such knowledge helps them live safely with these animals. The general hypothesis is as follows.

Knowing that fruit bats are one of the links in the transmission of zoonotic diseases to humans and also a part of the ecosystem used for food and trade, we hypothesise that local practices have led people to maximise use of this resource while developing measures to prevent epidemics.