Tracing human interactions with the world’s most famous tropical timber species, The Social Life of Teak maps worlds revolving around teak forests, trees and wood.
What gives Tectona grandis such a powerful aura, stoking desires and capturing imaginations? How has teak shaped people’s lives, driving fortunes and impacting futures? What has happened to the teak forests and what is their destiny?
Exploring teak’s significance highlights processes of consumption and commodification, inviting questions about our relationships with nature and the politics of value.
In this illustrated anthology of oral histories, people connected personally or professionally to teak speak of survival, change and learning, creativity and destruction, growth and demise. Woven together, these experiences bring to light the ways that teak has been sought, crafted, cultivated, traded and prized over time.
Animist beliefs, creative expression, scientific invention, economic viability, imperialist expansion, peak luxury, violent repression, ecological disaster and the regenerative power of nature all find a home in this global intergenerational tale.
FORMAT 230 x 250mm | No. OF PAGES 256 | ILLUSTRATIONS 136 COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS | PAPERBACK | PRICE US$45.00 | ISBN 978 616 451082 1
Visually stunning with beautiful, evocative photographs and superb graphic artwork
Broad appeal to ecologists, historians, foresters, sociologists, anthropologists, economists, ethnographers, scholars of governance, law, indigenous and colonial studies, botanists, agriculturalists, climatologists, political scientists, biotechnologists, artists, architects, carpenters, sailors and the general reader interested in natural resource management and people.
Timely, provocative and intelligent, a unique approach to exploring cultural and environmental themes through personal narratives highlighting issues of justice, equity, power, food security, economics, technological advancement and globalisation.
Subtly crafted, frank, tender, poetic, profound
Terrific… shapeshifting… I learned a lot.
Professor Emeritus,
Media, Culture, Communication, New York University
“A powerful collection of stories and striking images that illuminate the role of teak as habitat, craft, commodity and specimen in South and Southeast Asia. As the authors rightly show, colonial states and contemporary logging companies have reaped the profits from the ecological destruction of centuries-old teak forests. But this book gives us an insiders’ view of this process by documenting the experiences of multiple individuals and families caught within the global teak trade, giving us a prismatic view of teak and its fortunes."
Associate Professor in Modern Global History, University of Bristol
“Extraordinarily engaging, this cultural history of teak recognises dynamic interactions of people with each other and the environment. A unique body of ideas and experiences, this remarkable book celebrates diversity while exposing complexities and confusions that invite questions of social justice, ethics, rights and identity. The Social Life of Teak builds our understanding of what is happening in our world, provoking us to contemplate what we might and must do."
Professor Emeritus, Cultural Heritage Asia Pacific, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University
“Ask anyone in Myanmar and they will tell you that their teak is the best in the world. Teak is much more than wood; it holds a central place in the construction of peoples’ world - history, culture, social relations, environment, economy. This is why this book is so important: both as a superb documentation of so many facets of this beautiful strong resource, but also of its fragility. Increased logging is threatening our ecosystems, but woven through these stories is traditional wisdom and experience of how we can live in concert with teak and our environment. As the planet warms, listening to this wisdom is increasingly critical."
“Rich, fresh, and moving.”
former Director, The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage facilitator
“This imaginative exploration of teak reveals how and why we have lost this beautiful resource, highlighting teak’s slow growth cycle compared to the speed of destruction. ”
President, International Association of Agricultural Economists, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi
"A welcome cultural and social exploration of the fate of one of the world’s great natural building materials. Beautifully illustrated, informative and adventurous, this book is ambitious in scope while retaining the craftperson’s eye for detail. Highly entertaining. A great read."
Head of Buildings and Sites, Getty Conservation Institute
"… meticulously captures how teak, the titan of tropical forests, has become an object of fascination in our collective imagination. The voices and photographs by Webster and Henderson account for the long arc, historical and geographical, of the teak trade. They offer us a mirror of our own collective shortcomings in addressing natural resource exploitation, especially at a time when teak smuggling continues unabated in war-torn Myanmar and elsewhere.
Director, Inya Institute, Yangon
"Amazing work, very fine-tuned. Many years of research and extensive fieldwork, contacting people in all walks of life and various countries make this a most informative and entertaining read. Excellent."
Steering Committee Member of TEAKNET, former Principal Scientist & Head, Wood Science & Technology, Kerala Forest Research Institute
USD $45.00