Culture loss and sense of place in resource valuation: Economics, anthropology and indigenous cultures

Abstract

The Exxon-Valdez oil tanker ran aground on Bligh Reef outside the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 24th 1989. Aside from attracting enormous media attention, this disaster focused a great deal of research and analysis on the ecological (Brown et al. 1993), political (Piper 1997), economic (Cohen 1993), and social (Jorgensen 1995; Gill and Picou 1997) impacts of the spill. With an eye toward likely litigation over damages, much of this research quickly centered on assessing the economic costs of the spill to affected industries and economies both local and global. Our aim in this chapter is to reflect on some of the particular difficulties associated with assessing the "culture losses" of indigenous peoples impacted by the spill. That such problems were encountered should not be surprising given the fact that economic impacts are generally assessed using concepts (e.g., cost, compensation, and property) designed to function within western economic and judicial systems.

Citation

Snyder, Robert; Williams, Daniel R.; Peterson, George. 2003. Culture loss and sense of place in resource valuation: Economics, anthropology and indigenous cultures. In: Jentoft, S.; Minde, H.; Nilsen, R., eds. Indigenous peoples: resource management and global rights. Delft, The Netherlands: Eburon Academic Publishers: 107-123