A political ecology of violence and territory in West Kalimantan Nancy Lee Peluso Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, 137 Mulford Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114, USA. Email: npeluso@nature.berkeley.edu Abstract: This paper uses a political ecology perspective to examine relationships between violence and territory in West Kalimantan, focusing on the violent incidents of 1996–1997 and 1967–1968. Besides a regional account, the paper examines some of the ways residents of one village were drawn into and chose to participate in violence. The author concludes that while regional analyses can identify broad patterns, local analyses enable a greater understanding of both variation and the processes by which ethnic categories are constructed through violence. Keywords: ethnic violence, political ecology, West Kalimantan Introduction In late 1996 and early 1997, communal vio- lence between Dayaks and Madurese exploded in the western districts of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. While many Dayaks lost their lives and property, ultimately most of the victims were Madurese. An early Human Rights Watch report on the incidents estimated that 25 000 Madurese were displaced from their homes (Human Rights Watch, 1997) Further violence and evictions two years later kept most Madurese from returning to live in the prov- ince’s rural areas. 1 The turn of events, particu- larly the potentially permanent evictions, was eerily reminiscent of violence three decades prior. At that time, tens of thousands of rural Chinese were evicted from their homes, but under different conditions: through state- sponsored violence in which Dayaks, Madurese and Malays either participated or from which they benefited. The times had certainly changed, but after both periods of violent evic- tions, territories had been racialised in old and new forms. How do we explain the interplay of ethnicity and resources – in this case territory and land – in violent conflict, including the reasons vio- lence takes specific forms? Political ecology typically looks to histories of interconnected ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ social relations and fields of power within which conflict might erupt, con- necting scaled analyses of violence and ethnic- ity to an inherent concern of the field such as access to resources or territorialised power.Yet I found that resources per se were not the main reasons for ethnic conflict and violence. Rather, in these westernmost districts of West Kaliman- tan, the particular histories of land as territory, the expectations connected to territorial author- ity and the racialisation of such territories, suggest that the ‘shifting legal geographies of power’ (Sundar, 2001) have played an important role in generating tension. In this paper, I take this argument to a local level, examining some of the forms, patterns and processes of violence both in this region and in a single village involved the 1967–1968 and the 1997 events. I argue that both local histories and scale of analysis matter when trying to understand the specific relations between communal violence and territory. The local-level data reveal the contradictory forces influencing participants and demonstrate variation in forms of participa- tion in violence. I show that prior histories and geographies can mediate the forms, extents and even reasons for engaging in communal violence. 2 Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 49, No. 1, April 2008 ISSN 1360-7456, pp48–67 © 2008 The Author Journal compilation © 2008 Victoria University of Wellington doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8373.2008.00360.x