Palawan and Its Global Connections eds. by James F. Eder and Oscar L. Evangelista (review)

Palawan and Its Global Connections, edited by James F. Eder and Oscar L. Evangelista, describes Palawan as the "land of the promise" blessed with "beauty and abundance" (2). The volume is a collection of papers written by academics and development practitioners that situate, explore, and analyze Palawan's rich cultural and natural treasures through the lens of competing dualities and power struggles manifested through state-society relations, cultural evolution and identify formation, and resource conservation and exploitation. The book, which is divided into three parts, provides in-depth discussion and analysis of these themes.

The first part highlights the evolution and (mal)development of the province of Palawan and its people. The contributing authors outline Palawan's identity while underlining the influences of trade and migration. The second part examines and demonstrates the conflicting relationship between the conservation and exploitation of natural resources. It underlines the power dynamics between and across government bodies, capitalist institutions, as well as individuals and civil society groups, highlighting the pros and cons of development and how it can be made sustainable. The third part extends the discussion in the second part, with emphasis on the role and rights of indigenous peoples in the resource-extraction process. It is oriented towards advocacy, providing data and expert opinions that support the authors' call for inclusive and responsible development. Palawan and Its Global Connections explores the underlying tensions involving culture, environment, and development. It emphasizes the pressing need to study and integrate sociopolitical issues in the study of the environment and natural resources and in the process makes a significant contribution to environment and development research.

Victor Paz opens the first part with a chapter that discusses the cultural and historical evolution of Palawan and its people. He challenges the traditionally accepted notion of land bridges connecting the Philippines to Southeast Asia during the prehistoric era, which the wave theory uses to explain the prehistoric migration of the islands' earliest inhabitants. Paz argues that the concept of land bridges is derogatory and undermines human capabilities. He further explains that the existence of dry land passages, at the time, was a generally accepted notion (39); the way that they are used by proponents to explain migration depicts humans as incapable of crossing bodies of water. He argues instead for the presence of "maritime highways" that permitted trade and interaction between Palawan, neighboring Southeast Asian islands, and mainland Asia. He points to the remnants of sunken ships laden with trade wares found in the seas off Palawan to support this assertion. These claims put Palawan in both a global and local position of relevance and serve as the basis for the author's pursuit of a glocal approach to history. Paz then encourages parallel discourses (59) on global and local perspectives, similar to his presentation of the history and development of Palawan.

Charles J-H Macdonald and Teresita D. Tajolosa's respective chapters discuss the downside to the more connected and hence more "open" Palawan. They examine the effects of trade, tourism, and immigration on the diversity and vitality of the cultures and languages in Palawan and its indigenous minorities. Macdonald focuses on the island's various minority vernaculars, while Tajolosa dedicates her work to the Batak people and their language. Their findings reveal the endangered condition of local vernaculars because of the locals' preference for the "dominant" languages of Tagalog and English. This situation is prompted by growing tourism and the increasing number of immigrants in the province. Both authors stress the importance of language in defining one's identity (85) such that they equate the death of a vernacular to the loss of one's culture and identity (75).

Oscar L. Evangelista and James F. Eder discuss Islam in Palawan and how migrant-origin (111) Muslims maintain their identity and at the same time manage their individual and collective relations with their non-Muslim neighbors...