Welcome, I’m Darmanto
Anthropologist of Human-Enviroment Relations
BIO
I am an anthropologist with a long-term interest in studying human-environment relations. Based on fieldwork conducted in the outer island of Indonesia over the last five teen years, I have studied the politics and poetics of nature conservation, resource extraction in the frontier zone, indigeneity as cultural politics, and how producing and sharing food generates communal values. My current research interests revolve around climate change and indigenous foodways, multi-species ethnography, and the peculiarity of the Anthropocene.
RESEARCH
Indigenous People and Food Insecurity in an Epoch of Ecological Crises
More than 370 million indigenous peoples worldwide living in richly biodiverse yet fragile ecosystems—mainly forests and coastal zones—have suffered the impact of climate change. Climate change-induced disasters such as rising sea levels, increased climate variability, frequent droughts, floods, and typhoons affect indigenous peoples’ foodways. Foodways refer to a complex food system of production, processing, distribution, and consumption particular to a specific geographic region. Changing foodways has a detrimental impact on the health of indigenous peoples and threatens their survival.
PUBLICATIONS
Producing Human Life Or Protecting Wildlife? People, Park, and Space on Siberut Island, Indonesia
Eating, sharing, and mutuality of being among the mentawai on Siberut Island, Indonesia
Darmanto.org | 2025