The Trees Above: A Language-Based Analysis of Tree Agency in Two Indigenous Societies

Abstract

We adopt an ethnolinguistic approach to examine cultural practices involving trees in two Indigenous communities: the Ngarinyin Aborigines of Australia and the Solega/Soliga of India. On the basis of two separate types of data and methods, we demonstrate that the lives of the Ngarinyin and Solega are intimately connected with the trees surrounding them. Mentions of trees in Ngarinyin creation narratives are numerous and varied and show that trees perform specific functions in the narrative. They display various degrees of agency but are rarely represented as entirely passive objects. From signaling the specific location of a scene (similar to the “placehood” of trees attested elsewhere) to signaling clan affiliations, or even as a source for, e.g., spears, trees in stories engage actively with the (other) protagonists. Data from Solega ethnographic interviews also reveals the local importance of trees: individual trees may be given proper names, tree names often appear in place names, and at least one very ancient tree is worshipped as a deity. The latter is the result of an association of the tree with the Hindu god Shiva, which echoes the commonly observed reverence for trees associated with divine beings in the rest of India. Our findings tie in with the observations about the roles of trees in Indigenous cultures, who highlight the animacy of trees.