Paper short abstract:

The connections between the Euro-American 'milieu' and the Pacific island 'mana' are familiar to the history of anthropology. Taken together, they offer boundary concepts for exploring the relationship of geography and anthropology, particularly with regard to issues of ontology and appropriation.

Paper long abstract:

The concept of 'milieu' was established as a biological and sociological term during the mid-nineteenth century by Auguste Comte, being translated into English by Harriet Martineau as 'environment.' Prior to Comte, milieu had been a physical term, popularised as a translation of Isaac Newton's notion of an 'Ætherial medium.' From the late eighteenth century, in keeping with Newton's deist speculations but particularly driven by the mystic-healer Franz Mesmer, milieu/medium also attained a spiritual meaning: being the universal substance that connects all things, explaining all ailment, and being the basis of all power. 'Mana,' by contrast, is a force or power common to much of Melanesia and Polynesia. Often translated as influence, authority, or efficacy, it is also a quasi-physical force of nature. Mana has been the subject of extensive anthropological investigation, as in Robert Henry Codrington's 1891 The Melanesians, and Marcel Mauss' 1902 A General Theory of Magic. It has also, and relatedly, been subject to colonial appropriation by New Age religions such as 'Huna,' propounded by Max Freedom Long from the 1930s—a creed that owed more to Mesmer's milieu but cloaked itself in pseudo-Hawai'ian terminology. By tracing the parallel emergence of milieu as a pan-scientific concept (including but not limited to human geography) and mana, as an item of interest and arrogation by various parties, it will be possible to identify common problematiques at play through these decades, and, thereby, to reflect upon present issues, particularly concerning Indigenous knowledges and global environmental governance.