Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue ix -
Introduction 1 -
1. Pressure Points 33 -
2. Living Maps 51 -
Interlude: Lost in the Plantation—The Dream of Yustinus Mahuze 75 -
3. Skin and Wetness 77 -
4. The Plastic Cassowary 95 -
Interlude: Metamorphosis—The Dream of Yosefus Samkakai 115 -
5. Sago Encounters 117 -
6. Oil Palm Counterpoint 143 -
Interlude: The Empty Sago Grove—The Dream of Agustinus Gebze 165 -
7. Time Has Come to Stop 167 -
8. Eaten by Oil Palm 183 -
Interlude: Black Waters of the Bian—The Dream of Elena Basik-Basik 201 -
Conclusions 203 -
Epilogue: Endings—The Author's Dream 219 -
Acknowledgments 221 -
Notes 227 -
References 269 -
Index 311.

"Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork and prior human rights advocacy in the Indonesian-controlled region of West Papua, In the Shadow of the Palms explores how deforestation and monocrop oil palm expansion reconfigure the multispecies lifeworld of Indigenous Marind communities through its effects on the landscape, time, personhood, and dreams. Working with and across species categories and hierarchies, the book highlights how the proliferation of industrial monocrops subverts the futures and relations of some lifeforms while opening new horizons of possibility for others. Sophie Chao situates these dynamics within West Papua's violent and volatile history of political colonization, ethnic domination, and capitalist incursion. By approaching cash crops as both drivers of destruction and subjects of human exploitation, the book makes a compelling argument for rethinking capitalist violence as a multispecies act. Taking oil palm as its central protagonist, it makes a timely contribution to our understanding of human-environment relations in an age of radical ecological change"-- Provided by publisher.